first day of school

Grace is in Kindergarten, say what?!
Can you believe my baby is that old, where in the world does time go?
This year she was not nervous to go, she was really excited!
She was nervous about riding the bus, I on the other hand was so excited about the bus I about peed my pants! I really disliked having to drive down to Loagandale twice a day last year!

We woke up Monday morning and started to get ready for the day!
Her favorite new shirt was the one with monkey on it, so she picked out that one. I had a really cute pair of jeans with flowers all down them, but she is to skinny to fit in them, so she picked out another cute pair of new jeans to wear.
She wanted her hair in a side braid and a bow in it, so thats what we did!
She looked pretty dang cute!

After she walked up onto the bus I had a few silent tears, just cause my baby is getting so big, but the twins had a come apart! They were so sad that Grace was leaving them and got to ride the bus, as we followed it down the Valley they both just kept crying for Grrrraaacccccyyyyyyy!!! I think they love her! 
We rode down to the school to see her off and she was a old pro! She didnt cry and was all smiles!
She is for sure one of the shortest ones in her class, that could be because she is one of the youngest ones, or it could just be that she has me for a mother!

After she got home, her homework was to tell me her favorite part of the day, and you would never guess what it was. Her favorite part was riding the bus, even after how scared she was!
One thing she was very disappointed about was that Kyle had told her the bus driver would say "move on back" like the song the wheels on the bus, but he didnt. (haha)
 

A trip to the Lake

After getting home from Marysvale, washing clothes, and trying to get back into a schedule,
Kyle asked, "do you wanna go to the lake and go fishing and swimming?"
My exact response was,"nope!"

Kyle said "Ummmmmm, Well, I kinda already told the girls we were going to."

So we loaded up and went.

Alaynna is a fish!

Even though I didnt want to go all that bad, we still had alot of fun and I think it is the girls favorite place to go around here!

Grandma cuts Graces hair

On our last day in Marysvale I told my grandma I'd really like to get Graces hair trimmed up before school started.

So she took us out to the shop and cut a few inches off of Graces hair!

Just a few inches made a lot of difference, her hair looks so much healthier!

We had alot of fun in Marysvale all summer, but with school starting in only a few days we were excited to go home and get ready and unpacked!

Monroe Mountain

Every year that we do our Marysvale trip, we go to Monroe Mountain to Manning and Barney Lake, my favorite place in the world!

I think every year we forget just how long and bumpy of a ride it really is. But it is worth every bump and minute cause of how much fun we have!

We decided we would stop at manning first.

The girls really like to fish, but they mostly just like to reel in the pole and then make me throw it back out! So instead of putting a hook on, we just put sinkers on and let them play!

Grace really wanted a hook so she could catch a huge fish, so we told her that if she could cast she could get a hook!

It took her awhile but Kyle did put a hook on her pole and it took her about 2 casts to get it stuck and had to break her line!

The twins were more interested in finding bugs and following Grace around!

We were getting bored of fishing so we decided to go for a little walk, Grace thought she should be a model for me! She came up with this pose...

All 3 of the girls have a fascination with rocks, so where ever we go we seem to bring home lots of rocks with us.

This walk was no different, we walked about 40 feet and came back with about 40 rocks!

Since there were no fish biting we decided to ride up to barney lake and cook some dinner.

There were about a million cows around, they kept bellering, (I think my grandpa made that word up, but I still use it!) and I was for sure one was going to come walking up behind us and trample us! 

Even with all the cows around we still made some dinner!

We decided that easy was the way to go, so we all ate hot dogs, chips, and lots of other stuff thats not good for you, and it was wonderful!

While we ate, we watched the rain fall and listened to the wind blow, it was cold, even though Grace is in tank top in all the pictures!

I think I turned into a desert wuss when it comes to the cold, if it is below 70* i freeze!

Grace also really liked to look for the fish jumping in the water and for deer! We did see 1 deer that was only about 100 feet away, she thought that was pretty cool!

Alaynna and Addison had alot of fun playing in the trees and collecting rocks and sticks.

We didnt catch 1 fish, Grace was kinda sad about it, but she got over it!

After the sun started to go down a little, it got really cold, fast. So we loaded up and started down the mountain.

We seen lots of deer, but only moms and babies, and we even seen 2 elk!

We always have so much fun when we got up to Barney Lake, I cant wait for next year when the girls will be a little older and alittle funner!

a ride on Elvis

 While Kyle was hunting Steph called and said "get up here and ride Elvis"!

So we did, Grace thought it was the greatest thing that had ever happened to her and would really like it if she could have her own pony.

Kenadi was guiding them, I was hold cute little Taisly, and Stephanie was freaking out cause she did not want anyone to fall or get kicked!

Grace and Alaynna really liked riding him, but when Addison got on he started to gallop a little and she started to freak out a little!!

So Steph went to rescue her while I took pictures in case she fell off like a good mother would (haha)!!!

For some reason my children really like to walk right behind him, (within kicking distance) I guess we need to be around horses more often. Grandma and Grandpa Leavitt should get one and keep it at there house and feed it and we will just come and ride it!!!
 

Addison and Laityn are pretty good little friends, I pretty much love this picture of them!!!

We had a good time up riding the pony with them, Thanks for inviting us up Steph!!!!

the lake

I think everyday we were in Marysvale the girls ran threw the sprinklers! They love the water!

Grace likes to climb trees!!!

The twins were in need of a nap so we went for a ride and ended up at the Lake.

Grace tried to find some sea shell, but didnt have any luck.

Side note...Kyle wears wranglers, and well he looks good in them!

Grace is sometimes a scaredy cat girl and Kyle try's to make her unscared,

by throwing her in the water.

He really didnt throw her in, he knows better than to that!

After Grace had gotten use to the water, her and Kyle went hunting for crawdads!

Kyle is always hunting for something it seems!!

After the twins woke up they came out to play with us.

They are not scared at all when it comes to the water, they are fish!

After Kyle seen a water snake where they were playing he directed them slowly and calmly to the other side of the beach we were on!

If it were me that seen the snake I would have been picking 3 kids up running and screaming, so I am glad it was Kyle and not me!

It was a little deeper on that side but Alaynna liked it more, she would sit in it and then splash everywhere!

Addison wasnt as into it as Alaynna, i think it was a little cold for her.

But Alaynna really ran and played and pretty much scared me every second she was in there!

We had so much fun out there that Grace wanted to go back, everyday she would ask, "please lets go back!"

 

After all 3 of the girls ran and ran, I was hoping they would fall back asleep, but we had no such luck!