More Bonfire

Back to the bonfire... this time with Uncle Jon.   Great  pic,  Holly!

And the Lord said unto Jonathon through the burning bush, behold, your summer vacation has ended..  

Nap

Yesterday evening, Holly went out to Moe's to utilize a coupon she had for her birthday.  I stayed home put the kids to bed, read, and study some chess.  And no, that's not sarcasm, I really do study chess. She came home with some treats from Wegman's and we watched Big Brother together.  We must have made too much of a ruckus munching on our sugar cookies and chips because apparently Anderson didn't get enough sleep.  Holly took this picture of him today during an impromptu nap he took.

Holly and I will try to be more quirt next time.  Maybe I can get her to play chess with me instead!

Shhhhhhh!

Just another post

A picture of the end-of-summer bonfire before it burned.  Yes, I am still hung up on the fact that it's over!

We are blessed as a family to be able to spend so much time together during the summer months.  Holly and I are also lucky enough to have received some good advice once in church.  One day shortly after we were married in our ward, an older couple came to speak about the importance of continuing to date while married.  They told an anecdote about a couple they knew when they were young who "didn't have time" to have a date night each week.  "And do you know what happened to them?" they asked.  "THEY GOT DIVORCED!"

A cool pic o' Holly's

The emphasis is mine because it seemed rather extreme and comical, but Holly and I did take the message to heart and continue to have date nights every Friday.  In fact, we even have a list of what we did for date night every week going back to November 2007!  And this past Friday was no different.  We attended a session at the Palmyra Temple (which utterly rocked by the way) and also went out to eat at The Cheesecake Factory.

It's our favorite restaurant. We tried the new Smore's Cheesecake and it was amazing.  And we just found out that one is coming to a location near us.  For future date nights it will be in our sights.  Day two of school was fine today for the boys. Carter read "The Kissing Hand" and made a craft.  It will go into his treasure box which he will appreciate someday.

First Day of School

Parker and Carter went off to school today! Here they are, wishing each other good luck on the first day.

They both came home happy, although Carter was a little unhappy during the going to school part.  He was upset because he wanted to get cracking at the Play-Do station he spied near the classroom door.  He was upset I wouldn't let him go at it.  I told him his teacher would tell him when it was okay to play with the Play-Do.  This news didn't sit too well with him.  Happily, when I came to pick him up a few hours later, he had no recollection of ever being upset.  A great first day!

Out-take!

The Foot Book

During our three day end-of-summer-Labor-Day-bash, we celebrated Anderson's second birthday.  He unwrapped a gift from his Aunt Heather.  It was a board-book version of The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss. This is his FAVORITE book.  He is always dragging it around looking for someone to read it to him.  So of course, at his party, he wasted no time finding willing readers.

Grandma reads The Foot Book

Great-Grandma reads The Foot Book

Enjoy your new book Anders!

Labor Day FHE

On Labor Day, we had our good friends the MaCallums over.  They recently moved back to the area from Utah where Ian just finished a BYU law degree.  We ate subs from Oswego Sub Shop, drank soda, ate good chips, and had a combined Family Home Evening where I gave an impromptu lesson on the Liahona in the Book of Mormon.  The kids got out all the toys, played well together, and ate Popsicles that slowly melted in the living room.  Here, we catch up with the kiddos watching a Lego cartoon they are currently into which is entitled Ninjago.  (You can see the remaining light of summer shinning on Parker.)

Labor Day FHE

Hanging out with folks like the MaCallums is always an uplifting experience for me and Holly.  It reminds us that we are not the only crazy, young, Mormon family out there.  We learn that a lot of our trials are the same, a lot of our joys are the same, and that we aren't alone on this journey of parenthood.  A pleasant evening indeed.

Bonfire! Summer is Over.

Labor Day is officially over, and I am now going back to start another school year.  And while the technical calendar terms may disagree, summer is officially dead.  Fall now begins.  To celebrate this mournful passing, I started a tradition last year of building an End-Summer-Bonfire.  Here is this year, built and lit this past Saturday night.

After the fire tamed to a dull roar, we feasted on campfire food.  Parker and Carter also got a kick of using the star finder ap on Mom's new cell phone. I then slept in the tent with Carter (it had been Parker's turn the previous night) and we played a game of chess together and then fell asleep with the rain-fly off looking up at the stars again.  It was fantastic.  Oh June 2014, I have my eye on you!

The Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 6217  Image Courtesy of the Hubble Telescope, unfortunately, not Dad's and Carter's camping tent this time around. 

Impressively, this galaxy is over 67 million let years away.  It's located in Ursa Minor, so if Carter and I did have a powerful enough telescope, we might have been able to see it from our tent.  But it would probably would have been tricky to find it anyway, and we probably would have just played more chess instead.