Last Week of Summer, Hiking the Y, Starting School, Trains, Spectrum

And just like that Summer is over!  During our last week of summer we tried to make the most of it.  Matthew's summer program scheduled a day to ride the Frontrunner down to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake.  Matthew was so excited that morning!  He made sure he wore his train conductor uniform to let everyone know he liked trains--as if there was any question about him loving trains :).  What a funny kid!  Here's what he looked like in his train conductor striped overalls, safety vest, railroad hat, Union Pacific lunch box with his train watch when I dropped him off that morning:

 He was even more excited when a Union Pacific train came by just after I had dropped him off.  You can see him jumping up and down and waving to the engineer:

 It got even more exciting when a Frontrunner train came right after the Union Pacific train:

It's the little things that make him most excited!

As a family I have wanted to hike the 'Y' down in Provo for some time.  We finally decided to do it last Thursday.  From Aaron's crazy messed up travel schedule a few weeks ago he earned 11 hours of travel comp time so he was able to come along with us which was awesome!  Matthew HATES hiking with a passion so we dropped him off at his summer program for the day and headed down to Provo.  Here's the view of the 'Y' from the freeway:

Here's everyone still excited to hike at the beginning of the trail:

We didn't realize how steep that hike would be.  We certainly got our exercise in that morning!  Here's Aaron bringing up the rear with Sarah and Noah:

 Noah would take occasional lay down breaks along the trail.  It took them a while to get up the trail due to all of Noah's lay down rest breaks:

Whew!  We finally made it.  It was such a pretty view and pretty steep, too:

 We rested at the top for a bit to catch our breath.  There was some complaining, but for the most part the kids were troopers!  Josh beat us all up to the top by a good 15 minutes.

 My Fitbit shows how steep it was.  102 floors in only 1.1 miles up or an increase of 1074 feet in elevation.  Our legs were feeling it the next day!

 Aaron went back to work Friday and I took the kids for one last hurrah at Lagoon.  Sarah's a smart girl and figured out not to sit on the outside of the spinny rides.  That way when the ride starts spinning around Noah gets smashed instead of her:

That weekend we finished registering our kids online and paying the fees for Josh and Matthew for Jr. High.  It was a ridiculous $125.00 in fees per kid for Jr. High registration so $250.00 total.  I am dreading next year for Matthew in high school because High school is even more money--eeek!  Anyway the rest of Saturday was spent buying and collecting school supplies for everyone.  That was another chunk of change which didn't include the new school clothes that we had already gotten earlier in the month.  Then the first week of school we get hit up for donations and fund raisers for every kid--Boo!  I didn't want to save any money anytime soon....Let me just say kids are all around expensive!!  Oh well, in trying to look on the bright side I am glad all my kids have access to good education....

 Monday was back to school for everyone.  It was a crazy morning to say the least!!  I wanted to get first day of school pictures, but Matthew's bus came extra early that morning.  DOH!!  That meant I had to run outside to take pictures of everyone while I was still in my pajamas with some awesome bed head hair.  I don't think I scared the bus drivers off because they came back the next morning to pick up Matthew, but  I am sure it wasn't a pretty sight!  I was glad Aaron was able to take the morning off from work to help me.  I don't know what would have happened had I not had the extra help!!  Here's all the happy, smiley faces:

I managed to get Matthew to smile even though he  was flipping out that his bus was already at our house.  Oh well.  He was really excited to start school up again.  He's in 9th grade this year.  He is still in the Learning Center, but he will be taking three regular education classes this term--Seminary, Spanish and Science.  The rest of the time will be spent in the special education Learning Center with one class in the Functional Skills classroom which he loves.  He has his first in the community field trip the beginning of September.  I think he is already trying to decide what he will order for lunch from McDonalds and what should be on his grocery shopping list--haha!

 Josh is starting 7th grade this year which is his first year in Jr. High.  That is crazy!  Even though Matthew and Josh are in the same school this year, Josh has to walk to school because the bus that takes Matthew is only for special education students.  The Jr. High had had a special morning called Warrior Camp for all the new 7th grade students last week.  All the new incoming 7th grade students were able to tour the school, see where their lockers are and try to open them with the combination.  I don't know exactly everything that happened that morning because parents weren't supposed to come along with their students.  That was hard to drop Josh off and let him do something so grown up by himself.  That probably sounds strange, but it was hard for me to not come along with him.  However, when he came home a few hours later he was excited to start Jr. High so it must have been a good experience.  He was excited to go to school that Monday morning.  Luckily he was able to walk with his friend and neighbor Easton so he wasn't alone:

He has done all right this week.  He only had one hiccup on his second day when he lost his school schedule and couldn't remember which class he needed to go to for second period.  After running to the office to have them print him a new schedule he finally made it to class about 15 minutes late.  The only way I found out about it is because I got an automated call from the school that afternoon saying Josh had been marked absent in one or more classes that day.  I asked him about it and that's when he told me about what had happened.  Other than that things are going pretty smoothly as far as I know.  At least I haven't gotten anymore automated calls from the school which is a good sign!!  I had been nervous for him because transitioning from 6th grade to 7th and having 7 classes to keep track of instead of one can get overwhelming, but he seems to be doing great.   Hopefully, it will stay like that for the rest of the year!

Daniel is starting 4th grade this year.  Last week we got a call from the Spectrum program from the district offering Daniel a spot in their program this year.  Spectrum is the gifted and talented program.  It takes the top 10% of students in the whole district according to test scores and tests them some more.  They then take the top 5% of those that tested in to the program.  The Spectrum program starts in 3rd grade and goes through 6th.  At the recommendation of his 2nd grade teacher we had Daniel tested for 3rd grade, but he didn't make the cut.  His 3rd grade teacher recommended that he get tested again for 4th grade so he took the test last Spring sometime.  He did great on the testing so he was put on a waiting list to see if a spot would open up for him in the fall.  Since he was just on a waiting list we went ahead and registered him for 4th grade as a regular student.  We even got a mailed letter from his tentative 4th regular education teacher talking about the upcoming school year.  So we were surprised to find out that he had been accepted into the Spectrum program last week.  Wahoo!  Things went pretty fast from there.  I attended a Spectrum parent meeting last week the day after we found out he got accepted and it is crazy all the extra stuff that is expected of the kids.  I hope Daniel will be up for the challenge!  He is not a lover of homework to say the least and there is a lot more work in this program.  Luckily, our home school is one hub for the spectrum program.  Only six elementary schools out the 60 elementary schools in the district are hubs for the program.   We really lucked out on that.  I don't have to drive Daniel to a different school to participate--Wahoo!  His 4th grade Spectrum teacher is an older lady who has not been married or ever had children of her own.  She is pretty strict and expects all the students to toe the line at all times.  Daniel is a social butterfly and has always had a hard time not talking to everyone. [Aaron and I have wondered where our first three kids came from because all of them are talkers.  Aaron and I are pretty quiet, keep to ourselves kind of people that it is a whole new world to us having outgoing kids!]  Anyway, Daniel has gotten in trouble a few times (every day) this week because of his talkativeness to other kids during class.  Oh well it is just the first week so hopefully the rest of the time will be a good experience for him.  Maybe we should look into investing in some Duct Tape for his mouth--it might help stop the talking--haha!

 Sarah is starting 2nd grade.  She has two teachers.  One who teaches English and reading in the morning.  The afternoon teacher teaches science and math and is also in our ward.  That is nice because if I have questions about Sarah I can always ask.  Sarah was really excited to start school again this year:

 And last, but not least is Noah.  He started kindergarten this year.  It was a sad day for me to drop off my baby at school.  We had signed Noah up for morning kindergarten, but ended up getting afternoon kindergarten.  Since that didn't work for my schedule (I have to be home for when Matthew gets off the bus) they, thankfully, were able to switch him to morning kindergarten.  Noah has been excitedly waiting to 'live at Daniel and Sarah's school' which is what he always said.  He thought right when he turned 5 in April he would 'live at Sarah and Daniel's school' so he was really disappointed when he found out he wouldn't get his chance until the end of August.  He was more than ready when that morning came!

 He was a little timid when it was time for him to go inside the classroom, but he didn't hesitate too long.

By the second day, Thursday, (since the kindergarteners had Tuesday and Wednesday off from school for testing) he was a pro:

The kindergarteners went to school Monday, but then they had Tuesday and Wednesday off for testing.  Since Noah had already done his testing we went and played those two days.  Noah's choice was the splash pad which was nice.  Since everyone had gone back to school it was pretty much empty except for us.

 When we came home he curled up and fell asleep on me.  I loved it.  Yes, nothing in the house got done that afternoon, but I loved holding my sleeping 5 year old!

 The next day he wanted to go back to the splash pad and we did.  Again it was almost empty and pretty fun for him:

 Even though he is getting bigger he still does crazy things that remind me that he isn't as big as he thinks he is.  Take, for example, the other night I was reading him a bedtime story when he decided he needed a snack...from his nose.  Ewwwww!

 YUCK!!

What a crazy kid!

Wednesday night was Daniel's Pack Meeting for Cub Scouts and Josh's Court of Honor for scouts.  I couldn't go to either because I was in charge of the young women combined activity that night for Personal progress.  Luckily, Aaron was able to go and see first Daniel receive his awards from Day Camp and Josh receive his awards--mostly earned at scout camp.  Thanks Natalie for taking the pictures of Josh and Aaron for me!!

Well we all survived the summer and the first week of school.  Hopefully we can settle into a good routine soon and things will continue to run smoothly.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

Catch Up #2, Hiking, Girl's Camp Party, Bowling, Summer Band Camp, Davis County Fair, Warrior Camp

I am still trying to catch up on this months happenings since we have had problems with the computer and my phone, too.  Ugh!!  Anyway, a few weeks ago I took the kids on a hike where we were supposed to see some heiroglyphics.  The first part of the trail I took a wrong turn and we had hiked pretty far before I realized it.  When we turned around and got on the right trail the kids were about hiked out.  Luckily we made to a cool bridge and a small waterfall before the kids were DONE.  I did manage to take a picture of the kids in front of the small waterfall before we turned around to go back to the car:

Last week we had a Girl's Camp afterparty.  It was fun to watch the movie with all our pictures of girls camp in it.  We had a lot of fun up at camp.  At the end of the movie Liz and I were presented with a basket of goodies to say thanks from the girls for planning girls camp.  It was so awesome and sweet!!  I LOVED it!!  One of the goodies was a package of nylons with a picture of Liz and me on it.  Let me explain the picture--the first week after camp Liz and I were in charge of planning the activity for combined Young Women.  We decided to do our camp obstacle course that we didn't get a chance to do up at camp.  Unbeknownst to Liz and I we got our pictures taken as we were demonstrating the nylon tug of war--Oh myyyy!  

 The obstacle course started out with a three legged race as the first leg.  The second leg involved a toilet paper race where you had to line up with your group and roll out a roll of toilet paper alternating between everyone's head and in between everyone's legs.  You had to get through everyone without breaking the roll of toilet paper.  The last leg of the race was the nylon tug of war.   You cut off the toes of a pair of nylons and fit the ends over two competing peoples' faces.  Then you had to pull to try and get your opponent over the line.  It was a good time filled with funny faces and laughs.

Anyway, our goody basket was amazing and thoughtful!  Our YW theme is Embark this year.  To go along with the girls camp theme they got us a compass pillow:

 We also got thank you cards and a Swig gift card:

 We got some candy with cute sayings.  Here's the saying that went with a pack of Mentos:

 This went with some Laffy Taffy:

 I loved my basket of thoughtful, cute and yummy goodies!!

I also had this picture of Josh and Easton, our neighbor, who wanted to try out the nylon tug of war so they could earn some cookies.  Haha!!  Josh is on the left:

In staying active we took a walk down to the park by our house.  Josh and Daniel rode their bikes and Sarah rode her scooter.  Noah and I got to walk.  Walking was fun, though because we got to stop and feed some horses along the way.

 We played at the park for a while and then it was time to come home again.

 I had some free bowling passes we went and used.  It was crazy handing the employee five coupons for all the kids.  The girl just looked at me and said, "That's a lot of coupons!"  I just laughed and agreed!

Noah:

 Sarah:

 Daniel:

 Josh:

 Matthew:

 Josh has had summer band camp for the last two weeks.  At the end of the two weeks they put on a concert.  The brass played Hot Cross Buns.  You know you are a family of boys when you hear so many jokes about that song on the way to the concert, during the concert and on the way home again.  Poor Sarah, however, she thought it was just as funny as the boys all did.  Josh is fourth from the left in the picture:

 Up at Camp Neuro Revolution Josh learned how to make Duck Tape wallets.  While Aaron and I were gone on our anniversary he taught G&G T how to make them, too.  This last week he decided to teach Sarah, Daniel and Noah how to make them, too.  He's pretty proud of all his wallets.

 We went to Lagoon last Friday.  While we were there, there was a Coke-a-Cola tent set up giving out free coke.  Of course the kids HAD to stop--I didn't mind stopping, either, though.  They all got to pick what flavor they wanted and drink it.  They thought that was pretty neat.

 Saturday was the Davis County Fair.  We went and checked it out.  In the kids area they had a bubble station where you could blow bubbles with different wands:

 They had a ball station set up with tubes and air.  You put the balls in the tubes and watch them get blown through the whole tent.  Daniel and Matthew liked that station:

 They had a reptile theme, too, just like Weber did.  Everyone got to hold a 50 pound snake if they wanted to.  Here's Daniel:

 Matthew:

 Noah:

 Sarah:

 They also had smaller snakes and turtles you could hold, too:

 I took a turn with the 50 pound snake.  It was heavy!

 Sarah and Noah did pony rides:

 We also got to watch a tiger show:

 Then we went and saw the petting zoo which everyone loved:

 The bunny was so soft:

 Josh didn't go to the fair with us because he was at a campout.  The scouts went up to Strawberry Reservoir and caught crawdads/crayfish and ate them.  Josh had a lot of fun.  Someone even bet him to eat a crawdad head for $5.  Josh was pretty proud to show us his $5 bill when he got home--gross!!

Sarah's birthday was Sunday.  She requested spaghetti and meatballs for her birthday dinner.  She also wanted an ice cream cake, too.  Here's how her cake turned out (It tasted a lot better than it looked!):

She was excited to blow the candles out:

 She got some new earrings and clothes for school.  She also got a Lego set she has been playing with for the last few days.  She's pretty creative!

Last night we headed over to Lagoon for FHE.  We had lots of fun.  Here's the kids on the train: 

 We also got our old west family picture taken.  The kids were supposed to be serious, but I don't know if Noah knows what that means....

Here's how the rest of the them turned out (they are supposed to be printed out in Sepia so that's why none of the colors match to anything!) 

 I have to say the first one is one of my favorites because it sums up what living in our chaotic family is like:

It was a fun night!

Summer is winding down and school is starting soon!  I can't believe it.  This summer seems to have flown by!  Josh will be starting Jr. High this year which is crazy.  He went to a Warrior Camp yesterday which was just for newly entering 7th graders.  It was a two hour camp to show the new 7th graders around the school and tell them what school will be like.  It was just for 7th graders and no parents.  It was so weird to drop Josh off alone for something like that!!  He came home excited so I guess it was a fun camp.  I hope everyone has a good year this year!