August

What a fun and memorable month for the whole family full of mountain biking, county fairs, big potatoes, lots of Lagoon trips and finally starting school again.  Russell and the kids have been slowly trying to get me into Mountain biking and I'm kind of coming around.  If not for breaking my chain every time I ride, they might convert me. Emily took me on a ride one morning and as you can tell we made it to the top of Blacksmith Fork trail head.  

Emily is also having fun getting to know new friends from the GRiT riding club for NICA. I was even able to go with Emily on this GRiT ride up Logan Canyon.  It was a pretty fun ride.

This year Emily will ride on the high school team so she has to do two laps instead of one this year.  She was excited when we took this picture because it was the first time she had done two full laps at Beaver Mountain. 

Here we are again at Lagoon having a great time. We definitely had a good time every time we went. We made it on the zoo train ride for Brooklyn. She wanted to ride the train and see the animals. We got on as many rides as we could. 

Brooklyn loved her rides. She had a few favorite ones she kept wanting to go back to every time. The Dragon ride, Baby Boats, shoot'em ride, and the Odyssey. The other kids had their favorite ones too. Cannibal was a big hit for Logan. 

We all loved Rattlesnake Rapids. We do this ride in the late afternoon to cool off. 

We even had time to make it to the Cache County Fair this year.

Here we are trying to milk a cow.  Emily's friend, Hahna, came with us so that was fun.

This year Emily and I entered some of our crafts into the fair. We didn't do too bad either when it came to the judging.  I entered two quilts and two jams.  My Levi Quilt got a white ribbon, and my Pine View T-Shirt Quilt got a blue ribbon.  My Strawberry Jam got a blue ribbon and my Pumpkin Butter got a red ribbon.  In all I think I made $15. 

Emily entered two items she had sewn in school.  Her Apron got a blue ribbon and her Pillowcase got a red.  She made $6.  We felt pretty good about the things we entered.  The fair has always been a family tradition for years. We all love seeing the animals, the crafts and art work. 

On Facebook I learned about this giant Idaho Potato that was on tour of the States.  I found out that the potato was coming through Cache Valley and stopping at the Lee's in Richmond.  We had to see it!  This was way cool to see. The kids loved it. 

Look how giant that thing is!  It is the Famous Idaho Potato.  There were a bunch of facts about it like: it weighs 7,000 pound.  It would take 200 years to grow and a few days to cook it.  And it would make a ton of mashed potatoes.  That is if it was really real.  Sadly the potato is not real but it is still cool.

We came home with a ton of Idaho Potato swag like this giant potato stress ball, stickers, pins, and even a couple T-shirts.  We also tried these delicious giant tater tots.  They were seriously the best tater tots ever.  It was a fun little Idaho tourist trap.

At the beginning of August Emily and Colby had a Youth Camp Out.  This year our ward combine Girls Camp with Young Men Camp and did a fun combine camp out.  The kids were so excited to go.  Unfortunately it rained the entire time they were camping.  When I say rained, I mean poured all day.  Everything was drenched.  Multiple tents were flooded and half of the kids were sent home or decided to go home.  Emily wanted to stay and luckily her tent was one that survived.  Colby on the other hand was in a flooded tent and all of his stuff got drenched.  They sent him home but he was not happy about it.  After getting some new dry, warm clothes, the bishop took him and a few other boys back to the camp for the day because it had finally stopped raining.  While Colby didn't spend the night, he was glad he got to go back.  Emily and Colby said most of the camp was spent playing Nine Square with everyone.  Emily said she and a few others played nine square until 2:00 am when their leaders finally told them to go to bed.  The last day was finally nice weather and they spent the day at Hyrum Dam kayaking and playing in the water.  Russell and I were able to come and help that day and let them borrow our kayaks.  We loved being there hanging out with the ward.  Emily and Colby had a great time despite the rain. 

Well we are getting ready for this guy to go middle school as a 7th grader. We went early and got his schedule, walked to find his classes, and try out his new locker. Colby is way excited to start 7th grade. 

Then the dreaded first day of school came for everyone.   We are sad to see the summer go but ready to get back on a schedule and have new experiences.  This year we have four kids in three different schools and that leaves Brooklyn as the only kid at home now.  The night before Russell was able to give them a father's blessing. He loves doing this for them. It was a very fast summer with lots of fun memories. 

This year we have one high schooler, one middle schooler, two in elementary, and one still at home.  Basically one in every stage of life!  

Emily is our big high schooler now.  She is a Freshman at Mountain Crest and is excited to be in the high school and participate in all of the fun things that has to offer.  Since we live so close to the high school, she just walks to school. I am not old enough to have a kid in high school so I don't know where she came from.

Next is Colby, he is in 7th grade and starting his first year at South Cache Middle School.  He now rides the bus to school and is very responsible about getting there on time in the mornings.  I think he is excited about being in a bigger school and trying new classes.  He is taking band this year and looking forward to learning the trombone.

Logan and Charlotte are still in Canyon Elementary together.

Logan is in 5th grade and has Mrs. McBride for his teacher.  She seems like a great teacher so it will be a good year.  Logan was especially happy to have his classroom in the outside portables.  I don't know why this was so exciting for him but that is what he has been looking forward to the most.  Silly kid.

Charlotte is in first grade and has Mrs. Smith.  We have loved Mrs. Smith ever since Colby had her in first grade.  We know she will be a great teacher and Charlotte is so excited to be in her class.  Charlotte is also happy to be in school all day and have lunch at the school.  She loves school especially the social aspect because she makes friends so easily.

And that just leaves Brookie.

She gets to stay home and hang out with me all day.  She would love to go to school but I am glad she is still my little buddy at home.  

A couple days after school started, the kids had their first mountain bike race of the year at Beaver Mountain.

 Both Colby and Emily had practiced hard for this race. They both did really great in our eyes. 

This was Colby's first ever mountain bike race.  He was so nervous.  You could tell because he kept pacing around and checking his watch.  Finally it was his time to stage.

Here he is at the start line with the other 7th grade boys.  Colby races Jr Devo Beginner boys.  At the start of the race Colby was so nervous he forgot to put on his glove so when the gun went off, he was trying to put on his glove and ride at the same time.   We yelled at him to forget the glove and just ride!

During the race he did so good and was making good time.  Then as we were waiting for him to make the final turn to the finish line, we kept waiting and waiting for him but he never came.  Then we saw multiple boys Colby had passed earlier in the race coming in ahead of him.  We didn't know what was going on and worried that he had wrecked or something.  Finally we saw him come around the corner and he was pushing with all his might. We wondered why he was in a hard gear and yelled at him to shift. He crossed the finish line so mad. The cable on his derailer had come off when another rider rubbed up against him leaving him unable to shift out of his hardest gear for the last mile or so. He was bummed but still finished with a pretty good time. 

Emily was also very nervous for her race.  The hard thing for her is waiting all day to race.  Colby races at 8:30 or so in the morning and then Emily has to wait until 2:00 pm for her race to start.  It's hard to wait that long in the heat and then wear yourself out by worrying about the race.  But she did it.

Here she is with her bike buddies Rebecca and Ellie before their race.

When her race finally came, all that nervous energy paid off and she had probably one of the best rides on that course yet.  Then it started raining.  The rain was not the problem; the rain was actually good because it cooled the riders off.  It was the lightning that came with the rain...  

The lightning was striking so close that the race officials did not think it was safe to be out on the course.  Just as Emily was finishing her first lap and about to start the second, all of the riders were pulled from the course.  This was devastating to Emily and the other riders.  They wanted to race, they wanted to finish, and they wanted their accurate placement for the next race.  It was up in the air on whether or not the race would just get postponed for a little bit or be cancelled. Unfortunately, the girls' race was cancelled.  Emily was so sad because she knew she was doing well in that race and knew she could have kept going.  A lot of girls were mad because they had saved their energy on that first lap to put into the second lap.  They said if they had known they were only doing one lap, they would have pushed it harder.  It was a bummer deal but I guess it is better to be safe.

In the end though it was still a good day to race.  The kids did a great job and we are so proud of their efforts in all they do.  Now they know what to expect and will be ready for the next race.

Charlotte has started Let's Play Music again this year. 

She is now a 3rd Year student and learning more and more on the piano.  She is getting to be a pretty good piano player.

And here is Brookie being cute:

The garden did finally start producing!  We got a ton of cucumbers this year and we only planted one plant!  I made a lot of jars of pickles and they are delicious.  Our tomatoes did not do as well as I would have liked but I was still able to make a couple batches of salsa and a small batch of spaghetti sauce.  We also got about 6 butternut squashes (thankfully no squash bugs this year!!!),  a lot of carrots, only about 4 watermelons, and a few beans. Sadly our corn only produced a few ears this year.  The grasshoppers were really bad and ate a lot of the stocks.  Anyway we are happy with the produce and there are still some potatoes growing.

August was a good month to wind down the summer.  I am definitely sad to see the summer go but looking forward to the new school year.