First Day of School! First Day of School!

I can't not think of Nemo on the first day of school.
Jr. Jr. requested first day of school pancakes. He got them.

I actually got pictures before the kids went off in the morning. Woohoo, me.

I drove Nichole and Jr. to the bus stop.  The bus was a few minutes early so this is what it sounded like as I pulled up to the curb-
Me: Wow. That's a lot of kids at the bus stop.
Nichole: Well, it's the first day of school.
Me: Agh! There's the bus! Run!
Nichole and Jr. did make it to the bus. Jr. didn't on his optional day (we got there a minute after the bus was supposed to pick the kids up and there was no sign of the bus or any kids waiting so I ended up driving him to school). He did ride the bus home after school, though.
Jr. Jr. was chomping at the bit to get to the bus. I kept telling him to wait until so many minutes before the bus was supposed to pick up so when we finally got out, he still wanted to run. I made him slow down so I could walk with him. He still made it there before me.

The kids all had good things to say about the first day of school when they got home. Yay!

Back to School

Starting junior high. Around here, they have an optional day that the incoming junior high students can go to without the older kids. It's just for a few hours but they can get an idea of what it is like going from class to class and learning a little more about the school.
Since we didn't have an eclipse to go to this year, Jr. decided he wanted to go to this optional day. When I saw him after school, he was thrilled to tell me that he had gone to the library and checked out books already. Yep. Not surprised.

The new elementary school had an open house for everyone to take a look around. Jeremy even commented how it still had that new building smell.

We met Jr. Jr.'s new teacher who happened to be his same teacher from last year (she just moved up a grade and into the new elementary school like her students). She told us she has six of the same kids from her former class. Jr. Jr. was very happy to find out he had the same teacher.

Lucky got to get a look at a kindergarten classroom since he's going to be starting school this year.

One thing the little boys made sure of was getting to play on the playground. Not too long, though. It was a hot day.

New beginnings. We'll have to see what this school year has in store for us.

The KAT's Meow

Lucky (whiny voice): When's dinner going to be done?
Dad: Dinner will be done as soon as it's ready.
Lucky (happy voice): Okay.

Google Doodle Strikes Again

This morning I just happened to see the Google Doodle for today. It was celebrating Ignacio Anaya Garcia's 124th birthday. He is credited with inventing nachos.

I didn't yet have dinner planned when I got up this morning so of course while I was at home doing dishes, Jeremy went out shopping and picked up ingredients for making nachos.

Google does it again- helping us find reasons to celebrate. It's a good thing, too, because we didn't do much to celebrate what we did have on our calendar for August 15- National Relaxation Day. Too busy.

Road Trips!

Hey, family! Let's go on a road trip!
Car wash first! Then lots of driving!

Let's go on a road trip to Wyoming!
Lunch at Independence Rock? Let's do it.

Uh oh. We didn't make it before Independence Day which is what the landmark was named for. Groups from both the Oregon Trail and pioneers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints tried to make it there before Independence Day so that they wouldn't be caught in the snows later in the season.
Of course we had a van and we were going the opposite direction and I couldn't stop thinking about the video game we grew up with- Oregon Trail. I wasn't worried about anybody in our party getting sick or dying along the way. And our lunch was in the cooler. We didn't have to shoot a buffalo and only be able to carry some of its meat back. Ham from the grocery store is much easier. Man, life is good.

Let's go on a road trip to Montana!
It really is nice to have air-conditioning in our van. Even if we got to the hotel after midnight, it only took us a day to get to our destination from Utah. And our kids are good travelers, although a long day in the van plus too much junk food isn't the best on someone's tummy. Yay for cool air in the room.

Let's go on a road trip to North Dakota!
Never been to North Dakota before? That's okay. Neither have we. Oh, now we have. It's nice that there's a reservoir so close to the border so we had time to take a morning to find some new birds- never seen a brown thrasher before, now I've seen many- and throw rocks in the water. We also saw male and female orchard orioles.

Let's go on a road trip back to Montana...
so Jeremy can finish up his amazing balloon scene. A cowboy snoozing in the desert with landscape and animals around. Love it.

Let's go on a road trip back to Wyoming!
Good thing we went to church in a little branch 2 1/2 hours into the drive. It gave us a chance to dry off after loading the van in a downpour.

After church, we enjoyed the scenery on the drive.

Time to visit cousins! We love you guys. Thanks for letting us crash at your place overnight and play and talk all day.

Let's go on a road trip back to Utah!
Just in time to celebrate National Root Beer Float Day on August 6. Yumm!

Let's go on a road trip to Monticello!
Yeah, we'll stay in Utah this time. Such a short 5-hour drive.

Too bad someone got a bug bite that made his hand puffy and scared Mommy. Thankfully my dad was able to give me some advice over the phone that made me worry less. Also thankfully I was able to get hold of a local bishop who was able to find someone who was working across the street from our motel to come right over to help Jeremy give Jr. Jr. a blessing- also helped me to worry less. He's fine.
The fellow that helped us out even checked with us after church on Sunday to see how our little boy was doing.
The church building we went to was right next to the temple in Monticello.

Let's go on a road trip back to home!
Just in time for the neighborhood ice cream social the night we got back...

and the annual juggler's BBQ the next day.
The boys again enjoyed bouncing on the bounce house, several of us enjoyed some juggling practice (reminds me of my college days), and we all enjoyed food.

Road trips are fun! And exhausting! But we survived. Go, us!