The First Day

Of the rest of my life...

Some days, that seems REAAALLY long. Tee hee!

So, we're back in the swing of things.  It is always hard to re-enter real life.  Summer is kind of fantasy land, so reality is never very palatable.  But, it only takes a day or two and things are back to normal and the gloomy clouds have lifted.

On our way home from Logan, we did stop for the first day of the Brigham City Temple Open House.  It was so beautiful and fun to take our darling children through a temple before it was dedicated. 

Our darling children, including Derick, who screamed the WHOLE time.  One of the apostles of our church, Elder Christofferson, was there.  We saw him and then Derick yelled, so he looked over and couldn't miss us!  Awesome. I just waved.

Derick was ticked that the food came after the tour.  He made sure we knew every 60-90 seconds how he felt about that.

 

See that crew up there?  That's us right before attempting 21 hours in the car.

The drive was good.  I gave up soda of all kinds 6 months ago, so I was no help to my sweet Greg.  He downed the Diet Mt. Dew and I slept.  I read my book club book, and was basically the most boring road-trip companion ever.  Greg is awesome.

Happy news about Texas: It hasn't been that hot this year.  YEAH!  Much easier to come home when it isn't triple digit heat.

Can I just tell you how great it is to have a girl who can babysit?  I spent so many days that first week shopping and getting organized for seminary, that Jane was watching the kids all the time.  It was fabulous.  Now, with two teenage brothers who need toileting assistance, there are no mysteries in Jane's life, but that is ok.  She takes it all in stride and it doesn't phase her.  She really is the BEST babysitter.

Our first week was crazy, because I had all the above, plus Greg was in charge of a huge stake activity for the church on Saturday night.

Here is our Back to School Feast that we held Sunday Afternoon.

Greg had the awesome idea to do an Olympic themed dinner this year, so we made flags for each of their countries:

 Janzenia

 Budgistein

 Graceland

 The Republic of Ethan

They each got their 'first day of school' gifts, which included a phone for Jane.  She is going to be riding her bike alone to 7th grade this year, so it made me feel more comfortable.  Also, she will have to pay the monthly payments, which also makes me feel more comfortable.

She was pretty thrilled with the whole arrangement.

That night, I had seminary kick-off at the church.  See, busy week.

Welcome to our first day of school:

They are SO big!  It is kind of trippy.

 4th grade.  Rules the School

 

Grace and her friend Amy on the way to school!

Hot Shot 7th Grader.  UGH!  So crazy.  She is at the same school as the boys now.  First week seems to be good so far.

My darling boys.  So cute and they have done SO well this week.  YEAH!!

In addition, the first day of seminary was yesterday.  This year, we are studying New Testament.  My side-kick, Grace, has been joining me each morning.  I have a big class this year, but they are all awesome!  I thought 5 am would feel horrid after sleeping in ALL summer, but it hasn't been bad at all. I haven't even needed a nap! At least the first two days.  Ask me in Feb.  It won't be so pretty.

Final Blissful Summer Moments

I shouldn't be depressed that summer is over, but I am.  I should be happy to get back to my comfortable home in Texas, but I'm not.  Maybe I shouldn't admit it, but I am so bummed it's the end.  Give me another month, at least!!!  Tonight, Jane and I rode our bikes to the Young Women's activity down at the park, where we got wet playing slip-n-slide kickball and enjoyed Creamies for dessert.  (-Don't know if I mentioned, but I served as the Laurel adviser here this summer.)  Riding home, we passed at least 4 friends who expressed sadness that this was our last week.  The perfect Logan evening.

I know I will be happy to see my Texas friends.  I love them and miss them.  And most of the charm of being here for the summer is really that it's just summer.  If we stayed, we'd still have school and responsibilities. And that's no fun anywhere.  But summer really is perfectly magical.  We are blessed beyond measure and we love it.  LOVE IT!

SO, here are our final, fun moments from the last couple of weeks, here and in Idaho.  We love our families and we are SO blessed to spend so much time with them.  We can't wait to see them again!!!

Ah, I think my heart just broke a little again...

In Idaho, we went with my parents to Craters of the Moon National Monument.  I haven't been since I was a kid and I had forgotten how SUPER cool it really is.  It's 2000 year old lava left from a volcano that covers land the size of Rhode Island.  We climbed cones and went into caves.  It was a blast.

This was a super steep cone of ash that my boys both climbed!!! I was amazed.  Derick needed help to keep motivated, but they both made it to the top!  I was beyond proud.  You can see the cars right next to Derick's head.  That's how high we had climbed.

On top of the world!  Of course, if Derick could take one thing with him on his massive expedition, it would be a shoe.  Boy has priorities.

 

I took Ethan down into a cave and as I waited for Mom and Grace to come in, he took ten steps into the cave and it was so dark, he ran right into a rock and sliced up his leg.  I felt so bad!

 

At my mom and dad's, we enjoyed watching the Olympics every night.  We had a fun outdoor movie in the backyard and sleep over with the cousins. And one afternoon, we had an impromptu slip and slide.  A few garbage bags, tape and some old rusty stakes, and it was a party!

Don't let that pic fool you.  Derick really never figured it out. 

Later in the week, we all took a trip up to West Yellowstone, for the Mountain Man Rendezvous. The kids had worked hard and saved their money.  They were excited to spend it!

 We tried on lots of awesome hats.  And I even bought one.

 

The kids loved the candy canon.

Yes, that's a shoe on Ethan's shoulder! Thank you, Derick.

After an afternoon of shopping Mountain Man Style, we headed over to one of my favorite places, Mesa Falls.

On our way there, this moose wandered across our path.

Gracie spent her money on this darling pioneer costume.  She and Lora love to play pioneers with Grandpa Tallmadge's 'handcarts'.

Of course, the perfect end to the perfect day was a trip to Big Jud's, for the best fries in Idaho and the best hamburgers anywhere.  And since Idaho has the best fries, they are the B.E.S.T. anywhere.

On our way home to Utah, we hit a rainstorm and then 10 minutes later, hit a major traffic jam, which is weird, because there is NEVER traffic in South Eastern Idaho.

As we got closer, we could see smoke, but wasn't sure if it was an accident or a fire.

 

In fact, it was both!  On the other side of the freeway from this fire, was a 4-car accident.  I think what must have happened was the lightening struck, starting the fire and causing the accident all at the same time.  It was intense.

When we got back to Utah, it was all fun and games again for the kids.

Walking down the road, to play in the river:

(it's pretty low these days...)

Climbing trees next door at the church:

 

And enjoying the beauties of my garden?!  This is a dying rose:

Apparently, this is what Grace does with it:

 

I have no idea who took the pictures, but imagine my surprise at finding them on my camera!

 

And why not throw in a little grass, while we're at it, eh?

This girl is a sheer delight!

Too crazy!  Remind my to keep my make-up locked up tight!

We enjoyed the fun of the fair rodeo, where after I lost Ethan and forcibly had to move Derick, we did have a good time.

This is Derick with Brent:

 

One of the things I love about Logan is that the most famous guy in town is a mentally handicapped man.  Brent rides around town on his bike and honks his horn at everyone.  He can be found at every community gathering, including parades and rodeos.  He shakes people's hands, waves and is beloved by all.  I had to snap a pic with him and Derick.  They were SO cute together!!!

Sorry this post is so big, but our summer is kinda big!  -Keep in mind that interspersed with all this fun was lots of work and lots of whining about work.  And lots of mom saying, "I don't care! Do it anyway!"  Good times.  So sad to see it all end.