What we did over the summer...

In June we took a "stay-cation" at a resort in Peoria for a couple of nights. 

We spent hours in their enormous pool.

Dallin went down this slide dozens of times. He was the only one of our kids tall enough to ride.

 It's pretty nice having an 8 year old who can haul all the luggage back to the car!

For the 4th of July we were at home. We went to Water N Ice to fill bottles of water and let all the kids pick out their own treat. Dallin chose this huge jawbreaker and licked it until it was about half-way gone in one day. The dental hygienist in me cringes when I see these pictures! I don't know what I was thinking ;)

We painted and drew pictures on our driveway and then lit our own fireworks. Dallin is a little pyro--he loves fireworks more than anything. My dad gave him a huge box of fireworks that he had collected over the years and Dallin wouldn't go inside until we had lit them all.

At the end of July we went to a parade in Jarom's hometown. The kids are here sitting on the curb waiting for candy to be thrown. This parade is the highlight of their summer. I think they look forward to it more than Christmas.

 For the rest of the summer we tried to always find a pool to swim in and keep cool. These are pictures at a Junior High pool. Dallin jumped off the high dive about 30 times until he had a headache. I couldn't get pictures because I had to stay near the little ones.

Check out those moves!

Then a couple of days before school started, I made a special dinner for the kids complete with crowns celebrating their new grade and a little bubbly to make it feel festive!

First Day of 3rd Grade!

 The traditional first day of school shot in front of the door. Sean and Morgan are in Kindergarten and Dallin is in 3rd grade.

 Meet the Teacher day--the day before school started. This is in the twins' classroom, which is Dallin's old Kindergarten classroom. Carly is sitting at Morgan's new desk. What's up with that smile?

 I took Dallin's picture here in this spot the day before he started Kindergarten.

Here is the photo from 2009. Look how he's grown. 

 Waiting for the bus to come. Does this kid look sick to you? Somehow he talked me into letting him stay home.

Dallin was nice enough to ride the bus with Sean to school--even though he was "sick."

Away they go...

And here they are getting off the bus at school. I walked Sean to his classroom and signed Dallin out as sick for the day.  He had a cough and a sore throat.  He wasn't a bit upset at missing the first day.