August Play and Anticipation

We started August off with the craziest schedule!  The first week of August, there were lots of camps to deliver all the kids to! Audrey left first to go to Trek.  She left early in the morning on Wednesday - and had an amazing experience!  No pics, though!

Wednesday, the rest of us went to the Discovery Gateway for some fun.  Carson brought a friend with him.  It was a great day for all.

Thursday, boy scout camp began.  Carson played and learned all day Thursday, and on Friday he spent the night into Saturday.

Friday, Kate went on a soccer retreat with her brand new competition soccer team.  Here she is loading up on the bus.  That left only Graham and I.  (Chad joined Carson at camp after work on Friday).  Graham and I went to a restaurant for dinner and then spent the night in Fruit Heights.

Saturday, let the fun continue.  Chad and I ran the Bair Gutsman, Graham went with grandma and grandpa to McKell's baptism, and later, several of us went to Taylor's baptism.  Then we slowly collected kids returning from their outings.  What a fun day and week.

The next Saturday, I did a Triathlon, the girls both had soccer scrimmages, and then we partied all day at Lagoon. We had fun with Graham suddenly being tall enough to do most of the rides with us!  Here we are all on the spider together.  We also rode the cannibal twice.  What a fun day, but we are amusement park-ed out.  Good thing for a break.

Kate had her comp soccer debut this month.  Both girls played in the Adidas cup.  They played hard and it was fun to watch all 7 games in 4 days.  Audrey's team rallied from a first day loss to come in first place in their division heading into the semifinals.  They lost that game, and that was really sad, they were winning 1-0 at half.  Kate's team is brand new, and they lost all three.  However, the girls learned so much in the few games.  We felt like they will continue to grow this year.  Kate was smiling after the games.

Finally - the biggest changes of all.  School started!  Audrey is a big 8th Grader, Carson started middle school as a 6th grader, and that included an early morning math class for him!  He is doing fine, despite his parents worried for him.  Kate, she is in 4th grade, and loves her new teacher!  We love Mrs. Stockman, and feel very grateful that she loves our sweet girl back.  And then there is Graham.  His first day of Kindergarten.  He was SOOOO nervous for school.  Last week helped.  He met the teacher and principal at the back to school night, and at his kindergarten orientation.  We talked about how she is so nice and will just be another grandma for him.  He was quite calm the first day of school.  He got a little nervous when he saw the red carpet and teachers high 5 -ing, but I told him to be strong, and he was, the strongest high 5's ever!  He is happy and smiling after school, and things are going very smooth.  I wasn't too sad.  It was pretty cool to see him growing up.  But for some reason yesterday, his third day of school, I started crying after I dropped him off and realized I was all alone and without my little buddy in the car.  I guess we are/were both nervous.

Well, carpools seem to be my game now.  I have 4 carpools for school - kindergarten, elementary, the early middle school carpool for the gifted Carson, and the regular middle school carpool.  Yes, I did choose this, I keep reminding myself.

Then there are the soccer carpools, and they are complicated also.  I feel like small things overwhelm me right now.  I am sure that it will get better!

I am grateful our kids love school and seem to learn easily.  Their enthusiasm means it will be a great year of school!  Everything will work out. . .