San Diego Conference

Lafe had a medical conference in San Diego, and originally it landed on the week that we thought all the kids had Fall Break, but then we realized that only the older two would be on break.........so, they went with Dad!  I think they had a great time!!!

At the Beach soon after they arrived

 

Mormon Battalion - one of the Sister Missionaries was a niece of a friend of mine in our ward - so fun!

Knottsberry Farm - Weeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

SNOOPY!!!!!  (Mom loves Snoopy)

Funnel Cake

Ethan's purchase - cool hat!

Waiting in line - hardly happened because it was a rainy day - AWESOME!

Silly boy

So, Talin sometimes has a hard time understanding what foods are for what meal - spaghettios for breakfast, cereal for lunch, etc.  He always wants this ^^^^^  but they are for the big kids that have to be at school at 6:30 in the morning!  He and Erin were having a "discussion" about how he couldn't have one for snack one day and Erin showed him that it says right on it that it's for Breakfast.  About 20 minutes later, Erin found that he had edited the box - crossed out Breakfast and added "enetim", translation: anytime.  He didn't even say anything, just changed it - we were dying laughing!!!!!

FHE

I saw this cute idea in the Family Fun magazine, and I thought it would be fun to do with the kids for Family Home Evening while Lafe was gone ( more on that later).  They turned out pretty cute and were really easy.

Orchestra Concert

Jamie is in orchestra again this year, and she had a concert with the JH Band and Choir.  They did great!

Jamie playing her viola

 I was a little nervous, though, because the choir director asked me to accompany the choir.  IT WAS SO FUN!!!!!!  I had a blast practicing with the kids and I loved playing the piano so much!  I really enjoyed it and can't wait until she needs me again.  (Jamie was my page turner :) )

Me :)

Student of the Month

Guess who got Student of the Month???  The Virtue for last month was Diligence and he got it for always working hard and staying on task.  He was surprised and it was so fun!!!

All the kids with the principal

Cute Boy!!!

Choir

I convinced Ethan to try out for choir this year, and he made Concert Choir - the top choir at the school!   (They needed guys, but he does have a great voice and pitch)  Last night was his first performance - I think they did a great job.  It was so fun to watch him - I think he might like being in choir :)

Singing - You can see he was right behind the director - luckily, Erin could grab this picture of him.

He was really enjoying wearing a tux!  He swaggered onto the stage :) and kept pulling 007 moves - I think he liked lookin' GOOD!!!!!!!

School Pictures!!!

Erin - Junior

Ethan - Sophomore

Jamie - 8th Grade

Laura - 5th Grade

Kelcie - 3rd Grade

Talin - Kindergarten

Cancun

Last week, Lafe and I got to go to Cancun!!!!!  We had so much fun!!!  Just look how beautiful it is!!!

View from our balcony.

View of the Beach

Church - great ward!  Really friendly people

Chichen Itza

Baby Turtle - We got to let the baby turtles go!  It was so cool!!!!!  They would line us up and then count and we'd let them go toward the ocean.  They were so cute!

Us and the Guthries at Chichen Itza

 

This is a Cenote - an underground water hole that the top eventually caved in.  It's really beautiful and fun to swim in!

This is at Ek Balam - another Mayan site - this part looked as if it had been rebuilt, but he said it was just cleaned and then protected - amazing that it's still there in such detail.

 

There's a better picture of Lafe at the top, but it didn't upload.  Here I am holding on for dear life about 3 feet from the top.  I figured the view was the same from there :)    Do you see how beautiful it is behind me?  So GREEN!!!!!

High and STEEP!!!  It took me a while to get back down.....

Lafe and I in the "Lover's benches" at at park

We're Parasailing!!!!!!!!!  (We're the white one)

Me in the air - see, I'm smiling.  This was at the beginning, we got a lot higher.

Lafe in the air - he LOVED it - crazy.....

Dinner at the favorite Taco spot

Lafe went down early one morning to catch the sunrise and was able to see this mama turtle, too.  She had just laid her eggs and he got to watch her bury them and then go back out to the ocean.  Really cool!  I missed.....

The eggs

The sunrise he was after - GORGEOUS!!!!!

View from the lobby.  We had a BLAST in Cancun!!!!!!!!!

First Day of School....... Round 2

Classic first day picture - I promise Talin's smile was the same in every picture!

Talin - Kindergarten

Kelcie - 3rd Grade

Laura - 5th Grade

Jamie - 8th Grade

Talin - waiting in line, a little nervous....

Talin - on his way......  I just happened to catch the two little girls in our ward in the same picture!

Laura - headed to the classroom

Kelcie - headed in, too.  It was SO HOT!!!!!!  Even at 8 in the morning!!!  They had to cancel the last 2 recesses because it's so hot!!!!!!!

Olympics!!!

I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!!!!!!

London Summer Olympics

 We've been so excited this year to watch swimming because a friend of ours', Breeja Larson, qualified for the 100m Breast Stroke!  She is the daughter of a friend of ours' and she used to babysit our kids! It's been so fun to follow her!  She even beat Soni at the Olympic Qualifying meet!

She got first in the Semi-Finals!!! and qualified going in 4th to the Finals!

So proud of her!!!

During the 100M Breakstroke, she false-started because the buzzer went off prematurely - which, you can imagine, would through you off!  So, she didn't get disqualified because it wasn't her fault, but I think it affected her swim and she ended up 6th.  The news media commented on how impressed they were with how she handled the whole thing.  She was up for the 400M Medley Relay, too, and swam in the qualifying heats, but then they put in Soni for the Final today - understandable, but we wanted her to have another chance for a medal.  I think she did MAGNIFICENT and I hope she keeps going so we can watch her again in 4 years!!!  GREAT JOB, BREEJA!!!!!!!!