Get REAL

If you think this looks like a Daddy/Daughter date to the Real Salt Lake game, where a certain Dad and Daughter saw tons of sweeeeeet headers and 3 GOOOAAAAAALLLLS  (albeit for the other team) and  shared an extra-large bag of kettle corn---you would be correct.

(And he even remembered to take a picture! What a guy!)

Silver Lake

We headed up Big Cottonwood Canyon on sunny, warm Labor Day for a picnic and some gallivanting through the forest. We arrived just in time to have the heavens open and dump rain on us while the temperature plummeted and we scratched our heads as to why none of us thought to bring jackets. (Usually, I am like the jacket Nazi, but three months of summer has made me be a little bit soft.) But since good things always come to those who wait (and those who have the biggest line of credit on their Visa), we ate our picnic in the car (the crumbs everywhere were killing me) and about the time we finished, the storm had passed and we were treated to the beautiful smells and sights of the mountains after a rainstorm.

(the crumb-makers)

(more crumb-makers)

Silver Lake

Super-cutie, whose cuteness diminished incrementally as we walked around the lake and he decided, when we were quite on the opposite side of the lake, that he was going to CRAWL back to the car and no amount of coaxing could get him to stand up.

(He was still walking at this point, and evidently climbing)

Sometimes I wonder if we lived in the forest with its endless rocks, logs, sticks and lakes to be explored---would the children eventually tire of this natural playground?

Note to self--- If you're not going to strategically place one of your children in front of you in the picture to hide your belly,  then please remember to at least SUCK IN  your muffin-top before posing for said picture.

It's always fun when Dad gets the camera....(when Mom lets him)

 And just at this moment.....my nefarious mind began plotting......I had oreos in the car (the bribe), I had beautiful scenery aplenty (the background), I had my camera (the evil equipment), and I had my subjects (victims): It was time for a (coerced) family portrait:

not good--fake smiles and no smiles

better...

BEST!

P.S. Lest you think our gallivanting-through-the-rain-soaked-forest and our crumb-filled-picnic-in-the-car was a waste, we did learn some sage advice that day, left by some unseen stranger kind enough to carve his mantra into the side of the boat dock:

Sam---this one's for you!

Farmer Kelly

Good things come to those who wait....

and plant

and weed

and hoe

and replant

and water

and weed some more

Dear B, C, and G....

Dearest Children,

Thank you for a wonderful summer. I will miss your sleepy faces at the breakfast table at 9:30 every morning. I will miss having you home for lunch, having the house filled with your friends, and staying up late every night. I will miss our popsicle snack each afternoon and the popsicle drips on the kitchen floor. I will mostly just miss you---having you here and hanging out with you each day. I will miss your whining about jobs, your tattling and fighting. I will miss nagging you to get your jobs done! I will miss telling you 78 times each day to CLOSE THE DOOR WE ARE NOT AIR CONDITIONING THE ENTIRE GALAXY and other sundry phrases that you, in turn, will use with you children. I will miss dousing you in sunscreen, driving to swim lessons, packing you for scout camp, and spending 160 hours with you on vacation. I will miss begging you to be in photos and nagging you to take a shower at least once a week. Even though you make me Crazy with a capitol C in so many ways and I feel like the most inadequate person in the entire air-conditioned galaxy to be your parent, you mean the world to me and if I could have picked any 4 children out there I would have chosen you, my 4 popsicle-dripping, sibling-fighting, problem-causing mess-making children that somehow I was lucky enough to get in the first place.

Have a great school year. I know you will.

Love,
Mom

7-4-1

7th

1st, 4th

3rd, 6th

Kindergarten

1st, 4th

Kindergarten

AF Canyon

No summer is complete without a cookout in the canyon, or as the kids call it, "Mom bribing us with hot dogs and marshmallows JUST so she can take pictures." Me? Would I do that?

(Evidently my fingers were too sticky from the giant marshmallows we roasted to take any pictures of said marshmallows.)

Painted Faces

We spent a lot of our summer painting faces. And by "we" I mean Cassidy and her adorable friends spent a lot of time rounding up poor neighborhood victims or sometimes poor brothers and subjecting them to their artistic skills.  

There was also a very yummy (and very lucrative) bake sale.

There were some fun backyard BBQs and fun craft projects.

And there were LOTS of blurry pictures that were almost very cute.