Frontier Night

Frontier night was our favority thing at Aspen Grove.  All the camp employees were dressed in their western best and stationed at different areas throughout the field.  The kids, especially Emmy who rode it about 5 times in a row, loved the train ride.  We got to throw tamahawks (impossible), rope bulls, get faces painted at the barber shop, and do just about anything else that seems western.  We lost track of David for most the night until the pie eating contest began, and there he was, front and center at the contest table.  The best part for me was looking all evening up at the face of Mount Timp with its wonderful pines and waterfalls.  

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James with his counselor, Joseph.

David's counselors take his group on a hike to Stuart falls.

Ruth and her counselors.  She particularly loved Mr. C (behind her), and would always wave to him in the cafeteria.

With kids all involved in activities throughout the day, joseph and I had a lot of alone time.  This is the gorgeous view on our way up to Stuart Falls.

Emmy made friends with another Emmy (same birthday month too).  Her mom, Becky, was such a sweet woman.  We got to know her really well on our hike.  We also linked up with two other families that were lodging next to us.  By the last day, the older girls in these families were entertaining Ruth and Emmy every other minute.  It was difficult to say goodbye to all these great people.

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David loved the rock climbing wall... definitely his favorite.

James is an enthusiastic crafter.  He was so proud of his shark.

This was our laser tag team.  We played against another family from Minnesota.  Lost one round and won one round.  Not sure why David has the gun at his eye.

Even Ruthie got do rock climbing.  Cute little sporty legs on that girl!

Joseph made a good attempt at pottery.  It is much harder than it looks!

Aspen Grove

Aspen Grove was a wonderful week for our family!  The scenery was gorgeous, the activities were endless, and the cafeteria was great!  (especially because I didn't have to do any meal prep or cleanup for an entire week!)  Aspen Grove is a BYU run family camp, which hosts over 60 families every week from June through August.  We arrived Saturday and left the following Friday.  The activities we parcipipated include: archery, raquetball, miniature golf, rock climbing, ropes coarse, pottery making, wood turning, shuffleboard, lasertag, hiking, and mulitiple religious lectures.  Too much fun can be exhausting!

I hated this ropes coarse.  Too high and way too wobbly.  Joseph was also up in the trees when he took the picture.  I was a bit annoyed, because all I wanted to do was get down!  No pictures please!

David turns 10!

David's birthday is the last of our summer birthday frenzy.  It's hard to believe that he's been 10 years old for already a month now.  The birthday item this year was a 21 speed bike.  So far, he has loved it.  Joseph and James have also caught the fever and now all three boys regularly go on bike rides.  Just yesterday, Joseph and David biked to our beach two cities away.  David declared that he'd never do a two hour bike ride again, but they've been talking about it so much that I'm sure they'll do something similar again soon. 

We decided to include a few friends in our birthday celebration this year.  David invited his best friend from school, Cooper, his best friend from church, Ethan, and his carpool friend, Ryan.  It was an amazingly wild dinner due to the extra energy of more boys, but David was in heaven.  After dinner, Joseph and Grandpa Larsen took all the boys to play laser tag.  Eating pie is some kind of inside joke between David and his friends, so he, of course, requested pie instead of cake.

David's old bike was passed onto lucky James.  

I feel very blessed to have David for my son.  He is generally a happy, helpful person to have at home and I rely on him a lot during the day.  His siblings love him too: he always slips them a dollar or two or lets them play with his lego sets.  He is great example of one who is trying to CTR.  Love you, DD!

School starts!

After being in close quarters all summer long, we were all more than ready for school to start again.  The kids were awake and dressed by 6:30 am on the first day.  We had a big breakfast and then were on our way by 7:30 am!  Jame's teacher is Mrs. Hann.  After basically two years of kindergarten (Tk and K), he is REALLY happy to be in 1st grade and shrieked with delight when I told him that he would be coming home with David this year.  David is in 4th grade.  This is our third year in a row having a brand new teacher.  I was pretty upset about it until I met her.  Mrs. Kissel is very warm and seems very organized.  David is happy as well.  Ruth is also one of those younger siblings who wants to be "big".  She is very happy about her new status as a kindergartener.  As an added plus, I promised her that she could be done with naptime when the school year started.   

Ruth is 5!

Ruth turned 5 years old on July 29th.  We spent most of the day in celebration mode with pony rides, lunch out at Ruby's Diner, and poolside dinner and cupcakes.  Ruth is a tenderheart.  She is the first to comfort others and the first to decide to be comforted herself.  Most people that come over to the home are immediately enveloped with Ruth's affectionate personality and willingness to share.  I love how Ruth brought femininity into our home...the clothes, shoes, hairdoes, and graceful twirls are so much fun!  

I nicknamed Ruth "mermaid", because she is happiest when she is in the water.  In fact, she can outswim all of us.  It was very fitting to have a birthday picnic at the pool.  The kids swam, ate, and swam some more.  It was a wonderful evening spent together.