BIRTHDAY PARTY - TEA

Kate was so excited to go to her first birthday party of the school year. McKenzie had an American Girl Doll tea party in Paris!!! It was so adorable! I had to snap just a couple of pictures!

Kate and McKenzie

The theme

Each girl brought their American Doll (though Kate doesn't have one, so she brought her baby doll - Ally) and they had a menu of pastries and fun stuff! I was very impressed and I think Kate is excited to party all year with her friends!!! Yeah!

LET THE FOOTBALL GAMES BEGIN - HHS

I was a little giddy thinking about Highland Football this year! This year, Connor is a senior. Watching the games when you know the people is just so different and a lot more fun! Also, this is Faith's first year in high school, so I have wanted her to get involved and enjoy her high school experience for all its worth!

This first game was the Rocky Mountain Rumble, an invitational to other schools to come before the season actually starts. Highland played the Caveman - American Fork High School. It was a tight game!!!

Jordan and Kate showing me who they are cheering for! Connor is #6!!!

Kate and mom

They have matching shirts that we had made!!! Kate has sparkles. All of them have #6 on the back!!!
Jordan didn't want to smile, so we had a retake!

Half time was 14-14. A tie. It was so close the whole time, but the rams pulled out the win - 28-21! Go Highland!!! Can't wait for the next games and the opportunity that we have to support Connor and visit with family!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL PLUS YAHOO/BOOHOO BREAKFAST

The first day of school was a great day for all of us! The kids woke up early to eat hot breakfast. I was so disappointed that Brandon didn't make pancakes, but the kids requested waffles. They loved it!

The morning was pretty overcast, but I still managed to take a couple of really cute pictures!

Kate - 8 years old - 3rd grade - Chubbuck Elementary

Dawson - 11 years old - 6th grade - Hawthorne Middle School

(Being funny and flipping the numbers! Haha!)

Faith - 14 years old - 9th grade - Highland High School

(yawn!)

All 3 of my precious children getting ready to go!!!

By the tree

In this picture, I asked them to tell me how the really feel!

Kate - great and ready to kill it in 3rd grade

Faith - shaking head and nervous as all get out

Dawson - his hand gestures so/so

I walked with Kate to the bus stop (no makeup!!!)

Every year, I do an annual Yahoo/Boohoo breakfast for neighbors and friends. We meet at Geraldine's and eat breakfast while visiting. I enjoyed spending time with all of them. I was really surprised that I was mixed between yahoo and boohoo. I love structure and the school year, but I also was sad that the kids are growing up and that I have a new one at Highland and a new one at Hawthorne. It was great to get out though!

with Amber

with Ann

Weird angle, but still love the pic - with Mary Kae and Rachel

Adeline who started kindergarten!

And last but not least for traditions, I made 2 different batches of cookies for the kids at the elementary school bus stop!!! The kids were ecstatic to have something to congratulate them on the first day of school! (P.S. Echo ate 4 cookies on her own!!!)

It's going to be a great school year! Can't wait for all of the exciting adventures!

VACATION FUN - LAGOON WITH MWA

All summer we have been trying to go on a mini vacation. But nothing was working out. About midway through the summer, we received a Modern Woodmen postcard letting us know about the Lagoon trip where they discount the tickets quite a bit. I'm not exactly sure what we were thinking, but it was close to home, discounted, and our family had never been before. So we committed!

Then, a couple weeks before, we got the idea to invite Moana Fa'aga'i and her husband James. Kate affectionately calls them the Fa'aga'i's. I told James he better change his last name! So we met up Friday morning and had a blast!

Amy, Andrew, and Johnny came with us to get us started! It was great and they were professional tour guides! We loved visiting with them for a minute and were grateful that they were able to start us off on the right foot!

Smile!

Moana and James

the rest of the fam waiting in line at Cannibal

Dawson was so displeased that Kate was going on Cannibal. And everyone else for that matter. He basically said that it was the wrong choice. We made our way out to wait for them and he posed in an elephant pose here!

What he really wanted to do was bumper cars! Oh how I love this kid!

James & Faith

This baby ride was a fun little hit! Haha!

Our 2nd to last ride was the classic!

Modern Woodmen of America served us pizza and brownies which was great! We had hoped to catch up with our representative, Bob, but he ended up having a funeral to go to. It was still so great! I wish that I would have been able to take some pictures on the rides and such, but that is a tricky endeavor and I wasn't willing to risk my phone! Haha!

Here are everyone's favorite rides:
Dad: Cannibal, Spider, Bat
Mom: Bat, Turn of the Century, Odysea
Faith: Bat, Cannibal, Tidal Wave, Turn of the Century)
Dawson: Bombora Beach, Bumper cars, Dragon, Bat
Kate: Turn of the Century, Cannibal, Dragon

As we were leaving, Mo had us take a picture together and I'm so glad that she did!

After Lagoon, we took out everyone to Famous Dave's. It's changed over the years, and I'm not sure that I am loving it as much as I used to! Still great food and a great time visiting and loving every moment of it. James knocked over his water and they thought it was Dawson. The waitress told him that he shouldn't blame his little brother! Haha!

So lucky for great friendship and for an awesome mini vacation!!! We will definitely do it again!

SISTER TIME!

We were lucky enough to have 2 wonderful sisters that we know from the Chubbuck Stake to be serving in Iona together! After receiving some bad news on Monday, we thought that it would be appropriate to go up and share our love (and some food) with sisters that we dearly love. We met up at Red Robin and had a lovely time visiting and catching up on old times! It was really wonderful!

Then we stopped at one of our favorites... The Cocoa Bean!!! We love their treats and wanted to spoil them. In case you haven't heard, this is called ice cream therapy and it really does work! Oh how we love you guys!!!

Sister Richins & Sister Hunkin

Together they make Sister Rich-Hun!

The Jolley clan with the sisters! 

So lucky that we were able to meet them and that they are part of our lives! We are so blessed!

FAMILY NIGHT IN SILKS!

Carroll suggested that we set up a family night in the silks. I was sneaky and set it up without telling the kids (I did end up telling Brandon.) Brandon had already done the silks and was really excited about taking the whole family. We loaded up in workout clothes and drove to Carroll's studio. Faith guessed where we were going, but not what we were doing.

Once inside, they were all so pumped about it! Faith even said that this crossed something off of her bucket list. I love those! They are so much fun! We did lots of moves as well as talked. The whole family loved it! Thank you Carroll for the suggestion! Love you and your talent!

Here are a couple of pictures that I managed to take while doing silks too!

This is Brandon's favorite! So much fun to just relax in these!

Kate wanted to talk the whole time and tell us all about it! Once we learn a flip to get into the silks, she kept hopping out so that she could do it again. It was so cute!

 Showing what she thought about this family activity

He is having so much fun! He wanted to do his thing instead of listening to instructions! So Dawson!!!

Just like Dad, he loved this position!

The ninja! Performed by Kate

The ninja! Performed by Faith

Ending our night sharing love! The two kiddlets sharing a silk and really loving it!