UTAH

By now you should know that if there is any chance to travel, I am there. Which is how I wound up in Utah a week and a half ago. My sister-in-law invited us up for the baptism of one of her girls and it didn't take much convincing to get the mr. on board. We decided that a 3am start time on Saturday morning would be optimal for our family and planned around it. On Friday morning, one of my boys started complaining of a stomach ache. Then, a few hours later, the school nurse called to report a high grade fever. No. NO! We pulled him out of school and he slept the rest of the afternoon. By 9pm Friday night, it was beyond obvious that he could not make the trip. The mr. and I stressed over the predicament but ultimately decided that said child should stay with my parents to reduce exposure to others and to get greatly needed rest. So off he went to Mimi and Papa's house. And 6 hours later, we loaded the rest of the kids into the car and made our 7 hour journey up to Hurricane, Utah. Outside of a wrong-way driver on the freeway in Scottsdale and a couple of cows in the road at Jacob's Lake, the ride itself was uneventful. We made it to my sister-in-law's house at a decent time and were able to visit with family before the baptism. Later that evening, I went with my sister-in-law, her husband, my niece, and a second sister-in-law to the St. George temple and was able to do a mini photo shoot with my niece. It was an all-around great day. Until the wee hours of Sunday morning. My youngest babe - who wound up sharing the air mattress with my husband and myself - woke up and threw up all over the mr., our bed, and herself. It. Was. Awful. And that sort of paved the way for Sunday, which just sort of sucked. Nothing in particular, just a bunch of little things that made the day feel lousy. Monday morning, we said our goodbyes to our family and made the long trip home. When we were 10 miles from our house, my older daughter threw up all over herself in the car. And I was too numb at that point to get worked up over it. Life. So. Was the trip worth it? Of course. I feel like any opportunity to visit with family [that we don't generally get to see] is worth the difficulties of travel. We love our people and it is so fun to watch my kids interact with their cousins.

PRESCHOOL

Four years ago, I spent an entire summer planning and preparing for one of my largest endeavors to date: teaching preschool. I compiled a two semester curriculum with 34 weeks worth of lessons and activities to help prepare my littles for kindergarten. Now, four years later, my efforts are still going strong as I teach my fifth child using the same curriculum. And this year, I have an extra student in my class (a friend's sweet, little girl). If all goes well with an extra student this year, I'm thinking of opening up classes to additional students next year. I never thought I'd do something like this, but I love it. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE my little classroom.

SUMMER BREAK'S END

We've started a little summer tradition around here; the last night of break, we get shaved ice to celebrate the end of summer vacation and the start of a new school year. Last summer, we went to Tropical Sno. This year, we hit up Bahama Buck's. Delicious. Once we finished our sweet treats, we headed over to some friends' house to play on their GIANT, 100ft long slip-n-slide. We had a ridiculously awesome time being towed down the slide with a ski rope. We played for several hours - until the sun had gone down and we could no longer see well enough to play. To say we went out with a bang would be an understatement.