Fall is coming

First day back to school pictures. Bruce is starting Kindergarten! EZ is starting 3rd grade, in person!  Last year we did online school but now it is time for him to go back to regular school.  We are taking the risk and letting our kids be exposed to whatever illnesses come our way. (..and boy did they!  They both missed about a week of school right at the beginning.  EZ even missed the second and third days!)

I drove them to and from school on the first day, but on my way to pick them up, I came across a chicken crossing the road!  Now, it's a small town and not an unlikely thing to see.. but it made me laugh so I had to get some pictures.  Don't ask me why they crossed, they just did!  A funny side note, EZ forgot I was picking him up and he rode the bus home!  

One of Bruce's first assignments asks for a picture of him.  I took several, hoping to get a cute one that would be fun to look back on over the years and well... I guess these are cute in their own ways!

He gets so excited for school to start.  He goes in the afternoons and those mornings of waiting around sure can get long!  Thankfully it's still warm out and we can enjoy waiting outside for the bus.

Nature.  Lovely and bright rainbow.  Then sadly the last day the splash pad was open, a dead branch fell from the tree and fell onto this person's car.  What are the odds that she happened to park in that exact spot?  So wild!  Her doors would not open, her roof was crushed..  I didn't know her so I don't know what ended up happening but it was sad to see.  Thankfully it was just a car that took the blow and not a person!

This post should be titled, the many faces of Bruce!  Every time I ask to get a picture, he gives me so many different poses, it's hard to stop from taking more and more!  
 

Cuddle time!  So EZ is doing okay in school, not as good as we'd hoped.  I blame myself for not being a great home school teacher.. but I know he'll catch up once he's decided he wants to really try.  Plus, he's not the only kid struggling this year.  It's a weird time for the world and we're all just doing our best.  He did discover the Dog Man books, as well as the Captain Underpants series, and he absolutely loves them!  He won't claim he enjoys reading, but once he starts, he doesn't want to quit!  

October already!  Where has the time gone?  We took a trip down to the valley to visit our friends (from the last post) and to soak up the warm sun a bit longer.  It was so much fun!  We love getting out of the country and back to civilization!  Restaurants, stores, paved roads, you name it!!  

We drove home in the early evening and it just happened to be during sunset that we drove through the rim.  Arizona has the most beautiful skies!  These pictures don't really do it any justice.  We were in a moving car, taking pics through the window.  But still, I'm glad I have these to look back on.  

Now we're on to Halloween!!

More summer stuff

I usually make chocolate covered pretzels at Christmas time... but when you have a craving and feel up to the challenge, you go for it!  I also made red, white, and blue striped jell-o!  Okay one morning when I was driving, the sun was shining through the clouds in such a pretty majestic way.  I had to capture the moment and I think I did okay!  This town doesn't have much, but the sky is endless!

On our way to the Pioneer Day parade!  It's a pretty huge deal here for the 24th of July.  I'll take any excuse that let's us eat candy and watch fireworks!  Not to mention deck out in all my patriotic nerd glory.  You can't have too much red, white, and blue!  

Let's talk rain!  We got SOOOOO much that this levee broke!  This is about a mile behind our house.  Not scary for us, but still wild to see out my back window!  We took the kids to see it, looked for about 1 minute then turned and walked away for fear of the ground breaking beneath our feet.  It didn't, we were safe.

This is the view from my front porch.  Then my left side and my right.  It never came up over, but it came so close!  SO much water, then mud!  It accumulated so quickly, I was only outside for maybe half an hour and it grew inches tall!  I was nervous and also amazed.  Thankfully no damage.. for us anyway.  There was some talk of people water proofing their house and packing bags in case they had to evacuate.  I don't think it came down to that for anyone, but I know some people had floors to fix!

When I lived here as a kid ages 14 & 15, I had a close group of girlfriends.  There were 4 of us and only 1 still lives here, (we see each other often and have become even greater friends).  I recently reconnected with another one, this one in the pictures, her name is Becky.  She lives in the valley but her parents are still here so during her last visit, she and her cute family came to see us!  Seeing her after at least 15 years felt more like 15 days.  She's so easy going, laid back, fun, and we just bonded instantly.  We also both have boys, two of which are the same age!  (not the same story for the other 2 BFFs) Biggest bonus of all, our husbands became instant friends!  I don't think that has ever happened with anyone else and we're so grateful for this old/new friendship!

Happy birthday to me!  My mom sent me some sugar cookie flavored m&m's, which was funny because they were a Christmas holiday treat.  So, I guess she saved them for 7 months for me, haha!  They also sent me some puzzle shaped jewelry, and a lei?  So I took some silly photos and sent them to my parents as a thank you!  My mom is the queen of gift giving.  She's always so thoughtful and I hope she knows how much she's appreciated.  Probably not... maybe I'll give her a call and remind her, after I'm done here!

What do you think?  37 doesn't look too bad on me. 

Finally, a vacation!

 Hello Utah!!!  We started out with the best activity of all, swimming!  As soon as Bruce saw that diving board, he went for it.  No hesitations!  He didn't always wait for the people in the water to get out of the way either... gotta work on that one!  EZ showed off his impressive flipping skills too.  Anytime we take a trip the boys will say their favorite part was swimming.  Glad we got that covered!  We also did Airbnb this time and boy was it worth it!  We will definitely being doing that again!  

In between activities our car had an issue.  A 'change battery' light came on as we were stopped at a light of a busy intersection.  The idea of turning the car off then back on came to mind... but should not have been carried out.  The car did not turn back on and we stuck!  Holding up traffic!  Thankfully some nice guys jumped out of their car and helped push us around the corner to a safe spot.  John's dad came to rescue us and give us a jump.  But that didn't work either!  The lights were still working so we assumed it wasn't the battery but probably the transmission.  We had to call a place, get it towed, and await the news.  Thankfully John's dad had a connection and was able to get us in right away.  He also let us borrow his car for the next 2 days while ours was getting fixed.  What a hassle!  But thankfully it all happened in the best way.  I always feel grateful that these things happen as conveniently inconveniently.  Make sense?

Lewis family get together!  I didn't get nearly enough photos.. but the memories are still just as wonderful.  I miss seeing these people as often as we used to (and eating all that delicious food)!

My good friend who has taken family photos for us for years squeezed us in for another shoot.  It's been so fun to see her grow as a photographer and to get some really great stuff over the years.  She's the sweetest!  I am so glad I got to spend time with her as well.  She's one of those people who I hardly get to keep up with but will be a lifelong friend who I can pick back up with anytime.  Love you Emily!  And thank you again for another fantastic capture!

Our last couple days we continued with time spent swimming, eating at our favorite restaurants, visiting with friends and family, Costco, sleeping in the car..., and getting delicious snow cones.  I hit everything on my to do list!  We had such a great and wonderful time, even amongst all the chaos and crazy!  Thanks to everyone who made it special, til next time!!