First Day of School

I can't believe how fast the summer went by. I'm never ready for the school year to start again. It is so much work...all the homework and the endless school drama. I love the relaxed days of summer, I am always sad to see them end. This year Ariel is farther away from us, this is hard for me but it is comforting to know that she is attending a great university.  I love that she lives in the town I grew up in. This makes me smile, a lot. She is adjusting well to her new life. I blinked my eyes and now Megan is a senior! She is the student body secretary this year. In my opinion, she only has two "real" classes, English and government. Her other two classes are finance and student council. She gets out at 11:45every day. Four classes, piece of cake! I had to go to school all day when I was a senior...I guess back in the olden days things were different. The strangest thing of all is that Aaron starts high school next year. He is anxiously awaiting the beginning of the lacrosse season. I am not...very dangerous. I am hoping the kids have a great school year. I miss them.

Milestones

Ariel earned her Associates degree and is transferring to Utah State, majoring in Communicative Disorders. 

 Aaron earned his life award and 12 merit badges at his recent court of honor.

Grease

Ariel, Megan, Jen and I headed up to St. George on Thursday. We met my mom and Beka at my Aunt Darlene's house. She had a delicious dinner waiting for us. After dinner, we went to Tuachan to see "Grease." Over the years, this has become a summer tradition that we always look forward to. When the play was over, we hurried to the car. We hurried a little too fast, because Jen lost her footing and took a tumble. We were sad the evening ended on a negative note. Usually I drive back to Vegas the same night,  I was glad this year we had a sleep over in St. George. Jen and Beka came back to Vegas with us and flew home on Saturday. On Sunday I left to take Ariel up to school.

Surprises

Apparently, it was time for another birthday. The older I get, the faster they come. Remember when you were a kid and it took forever for the two most important events of your life to arrive, Christmas and your birthday? I hate that time speeds up as we age. I can't complain too much, because I had a great day. I was upstairs and Todd asked me if I could come down and help him move something. I walked down the stairs and my sister, Jennifer, was sitting on my couch. What a great surprise! They made me an awesome dinner: BBQ pork sandwiches, coleslaw, chips, fried pickles, and corn on the cob. It was delicious. Even though I got my birthday present a few weeks ago, a KitchenAid mixer, I got a few more surprises today. The most unexpected gift was a giant hiking back pack. It is really big so I guess I better get prepared, there must be some serious hiking in my future! Two of my favorite gifts were made by my girls. Ariel made me some home made lemon hand scrub and Megan made me a key chain. It was made of pennies. When I looked at the dates on the pennies, each one represented significant years in my life. Starting with the year of my birth and ending with the year my last child was born. They were both very thoughtful gifts and I loved them. The day ended on a sweet note, delicious lemon pie.

The BIG Guns

Todd took the kids to a special event at the range. If you paid enough money you could shoot the really cool guns like the .50 caliber sniper rife, AK-47, and a MP5...Obviously, Aaron was the only one interested in shooting.