Labor Day Kickball

I forgot my camera at the Church for playgroup today. Luckily, Justice had Scouts and picked it up for me. He DID however leave me a good idea of the perspective that Cub Scouts have on their activities. LOL! Silly boys!

Back to School Lateover

In celebration of making it through our 1st week of school, the kids had a lateover tonight with their friends. Liberty went to the Larsens while Maggie & Soph and the Stephens kids came to our place. Lots of fun!
For dinner, Brett roasted hot dogs for everyone in the firepit. Thanks Honey!
The kids played outside the entire night. Most of the girls fun happened on top of the popup. They had chairs and stuffed animals up there. They even "sold" chips and rocks for free. Silly girls!
The boys jumped on the tramp, did the zipline and hung out in the hammock. Justice was so excited to have a boy over. Finally!!! (Not that he doesn't love the girls it's just boy playing is so different!)

What a fun night!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

End of Summer Swim Party

One last swim at the Larsens before school starts:

Babysitting Group

We just got back from vacation, (we counted Bonanzaville Pioneer Days as part of our vacation) and jumped right back into things. Literally we got home from Bonanzaville at 4:00 in time for Babysitting group to start at 4:30. Crazy busy! Please someone remind me that time flies when your having fun! LOL! BUT I do love, love our Babysitting Group! The Summer's been hit and miss because of vacations and youth activities but hopefully we'll be back in the swing here soon. All the kids are great and it's so good to get out with Brett on dates. They need to stop growing up so we can do this forever!

Medora: Ryan to the Rescue

At 9 o'clock at night and after a LONG, LONG drive, all you want to do is get home, right? Well... so did we. IS that what we got? NO!

Thirty four miles west of our West Fargo exit we heard a large clunk from the front of the truck. Did we hit something? Brett pulled over when the gages started going wacky. He popped the hood to check it out and came back with a very long hose and a mangled fan! CRAP!

We drove to the next exit and pulled off the side of the road. Without the fan, it overheated right away. So sad! It was starting to get dark so we called our Larsen friends and started transferring things to the trailer. (In hopes they could load us in his truck and haul the trailer back home). Ryan very kindly agreed to come rescue us! He was out on errands so by the time he dropped his fam off and drove to exit 310, it was about 10:30 pm. Our kids were so good and so patient! They sat on the trailer til the bugs and cold got to them, played games, told stories and drew pictures. We got some great kids!

Turns out that Ryan attached both the truck and the trailer and hauled it ALL home! He is amazing!!! Thanks Ryan & Lilly for saving us!

P.S. For those of you wondering... I am in denial that breaking down late at night after a trip has anything to do with me! LOL!

FHE @ Buffalo River

Tonight, we got together a FHE with some of our Ward family out at Buffalo River State Park. The forecast looked a bit questionable and the morning was rainy but we couldn't have asked for a better August night. It felt like it was in the 80s and there was just enough of a breeze to keep the bugs away. (Att least until we were loading the cars. I think Glory got 20 in the about 5 minutes!)
The kids and I love going out with all the ladies and the kids during the Summer but there's always something special in having the Dads come out to play. The kids and the Dads had a blast playing and swimming in the lake while the Moms and the babies visited. Ellen was even in town for the week on her school break and joined us! Yeah!

After tons of swimming and visiting, Ryan made us a fire and we all roasted hot dogs and ate dinner together. And when there's a fire- you have to do Sh'mores!!! (Right, Bryn??) Yummy!

What a fantastic FHE! Thanks to the Tuckers, Bradys, Ericksons, Brothersons and Larsens for joining us. We luv you guys!

Kids Rule!

Keep it cool with Marcus Theatres® this summer!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: There are now THREE DAYS for you to enjoy your favorite family friendly films for just $2! Join us Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays at 10am from June 21st through August 11th and let us remind you why Kids RULE!

The West Acres Kid's Rule movie this week was Judy Moody and the NOT Bummer Summer. I took the kids and met the Larsens and Potters for some fun. It just happened that while I was in line, the man behind me asked me how many kids I had because he had extra tickets. He paid for our whole family! SCORE! Free movie! Totally make my day! YEAH! Oh... and the movie was great too! LOL

Artic Swimmers

It was NOT swimming temps today but the kids have had their heart set on swimming together so whatever, right? Just don't make me get in!!! The Cudneys and us were invited over to do a bit of Artic Swimming at the Larsens tonight. The kids LOVED it! At least until they froze their hineys when they got out! LOL Thanks for the fun night, guys!

We got to warm ourselves by the fire. And they even treated us to some roasted marshmallows! Yummy!

The Larsen's ool!

Welcome to our   ool!

*Notice their is no "P" in it.

Let's keep it that way!*

LOL. McKenzie and I think we should put that quote

in really big vinyl on their garage next to the pool.

After much discussion and tons of work, the Larsens put in a pool. The house had a pool when they bought it but the people selling the place wanted an arm and a leg and their next born child for it so their deck has had a big hole in in all Winter. Well, ALL the kids are sooo excited! Ry's been filling it up and empty-ing it and filling it back up (some of the poles slipped out wrong) What a pain! But it's gonna be so much fun.
Pool Partay at the Larsens!!!!! They invited us (and some neighbor girls) over today for FHE dinner and activity while the pool is being filled up.  The kids had a blast despite that the water was like 30 degree from the hose!!! Silly kids! At first everyone could touch the bottom so all the kids were in and out. They put in the little slide, had races, made up dances and just enjoyed getting wet. Some played in the sprinklers under the tramp or laid out to dry on the deck. Thanks guys for letting us come play, for feeding us and letting us stay for a movie and popcorn. You are awesome!

Memorial Weekend Camping Trip

The weather perked up a bit so we took our chances and headed up to Turtle River State Park for some camping with the Larsens. The original plan was to have 6 or so families come up for the weekend but due to moving and weather circumstances our numbers dwindled to two. We had a blast though! Turtle River is beautiful. We'll definitely have to go again especially because we recently bought a Popup trailer from the Babcocks.  We have never been big campers but let me tell you... plug that baby in, plug in a heater and some bedtime music and we are SET! We might even make this a Camping Adventure Summer. We'll see!
Back to our Memorial Day Camping...

We picked the best two sites in all the Park. We totally lucked out. If you ever go with a group, make sure you get sites 15 & 16, then 13 or 23. They are Perfect! We got up a bit late so we just had time to set up camp and eat a bit of dinner. The kids all wanted to help setup the Popup. Sorry Ryan- you're tent is cool too! LOL

We did Hobo dinners again (love them!)

and what camp fire is complete without Sh'mores? Yum!

Some of the kids were dying to go fishing. My amazing hubby braved 4 kids on his own in the DARK, mind you to take them. What a guy! They even got a couple. They were <-----------this----------> big! Literally! Like 4 inches. LOL. But Brett cooked one up over the fire and most the kids tried it. They loved it! Nothing like fresh fish. Too funny!

In the morning, we had breakfast burritos and headed for Church in Grand Forks. Nothing like Camp-Smoke Visitors in Sacrament Meeting! LOL When we got back we cleaned up camp while McKenzie played Old Maid with the kids. (The Larsens stayed another night) Then, we had lunch at the Playground. The winds had picked up and the temps were pretty chilly but the kids always have fun together.

We did a bit more fishing before we left. All the kids caught something. Maggie and Lilly think fishing is fun and easy! Oops! Sorry Ryan! (Gotta love beginners luck!) Glory carried her fish everywhere. She made sure he got a drink once in a while (even though he was long gone by then ;) The river was beautiful and protected a bit from the wind. Perfect fishing for little kids.

Thanks Larsen for inviting us! Let's do it again soon. Happy Campers are we!