First Day of school!

I really can't believe I have a 6th grader and a 4th grader. It's crazy. Shay is going to a school where they have to wear uniforms. She is only allowed to wear red, white, navy, green, black and khaki. Fortunately we were able to find her some really cute stuff.
Britton has to ride the bus to school. There was no way around it. It takes about 25 minutes to drive to Britton's school and they start and end at the same time. There was no way I could pick him up and get him to school on time. 

Britton's bus stop is right by Shay's school so we took him to catch the bus. It was really emotional for me to send my boy to Jr. High. I held it together though. I didn't want to take Shay to school in tears.
We get to Shay's school really early but there isn't time to go home in between dropping Britton off and getting her to school so we are going to have to sit in the car for about 25 minutes.
Here she is, waiting for the bell to ring.

I walked her to her classroom. She was such a big girl. She had no problems with it.
Both of my kids did so well. They were a little nervous but very brave about it. I'm so proud!

Movin' on up!

At the beginning of summer one of Shayna's best friends got moved up to a higher level swim team. Shay and her other friend have been working so hard so they could get moved up too.

Their hardwork and determination has paid off. They both got moved up and start on Monday. Which also happens to be the first day of school. It's going to be a LONG day but I know she can handle it.

She will swim for an hour and a half every day. I wish I was in that good of shape.....
Congrats girls. I'm so proud of all three of you!

Carver Family Reunion and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

The Carver Family Reunion happened to fall on the same weekend as my Mom's Birthday so we told my Mom we wouldn't be able to join them at the condo. It was really hard to tell her that. I know she was soooo disappointed.
We went to Mt. Dutton in Utah. We went up a day earlier then everyone else and set up camp. It was beautiful. The weather was awesome and we had a great time. Although it wasn't without drama.
Right after we got all set up the cows came grazing by. My dog wasn't sure what to think of them so he started barking at them and running after them. The cow's and bull's were not amused.....they were trying to head butt him and stomp on him but Chopper was too fast for them. At one point the WHOLE herd started charging after Chopper. Tyler ran out into the meadow to try to scare them away and the kids were hysterical and I grabbed the shovel and started running to Tyler and Chopper like I was going to save the day. Tyler scared the cows away and got a hold of Chopper before I got there but it was quite scary......Very funny now.  

I have such an awesome family. I love them so much!

Tyler's family didn't start arriving until late Friday. I didn't get any pictures because we were trying to get everyone set up and organized.
Saturday was kind of a disaster. The weather was awful. It rained a lot. Two of my brother in law's and two of my nephews went out elk hunting. Only three of them came back. Yep, that was the scariest 7 or so hours. Thane had left the group to hike up a mountain to see if he could find cell service. His daughter was having her first baby and he wanted to see how she was doing. In the mean time he got lost. We had no cell service, so we couldn't call him. We organized our own little search party and went on the hunt. After several hours of not being able to find him we called in search and rescue. As they were blocking off the roads so they could bring in the helicopters Thane called us from a diner 30 miles away.....Long story short. He got turned around, had no idea where camp was, saw civilization and started waking towards it. Some locals picked him up on an ATV and took him to a diner where he could call us. As soon as Thane got back to camp it started to down poor.....hard. Thane made us all dinner and we all went to our tents and ate. We didn't get to visit much because of the weather and Sunday we went home......thankful that we had everyone. Despite everything. We had so much fun.

SuRpRiSe! We lied to my Mom. We told her we couldn't come to the condo but we did. We went straight to the condo from the Family Reunion. We were able to stay until Tuesday. It was so nice and relaxing.

 I love that my kids know how to clean their own fish. And they know never to ask me.

 After all the camping and running around, poor Chops was exhausted. He has never been such a good boy. I wish he could run like that everyday.

We really needed this little vacation. It was awesome to spend time with family. I really hope we do it more often!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM. WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!!

I'm FREAKING out!!

I can NOT believe Britton is going to Jr. High. It blows my mind and totally freaks me out. Where I'm from you don't start Middle school until 7th grade. I feel like 6th grade is too young to throw them in with the "bigger" kids. I guess I have to get over it....he has to go no matter what I think about it.

Britton attended the Del Webb Middle School 6th Grade Academy. So for two days he got to go and get his schedule and locker combination and they showed him (and everyone else that attended) how to find his classrooms and meet the teachers and find his locker and learn how to open them. I'm so glad we did this. I think it gave him more confidence going into the school year. He really likes his school and the Teachers he met he thought were pretty awesome.

Britton will be taking some pretty cool classes. Although......he is taking accelerated reading, accelerated math and accelerated English. I'm pretty sure he knows not to come to me for help. Ha!

St. George Vacay

 The kids and I wanted to go to St. George to visit my parents before school starts. Shane is all moved into his new apartment in St. George as well so we wanted to go see him too.
We got there early Saturday afternoon and decided to head over to the dinosaur museum.

 My kids really enjoy doing this kind of stuff. Even though the museum wasn't huge and it didn't take long to go through it was very interesting and we all had a lot of fun.
Sunday we went to Shanes house and went swimming. I wish I would have gotten pictures but I didn't think about it. Shane had a lot of fun showing us around and thought it was pretty cool that he could take the kids swimming. When we got back from swimming we made jello cookies.

 Not my favorite. They were a lot of fun for the kids to make but I don't think I will do it again.

We had to leave Monday morning to make sure we made it back in time for Soccer and Swimming. We don't get much spare time now days.

Thank you Mom and Dad for putting up with us. We had so much fun, I can't wait until we can find the time to come back!!

A day at the movies

It has been such a long time since we have been to the movies. It drives me crazy how expensive they are. Luckily we had a gift certificate that Shay's teacher gave me for helping out in the classroom.

I told the kids that since we didn't have to pay for the movie they could get any treat they wanted. We ended up with a large popcorn, a large drink, and two boxes of candy. I can not believe how much they charge for concessions....InSaNe!
Anyway, it was all worth it. We had so much fun and the kids really enjoyed Percy Jackson!

New bag

Shayna has been wanting the BCH (her swimteam) swim bag for a long time now. They are pretty expensive so I told her we were going to wait to make sure she sticks with it. I was hoping to wait at least until Christmas but with all of the equipment she has to carry we decided it would be easier on every one if she just got one. I'm so glad we did it. It really does make getting to practice so much easier. It fits everything she needs. Her kick board, flippers, pool buoy, water bottle, towel, sunscreen, caps, goggles, change of clothes....EVERYTHING!

Her Friend went on vacation and brought her, and their other friend back a cute little charm with their name on it. Now they all have them on their swim bag.
I am so glad Shay loves swimming as much as she does. It sure makes all the time and money that goes into it soooooo worth it!

Novice Championship Swim meet

Shayna was in the Novice Championship swim meet. The Novice meets are more of a "practice" meet. You don't get disqualified for anything so they are pretty easy going. You can enter them if you want to but if you miss it's not a big deal. She hasn't missed one yet and say's she never wants to.  I over heard someone saying that there were over 75 swimmers who entered so when you consider that I think she placed really well. They were allowed to enter 3 events so on the 50 Freestyle she took 11th place, on the 50 Backstroke she took 8th place and on the 50 Breaststroke she took 5th place. She should have placed a lot better in the breaststroke but she got a terrible start.

I'm very proud of Shayna. She works so hard and I know her dedication is going to pay off. Good job Sis. You amaze me everyday!