I realized that I didn't post pictures of the kids with their new teachers with the other school posting. Below is Kate with her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Berg. She just loves her and loves going to school!
Todd is standing with his teacher, Ms. Muecke. He really likes her as well. Apparently she has a bit of a reputation amongst the students for being mean, but the first day of school he came home and exclaimed, "Mom, Ms. Muecke's not mean, she just means what she says!" I thought that was some pretty astute thinking. :)
I think we are the last family to start school this year, which seems weird, because I still feel like it's so early to be starting. I guess I just didn't get enough summer!!! Last week I was absolutely sure I wasn't ready for it, but I'm quickly warming to the idea. The kids were equally unenthusiastic, but were up bright and early this morning and ready to go to the bus stop about a 1/2 hour early! I think they're adjusting just fine. They got Jack ready to go and even equipped him with his own little backpack. Cute stuff.
Schedules are good, schedules are good, schedules are good, .... (do I sound like I'm trying to convince myself?)
Kate and Todd waiting patiently? for the bus.
Hip hip hooray, the bus is here!!!!
Jack was devastated when the bus left without him. :( Thankfully, after about 30 seconds of crying he dried his tears (with some effort), put on his best big boy smile and said, "We go car, Mama?" Yep, we go car, buddy!
Just a quick shout-0ut to all you great dads everywhere who indulge your daughters! We love you!!! Brad will kill me when he finds out I posted this -- but I just couldn't resist. Kate LOVES (and the capitalization is essential here) to play with her daddy's hair. He is very sweet to lay still and be the perfect guinea pig for her as she accessorizes him to the hilt. It just makes me fall even more deeply in love with him when he does things like that.
Thursday we had the fun opportunity to travel to Blackfoot where I (with a little help from Brad and Todd) sang for a Single Adults activity. We spent the night with Mom and Dad (sorry I forgot to warn you guys, and thanks for being such great hosts anyway!!!!). It was so fun to sit downstairs and watch the Olympics, play games together, and just laugh and talk. The kids always think it is the BIGGEST treat in the world to spend the night and Grandma and Grandpa's house. Thanks for the fun night, yummy breakfast, and warm hospitality -- we love you.
A friend and I decided to throw a bridal shower for a dear friend's daughter. We had it in our backyard. Thanks to the beg, borrow and steal (with permission!) principle we were able to put together a beautiful party for not too much $$$. The trade-off is that when you don't spend much $$$ you do spend more time and work a lot harder! :) The whole thing turned out fabulous and we had about 60 people come. Brad was such a sweetheart as he mowed the lawn, hanged paper lanterns, and hooked up a fountain in the pool (thanks Chris, it worked great). All the other women were amazed at how patient and willing he was to help. He just smiled and kept asking what else he could do. I have married a gem of a man if I do say so myself. He commented to me later that he was glad we hosted this party since we have such a fun yard and don't get to share it often enough. I had a friend take pictures, so I'll post some when I get them.
Between the family dinner and the reception we were able to run over the hospital to visit Julie and Stanton and their new baby, Cannon Gregory Allen. What an absolute doll baby he is. I got to hold him and love on him for quite a long time and he was so sweet and content. He is a great little baby already. Although the kids didn't get to come back to visit him, Stan and Juge were kind enough to wheel him out to the window so we could hold him up for them to ooh and aah over! They were so enthralled! Especially Jack-Jack, who just couldn't get close enough to him. It's a good thing there was glass between them or I feel sure that his first official mauling and slobber bath would have taken place right there. What a treat to be there so soon after he was born. It was very sweet of Juge to have him at such a convenient time for me! Thanks Juge, you're always so thoughtful.
Our sweet niece Amber Westenskow became Amber Reader on Saturday afternoon!!! Congratulations to Joe and Amber (hope you're having an awesome time in Hawaii!). Although we missed the sealing because of our commitments at the TF Temple, we did make it for the family dinner and the reception. We had a great time visiting with everyone. Amber made a beautiful and serene bride, and we were so glad we were there to share some of the day with her. For the first time in a looooong time, all of Brad's living siblings were together, so we were able to get some pictures of all of them together. When I get them I'll post them. It was special to see them all together with Dad.
Saturday was our last day to work at the Twin Falls Temple Open House. We arrived for devotional about 7 am and worked until about 11:30. Full capacity is about 4200 visitors a day (that's running a tour group of 30 people every 5 minutes). Saturday over 7000 people toured the temple!!! You can imagine what a mad house it was. Thankfully, it was an organized and happy mad house, but a mad house nonetheless. Tours were backed up heel to toe, and the groups just got larger and larger. Many with 50 people in them! Wow, it's wonderful to see such interest in our temple. As of Saturday, over 125,000 have toured it. It will be interesting to see what the final numbers look like.
Elder Brent Nielsen shared a couple of neat pieces of information on Saturday morning: 1) there have been over 300 self-referrals given to the missionaries directly from the tours, and 2) there have already been several baptisms from those referrals, with more planned before the dedication on August 24th. We are so thrilled with the outpouring of the spirit that has pervaded the valley during this open house. He also shared a great experience where some of the protestors outside the temple were invited in to take a tour. One man accepted the invitation. After his tour he told his tour guides that all the information he had been told about the temple was completely false. He packed up his protest materials and went home!! One last experience (my favorite one) was of a man who, after his tour, was asked what he thought. He exclaimed, " I need to be a Mormon, I already believe all this stuff. In fact, I'm pretty sure I've heard it somewhere before."
It just goes to show what incredible power the temple and the gospel have when we don't do things to get in the way! I love that people who are looking are finding what they've been missing.
Before we left for a great weekend in Wellington and Price for Brad's 20 year high school reunion, I snapped this classic picture of Jack (or should I say Al Bundy?). Notice that he is wearing a pink pull-up that was scrounged from Jack's friend Emmy. I'm hoping to save this little gem for a bit of bribery someday.
As I mentioned above, we spend the weekend of August 1 and 2 in Wellington and Price, Utah. Brad decided to attend his class reunion, which completely shocked me, since he doesn't have a lot of good to say about his high school years. As it was, we had a great time and he came away feeling very happy that he had gone. It was uplifting to see that many people had changed for the better. They were all very kind and I had more than a few women approach me and admit to secret adolescent crushes on my very handsome, talented husband. They lamented the fact that they had been so stupid in high school and took the opportunity to thank them for it! Brad was very shocked (what a humble guy, huh?) and I thought it was very cute to watch him blush about the whole thing!
We spent the night with Grandpa Wilson and went to breakfast the next morning. We just happened to catch most of the International Days Parade in Price, so that was fun.
Then we drove to the park where more Int. Days festivities were occurring, including lots of fun vendor booths. Uncle John and Aunt Sheri were there along with Amy and Jono. Uncle John airbrushed the most amazing pictures on t-shirts. He painted a dragon for Todd and a monkey for Kate. They were thrilled and try to wear their t-shirts almost every day. Thanks Uncle John!!!
A clown made fun balloon figures for the kids at the park.
After the park we decided to take the kids to the dinosaur museum in Price. I felt bad that we had never taken them before. It's a great little museum and we really enjoyed ourselves.
Kate was a master paleontologist as she carefully uncovered bones in the kids area.
Todd had a narrow escape!
Jack just enjoyed getting a little sand between his grubby little toes!
We ended the day by stopping off in Tremonton at Christie and Scott's for Grandma and Grandpa Rose's 60th wedding anniversary party. We had such a fabulous time. Amazing food and company made the evening extra special. We're so glad we were able to fit so much in to our weekend!!!Um, I am CRAZY behind in my blogging. I don't really know how it happened, but I have gotten completely overwhelmed with the thought of catching up. I now realize that my big mistake was thinking that I needed to find time to do it all at once. I'm going to try to catch up right now as best I can and not worry if I miss some stuff, because, hey, you won't know, will you?!
