Well, it's official. Summer is over. Get the new school clothes out, backpacks filled, your boxes of tissue ready to donate- school is starting. Tomorrow. I was NOT ready for school to start at all- until the beginning of last week. Now I am :) Let me explain...
This has been one of the best, busiest, most traveled summers ever. We have had an absolute blast as a family, with family, and all of the in between. I have loved spending so much time with my kids, not having a schedule, sleeping in, and all that good stuff. Well, I decided to take on a little babysitting gig that started at the beginning of last week. I am watching 2 kids (a brother and sister) and the girl (Kajia) just happens to be Laylah's best friend. Javis, the boy, is her 3 year old brother. Now, don't get me wrong, the kids are great. They are well behaved and have great manners, and play so good with my kids. It's just that they are here from 7 AM to 5 PM, and with the extra noise, confusion, and bodies it is a little crazy at times. So, needless to say, after last week, I am ready for school to start because Laylah and Kajia will be in school all day (and they got in the same class again, which they, and also me and Chris- Kajia's mom- are SO excited about!) and Jonah will be in school for 1/2 days and Daphne and Javis are going to be going to a little neighborhood preschool 2 days a week. So, I think I can handle it :)
Anyway, the last 2 weeks of summer have been non-stop fun. We've had a lot going on trying to jam it all in before summer was over, and I've got another marathon post for those that are interested in the happenings here at the Crazy Collette household!
-Andy's Work Party
Andy's work has a summer party every year, and we always go somewhere fun. Luckily Andy has a good friend from work, Brandon, who has a fun wife, Amy, and two cute kids, Brooklyn and Bailey. We were able to hang out with them the whole night, and we had a blast. This year we went to a Bee's game. My kids had never been, and they loved it!
Jonah, Daphne, Laylah, Brooklyn, Bailey
Daphne wanted me to take a picture of her rolling down the hill :)
They had a cute little train and were giving rides. I think these three went on it about 5 times.
Notice the sign next to Bear? We finally had a security guy come and tell us to keep our baby away from the fence :)
Nice one Amy!
Have you ever seen a Flying Bear? Now you have ;)
-Humphreys Family Reunion Week
Half of my mom's side of the family live in Oregan, but they are from Utah, so every year they all make the trek here and we all get together for a week of fun and good times. This year was no exception. Rachel also came up during this time for 2 weeks to double the fun! We had a party and barbeque at my grandmas pool the first night and it was so much fun to catch up with my favorite aunts and uncles and cousins that I rarely get to see (maybe that's why they're my favorite...?? J/K :) My mom is the oldest child, so a lot of my cousins are really young, and the youngest (Maddie) is Laylah's age. They had so much fun together all week. Jonah also loves my twin cousins- Carson and Hunter- who are 11 and will play with Jo for hours. Because Daph and Bear are still little and cute, the older cousins love to cart them around and play with them constantly. My kids were in heaven all week- and so was I!
The second day we went to Lagoon (courtesy of my Grandma Marge- thanks grandma, we love you!) and had even more fun. My kids adore Lagoon and since we didn't get season passes this year, theyv'e been begging to go all summer. We packed in every single thing we could- getting there when they opened and not leaving until after they closed. It was great.
Lagoon-a-Beach
Ethan was Jonah's shadow as usual :)
What we do for our kids.... the water was FREEZING!!
The next day we opted to stay home from a tour of Sweet's candy factory so we could rest (my kids had started coughing and had yucky noses, so we needed a break day), but the day after that we went boating to Jordanelle and had a nice, relaxing (and windy!) day
The next day I was busy with my MRI and some other things, but on the last day my cousin Maddie had her baptism here. It was such a spiritual experience for me. I kept crying through the whole thing. I guess I've just been very emotional lately, but 2 of my aunts spoke at the baptism to Maddie about what baptism means, and also what recieving the Holy Ghost means. I was very touched by their words and also the songs that we sang. It was a wonderful experience for me.
Cute cousins
These aren't the greatest pics, but the last night my family was here, we had a big adult dinner at Macaroni Grill. My grandma, all my aunts and uncles, and the adult cousins (minus a few) and of course my parents and siblings, all went out, while all of the under 18 cousins stayed at my moms and watched movies and had pizza. It was such a fun night to get to be together one last time before we do it all over again in a year. I love my family so much and I'm so glad I get to spend time with them.
-Last Week
This last week was the week I started tending. We've gone swimming (I stopped taking pictures at the pool a month ago- how many swim pictures can you have??) and my wonderful mom took all of her grandkids and my sisters to the zoo (excepting one of them, my sis-in-law Kimmi who just had a baby. Halle Kate- she is SO adorable and I love her!). We had a (crazy) blast, and out of the 10 kids, only one got lost for a few minutes. I wasn't in the best mood all day because my doctor had me start some meds that make me so sick (including horrible headaches and dizziness) and everyone was so sweet and put up with me and helped me so much. We went and got treats afterwards and everyone had a great time. Thanks mom- you are the best!
-Jerman Family Reunion
I didn't bring my camera, but we had a fun visit with my dad's side of the family last night and it was good to see everyone. We had good food, a fun time visiting, and the kids loved playing baseball with Papa and playing on the playground.
We've had an amazing summer, with lots of great memories....
WHEW!! Done. Bring on school!
See you after school mom!
I'm so grateful for such a wonderful sister. With all the things I've had going on lately, I've been a bit stressed out. When she was headed home a little over a week ago, she volunteered to take one of my kids with her just to lighten my load. Since Laylah and Jonah were starting school, it had to be Daphne, because Baron is a pill, and I wouldn't do that to her ;) Andy and I were going to be going to Vegas a week later, for one of his cousins weddings, so it worked out perfect since we could just bring Daphne home then.
My cute sis
Laylah insisted on taking a picture of herself and Kajia together, and immediately after this picture was taken Laylah dropped my camera and broke it. I said a bad word. Andy was able to do a fix-it job, but we'll see how long it lasts. Hopefully we can get a new one soon.