First Day

Things you'll need in your Darth Vader backpack for the first day of second grade: dinosaur folder, Elmer's glue and antibiotics! Max's first day wasn't until the third day of school this year- our whole family was sick. But it just made his first day all the more anticipated. He loves Miss Connell and can't wait to get there every morning. Max's top two favorite parts of second grade: Math and sitting by his buddy Spencer. It's good to be seven.

Willard Bay

It's about an hour and 20 minutes north - we pack up lots of food, lots of sunscreen and as many sand toys as we can find and drive out to meet the Hreinsons. This year we were missing Mistee, she stayed home with Boston who is still only 3 weeks now. Max swam back and forth from the bouy with Jessie this year, and helped with the sand creations. Lucy was so brave and discovered her life jacket lets her float! (she might get her face wet next year, we'll see). And Sam was very suspicious of how the water moved, the waves took some getting used to. We're not the kind of family you worry about drowning.. but it's great to be with cousins.

Our Sam

He recently said/repeated his first prayer - on his knees while we were holding hands a couple of nights ago. The baby boy phase is gone now and we are in full toddle stage, in the blink of an eye he'll be a little boy. He likes to count "1..3..2". His laugh is a low throaty sound, but his voice is high and loud. He likes to play cars, shoot his finger gun at you and throws himself to the ground when you shoot him back - he uses the "f" word for fork, frog and truck.. (oh my). He also loves princess dress up shoes and applying pink lipstick. Sometimes he just wants Max to hold him and seems to trust Max over any of the other kids around. He has quite a following at church, several of the 10 and 11 year old girls love to vi for his attention, and one 16 year old boy, Hunter - who Sam will choose over any of those giggly girls. He is a mama's boy for now (I usually don't "lose" them to the dark side until their 3 or 4) but he loves to talk to his dad on the phone. He makes us smile when we are trying to be mad at each other - Happy Birthday Sam, we love our number three.

Neighborhood

An impromptu picnic, "Tyece, what are you having for lunch.. oohh, can I stay?" It's the draw of mac and cheese, combined with my desire to prolong our summer vacation just a little longer - won't be long time the majority in this picture won't be around for lunch time. We love our neighborhood; 5 families- 15 kids and only two of them girls! (We were missing the 11 year old and the three babies under one in this picture.) We've fallen into our own place where everybody knows your name - it's good.