catch up time

I cannot believe it is the middle of August. It is sad to see the summer winding down I am not quite ready to send my kids back to school but such is life I guess. Abby and Lizza finally got to take their swimming lessons they have been asking about all summer. I did private lessons for them and it was awesome. They learned so much and it was fun to just be in the pool alone with Kortney (the teacher). Meg felt like she was the experienced one because she had already taken her lessons. She kept standing by the edge of the pool cheering them on or trying to tell them what to do. When it was diving board time she coaxed liz out of the pool telling it yeah come on, it's okay, you just do this. She was fun to watch as well. Both girls were really proud of themselves when we finished. Next up Soccer, here we come! We went for a long weekend down to Pocatello to see my family. Mands flew in from Texas, Matt flew in from California (minus his family), and Josh and Natalie shuttled Mandy and Matt up from Utah. IT was so fun to get together. My brother Matt is a Chiropractor and he was busy all weekend treating patients. If he wasn't he was working on one of us (his family for free). Thanks Matt. I can't forget Mandy she graciously brought her otoscope and checked my ears what would I do without you guys. We hit up the all important Chubbuck day Parade (Chubbuck is a "suburb" of Pocatllo) with cousins Mitchell and McKenna. Always a good time to be had at the Chubbuck days. There was a float for this dinner and theater place which is doing wizard of Oz right now. The people were all dress like the characters of the play. So the wicked witch came up to Meg, who really wasn't paying attention, and touched her and did you wicked laugh right in Megs face. It scared her to death. The rest of the parade Meg was lukewarm. I felt so bad for her. I wasn't really paying attention either or I would have shielded that. She woke up that night and said she was afraid of the witch and has mentioned it a few times since then. She is still on a kick of not wanting to go to the bathroom alone. Now she says there could be a witch in there. Super, just what I needed.

Next Mandy, Daren, and I went on a mountain bike ride up City Creek in Pocatello. It was really fun. Then we brought our kids back later and did a family hike up there. They had a good time and the trail was fun for kids. It was shaded most of the time and there were little coves of trees we could duck into and be right by the stream. The kids had a great time.

Lastly a picture of some of us. Me, my dad, Matt, Megan, Mandy, my mom, Josh, and Natalie on the driveway.

Okay my Dad loves wildlife and is fascinated with birds but when they start getting into his stuff that's a whole different story. He gets so mad at the squirrels that steel his bird seed and the deer that get into his garden and fruit trees. He spends a considerable amount of time thinking of ways to stop them. At one point he would use a sling shot and shoot marbles at the squirrels that was disturbing to my children but he still tried. He has put this ugly plastic orange fencing around his garden to keep the deer out but to no avail. He had just complained to me that they ate all his squash this year. He was contemplating having Josh (my brother) bring up one of his paint guns and he would shoot paint pellets at the deer, nice. So as we were leaving for the hike we caught them red handed in the trees there were 4 deer just walking around looking for some food.

Once we got home and started to put the pieces back together Max is right back at it. Why do I even bother? he is stuck underneath the baby gate. He does fine on the stairs It was up because I was cleaning the turtle tank and we all know that Max and access to the turtle don't mix.