School's back in!

I have definitely enjoyed having the kids home for the summer. I love, love, love summer because there's no schedule, no making lunches, and not so much running around. I also love, love, love school because a little bit more structure is always good, not having to break up so many fights throughout the day, and every now and then a little time to myself - if I can get Max to nap at the same time.
Cole was so excited the night before school he could hardly stand it. He has loved his teacher so far. In his class they are given a color to monitor their behavior for that day. Yellow= not so good, Green = good, and blue is Great. Last year he would get a blue every now and then so Tyler made a deal with him to give him a dollar for every day that he gets blue. Well, Cole's teacher is either really lenient or else he has just been a really good student. Last week he got blue four out of the five days. Hopefully it's the latter - but now I'm worried I will go broke by the end of the year!
Brady also loves going to school. He is in preK this year. He goes to the same school he went to last year so that has been good for just getting back into the routine and knowing what is expected of him and me. He has a wonderful teacher. It's still amazes me every year when my kids get back in school to see how much they are learning at such younger and younger ages. I'm quite sure by the time they make it to middle school, I will not be able to help them much with their homework.

Right before school started we decided to join some of our Lunt family for a trip to Huntington Beach. We were able to all stay at my sister and her husband's family's beach house; so that right there was a total bonus!
Lovely place. Beautiful weather. Great company = so much fun!!! We didn't have any expectations, except to just enjoy ourselves and that we did! There was a big surfing competition and BMX bike competition just down the street so that provided some extra entertainment. We were all amazed at what those athletes can do. I loved riding bikes around and hanging at the beach just feeling like you didn't have a care in the world. I wasn't really expecting my kids to love the beach because the last time we went it was so cold and windy and yucky, but this time it was different. The boys absolutely loved it! Tyler had Cole really boogie boarding and catching waves and Brady and Max were very happy to just play on the beach with the cousins with an occasional dip.
While we were at the beach one day I was taking pictures and a lady offered to take our family picture so I could be in it too. Well turns out she was a photographer. She was coming to the beach to get some pics of the sunset. She took a bunch of pictures of us and just emailed them to us for free that night- so nice eh? By about that time my kids were pretty much tuckered out for the day and so we didn't get a ton of the boys, but she took some cute ones of Tyler and I (even though we were definitely not prepared to have professional photography session that day).
So all in all = such a great trip - hope we get invited back next year!

Utah Trip in July

Cole loves this little motorcycle. He is dying to get one of his own.

This kid is something else. You can't take your eye off of him for a second!

Brady had fun riding the motorcycle , but also loved riding in the mule with Tyler.

Yes, these pics are from our trip to Utah in July = ya ya - I am trying to play a little catch up ok. Anyway - it was so nice to get out of our summer heat into the coolness up at the cabin. This was our second year going up there and just like last year we all had a total blast. The boys has lots of fun playing with their cousins; swimming, quad and mule riding, playing games, and just hanging out. Brady and Cole especially had fun playing basketball with all the uncles. I'm pretty sure Max had lots of fun. Tyler and I were running ragged trying to keep up with his exploring and wanting to do what the bigger boys were doing. It's always so fun to get away from civilization and just be with our family.