Grandma & Grandpa Visit

As summer's winding down, we keep trying to ready ourselves for fall w/ earlier bedtimes, and more of a routine, but we're inevitably reminded it's STILL summer! We loved our latest reminder, in the form of a fun visit from G&G Mildenhall.  We started with an actionpacked trip to the Golden Spike rodeo, including a hair-raising ferris wheel ride (only hair raising for me, as I was sure it would be no big deal, but then became convinced our cart could flip over w/ all of the "DANGER:  DO NOT ROCK THE BASKETS!!"!), farmrange burgers, and pie ala mode.  It was our first rodeo, and I had a blast!!--SUCH a cultural event!!--even the prayer was cowboy!! Spencer came home where he and Anne plotted to do mutton busting ASAP. (Brian and Brent took the "easy" route staying home w/ the little ones, which for such a late night, was a great help!).

Brian finally got to take a few days off before summer's over, and we all went hiking up Holbrook Canyon Trail Friday morning.

I love this image of Dad carrying his daughter w/ the temple in the horizon :).

That night, we got to visit with even more family at Sweet Kara Priday's wedding Reception in Draper.  Anne and Lucy saw her in line, and nearly ran everyone down, "to see the PRINCESS!!" It was so good to see Tom and Marva's family, that we once saw more regularly, and catch up with a lot of other cousins and family :).  It was a beautiful evening, w/ a gorgeous view!

Monday, we enjoyed the new Brigham City Temple Open House w/ Great Grandma Mildenhall, and then a pretty drive and lunch with her.  Dad treated us to a succulent Indian dinner for FHE that night before they got ready to leave. 

In other news, Spencer lost his 2 front teeth---ON THE SAME DAY!!

Anne had her first dentist trip, which she loved, but then had a filling, which she loved not.  (Once the drill started, and the laughing gas mask came in, I think it all felt too much like her ENT surgery earlier this year).  She cried before anything even touched her, and just said meekly, "I want to go home right now."  I held her hand though, and the gentle dentist was quick, so she survived (hopefully to brush vigilantly :) ). 

 

Lucy has learned to open doors!!--and has been a bit of a sleep bandit all summer! She climbs out of her crib, onto her window sill (via the changing table), into her clothes drawers, onto her crib to reach the lightswitch, and will often strip out of whatever pajamas we find acceptable, only to don her own favorite apparel, leave her light on, and even lately, to sleep on the floor! Now that she can open her door, we're hoping she'll stop flinging her diaper off across her room, which has been the last (and my personal favorite!) hangup in her potty training :).

Brian harvested our peaches from our tree--which has been our best year yet, and made a delicious pie! We're enjoying bits and pieces now from our garden, even after its late start. 

 We've done a little back to school shopping (Anne tries on the most, though she needs the least!), and Brent's tried out his classes route and locker combination for Jr High!! We got a few more swimming days in, and Brian joined us Thursday so we could all finally go together, after which, he and Brent enjoyed BYU's football opener, thanks to some extra tickets at work! The boys enjoyed the Fathers and Sons Campout this weekend, where Brian made a full set of marshmallow guns, while we girls bought "crackle" nailpolish, played on the mall playground, had Zupa's dinner w/ some friends, and came home for milkshakes and a movie! :) We've had a no-regrets summer, Emily was telling me last night.  Usually right before school starts, there are those fits of nervousness that something else needs to be crammed into those last moments of freedom before they're gone, but (maybe due to our "extended" summer), we've actually had enough fun, that we don't feel like we've missed anything--which I would classify as remarkable.  The main loss was for Brian, who calls this his "Lost Summer"--due to his big trial starting in August, as well as time-sensitive City Council business, he has only begun to think of any vacation time, so we'll hope to get a few 3day weekends in this fall to make up for it (hooray!).