Making a Chore Not a Chore

Recently, Jack was asked to put his socks away. I was so happy the camera was close after we heard how he decided to go about it...

This just goes to show that children come with their own personalities, cause we all know this isn't something Jack has seen Chip, or anyone else here doing!

A New Stage

We are off to a fantastic school year! So far..... so good.

The weekend before school started, we had a "back to school celebration" with the Millington family. Gayla shared her family tradition with us and made the cutest school bus cake.

I can hardly believe that all four of the kids are in school ALL day!!!

We have an 8th grader (that is still making me pinch myself to see if I really have an 8th grader)...

a 6th grader...


a third grader...

and a first grader...

I clearly remember when Jackson was about one, thinking how far away this time was, when they were all in school - and that it would never come. I mean, really? It's really here?

With new stages of life comes all kinds of new challenges, new joys, new "How am I ever going to do this?" new "I'm scared to death to be a mother" and new "Life is pretty wonderful" times. This truly is a good stage in life, I think. I am enjoying it. I don't know what tomorrow will bring, but today, I am enjoying this stage.

So now it's just Anela and me all day. I am so lucky!

Every day we have cereal together after the kids leave to school.

She always insists on "reading" the box.

I love this girl.

Dad's Outdoor Classroom

Sometimes when you ask a question in our home, you get more than what you bargained for! As it was in this case....

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While watching the Olympic track and field events one night, the kids kept asking why one of the runners always got a head start on the track. "It's not fair to the other runners!" they would say.

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They still didn't quite get it after I tried to explain that it only looked like they were getting a head start. I asked Chip to try and explain it better than I could.

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Oops.

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That's when he pushed pause and said, "Everybody outside!!"

They may have whined and groaned on their way out.... but it ended up being fun,

AND...

they finally understood it perfectly!

The Last Summer Hurrah!

We have made it a family tradition to go to the State Fair every summer as our last "hurrah" before school starts. We have so much fun at the fair!

This year, Kelley, Tyler, and Tyler's brother, Sam met us there and hung out with us for a while. Kelley stuck it out to the end (she is used to us stopping whenever Chip finds someone that he knows) ha ha!!

Chip got caught trying to volunteer Aubrey to be a part of a silly show, so they called him up on stage instead!

The Marines booth was a highlight. Jack gave his all to complete enough pull ups for a water bottle. Hannah surprised everyone who surrounded us by doing the flexed arm hang for the required 70 seconds for a t-shirt. Everyone counted down the last 10 seconds for her as she trembled and used all of her strength - it was just awesome!

Kelley missed not having our sister, Ellen, to ride the fast, scary rides with this year. It took a lot of coaxing, but Aubrey finally agreed to go on "VIPER" with her! She was scared to death and screamed the whole time. Kelley could hardy breath from laughing so hard.

Everyone has their favorite parts and favorite fair foods - we do our best to cover it all. Coming home late with sore feet and empty wallets is always worth the fun we have together at the fair!

Real Gold in Boise!

What an exciting time for Boise! We have our own Gold Medalist and Olympic Champion - cyclist, Kristin Armstrong! Her return from Beijing was quite an event! The airport was packed with people excited to welcome her home and see her gold medal. She was letting all the children hold and touch it, no matter how long it took. She is amazing! Chip took Taylor to experience this awesome occasion.

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The next day, thousands of people showed up downtown to ride one mile with her to the Capital Building where she was presented the keys to the city. Chip took Aubrey this time. He made his way to the front of the pack, (surprise, surprise!) in order to get the most out of the rare opportunity to ride along side Kristin.

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Here she is being interviewed by NBC - can you see Aubrey and Beth and Eden in the background?

Aubs with the Mayor of Boise, Dave Beiter.

Taylor and Aubrey were both on the live local news here in Boise, and Taylor was in the newspaper the next day. How cool is that?! They will always remember this. They have a pretty cool dad who wanted to be a part of it all to thank for it. He's pretty proud of this picture, taken with the Gold Medal winning bicycle - of course this is the second one taken, since the first one had a little glare in it. Way to go, honey!