First Day of Kindergarten!

Today was Travis' first day of Kindergarten....which is why I actually have time to blog again :)

He was so excited!  The last week of watching Whitney go has been tough.

 Can you see his excitement?

When he met his teacher I was so impressed with how brave and confident he was.  He is very sure of himself and I love it.  I hope it continues.  He lookes so big to me suddenly today and yet...it wasn't sad.  He is so ready, sooooo ready for school.  He wants to do what his sister and all his friends are doing.  Whitney is great at entertaining herself and Travis.  So if she's in school, it's for the best that Travis is too.  Before he becomes a wii junkie :)

I love this guy!  He is still my snuggler, star wars freak fighter, and joker.

Bitter Sweet

Summer had to end sometime.  I will miss having all my kids home, I don't know why, but I love that feeling of having everyone home...especially if we can just play.  But once again by the end of summer I'm exhausted and a schedule is probably needed.

Last year was a hard adjustment for Whitney.  Me and Aaron braced ourselves for another rough start.  We started pep talkes a month in advance and fhe and story time were usually about bravery and courage.  I prayed she would get a great teacher and class. 

The day before school we went in to meet her teacher.  Prayers were answered.  Once she walked in and saw that she knew most of her class, her teacher was nice, and the jist of school was pretty much the same as last year I saw a huge burden lifted off her.  She smiled and said "I'm not nervous anymore mom!"  And that was it.  We're almost two weeks in and she hasn't flinched since that moment.  And that has made all the difference for me!

I sure love how tender-hearted this girl is!

 Seemed like yesterday we were holding a "welcome to summer" poster for her outside while she rode her bike home on the last day of school.  Time is an issue for me once again.  I sometimes sit back and look at my kids or these photos and realize just how big they are getting.

 To me second grade was like turned 31.  First grade and 30 are just the beginning of that stage.  But now....we're fully committed!  Second grade is full-blown elementary school.

My heart is pricked a little missing this girl.  But I guess we can't completely play our lives away.  Plus my house is amazingly more clean lately :)

Idaho

We began and ended our summer with a trip to Idaho.  A couple days into summer Aaron took the 3 oldest to play while I enjoyed a couple blissful quiet days with just me and the baby.  Sure I missed them, but I also enjoyed those day extremely much :)

I love Idaho in August.  Weather is just right and the kids have a blast running around with all their cousins.  I enjoyed my mountain runs and fresh air.  It was packed with activities and fun, and we came home exhausted! 

Four-wheeling.  Aaron clocked the kids at how fast they could run.

 Playing games while getting rained on.  A great start to camping out:)  It just added to the excitement.

 Playing in the river

Top five everyday summer activites

Today I felt it.  Even at the swimming pool.  There was something different in the air.  It didn't take long to recognize.  It was the "school is coming soon" feeling.  The excitement of change, structure, sports, and fall.  Even though we're living up our last week of summer, I think it's probably time for school.  My kids are a lot like me - we don't want structure, we just want to play our lives away!  So, to recap what we have done on a pretty much weekly, it seems, basis this summer; here are our top 5 typical summer activities.


#5  The Splash Park.

So nice having a fun park/splash park right down the road from us.  Pretty sure I got almost as wet as the kids everytime.  Someday I'll grown up - but sitting and watching others have fun is just so boring!

#4:  Bike rides/runs

The kids have been serious troopers to bike/scooter alongside me so I can get some sanity running.  I secretly love it for a different reason.  No, not to wear my kids out, although that is nice.  I love that they chat with me about different stuff while I run.  We plan activities, talk about our favorite things, look for bugs/ snails, and just enjoy being outside.

Despite the picture Hailey does not bike with Whit and Trav on my runs.  She loves moving in the stroller because it involves no work on her part.

#3  :  Picnics

We have picniced it up this summer.  Picnics to celebrate things, picnics with cousins, picnics just for fun.  Sometimes we'll get pizza or happymeals, other times I'm actually put together and make a lunch to take.

 yeah, I know this pic is a keeper!  this was an eventful picnic which involved my being stung just below the buttocks.  good times.

#2  :  Parties/friends

I say party because my kids call pretty much any get together a party.  So we had mac and cheese parties, pizza parties, many popscicle parties, a ramen noodle party, and so forth.  We are so blessed to live by so many great kids that my kids can play with all the time.  Today we didn't play with friends at all and Whitney specificly asked "Why didn't we play with friends today?"  Ummm....yeah, probably the first time . . . and it's mid August! 

#1!  :  Seven Peaks

Oh man, has the pass of all passes changed my life :)  I have loved the perk of going to seven peaks whenever we want.  Even if it's just for an hour and a half! 

 This girl even loves the view of all the chaos in the pool from the bjorn

I think this activity takes the cake for me because we live in the wave pool.  And where there are waves, I am happy.  Even if I'm standing in the shallow, watching my kids swim while Ashley dangles from the bjorn, there is something about the noise of waves and the motion that makes my heart happy.  Plus there was no sandy mess.  We swam quite a bit.  To me, that made summer feel like summer.  Thus it is #1

You're the mom and I'm the mom

So as I've said a few times.  Hailey is quite the act.  She goes from this...

 to this just by saying the right thing  -  or the right bribe.

 Honestly though I don't think she knows she's little.  I'm pretty sure she likes she's at least 25.  Old enough to be the mom.  Even before Ashley was born she was into taking care of her babies.  That sky rocketed when I had a baby myself.  We are now in it together.  If I'm doing something with my baby, she's going to do it with hers. 

Sometimes the kids try to convince her that she's a kid.  Her response: pointing to herself and then me: "I'm the mom and you're the mom, I'm the mom and you're the mom."  I always agree and then she feels like all is well in the world.  I love watching her and her friend Ashlynn taking their babies to the store.  We've taken several laps around the block with her baby in tow in the stroller.  I've been shushed because baby is sleeping.  But sometimes I really laugh when I see her do things like this.

And there are a hundred pictures like this that I should have taken.  Also, I love when she points to me when we are holding our babies and she says "That's your baby and this is my baby."  She says it so matter of factly - but with a chipmunks voice.  My favorite though, and I'm not sure I should admit this, but it's funny to me is when she'll take great care of her baby and then get distracted and just chuck her on the floor to do something else.  I better not do that with my baby :)

Family

We loved having family come and visit.  My kids couldn't get enough of their cousins!

The Murdocks came and played.  We rollerbladed, hit the playground, picnics, and a highlight - rock climbed.  It was fun to see how each kid reacted to the task.  Here is Travis.  He did great on the way up . . . but there was no way he was coming down. 

 Matthew and Whitney turned out to be the monkeys that loved it!

 It was fun to have the Schelins come play too.  They had a great time doing Travis' favorite things - dress-ups and playing star wars with light sabers.  Here's Whit the monkey, Austin as ironman, and Avery the werewolf.

24th

We packed a lot of activities into our 24th.  Honestly, our whole summer feels like it's been non-stop activities.  Never a dull moment around here!

I haven't been the best at taking pics lately.  I'm too caught up in the moment to think to do something rational like taking a picture.  I was happy to catch one of Ahsley though.  Here she is just about 5 months old.

 I took the older kids to the parade while Aaron happily volunteered to stay home with the younger two.  We had fun crusing on our bikes there and back.  Then we decided to head up to the reserviour.  The kids played in the sand and Aaron brought his little canoe and took the kids around the water - it was fun to see them try and figure out how to paddle.  I must brag though, usually I'm a woos with cold water - but I voluntarily jumped in with Whit and Trav and swam a while.  Must've been a hot day!

We headed back to play with cousins.  The stevens came and played at the splash park with us.  So nice to have fun cousins to play with.

Then the party started.  My parents and the Schelins joined in for another good bbque, games, pinata, playing in the river, and another amazing firework show by Zach.  Seriously fun, and like I said, never a dull moment!

4th of July

Fourth of July was definitely a party.  We had the traditionally Rasmussen reunion/celebration. . . and I think this year we partied hard enough to wear everyone out. 

A couple days before I caved and gave in to Whitney's usually pleads to paint nails - we went for the festive look.

 We showed up in time for the parade.  The kids made quite a hall and enjoyed it.  But man, who can really sit through an entire parade?  We took our loot and headed home when we all started to sweat like crazy!   

 It's always fun to see cousins - but especially our California and Texas ones we don't see very often. 

 Zach and Austin... wish I lived close enough to see these kids more . . . they are so fun!

 Of course we did the classic bbque

 We started with slip n' slides and then headed to a neighbors pool.  It was really fun to kick back and play.  I forget how playful my family really is until we start having cannon ball contests :)

Zach put on a little pre-firework show

We played games and tried to relax - not an easy thing to do with lots of babies and small children

It was fun to meet this little guy for the first time.

 Hailey of course was in heaven.

We loved celebrating the 4th with family.  This holiday still ranks as one of my absolute favorites.  Love the heat, fireworks, bbques, swimming, and family.  Life is good.