School Begins

YAY! We get to go to school!

School started on August 24th and my kids were so excited to go. This year Sarah Kate is in 2nd grade and Ben gets to start Kindergarten. Thankfully we kept ourselves busy the week before school started by going to Grandma and Grandpa Gass' house and then going huckleberry picking at my in-laws in Grace over the weekend. I think if we hadn't been so busy they would have driven me crazy with their excitement.

I think this year is going to be a wonderful school year. Sarah has 2 of her best friends in her class. Carina (a girl in our neighborhood) and Clarissa (a new girl who moved into our ward about 2 months ago) are both in her class and the three of them are so great together. Ben has 2 kids from our neighborhood in his class and he's quickly making friends. Both of their teachers seem wonderful - Mrs. Melander for Sarah and Mrs. England for Ben - which can make or break a school year.

My cute kids waiting for the bus.

The first day of school went very smoothly. The kids had no problems getting up and they were ready to go about 5 minutes before the bus came. I took them outside and took a few pictures of them. Ben was SOOOOO excited for his first bus ride and when the bus drove back around he was waving out the window with the biggest smile I've ever seen.

"Mom, where is it?"

Catching the bus.

The kids really wanted to ride the bus, but I wanted to be at the school to make sure they made it to class and to see them off. I decided to let them ride the bus and then I followed a little later to meet them at school. I arrived at the school just as the bell was ringing (the line to get to the school was huge and it took me forever to get there.) I stood outside Ben's classroom with him while he waited for the teacher to let him in. After he went in his class I walked to Sarah's class to take a picture of her. She was already doing school work and was so excited to be doing so.

Ben being a goofball while he was waiting to go into his classroom.

Sarah doing her worksheet.

I can't believe I now have 2 kids in school. They are all getting so big and it's going by so quickly. I'm excited for what's to come, but I'm not sure I want it to come so fast. I guess I don't have a choice. I'm just glad they're enjoying their childhood and that they enjoyed they're first day of school.

Huckleberries

The weekend before school started was prime time for picking Huckleberries so we headed up to Grace on Friday night. We love picking huckleberries every year, it's one of the great things about being back in the west. We headed up to our special spot around 11:00 and were joined by Sarah and her boys, Kenny's cousins Shannon, Lance, and Danny, Kenny's parents and later Kingston's came up. We found some good areas and were able to get about a gallon of berries. I love sitting in the huckleberry bushes with family visiting and just enjoying the great outdoors. It's so relaxing to me.

I didn't take many pictures, but here's one of the kids roasting hot dogs.

Gracie was sooooo messy.

In true Newbry fashion the huckleberry picking turned into a huge event complete with a screen tent, fire pit, and way too much food. We roasted hot dogs, cooked hamburgers, made smores, and roasted starbursts. It was great. I LOVE huckleberry picking.

Fun At The Logan Pool

So, the last day we were in Logan we went to the local pool. Logan has the greatest pool for little kids I think I've ever seen. They have this huge pool that shallow enough that Hannah can touch in most of it. I can just let Sarah and Ben wander the pool and know they're safe. The kids and I, along with my Mom, went to the pool around 4:00 and we were joined by my cousin Kristin and her two boys. Later my Aunt Cindy and Dad arrived. It was a lot of fun swimming and enjoying the warm weather.

The pool also has 2 water slides. The kids LOVED the water slides. Gracie wasn't old enough (you have to be 2 and she won't be 2 until October) so the first time I went down I took just the 3 oldest along with Kristin and her son Braden (he's 2 months older than Ben.) When Hannah, who sat on my lap, and I got to the bottom we found Gracie standing with Grandma crying. She was sooooo sad that she had been left out. I decided to take her, even though she's not yet 2, and Kristin was kind enough to take Hannah on her lap. I had so much fun taking Gracie down. She laughed and laughed and screamed and screamed the entire way down. I've never had so much fun on a water slide.

Ben heading down the slide.

Hannah's turn on the slide.

After the second time down the slide I told the kids we needed to take a break and that we would slide again. It didn't take too long for us to get back to the slide. This time Braden didn't want to go so I had to have Hannah, who luckily was tall enough, go alone. Hannah didn't want to go down by herself, but with a little push from Mommy she went down. She had a great time and wanted to go over and over again. We took a break to have some pizza, but we spent most of the rest of the evening on the water slide.

Sarah Sliding

Mommy and Gracie's turn

The last slide of the evening Sarah Kate got brave enough to go down the fast slide by herself. Everyone went down the slower slide and when it was Sarah's turn I didn't see her. By the time the second, not Sarah kid came down it donned on me where she was. I looked over at the steep slide just in time to see her sit down. Grandpa and I cheered for her the entire way down. I was so proud of her, it was such a huge thing for Sarah because she's normally so scared of everything. As I bonus I went on the fast slide with her one more time, just the 2 of us. She had a blast and felt very cool. She even had to call Daddy and tell him what she did. Go Sarah.

It was a wonderful few days at Grandma and Grandpa's and we were so glad we went. We'll have to do it again next year.

A Week at Grandma's

The week before school started I decided to take a trip to Logan to spend some time with my parents. Kenny stayed home to do some work, and I took all 5 kids to Mom and Dad's for 3 1/2 days. We had a lot of fun and by the time we came home the kids were exhausted, and so was I. Both my parents had to work during the day, but we were kept very busy at night enjoying some sites of Logan and time with family.

Monday night we had a BBQ in the back yard with my family. My brother made a trip up from Salt Lake to spend the evening with us. The kids love playing with Uncle Ryan and he always leaves worn out. He asks me how I do it and I just tell him I'm not as cool as him, they don't play with me like they play with Uncle Ryan. We also picked raspberries, with a little help from Uncle Ryan, and made raspberry shake with Grandpa. It was a great night.

Picking raspberries with Uncle Ryan

More raspberry picking

Hannah making shakes with Grandpa

Tuesday night we met my Aunt Cindy, cousin Kristin and her family, and my cousin Daniel and his family at Willow Park for a picnic. Tuesday happened to be my cousin Daniel's birthday so my Aunt Cindy brought a cake for him. My kids were really confused at first about it being Daniel's birthday. I think we may have to call him Uncle Daniel to keep the confusion to a minimum.

Daniel and his son Luke getting ready to blow out the candles.

My cute little baby Daniel

Will, my cousin Kristin's boy

After our picnic the kids played on the toys for awhile and then we went to see the animals at the park. There aren't many animals in Willow Park, but there were enough to make the kids happy. They even got to feed the ducks right out of their hands which they thought was cool.

Feeding the ducks through the fence.

Gracie LOVED pushing the empty stroller. She was actually pretty good at it by the time we were done.

More Fun with Nancy

Hannah and Aunt Nancy

After the fun at the zoo everyone went to Chuck-a-rama for dinner. We were joined by even more family members and there was probably close to 40 of us so they gave us our own room, which was good. Dinner was a lot of fun, but dinner with 5 little kids is always an adventure. Luckily there were a lot of other kids around to entertain out kids and to help us realize we weren't the only crazy ones.

The kids eating dinner with Kingston cousins.

Alixa, Kenny's cousins wife, with her daughter baby Jenna and her nephew baby Luke. These babies are 5 days apart and our Daniel was born right in the middle of them.

After dinner Kingstons, Michael and Sarah, Nancy, her daughter Loni with her 3 little girls and her other daughter Jolie and husband Rob all went to the park. The kids had a blast playing with each other and it was a good way to end a very fun day.

Gracie playing at the park.

Kenny and Uncle Cory helping Sarah and cousin Missy on the teeter totter.

Ben and Missy teeter tottering with Gracie (and a little help from Daddy.)

Playing on the tire swing.