End of Summer...back to school!

We missed Spencer SO MUCH while we were on vacation! He was so happy to see us and We were so happy to see him!

 One final summer trip to our local zoo with some really good friends

 These kids crack me up!

 Mallory found a butterfly friend that didn't want to leave her!

 

 Andrew gets the LEGO magazine and it showed the kids how to make Ninja masks out of T-shirts! so they were ninjas for a few days

 we love going to the farmers market, and they sometimes have face painting there- S for SUPER SPENCER

 After we got back Mallory starting a diving class...she was a little nervous and needs some more practice, but MUCH better than me!

 Friday night it movie night- and no movie night is complete without popcorn!

 Getting some Bike ridding in before its Fall comes and its to rainy to ride!

 Went to back to school night, where the kids got to see their classes and meet their teachers

And their First day of SCHOOL- Mallory is in 2nd Grade and Andrew is in 3rd!

 

 

 Summer Was AMAZING, but very hectic and busy with TWO moves, summer camps, lessons, vacations, parties and trying to keep everyone happy and entertained when we were in such a limbo situation I am very happy have everything start to settle down and be back on a schedule!

Utah, Arizona and California

After we left Yellowstone we went to visit Mary-Anne, Jacob and Hannah!

 

 

 

 

 

 We had a really fun time playing with cousins and celebrating pioneer days

 we went to a really fun park, but it was a little too HOT to play very long- so we had an early dinner instead!

 Then we headed to the Grand Cayon- it was almost to amazing to absorb it all

 We went to the look out building with a spiral stair case

 It was windy, but the sun was out and it was beautiful

 Next stop was to Visit Grandma Rucker. we had a wonderful chat and went out to dinner

 we were lucky to get to know her, and let the kids meet their great grandma

 A tradition of ours is to visit different zoos

 the Phoenix zoo was really cool- if we lived close I would totally get a zoo membership and go often

 so this Elephant is NOT real...however they had REALLY amazing sculptures around the zoo that look life like

 Then we were lucky enough to visit Grandpa Swift! we had a wonderful afternoon chatting, and playing and getting to know him

 Grandpa Swift reminds me of Malachi...they are so much alike!

 Grandpa Swift is a really good baseball player- so when we were in the car we saw his glove. I love Andrew's face! it was like it was holding a pro-players glove!

 After we said good bye to Arizona we headed to LEGO LAND

 SO much fun! I'm grateful we went, our kids were the PERFECT age to love everything there

 lots of waiting, and it was very HOT, however the rides were great and lots of creative lego creations everywhere

Then we headed home, It really was a wonderful vacation, but very long and we were grateful to come back to the normal weather and calmer schedule!

Yellowstone Summer Vacation

we went on a VERY LONG Family vacation the last two weeks of July!

 Mallory making a fishy face with a Fish we found in a small town in Montana

 Church was really fun in Yellowstone, they had a visitors ward that we went to

 Granny and Grandpa with our kiddos

 lots of fun with all the cousins hanging around the cabin

 Then we took about three full days driving ALL around Yellowstone...we saw lots of Geysers

 and mud pits...

 and animals (both REAL and not!)

 we did some really fun hikes and saw some beautiful scenery

 after the first day we decided the ideal time to head out to Yellowstone was EARLY in the morning

 so we Woke up around 5 and headed out!

 we did a hike down a cliff and stood at the top of a waterfall- it was very difficult but completely worth the view!

 then we drove around to the other side of the canyon and saw some more waterfalls!

 it smelled super bad around lots of the hot springs, but we were pretty good about it

 we went and played at the Lake

 and had a rubber ducky race...everyone dropped ducks off the bridge then ran down the river to see who won

 there was a huge Bawled eagle watching us, I'm sure he thought we were all crazy standing in the river waiting for little rubber ducks