August was the month that was the busiest.
We managed to still squeeze in some swim time. One night the kids and I went to Natalie and Travis' pool to swim. Jeff tried teaching Sophie swim lessons. He loves teaching people things and Sophie did well with him.
August 2nd was a long day. At 5am I had to drop Lily off at the Stake Center for Pioneer Trek! That same day, I headed to the airport that evening for mine and Aimee's trip to England! (See previous posts).
Here's Lily with a few of the other Young Women from the ward.
She had a good time, but sprained her ankle the second day. She had to be carried around and ride in the hand cart, which she felt bad about. The last day, she just stayed at camp with the cooks and slept most of the day. She did enjoy getting to know her "family" and was grateful for the experience.
While I was in England the kids had fun with Tom. He tried taking them to a Bee's baseball game one night, but they enjoyed the activities and food better than the game.
Tom's sister, Maren helped watch them a few days, and my friend, Tiffany helped watch them a few days as well. One of the days she took them (along with five other kids) to McDonald's and then to the Lehi Fun Center. I am glad to have such good people take care of my kids.
Tom and Cedric had pack meeting for Cub Scouts one night and they did a water game. This photo shows Cedric getting soaked as Tom pours the unexpected water onto his head.
After a week and a half, I was home from England and life got somewhat back to normal. The only difference was I had to start getting things ready for preschool.
Sophie got herself dressed one day and I loved the combination of sun hat, high heels and Lucky Charms shirt.
Each month we do a date night with my siblings & their spouses. For August we played croquet at Mike and Karyn's house. I love spending time with my family!
I decided to spend some time with the kids doing something fun, since I'd been gone or working most of the month. So I took them bowling and we all loved it!
Lily wanted to earn money to buy a cat, so I gave her some jobs to do. She washed all my upstairs windows, and did a pretty decent job! I was so grateful to have that project done!
She also helped me go through all of our books! This was another big project, but one I was glad to get done as well. She's such a good helper and loves to work.
It was Cedric's turn for date night in August. He wanted to go somewhere with ice cream. So first, we grabbed some dinner at Arby's, then walked across the parking lot to Leatherby's where we indulged ourselves in cheese fries and ice cream!
Cedric was in ice cream heaven!
We spent our last Friday before school started going to Seven Peaks Waterpark in Provo one last time. It was fun to be there as a family and I'm glad we had those passes this year.
That night Tom and I met up with our CLaW Club friends and went to see Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy show. It was such a fun night!
We spent about an hour before the show started just visiting and hanging out. We took some fun pictures too.
Some guy photobombed our picture. Pretty funny!
We love our friends!
The show was great too! Jeff Foxworthy was so funny! And it was so fun to hear and see Larry, who also does the voice of Mater in the movie Cars.
Our swing set was starting to look a little beat up. We'd had it for six years, and I was embarrassed to have it for preschool for another year. I ended up selling it on the Facebook yard sale for $100 and the buyer even took it down and hauled it away! I had originally listed it for $20, because I cared more about getting rid of it than making money, so I was pretty happy!
August 21st was a special day in history. It was the day of the eclipse! Although it was not a total eclipse in Utah, the 93% was pretty amazing. We had fun viewing it with our neighbors.
The shadows were so unique, you can see the moon on Lily's thumb.
And the moon shadows on the tree's shadow.
August 23rd was the kids first day of school.
Lily is now in ninth grade!
Jeff is in sixth grade.
Cedric is in third grade
And Sophie is in kindergarten! She went half-day for the first week, then has all day kindergarten the rest of the year.
Tom was leaving later that day for St. George, so he had work off. The kids loved having him with us when we dropped them off at school.
I may have cried a little as we drove away and I realized all my babies are in school now.
Before Tom left for St. George, he bought me some flowers. He knows how hard it is for me when he's gone, and I thought the gesture was sweet of him.
What made my day even better, and make me love Tom even more was a letter I got in the mail later that day. It was from his boss at work. I've never gotten a letter from any of his bosses before. I can't even put into words what this meant to me. I know Tom is a hard worker and a great employee, but to hear if from his boss made me so proud of him. I am one lucky girl to have such an amazing husband.
Even if that amazing husband still likes to act like a kid at times. He always looks forward to Da Guys annual St. George trip.
They go biking,
golfing,
and boating all week long.
I stayed busy myself getting things ready for preschool. I felt a little guilty, because five of the six nights Tom was gone, I was gone as well.
Wednesday I was at Young Womens.
Thursday I had a girls night with Tom's mom and all my sister-in-laws for his mom's birthday. We did pedicures and went to Olive Garden.
Friday I was home, but had Grandma Kay, so I had to take her home and put her to bed. So I had to leave my kids at bedtime again.
Saturday I went out with Tiffany and Chris for Chris' birthday. We went to a movie (The Glass Castle) and to dinner.
Sunday was the only night I was home.
Monday I got together with the wives of Da Guys Tom was with. We were all ready for our husbands to come home again.
In preparation for getting a new cat, Lily bought a dog house and put it together. The goal is to put the litter box in it and have it outside.
Tom was home from his Mancation (that's what they call their guys trip), just in time to help put up our new swing set!
Sophie was so excited and hung around while we put it together. She just looked so cute sitting there, I had to get some candid pictures.
We started putting the swing set together Wednesday night.
And continued to put it together into the night.
Nine hours later, at 3:30am we'd finally finished it (or got about 98% finished)! Just in time for preschool open house that evening. After three solid ours of sleep, we got up, Tom went to work, the kids went to school and I cleaned the house, yard and preschool in preparation for that night. Luckily, my adrenaline kept me awake and moving the whole day.
Whew! August was busy!
