August 22, 2013

This has been a busy summer!!  We have had tons of fun.  We went to the Oregon coast with Gloria, Linda, Megan and Grace.  We stayed in a big house called Blackberry Hill.  On the way to the coast I was texting Crista and told her that our house was large if they wanted to come to the coast for the 4th.  They decided to come and arrived on Wed.  We all had a blast.  The kids all had a good time together.  My friend Nancy from MO also came with her husband, Liderman, and kids, Sabrina and Sebastian.  They had a family that came with them too.  We all stayed in Newport and had a great time. 

We also went to Colorado this year and met a lot of my family from MO.  It was so fun.  A couple of highlights were: seeing a herd of Elk while we were all having dinner at the hotel together, spending Sunday with Matt, Vikki,  Reece, Alex, Emmy,  At. Jo, Adam, Wyatt, Owen, and Westley - we went for a couple hikes, one was to a waterfall, then having everyone at our house for the flag burning ceremony.  The older kids were really touched by the flag burning ceremony and talked about what the flag means to them.  Our rental was behind the YMCA on top of a mountain.  We loved it!  The first day there Madison, Paul, and I just sat outside and talked.  The other kids would come out too.  What a great time and we got to see lots of our family! 

We have also gone camping with the Nielsens and Griggs up my Mccall.  It has been a really fun summer.  The only not fun thing is that it has been a bad summer for people to pay us.  Luckily we have been very blessed.  We bought hay at the end of last summer to carry us through May or June but we still have 3-4 months of hay left.  This is amazing and a blessing because we haven't had grass in the fields this year and the horses have been eating hay all summer.  We have also had several times that I was frustrated about what to fix for dinner and a friend has just brought us dinner cause she wanted to.  Every time we need something like school supplies or a birthday we have received just enough to take care of it.  I am so frustrated about our bills but I have also never felt so blessed.  It has been amazing and frustrating all at the same time.

The kids are all at school now.  Greta, Jaxon and Wil started on Monday and Madison started High School today.  It is crazy that summer is already over.  Jaxon is playing football and I have been teasing him that he isn't squishy when I hug him now.  He is hard!  The kid is really growing up.  I can't believe Madison is in High School and can't wait to hear about her first day.  I am sure I have forgotten things to write down.  Hopefully I remember later and write them then.  Oh one more thing before I forget - It was awesome when Jaxon came home from Scout Camp this year.  Everyone had really missed him and he came in and gave everyone bear hugs.  Everyone - Greta was so surprised that her brother had missed her.  It was the sweetest thing!  I love my kids they are so awesome!