Last Weekend of Summer with Family and Friends

I'm going to break up my pictures this time. The group below are just some of us swimming. My sister's friend Darlene came out to visit before she starts teaching later this wek. We love Darlene! She is so much fun and we always enjoy the time we can spend with her. We swam and shopped at the funnest store, Sam Moon. That is the greatest store for girls and since I have so many girls this has become my new favorite place. There are hair bows, bands, clips, you name it they got it. There are purses, we all know how much I love purses, it's really an addiction. And they have jewelry! The best part is it's super cheap and comes in bulk. So... I started my Christmas shopping and got a few things for me and my girls. I will definitely have to go back before Christmas arrives but it was a good start to the madness/joy of Christmas shopping. After the shopping we ate at the cutest McDonalds, it's in the shape of a Happy Meal. The kids played and ate and we enjoyed eachother's company over some good ole fat, greasy food. After all that we then put on our suits and swam the afternoon away. I love that my kids love swimming and the water. They can swim for quite a while and are getting quite good at it. Even Kai is starting to enjoy her pool time with Mommy and siblings.

Our next adventure was going to the Mesquite Texas Rodeo. Every weekend every summer they have a Rodeo. It is actually a pretty big and pretty good Rodeo. It was fun to go after thinking of going for so long. The goup of us went and had a great time. There were fireworks and gunshots. They had cowboys roping and riding. They had fun things for the kids to do, face painting and pony rides and then a cowboy monkey to entertain. It was fun to take the kids, especially the littlest ones as it was their first Rodeo. They loved it. It was good to go out and spend time as a family. I would definitely go again.

On Sunday we went to our ward and then to my Dad's ward. Jennie and Darlene sang a beautiful hymn in Sacrament meeting and it was fun to go and support them. After church we went to my dad's and swam some more while waiting for dinner to be ready. My dad fixed a fantastic German meal. After swimming and eating with Papa, Jen and Darlene I felt it was time to go home. We had a long weekend and the kids (i.e. the babies) were tired. So we went home and put them to bed. Afterwards we sat with Larry and played a big game of Sorry and then Disney Trivial Pursuit. As far as family game night went it was fun and very little if any bickering. It's always nice to play games with no fighting. Yesterday we took the girls to the Galleria Mall to walk around the American Girl Doll store. I love that store and I think they enjoyed it too. We played at the mall playland for a bit and I got a couple more Christmas presents. We of course ate at the Happy Meal McDonalds again since it's right by there and then we came on home. We took it easy and life went back to "normal".

That's our fun filled weekend. The last weekend we'll have with Kira. It was fun and sad at the same time. We always love having her with us and miss her when she's gone. Now that Kamden and Kinsee are getting older they are understanding more. They are sad that she'll be leaving soon and I know it will be tough on us all. I know Kira is ready to return to her mom and friends but sad to leave all of us as well. How hard that is on children, parents and families. It's too bad we aren't closer so the time between visits isn't so long. Maybe someday but right now we are where Heavenly Father wants us to be. The girls have had their orientations for school and have received their classes for the new school year. Kaijsa's was messed up so she'll get her official schedule on the first day of school but Kaitlyn has hers and is super excited. She got the classes she wanted in the order she wanted them. Crazy. They are so ready to go back and have structure, friends, and time for themselves. We'll see how the babies do without their sisters around all day. Hmmmmm. I'm ready for school too. It will be nice to have some sort of structure to our days again. I love summertime and everything about summer but there is something about the school year that is fun and exciting too. We've had a great summer and look forward to the rest of the year ahead. We are trying to make plans to go to UT in between or before the Holidays since I have to work over the holidays but nothing set in stone yet. I'll let y'all know if we decide anything.

We miss you Darlene and you need to come back and visit us soon!

We are going to miss you Kira! You are forever a part of our family. We love you!

Good luck in school Kaijsa, Kaitlyn, and Kira. I'm sure y'all will do great!

Good-bye Summer....we will miss you but not the heat.

Life is good and always getting better.