Fishing with Grandpa

Carson and Montana loved going out on the Kenai River in Grandpa's boat! It was so fun to hear their enjoyment...Montana giggled with glee during the ride and Carson shouted his exclamations of excitement each time one of the rods had a pink bite, which was every few minutes. We suffered through a little rain and were blessed by sun! Thank you so much, Grandpa, for making their dreams come true!

First Day of School!

This morning I dropped Carson off at school for the first time! It was great. There were no tears by either of us. I was just relieved that it is finally here. I don't have to listen to "I don't know what to do..." all day. I know our time together will be sweeter now that he gets to be at school all day. He is so excited. He loves his teacher already. I can't wait to hear what he has to say when I pick him up!

Last Days of Vacation...

Technically, these weren't our last days of summer, but the teachers were going back to school a week before the kids and Aunt Mary wanted one last fling with her new motor home. So she took the kids to Johnson lake for two nights. The weather was pretty decent and Hallie and I joined them during the day to play and eat! I had this can of bisquits (the cheap little ones) in my car for a couple of days that had fallen out of the grocery bag when Matt picked up the supplies for sticky buns. I decided to get creative and cooked them one by one on a stick over the fire and then put a few rectangles of hersheys chocolate inside to melt. Quite tasty I must say and I think I ate 7 or 8 out of the 10.

Katy's Wedding

Here are a few pictures before and after the ceremony. I don't have any pictures of the ceremony yet, as I was in it, but I am hoping some will come my way from others. All of the kids were in it and I was pretty worried about how it would go. I think they all did pretty well during the ceremony, except Hallie was concerned about the flower petals falling out of her basket (she didn't carry a basket during the rehearsal) and so my dad had to pick her up and carry her down the aisle. He had Hallie in one arm and Katy on the other. I hope to see a picture of that. Matt took her off his hands when he got to the front. Montana also decided to squat and show the world her Dora panties during half of the ceremony and when she stood up she had her basket around her neck. I am worried that there are no happy pictures of the kids after the ceremony, because they were just cold and hungry and they did not want to take pictures! I feel bad for Katy about that. Sorry, Tia Kate! Last thing I have to say -- Carson was looking pretty handsome in his tux!

Enjoying lunch outside on a sunny day.

I was very pleased with my new patio furniture and we were able to use it a couple of times. Now, where do we store it for the winter?

Silly Hallie

Hallie's grown up a lot over the summer. Her hair on top hasn't grown much, but her comprehension and vocabulary has! It's amazing how much of what we say to her in normal talk she understands. She doesn't have a huge vocabulary yet, but some of her words include shoes, sock, milk, drink, stuck, rock (as in rock in the chair before bed), cup, bee, yuck, poop, and I'm sure I'm forgetting lots.

One of my favorite verbal things of Hallie's is the bee. First of all, she calls any bug a bee. Secondly, she's had a few bites (mosquito, gnat, who knows?) on the back of her neck. When a bite is bothering her, she'll come complaining (can your hear her complaining tone?) "bee, bee" with her hand near the bite. Lastly, the whole bee thing started with my dad. He would always make his fingers into a bee, fly them around buzzing, and end with a sting in a ticklish spot. This was always great fun for all the kids and I enjoyed watching it so much that I also started doing it with them. Recently, Hallie started making her own bee, making the buzzing sound and "stinging" me. It is so cute!

noodles!

Don't you just love to eat ramen? We do!

Summer Fun

You might have heard or guessed or read my journal, but I haven't been feeling well at all. And the way I have been feeling is a very good excuse for why I have not been on the computer. But today I feel good, so I am taking the opportunity to catch the blog up through the summer, because tomorrow school starts! And Carson is going to Kindergarten. I hope I remember to take some pictures. Of course, since I post chronologically and I wil being adding a few, you will be reading them in reverse. But that's okay!



Here is a picture of dad taking Carson and Tana fishing in Grandma and Grandpa Fischer's lake . It was a rare sunny day. Because I only take pictures on sunny days, you may think we've had a lot. But I'd say we've had 10 or less the whole summer.

Oops, I take that back. I took this picture of poor Tana bundled up at the beach while others were clamming. It was supposed to be a really nice day, so of course I dressed us all for the sun and it was freezing. The girls and I were miserable on the beach that day and I just kept dreaming of Hawaii. I said, I need to live somewhere where I can leave the house and expect the weather to be the same if I drive a half hour away. Below is the sand castle cousin Keith made. He was trying to help Tana make it, but she was too cold and really didn't feel like giving any input at all. It turned out really neat though.

A sunny day! We had a couple of days warm enough to play in the water. We really enjoyed having our neighbors Cole and Reid and Amber and Ariel (not picutured) come enjoy our backyard with us on this sunny day.