the last days of summer...

On the 14th (my 11 year anniversary! Yay!) Kate had a cheer camp performance. It was during half time of the Maple Mountain football scrimmage. It was all very boring. But sometimes you just have to sit through those things so your only daughter can do a little dance. Kate's the one in pigtail braids not facing the camera. 

Now she's glaring and pointing at her dad.

I have a video of her dance (she actually did it this time, unlike previous years), but blogger won't let me upload it because of the file size, and I'm not going to try and fix it. Ain't nobody got time for that.

On the 15th I took the kids to the BYU football open practice and scrimmage at LaVell Edwards Stadium. I really wanted to go, but I felt like it would be weird to go by myself. So I talked it up and made the kids think THEY were the ones who wanted to go. When we got there, it was obvious that I was the only one who was interested. I was like a kid in a candy store. And my kids were like kids who were bored and sitting in the hot sun. We got there fairly early and sat on the front row at the 30 yard line.

Players coming out to the field.

Coach Bronco.

Adorable warm ups.

Green jersey is Taysom Hill. Next to him is Mitch Matthews, who is really good, according to the kid on crutches who was sitting next to me. He kept yelling, "Mitch Matthews! I saw you at Smiths!"

You know I had to get a picture of the booty stretches.

My sister-in-law was teasing me about the pictures I put on Facebook, saying that no one else was there. So I took this picture to show her that there were indeed other people there.

Cosmo came! He walked right behind us. The kids tried to get his attention, but Crutchy took all of it. My kids are cute, but they couldn't compete with a kid on crutches.

See, this is Cosmo leaning over on the kid's crutches to take a picture with him. I was jealous.

Another shot of the back of wide receiver Mitch Matthews.

So, I forgot that in sitting on the front row it would be harder to actually see the game because the team would be standing right in front of us. So it was hard to get pictures. Blerg.

Wait, before we go everyone stop and smile like you had a good time! (I really said that.)

Gray loves Legos. 

The day before school started I had promised the kids that we could go to the reservoir one last time. (Which interfered with other plans I wanted to do for selfish mom reasons, but we still had fun.) We met up our neighbor friend and played and ate lunch.

Kate and Sophi.

Handsome blonde.

Colin and Wesley were too intent on their work to even look at me.

Oh, maybe Wesley wasn't.

Gray turns 4

I love 4 year olds. I love how they are so happy and grateful for everything and easy to please. Gray had a Secret Agent P birthday party. We were just going to have cousins/uncles/aunts/grandparents over, but since more than half of the family couldn't come, I let him invite his 3 Sunbeam buddies too (even though he technically isn't supposed to have a friend party until he turns 5).

I made a Perry the Platypus cake in the morning. It turned out way better than any other cake creation I have tried in the past. Win.

We went to the Utah County Fair to enjoy some togetherness time before the party. There was a giant turtle/tortoise to pet.

And an alligator to admire.

We were just in time to watch a lady feed the alligator with a fishing rod. 

My kids love creatures (from a safe distance).

Gray was stoked to see a real life gila monster. He loves them. He wouldn't shut up about it the rest of the day.

A pretty yellow python.

I honestly don't remember. Some giant lizard thing, maybe?

After the scales and tails exhibit it was time for the small animals. Bunnies and chickens of all varieties, and then your basic pigs, goats, sheep, pony, etc.

And some corn hole.

And some animal quizzes.

Next, we rode the train.

And the princess sat in her carriage.

Then we looked at the prize winning entries—quilts, costumes, Legos, photography, paintings, fruits and veggies, etc.

They had some fun stuff for the kids too, another corn hole/bean bag toss game, fishing, face painting, learning about animals and plants. It was fun.

We also watched the scales and tails show—or at least most of it. Jude got bored, so I took him to walk around at the end.

We looked at the 4H animals while we waited.

We saw a lot of pig butts. I might have inadvertently taught Jude to say "pig butts."

If it looks like their faces were painted by an 8-year-old, it's because they were.

Tire, long, baby after a busy morning.

After dinner I set up a laser room obstacle course thing for the kids to go through. They had to press 3 buttons along the walls and then touch Perry to rescue him from the evil Dr. Doofenshmirtz. I also hung up some pictures of Dr. Doof for the kids to shoot dart guns at in another room.

I also made the big boys go through it. It was harder for them.

After our game, we ate cake and ice cream and opened presents. It was a good day.