Car wash fun.

Our van needed a major cleaning after our summer trip, so the kids helped me clean it our really well and we took it to the carwash. Miles was waiting for the soap gun to turn on and he pointed it right at his face and it blasted him with pink soap! Luckily it didn't bother his eyes.  We couldn't stop laughing - especially Miles!

 We went to Cherry Berry afterwards as an end of summer treat.

Last of summer!

We decided to do one quick family camping trip before school started, so we went up to Door County on the thumb of Wisconsin and camped at Peninsula State Park. It was kind of last minute so there was only one night available, but we had a great time! Our camping spot was perfect!

I love lighthouses! This one was very pretty. It had some of it's history written on a plaque and it was kind of sad. One of the lighthouse keepers watched his own son fall through the ice and die. Sad!

We decided to take the "difficult" trail. Which ended up being not too difficult. Although we did get a bit of course, so we aren't sure if we accidentally skipped the difficult part.

The boys thought these cliffs looked like minecraft caves! They really do!

Wesley needed a moment of quiet meditation. Silly kid!

Even though the hike wasn't too hard, the boys were able to convince the girls to carry them. And Brian was carrying a sleeping Sullivan. Lucky boys! It was so nice to spend a few days as a family before school began.

Bits of summer...

Summer around here means: playing in the backyard, walks to the park and library, popsicles pretty much every day, games or movies in the heat of the afternoon and back outside in the evening playing kickball or jumping on the trampoline, grilling outside or having a campfire and catching fireflies at dusk. Yeah, I love summer.....

I watched the Roylance kids quite a bit near the end of summer. Which meant I had 10 kids ages 12, 11, 10, 7, 7, 5, 4, 3, 1 and 1. So it was pretty crazy. But I was grateful it was a small way to help John and the kids. The kids all get along really well so they had a great time!

Nora chopped her hair near the end of summer and loved it!

Bouncy ball trades were a big thing this summer. This is the kids with our next door neighbor Hailey. They all loved collecting bouncy balls and would meet out here between our two houses every afternoon and make trades. It was fun to watch them.

Sophie turns 12!?

How did my baby Sophie turn 12!? She is such a sweetheart. We are so thankful for such a wonderful girl who is the greatest big sister. She was such a feisty little girl from birth to about age 5 and has slowly gotten easier and easier. We sure love her. She's so much fun and a great example to us all, she reads her scriptures every day and is helpful and kind to everyone. She loves basketball, softball, cross country, reading, excelling in school (she's a straight A student!), camping, nature, playing the piano and violin and being with her friends.

Birthday breakfast!

We got a basketball hoop for her birthday!

Birthday pie! We had ordered all new appliances (hooray!) earlier in the month and they arrived on Sophie's birthday! So Brian spent the entire day assembling things. First the basketball hoop and then all our kitchen appliances. It was a chore!

Brian stayed up until 5am the next day getting all our appliances up and going. The dishwasher had a hose that wasn't working so he had to replace it before installing it. He's so patient at doing stuff like this! Sophie was a good sport just hanging out at home on her birthday.

A few nights later we had a Harry Potter sleepover with her two best friends, Camille and Annabelle. We made library bags, wands and potions and butterbeer then they watched the last two Harry Potter movies.