Summer & Fall Update, Part 1

The last post I shared was in June... I'm ashamed I haven't shown my blog the love it deserves in quite some time. I have not forgotten, nor given up, but there are plenty of unfinished posts in the edit mode with incomplete thoughts and things we have done, but I think it would be best to just start fresh. Let's see, in the time that has passed:

I have completely purged my household of no longer wanted/needed items. All those random things that were just taking up space I don't have, creating clutter, and eating away at my sanity are a thing of the past (although, I really feel like I could go through and do it again!).

Mikenna's birthday at Elitches was a blast! We did almost all of the rides, and the favorites would be the extreme rides that you pay extra to go on (Adiee and I went on the 'Catapult'; and Mikenna and Kasey went on the huge swing!), the 'Tilt-a-Whirl' (the girls and I only, Kasey doesn't do spinny rides very well), the bumper cars, and of course the swinging ship. We left early in the morning and headed home when they were closing. The girls were asleep before we had even pulled out of the parking lot and Kasey and I must be getting "old" because we were SO tired after 30 minutes of driving. We pulled over "just to shut our eyes for a minute" and ended up sleeping for a few hours!! Oops! The worst part was the fact that when we woke up, we were still exhausted and still had 3 hours of driving. Ugh!! It was a long night, to say the least.

A few highlights... 

Living on the wild side!! What a rush! :)

On the 4th of July weekend, we spent a few days out at the lake house with my family - visiting, kayaking, watching fireworks, etc... Kasey, the girls, and I participated in the annual parade; we smothered the kayak in flags and banners plus the most important decoration - our gorgeous girls dressed in their USA hoodies and toted them around the "neighborhood" along with tons of other people. We won 1st prize and $50 which we split up between the three of them. Everyone got a picture except me (since I was in it too), so I'm still waiting for someone to send me one. Anyone? Ha! :-)

Mid July, we went to Worland to show our support and do the cancer walk-a-thon in honor of Kasey's stepmom, Linda. I met Nate's (then) fiance, a childhood friend of Kasey's, had a barbeque with some slip'n'slide and waterfight action, and a night time bicycle ride in Kasey's hometown just the two of us.

Linda with the grandkids, minus 2 that couldn't make it.

The girls and I went to Casper for school shopping towards the end of July because I learned from last years bare shelves and prepared for Adiee's kindergarten year (and Mikenna's in 2nd grade now)! I made such an effort to make sure that I got just as many exciting pictures of her shopping as I did Mikenna but gave up when I realized that she was just not as enthusiastic and I was basically telling her to "pretend" like she didn't hate it just for a dumb picture... Ugh, after I had a mini meltdown myself, I just decided that it was best to just let it be. I also think she probably would have had a lot more fun if it was one on one like it was for Mikenna, but it just wasn't possible this time since Kasey had to stay behind due to his being on-call. Oh well though, what can one do?

Bet ya can't tell which one was a fake... Ha!

After we fulfilled our school supply lists, we checked out the hot air balloons before going back home to be with daddy. The girls were pretty impressed with them and had front row seats!

A shared blanket can put a stop to the chilly morning air.

The last weekend in July, we went camping with my mom at Louis Lake in South Pass. We went on 4-wheeler rides, played in the sand and dirt, got some more use out of the kayak. Kasey took each of the girls out brookie fishing, quality one on one time with their dad. They cleaned them and fried them up right after catching them, the girls thoroughly enjoyed it!! Oh, and ate some Colorado canteloupe that could have very easily been one of the melons contaminated with listeria... No worries though, we're all fine. Thank goodness! ;-). It happens that I got about 4 shots with my camera before the dreaded "BEEP" **Battery Empty**... And they weren't even that great, but it was still a fun trip nonetheless.

So now we are in the first weekend in August. Kasey and I had been talking about getting a new car so we shopped around for financing and browsed a few online inventories. We found "the one" at Halladay Motors in Cheyenne. A white, fully-loaded, GMC Yukon XL Denali. We left the lot to keep shopping even though we both had found what we wanted. We were on our way to another lot closer to Denver when the salesman called us with an offer we couldn't refuse. I was a little sad trading in my Tahoe, but I'm so excited that this is parked in MY driveway! :)

LOVE it!!!

They do things differently in this town that I'm used to so it's still wierd to me that they go meet their teacher and put away supplies before school even officially begins...

 The girls with all their "loot."

Adiee and Ms. Worman, Kindergarten.

Mikenna and Mrs. Bares, 2nd Grade

Back 2 School Carnival

School for Mikenna started on August 22nd, and Adiee it started on August 24th. Yet another "wierd" thing they do here. The idea behind it is that they want to get to know the kindergarteners in smaller groups at first and get them acclamated before they bring all of them together... Hmmm, ok? Plus I think they did evaluations on them individually to see where they are academically. But I dressed them all up for their "First Day of School 2011" picture anyways. Adiee and Isla just got to sport the look 2 times in a row since nobody saw them the first time... ;-)

Aren't they just lovely?!?

Mikenna lost all 4 front teeth this month plus another one on bottom! Look at that gap! She was hilarious when they were first coming out, she said it was hard to say words that begin with "s", or should I say "eths-es"! Haha :) Hopefully she will give the toothfairy time to recover now, but we are glad that all 4 of those teeth can stop moving her entire front half of her mouth... Seriously, it was gross. Ha!

First day of 2nd Grade!

Adiee did not like waiting until Wednesday to start her school, she was so ready when her day rolled around! She was so excited that I couldn't get her to look at me for a single snapshot that morning, so I have a bunch of pictures with the back of her head...

First day of Kindergarten!

Isla with her lunchbox

It's just the baby and me now... I was sad to leave Adiee, but at least I still have one to keep me company.

Lunchtime!

When Isla and I got there, Adiee was in line for a hot lunch even though I had packed her a delicious lunch from home in a super cool frog lunchbag... So she had 2 lunches that day, haha! Oh, Adiee.

Labor Day weekend, we went camping again at Louis Lake with my mom again. What a fun and relaxing way to spend a long weekend, especially after all the chaos that the beginning of a school year can bring on!

Our Amazing Family

Random pictures... My life is full of beautiful people. :)

Look at her go!! Impressive!!!

Kasey put Mikenna on the boat, and to be honest, I thought he was crazy. I didn't think that she was ready to take it out on her own, but I couldn't have been more wrong. She was a natural, she had total control over it and was able to take directions like a pro! This was a creek behind our campsite and it was a perfect place to let her try because it didn't lead anywhere, there were beaver dams on both ends.

Now back to real life again... With school in full swing, now their activities are starting up. Kasey is taking them to swim lessons again, I take Isla to story time at the library, and I enrolled each of my girlies in dance and an extra tumbling class for Isla.

With that, I think I will call it a night. I guess that would make this post, "Summer & Fall Update, Part 1" Haha! :-)