1st day of 1st Grade

School is underway again!  I am so glad.  Summer has been very fun for us, and now I am ready for fall.  It is hard to believe that I have a first grader.  He seems so young to send off every morning and to be gone all day long.  I hate it and love it all at the same time.  Nick likes his teacher and loves! school lunch (although he now thinks that Trix yogurt is a main dish, why is that a choice?).  He wishes that his kindergarten friends were in his class.  He isn't having a hard time making new friends, so I think he will be okay.  Ben is missing him.  He starts preschool in one more week.  Since Nick told him he can't ask his teacher for food, he has decided that preschool is not the place for him.  We will see.

Voyage of the Kinder II

About a month ago Erik's mom had a kids camp for all her grandchildren and I am just getting around to blogging about it.   She is such a fun grandma and the kids just love her tons!   For weeks before it started they couldn't stop talking about it.  It was like Christmas around here.   My boys had to miss the first one last year because Ben had some weird rash the morning it started, and we didn't want everyone to get it.  So this was the second annual Voyage of the Kinder.

She invites all of her grandchildren (14 of them plus 3 sort-of adopted grandkids) to her house for two full days and the party goes non-stop.   They had so many activities that it makes me exhausted just thinking about it.   I will list what I can think of off the top of my head:

-most importantly- learning about and remembering Grandpa Berge,  (pretty sure he is the inspiration behind the whole thing.

-making flags from around the world

-"visiting" many different cities and countries

   I think they even learned some french while "in" Paris

-making flags

-a prize "fishing pond"

-a pony ride (yes, Ben's first and he actually LIKED it!)

-fastest gun draw competition

-some wild west activities

-archery

-had their ship robbed

-giant sleepover at Grandma's

-excellent food and snacks

-treasure hunt

-campfire and smore roast

-a giant bicycle and big wheel race

-a huge squirt gun fight

She even made some AWESOME matching t-shirts for everyone.  I am sure I have missed things, but you can see that this was no small thing.   My kids have not stopped talking about it.   I will give some credit to those that helped (Britta, Joc, Chifumi, Erik, Hans and the older Hodgsons, etc...) but wow Grandma Berge YOU are the best!!!

Blackberries for Sale

A few days ago, the boys were picking blackberries with their dad.  Nick has been trying to earn money to deposit in the bank.   (What a smart kid!)  He decided that it would be great if he and Ben had a stand.   I so far have yet to set up a lemonade stand with the boys, so I decided we should go for it.   I made some kool-aid and some lemonade and we put all the freshly picked berries into containers.   Erik had some yard work to do at the apartments and so he could be close but still not hovering.

They looked so cute and they actually did quite well.   They made $16.00 between the two of them.  I wanted to teach them about the expenses involved so I had them give me $2.00 for ingredients and ice, cups, etc... and they got to split the $14 left.   Best quote from Nick, "It was so fun mom, but I had to tell some people they weren't from "local" they were just from our yard."

Erik's Fishing Trip

Erik went on a fishing trip in July with his brother Hans.   They always look forward to floating the south fork of the snake river.   They both love fishing and have done it for years with their Dad and older brother Bill.  It was just the two of them this year.  Erik said, "We caught some very nice Cutthroat.  It was unbelievably pretty up there, and the annual Salmon fly hatch was starting."   Hans has a great raft that made the trip even better this year.  The few ice cubes in his cooler were still frozen after 2 days of rafting in the middle of summer... now that's a good ice chest.   Too bad I didn't get a picture of the sunburn Erik came home with.

It really does look beautiful.   Maybe I should go with a book and some good food and just enjoy the float.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my Dad's birthday.    So just wanted to take a minute to add him to the considerable number of Birthday posts.

My Dad is:  

hardworking

        thrifty (in the good way)

        generous (he always helps out his kids, he was the BEST to have 

                   school shopping or grocery shopping.

        a good example (served a mission, worked hard, etc)

        a great outdoorsman  (makes flapjacks with the best of them)

        a lifelong reader

        a backpacker at heart (and now so are the kids)

        a collector (better not elaborate this one)

        a great DAD.

        a great GRANDPA

Nick says:  I love my grandpa.   I like to call him Papa Dell.

Ben says:  He eats my ears,  What's going on?  I love him.  His clothes are so painty.

Good Friday!

Tagg has himself a new Go Kart!  

He asked Uncle Erik to come help out with it, since his Dad was out of town.   We all went to check it out.    It was very fun and my boys are not getting one!  Erik was a crazy driver, I was a great driver and Tagg and Alec did quite well themselves.    At least no one hit the neighbors car.    

We then decided to go bowling which was a blast.   Mom, Erik and Trish are all great bowlers, but Tagg had the high score of the night with a 148!   (To make myself feel better, I had to add that he was using the bumpers) :)    

Olivia even got in on the action.  Although she much prefered to dance like crazy all over the place.  Good times!!

July 24th!

We had a very fun, but very busy 24th.  We were at Lagoon all day on Wednesday, which I still love to do.   None of us are sick of it yet.  (of course, Zach can't talk, but he doesn't complain much)  Then at the last minute we decided to head to Park West for the evening.   Thursday morning while Erik was playing on Utah Lake with his work group, we went to the Uintah Mountains. 

I spent lots of time here and it reminds me of all the great memories with my family backpacking in these mountains.   I hope my kids will learn to LOVE it like I do.  

It was absolutely beautiful, but quite chilly, so no one really went in the water, but throwing rocks was pretty fun for the "kids"  (Vance and Brandon).    I would have loved to stay and hike to one of the beautiful lakes around, but we had a baseball game to get to.

We got back home with a little time to spare, so the kids talked me into taking them to the Pioneer Days celebration at the local park.

The boys had fun riding ponies (another step in overcoming Ben's fear (often disguised as love) for animals.   He is riding Peanut, and Nick is riding Snowflake), and the train, got some prizes and a snowcone and it was off to the game.

Erik's fellow work mates were all at the game, our boys, how should  I say it... were up too late the night before.   We did have fun, however.    

Ben quickly began flirting with the girls in front of us, and was on their laps for most of the game.  I don't think he stopped talking the entire game.    They also gave Zach a bit of attention, which might explain the look on Ben's face.

The fireworks after the game were spectacular.   Zach stayed awake the entire game, but didn't quite make it through the fireworks.    The boys made it until they had been in the car for about 2 minutes.    It was a great 24th, and we still had the entire weekend ahead!!!