To Germany, with love (or WE LOVE FALL!)

Last Saturday, my sisters and I had a fun outing. We went to one of our favorite bakeries, Schmidt's Pastry Cottage, and had sandwiches and mint cookies, eclairs, and brownies. Then we headed up to Oktoberfest to see some of the fall foliage and check out the festivities. It was just fun to be up there at Snowbird. It has to be one of the most beautiful ski resorts anywhere. We love it! There was many things to do but our favorite was people-watching and listening to the fun polka music. It's always a sight to see the old German gentlemen with the laderhosen that is too short and too tight. (Eewww, gross!) There was a booth sponsored by the Snowbird Spa, so we were able to get 10 min free massages on the chairs. It was wonderful. Thanks dear sisters for the fun time. Love you!

Three Forks Trail--Hot springs

This was on the way back down the trail. It was so beautiful.

Saturday we took the kids and hiked up to these fun hot springs. It was 4.5 mile round trip. There was minimal wailing and gnashing of teeth but we made it! Yeah for us! It was great fun!

Mary trips over her tongue

Ok, to add to the accidents lately...

Yesterday Mary and Sarah and Kennon were playing dress-ups. Mary put on her witch costume that I made a couple of years back, and she came running in to me and said, 'Hey Mom, look I'm a Bitch, (slight pause) I'm a witch!'

Serena and I were standing there just biting our tongues trying not to laugh. She had no idea what she had said only that at first it sounded slightly wrong, then she got it right.

(The picture doesn't have anything to do with the post, I just really liked it. This is Sarah and Mary all dressed and going to a bridal shower for their Uncle Marc's fiancee.)

Ya win some, Ya lose some

Ok, so I have to blog what happened yesterday. Not only will it embarrass me but those who know me will just shake their heads and go, yep that's our Jenny. And oh yeah, it'll embarrass Serena too.

My friend Serena kept bugging me to go mountain biking with her and a friend yesterday afternoon. I've been working out lately, so I was contemplating going with her. We came home from running errands and I pulled out my bike and thought I'd test it out to see if I was up for the ride. Well needless to say I didn't even make it out of the driveway. I ended up flat on my face with a skinned-knee wondering what the hell happened. It was one of the surreal moments where life came at me slow motion and so did the concrete of the driveway. I think it was a combination of a front tire that was too low on air and a brain too low on oxygen. I felt so dumb! I just laid there in the driveway laughing and crying, thinking to myself, 'did this really just happen?' I haven't had a crash that bad since grade school.

Moving on, so Serena was like, 'um, your totally not going on the bike ride with us.' By that time, we were laughing so hard, I had to go inside and change.

Skip forward to 2 hours later. Serena comes home from the bike ride and wakes me up (I thought a nice little nap would help soothe the hurt knee. ;)) She had totally biffed it on her ride. The front tire had completely come off her bike and she landed face first in the rocks and did a body slide. We went to the Insta-care because she thought she'd broken her wrist. The doc took xrays of that plus her femur that he thought she had fractured. But needless to say, she's fine, just really bruised up and sore. It's what she gets for laughing at me. That dang girl, I can't even crash on my bike without her one-upping me!!

Sam & Sarah

Sarah's first day of 2nd Grade

Sam's first day of 4th Grade

School Days

My baby is going to Kindergarten!

Mary was so excited that her friend Pilar is in her class!

Standing outside Mrs. Harris's class (Mrs. Harris is going to have a baby very soon!)



MARY'S FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN!!

She was so excited. She looks like she's going into 5th grade and not kindergarten! I can't believe we are finally at this stage. She's been in Pre-school since she was 2 yrs old, so I feel like she's already been in kindergarten forever!! She's very excited to be a big kid. I love you Mary!!

Where has the summer gone?

Mary--she's our little monkey bar queen!
Sailboats on Lake Payette
Mary LOVES ice cream
Every little boy should have a wonderful grandpa!
These were beautiful flowers outside The Pancake House restaurant
Grandma and Grandpa King
Sam, Sarah, & Mary - downtown McCall
They loved this pool at the KOA
I love this picture of Sarah
Sam and Sarah digging in the sand
Grandpa giving kisses to the horse
I LOVE chickens
Collecting the eggs
At the Blackhawk Ranch
Wow, I haven't blogged for awhile because we have been so busy.

I was out of town for a weekend to go to Arizona to see my sister and Serena wanted to check out what it would be like to live there. (WOW, I knew it was going to be HOT but not that HOT!) I had a blast playing with Rosie and Jack. He has a lot more words in his vocab and he kept calling me Mom, Jenny. It was so cute!

Then when I got home from AZ, the kids and I and my parents went to visit McCall, Idaho. It was so beautiful, relaxing and fun. I will post a few of the pictures from our trip. I definitely recommend this little town and the lake to those of you with young families. Ponderosa Park is wonderful with it's huge trees and beaches. We spent a lot of time there just hanging out on the beach so the kids and I could play in the water. It was also fun to have Grandma and Grandpa's undivided attention. Sam rode with Grandpa in the truck all the way up to McCall and he loved that. He was sad that he had to ride home with just me and the girls because Grandma and Grandpa were going on to Spokane and further north. I had some good talks and quiet time with my kids while we camped at the KOA. Good memories. (Serena's little guy Carston said one time, 'mom, i'm having to forget some of my memories so that I can make room for the new ones.') I hope I don't forget going to the lake with my kids. It was a great trip.

One short story from our trip:

We got to visit a ranch that had horses and chickens. The kids got to feed the chickens, gather the eggs, ride the old gray grandpa horse. They loved it and so did I. The lady that runs the ranch is fascinating and very mellow. She was so nice to show us around the ranch.

Well before we left, the kids started making up a story about the animals and how they were going to church. Mary was talking about the horses and how they had church clothes on and dresses and shoes and such, then she started talking about the animals taking the sacrament. Well this made my mom and I a little nervous, so we explained to her that the sacrament is something that is very special and we don't make light of it. I think she understood because when we were driving home on Sunday, she saw some birds and cows and started again to make up a story about the animals going to church. But then she said, 'but they don't have sacrament, they just have plain bread and plain water.' Then I got to thinking about it. I'm almost positive that the animals on the earth are grateful for our Savior too. I love Mary's heart and her little stories and her meekness when it comes to learning about our Savior. I'm so grateful for my little ones.

School starts soon, August 20th. The kids are really excited to start back which I am happy about. I'm proud they love their school. Go Hillcrest Hawks!