Back to School 2013

It started with some back to school haircuts last week. Holly went for the MEGA-chop. I put her hair in a ponytail measuring about 11 inches and then cut it off with scissors. Then Amy had to do the fixing it up to make it look like a real haircut. Her ponytail is now in a baggie waiting to be sent to Locks of Love.


She loves it and it was just a great change for me and Dana too. Hopefully next time her hair is that long she'll have a tougher head :)

Sadie wanted hers a little longer than Holly's. I love hers so much on her. She looks like such a big girl.
 

I didn't get a "before" of Emma but she basically got a trim and new layers.
 

After the haircuts we couldn't do a whole lot else to get ready without having a car. And then Saturday we tried to fit everything into one day and did a bunch of errands with all 4 kids in the back.
 
It was a little crazy. And a lot loud.
 

We got a ride with friends to Emma's schedule pickup. It was so fun to watch Emma and her friends comparing schedules to see who they have in which class. Emma got really lucky this year and I'm pretty sure has a least one friend in every class.
 

Monday we walked to school (good thing it's close!) for "Meet the Teacher" night. All three of the kids elementary teachers seem great.

Finally, today was the BIG day:) I tried to send a little extra love in their lunches.  

They're looking so big!
 

Even waking up at 6am we were rushing out the door!



Happily, I still manged to get the ever-so-important first day picture with the teacher. Well for the little two. I don't think Eli would have appreciated that one bit.
 

Holly is beside herself with excitement that she got Mrs. Riddell again!! (She had her in Kindergarten and she's such an amazing teacher:)
 

I walked by Eli's class to take a peek and found that I had a bird's eye view:)
 

 Oh and since we got the car back yesterday- I was actually able to get some errands done today! It was so great! A car is just one of things you just don't even think about until it's gone.

Miranda's back since school will be starting up again so she came and visited us and went with me to pick up the kids. They came down the hill were all smiling and started talking to us at once about their day.
 

Yes, she does have a parasol. #coolauntsuseparasols #nowiwantbahamabucks

Fingers and toes crossed for the best school year yet!

Beach Camping 2013

Three days post Zion we were driving back out to the freeway and heading for California and from there, making a bee-line straight for the beach.


With a new giant cooler and almost all our other earthly possessions in tow.


Fast forward 6 hrs...Ahhh:)




Site #74 (TONS of space on corner)
 
So fun to see Mom, Sally, and Eter upon arrival, plus our favorite little boy!
Sadie and Holly had so much fun playing with him :)



Mom went home each night to help my grandpa get ready for bed (with the added bonus of sleeping in her bed at night) and took a kid home with her each night too. It was such a treat for them to be able to have one-on-one time with Gram!
 

One of the first orders of business was to get out there and catch some crabs. This is almost as fun for Dana as the kids. I love that he loves it. What lucky kids to have such a fun dad.

Then they get put them all back :) I'm sure those crabs can't wait for us to come visit each year!

The second day Jeff and Carrie came and the kids finally got to meet their new cousin Berkley! She's to-die-for cute!!
 




I caught her smiling in a few pictures :) She's so darling. She's got some pretty great parents too.
 

We rented a kayak.


Made a sandcastle.
 

Went exploring.
 



Played with cousins some more.




Oh- can't forget the relaxing part...
 

And my mom treated us out to dinner on the last night. We were all surprised at the size of Eli's nachos! So funny :)
 

It wasn't the same with out Dan and Amy's family this year, and we also missed Miranda again, but still a great last hurrah before school starts: Now only 2 days away.


I love my family.

Paint

Choosing a wall color is like trying to find meaning in a Pauly Shore movie-haha ("Clueless" forever!). In other words, a very challenging task. After all our swatches everywhere and looking eternally online- especially Pinterest, we finally decided on "Harbor Gray", a Benjamin Moore color.
 

The thing that made it extra tricky was that the color had to work for our front room, kitchen, and down the hall. I never realized how light can completely change a color. Really it's crazy. So we painted this section and then I painted the opposite wall and looked at it for a few days. I realized I kept trying to see green in it and there really wasn't much there. So we went back to the drawing board again with a bunch of gray-blue-green samples. We then narrowed it down and ended up with "Aloof Gray" a Sherwin-Williams color.

We're so happy with it :) This picture actually looks a little more greenish than it does in person.
That's another thing we learned: liking a color online doesn't really translate to your own house. It could look nothing like it.


Here's another picture in the middle of the day- obviously with a lot more light on it.


We're still working on the hall and then we think we're going to do 2 colors in the kitchen, not to mention the cabinets eventually. And then our room, plus decorating, framing windows- a seemingly never-ending list.
So fun to make changes and updates!:)

Emerald Pools Hike- Zion 2013

Another great part of the reunion was that it was located right next to one of our favorite places, and (IMHO) one of the most beautiful places on Earth, Zion National Park. We've done a few hikes there already and we were excited to try a new one. I was really hoping to do the "Narrows" hike but we'll do it next time when the kids are a little older. We settled on the Emerald Pools Hike instead.

On the tram :)
 

The Three Patriarchs
 



The Lower Pools






The Middle Pools.
Dana and Eli went on up to the Upper Pools and we hung out here.
 




On the way back we saw people playing in the Virgin River and of course had to join in that fun!
 
Then some cousins found us and made it even more of a party:)
 
As usual the kids spent much of the time looking for critters. I had to take a picture of this huge moth.
 
And this squirrel kept trying to get close enough to our backpack to figure out if it carried anything he'd be interested in.
 
But these little guys were the kids' true treasures.
 

After a lot of playing it was time to get back for dinner. So we gathered up the wet clothed, sandy kids and headed back to the tram.

And took one quick family picture.
 


Already excited to return to that beautiful place sometime!