First Day of School!

Jensen was just a little excited for Kindergarten!

He is in Mrs. Coburn's class in the morning.

Logan is in Third Grade and has Mrs. Hardy for a teacher.

Ally is in Fifth Grade and Mrs. Argyl's class.

It was pouring rain this morning so I couldn't take pictures of Ally and Logan on the front porch this year.  Holden wanted to be like his siblings and popped in the picture!  Notice Ally's flower that she made expecially to match her outfit.

I am so excited to have everyone back in school, but it will be hard for Holden.  He loves to be with his siblings!

The Rodeo

Our kids love to go to the Rodeo!  My boys are cowboys at heart and Ally even found some small piece of cowgirl in her for the night. 

Aubrey and Jensen are so cute when they get together.  Such good little friends.

Cowboys

Ally decorated her Cowgirl hat for the rodeo-complete with lots of sparkles. 

Bolinder Reunion

My Mom's side of the family had a reunion at Palisade State Park.  We went down for a day and the kids had a really great time.  We stayed in a little cabin that had air conditioning (yay!) but no bathroom (boo!).

They had just built this cabin so it was really nice.  Jensen was having a "poor me" moment.

It didn't take Holden long to figure out how to climb up on the bunk bed!  It was impossible to keep him off of it, let alone get him to go to sleep. He even figured out how to climb out of the portable crib.  Goody.

More fun on the bunk beds. Jensen's favorite blanket "Pooh Blank" ended up getting left behind.  Someone (?) shoved it between the matress and wood side as we were leaving.  The campground found it for us and it's been quite the challenge getting it back.  Jensen has done surprisingly well without it, though.  He's growing up. Sigh.

We went swimming in the resevoir but the highlight for the kids was definately catching toads and minnows.  We even brought home a couple of minnows.  Apparently they eat Beta Food-who knew?

Can't help but imagine that the toad is saying "Don't squeeze me any tighter, Logan!  My eye might pop out!"

Ally joined in the toad catching fun, too!  Jensen was the first one to catch a toad.

Meet Mr. Toad, Holden.

We enjoyed seeing family members and eating lots of yummy food.  Uncle Bud sure knows how to cook with a Dutch Oven!

Around Home

Since we went to Disneyland in January, we didn't really get to go on a summer vaction this year.  We spent a lot of time at home.  Holden was most of our entertainment:

He loves to hide and play peek-a-boo with pillows and blankets.

Here he is peeking out from behind the door.

Holden and his blanky.

This is another common sight at our house. Ally playing the piano.  We always have music in our house.  She gets a little annoyed when Holden is napping because I won't let her play.  Logan enjoys playing the piano, too.  There have been quite a few fights over whose turn it is to play the piano!

Overall it seemed like a pretty long summer at times.  Next year we are for sure going to go on vacation during the summer!

Daisy Duck

Our poor lonely duck.  We started with four ducks.  The first one was a runt and the others pecked it to death. The second one got eaten by a racoon. The third one drowned in a bucket (didn't know ducks could drown, did you?). Now our poor lonely duck spends it's time looking at it's reflection in the garage door.  On the up side, she has started to become really friendly with us and follow us around.  The kids love having her as a pet!

Willard Bay

Having grown up in Willard our whole lives, you would think Josh and I are frequent visitors to Willard Bay, right?  Wrong!  Josh and I can both count on one hand the times we have been to Willard Bay.  Now we can add one more time to that number thanks to our friends, the Posts.  They invited some families from the ward to go boating and hang out on the beach.

It was so fun!  We are not boating people, but we can now see the attraction.  However, after taking a plunge off the "water weenie" into the bay with Jensen and having nightmares all night because of it, I'm probably not going to run out and buy a boat.  But it was still a ton of fun and we were so glad to be invited!

Holden found the sand to be an irresistable delicacy. Yum.

Ally was ready to go boating!  She was one of the first on the "water weenie" but pulled a muscle in her arm on the first ride and didn't get back on. :(

Logan went out on the boat every time!  And Jensen even got back on the infamous "water weenie" after falling off into the bay.

Baby on the beach.

Beautiful sunset.  A gorgeous ending to a fun, fun day.

4th of July

Something new happened this 4th of July...I got cold!  It was actually in the seventies this year-crazy! It was so weird not to roast to death. 

We managed to enjoy ourselves as usual. Ally had her booth to sell hair clips set up under the bowery.  Her and her friend ended up making $65.00 each!  Way to go, girls!

After our fun at the park, we decided to head up to the cabin to watch fireworks in Montpelier.  I just have one word for that-LAME!  What a cruddy firework display.  We missed our town's show and especially our beautiful mountains lit up in the backgroud.

Ally taking time off from selling hair clips to climb the climbing wall.  That's about as far as she got before she decided she was done.  Logan climbed all the way to the top.

Jensen trying out his archery skills.

Logan and Jensen ready for the parade.  They love to ride on the big truck and throw candy at everyone.

Patriotic Holden and the red, white and Tramcor blue.