I Have a Love Hate Relationship with Back to School

I typed out pages and pages of feelings about the kids going back. For now they will live in my documents folder. Long story short, I love watching the kids get so excited. I love buying the back to school supplies. I love the new clothes. I love the peace and quiet. I hate knowing that they could have kids treat them badly. I hate that I am no longer their number one influence. I hate not knowing that they are safe in my care. 

First Day of 8th Grade for Emma

We got these shoes at Payless. She says they are way comfy. I think they are way cute. I may have to steal, I mean borrow them. 

She asked me to drive her so she could get there early. She had to turn in lunch money and get a good seat in her art class. 

Bye sweet baby girl. 

Andrew is trying to be 100% skater. These are his new Osiris shoes. He now wears mens sizes which is great. He's a super small mens size so we found these on a super bargain. Not too many men wear size 6. The two different laces were all his idea.  

As was this outfit, including the fedora. He's a funny kid with a style all his own. His teacher asked him to bring something that represented him so he brought his skateboard with him. 

Can you believe this is after his back to school haircut? 

I didn't get a picture of Emma's supplies before she loaded them in her locker but she had some fun stuff too. 

They both came home from their first day really happy and still excited. I love these kids and have a really good feeling about this year. 

I Wish I Could Bottle the Magic of Sundance!

For Paul's birthday I bought tickets for us to go up to Sundance (one of my most favorite places in the world!)

to see The Sound of Music! It is the perfect date night activity and we were both really excited to go.

My mom came down to watch the kids. Before we left I asked Emma to take some pictures of us. My mom got to laughing because on all the pictures our expression never changed. Soooo 

right before Emma took another picture I did something wildly inappropriate (I grabbed him) and she captured this expression. Ha ha ha! That got everyone to laugh. 

I had bought the barbecue dinner to go along with our tickets. After we hiked up the ski hill we got to relax in the shade of pine trees, right next to a little stream and eat a delicious chicken breast sandwich, red skinned potato salad and baked beans. It was all really good but the atmosphere was my favorite part. 

I love the sound of running water.

After we ate we waited in line for a bit and then we got to sit and wait for the show. 

Excuse me lady, could you get your bum out of my shot please? 

Bum lady took this picture for us. 

Here is a glimpse of the set before the show started. The show was wonderful. The little bitty actress that played Gretel was sooo adorable. The cast was all very talented. It was about 63 degrees up there. We got to see the stars and sit together wrapped in a blanket. Heavenly! I can't even tell you how perfect the night was. It was magical and romantic. The setting, the show, the weather, the food, the company. All wonderful. I hope this becomes an annual tradition. They had us vote on which show we'd like next year. I don't even really care. If they are putting on a play, I'm there! 

Their Last Week of Freedom

Last week kept us plenty busy. On Monday both kids had an orthodontist appointment. Andrew has a 100% overbite but otherwise no major problems to be concerned about. Emma is coming along nicely. After we were done at the ortho we met Paul for lunch at Taco Amigo. 

On Tuesday we were suppose to have an exterminator come. We waited 30 minutes beyond their one hour window and then I gave up. I had to get Emma to her school to pick up her final schedule and her locker before they shut down for the day. We ran down to the school, got her locker set up and hurried home for lunch. No exterminator. So rude! 

After being back at school, even for a minute, Emma was really excited and ready to start. Both kids were getting rowdy, anxious and bored. Pretty much, they were driving me nuts. I decided to get out of the house so I took them all to get frozen yogurt. 

I got peach mango tart with boba on it. It was delicious. The boba are fruit flavored balls full of juice that pop in your mouth while you are eating them. They are so fun to eat BUT I couldn't help but feel like I was eating fishing bait! 

Wednesday Andrew had an appointment with his teacher. We finally got to see the class list. He was excited to see he had some good friends in his class. 

He has the same teacher Emma had for 5th grade. I am thrilled with that. She is quite awesome! 

He was so happy to be back at school. He got to see some of his friends who were also there for reading assessments. This made it almost impossible for him to wait a second longer.  

On Thursday I had promised Andrew he could go to the movies with a friend. The local theater was playing Hook with Robyn Williams for only $1. I bought tickets for Emma and a friend to go too. They were both so excited for an afternoon out with friends. 

 Before we left we were trying to have a quick lunch so we could get out the door on time. Our microwave died a while back (it has power but doesn't cook) but we still used the work light that was mounted on the bottom of it. Well Andrew slammed the cabinet door next to microwave shut and it made the microwave fan start up. It wouldn't stop unless the microwave door was open. I tried cooking around the door in my face but that wasn't working well. I decided I would have to unplug it. 

I got up in the tiny cabinet above the microwave where I keep all my spices. I carefully started taking them out so I could get to the plug. I wasn't careful enough. I bumped something and it started an avalanche. The pumpkin pie spice fell right into our soup. Of course the lid wasn't on tight so it opened up pouring spice all into the soup and ruining the rest of the container. I was so frustrated. 

I got the kids fed and off to the movie without much more excitement but there was drama. Paul needed me to rescue him (He was stuck at work with no car and no way to get lunch) so I had to leave all four kids alone in the theater. It all worked out in the end and they had a great time. 

Afterward we went and got yogurt again. 

I got the same thing and got a splitting headache for the second time. I think I am allergic to something either in the yogurt or in the boba. Boo! I loved that stuff. 

Thursday night the Junior High had an open house. We all went and toured around Emma's classes, checked out her locker and introduced ourselves to the teachers. 

After that I went to a Relief Society barbecue/swim party. It was so nice to get away from the kids and talk to adults! 

Friday night Paul and I had our date night. It was wonderful. So wonderful it's going to get it's own post. 

Saturday morning Emma and I went to get our hair done. She got a haircut and some highlights put in. I just got a trim. The highlights weren't as dramatic as she wanted but I am totally okay with that. I think they look really good. It just brightens her up a bit. 

Oh she is going to hate me! 

She was a very happy girl when we left. After we were done with our hair we hit the mall and did some returns. When we got home we found Paul and Andrew cleaning his room. It was a mighty miracle. I was so relieved to have it done and even more relieved that I didn't have to do it! That evening we went to David and Nancy's for some dinner and family time. It was nice not to have to cook dinner and to be able to relax! 

Ah, deep breath. I am glad that last week is over. It was a busy and hard week for me. 

This is for the grandparents

I promise there is more to say and more pictures to post but for now here they are. First days of school. 

Emma 8th grade

Andrew 5th grade

Lava Hot Springs

Last weekend we ran away to Idaho. Yes Idaho. On our way we stopped off at Maddox again. It's been almost a year since we were there and we still are obsessed with their peach pie. Unfortunately we were a couple of weeks early for peaches. Oh well. We still wanted to go. We got burgers, fries, malts, shakes and strawberry pie and coconut cream pie. Yum! Now we just need to figure out a reason to go back up there when the peach pie is back. 

After lunch we made our way into the great state of Idaho. 

Our pie sort of melted on the drive but it was still good. 

We didn't realize that last weekend was a giant Native American pow pow. The whole town of Pocatello was sold out. We were lucky we had a hotel room. The guys in these sweet cars were not so lucky. They were from Canada and trying desperately to find a place to stay. While they were making calls to other hotels Andrew got some pictures. 

Playing with our shadows.

The next day we drove about 30 miles to the town of Lava Hot Springs. 

They have hot springs that you can just soak in, a water park and river tubing. I was interested in the more natural parts of Lava but the kids thought the water park would be the most fun so that's where we went. It did have the most to do. They had diving platforms. The kids were in love. They spent all day jumping off those silly things. They never even went down a water slide.  

This is Emma going off the second level platform.

The pool was so warm. It was really nice. They also had an indoor pool with two spring boards and a climbing wall. It was nice to go in there for a while to get out of the sun. 

Even Paul climbed the wall.

Andrew jumped off the second level twice. He didn't love it but he did it. 

Here they are jumping together.

After many hours we left and headed back to Pocatello where we drove around trying to find Mexican food that would please all of us. I had seen this place and wanted to try it but we had to find it again. There were some tense moments on that drive. 

I got a chili verde burrito that was really really good. I'm glad we went. We left the next morning and drove to my parents where they fed us a yummy dinner and then we headed home. Once again it was great to get way but I still haven't unpacked!