Sun Valley...

 Oh how much fun we had at Sun Valley for Labor Day weekend.  Jeral got invited to take Ralphie the Camel over to the nonmotorized parade in Sun Valley.  We had SO much fun.  There was always something to do to entertain us and the kids, it was great.  It was fun being a part of Ralphie too.  Everybody was in awe of him and we constantly had people at the trailers petting him and asking questions.  The best were the people that saw him in the cut off trailer on the way in.  They would look once, turn around and look again it was so funny!  We even had someone look at Ralphie so long he didn't notice the rest of his party had stopped their bikes and ran right into them.  Hahaha!  So funny.  

The parade is the biggest non-motorized parade in the west and was very interesting to see.  There were all kinds of horses, big and small, donkeys, mules, camels and buffalo :).  It was amazing to see all the different carriages that were there too.  Can't wait until next year!

 We spent a lot of time on the bikes, it was a good thing these kids like to ride in the bide trailer!

 They had an old gun shoot-off that we went and watched, while the program was pretty boring, the part where the bad guy came out and said put your hands up this is a stick-up got the kids pretty excited.  They all had their hands straight up, Lydia was quite serious about it!  Not sure if she knew it was pretend or not :).

 Right across from our camping spot, these bareback riders had a mini performance.  They were truly amazing in riding their horses.  The girl pictured above was the princess of the bunch and her name was Jenna.  Our Jenna thought that was pretty cool!

Jenna's 'pinched' ears...

 Jenna has wanted her ears 'pinched' for a long time. I felt like she was finally ready so we decided to go ahead and do it for her birthday.  She did a great job.  There was a little girl that was before us and she DID not want to get them done so they asked if we wanted to go first and see if that would help this other little girl by seeing someone else do it.  Jenna just sat there and smiled the whole time.  Didn't even flinch when the did it.  The workers said she was so good they should record her and have all the scared little girls watch her so they won't be scared anymore.  Way to go Jenna!  She cannot wait until she can change them out and wear all her cute earrings she got for her birthday.

Preschool for Lydia...

 I am positive that Lydia was the most excited for school to start this year.  She was crushed that she didn't get to go until a whole week after the big kids went.  We kept telling her that she got to go 2 days after my birthday, but she just couldn't wait, she was SO excited to wear her new school shoes, clothes and backpack!  I love their excitement.  She is so happy to be a big girl and go to school. She just wishes it was every day like Jenna.  That will be here before we know it though!

Jenna turns 5...

 I have had kind of a hard time getting used to my 2nd child being 5.  For some reason, it has been harder to admit that she is growing up than it was for me with Anthony.  But she is growing up into quite a pretty little lady.  This year she wanted a jewelry party, oh I had fun with that one!  I didn't know what kind of cake went with that theme, so I decided to do a barbie cake for a surprise. I LOVED how it turned out and so did Jenna.  While she was at school, I decorated it and she came home to it looking beautiful!  Lydia was so excited she couldn't keep it a secret from Jenna on the ride home from school, but Jenna had no idea what she was talking about so it still worked out fine :).  Love it!  Later that afternoon, Jenna has a few of her friends over to make necklaces, play freeze dance and eat cupcakes.  It was a fun little party.  The girls went home with a little bucket of candy necklaces, a few blingy flower rings, a ring-pop, a few plastic bracelets and their own made necklaces (I love the target $1 bins)!  The party was a great success.  Jenna was smiling the whole time.

After Jake got home from work, Jenna chose to go to Subway for dinner, so we went and got Subway and took it to the park and let the kids play and Jenna opened her presents there.  She had a wonderful birthday and she already can't wait until she turns 6!

1st day of school...

 Wow, I still cannot believe the kids are in school and we have already had a full month of it!  They were so excited to go to school this year, especially Jenna.  They had picked out their outfits the night before and laid them out like they were little squashed people on their floors :).  Anthony didn't want me to take him to school, he wanted to ride the bus, so I packed the other 3 up and took Jenna to school.  She tried to humor me and take a picture under the sign but the sun was in her eyes so it didn't turn out real great :).  She even had her fingernails painted so she was all ready for her 1st day of Kindergarten.  Anthony has Mrs. Janes for 2nd grade and has several of his friends from football in his class so he is excited about that.  Jenna has Mrs. Crawford for Kindergarten and we have had good experiences with her so far so that is good too!  I sure hope this year goes wonderfully for them!

Little (or big) helper...

 This little kid is determined to be a big boy.  He thinks he is big enough to do EVERYTHING the big kids do, including pulling their little suitcases.  He loves to do anything his older siblings are doing including ride bikes, sit up at the stool and eat off the counter, climb up the slides at playgrounds, put his shoes on by himself and read books.  He is just growing up a little too fast for me :)!!!

St. Charles & Bear Lake...

After we went to the temple in Brigham City, we headed over to Logan to stretch our legs at Grandpa/Grandma Guymon's.  Then we headed over to Bear Lake for Jake to do a triathlon there.  He competed in the Bear Lake Brawl and considering how little sleep we got the night before and how sick he was he did a great job!  After his race, we got to go to the beach and enjoy each other.  It was so fun!  We love every minute we stay at St. Charles.  I didn't know if the kids even would want to go to Bear Lake because we spent so much time at Rigby Lake this year.  But they had so much fun.  They thought it was awesome all the little waves the boats made and how warm it was.  It was shallow for quite a ways out there so they got to go out pretty far and really had a blast!  We tired Owen right out and he fell asleep on the way home from the beach, we transferred him to the couch hoping he would wake up and he just stayed asleep!