Waiting and Ice Cream

There is nothing better then eating ice cream on a hot humid day waiting for a hurricane. Oh the life my kids have in the south. All we have to say is bring it on Hurricane Fay!!! We have lots of ice cream in the freezer. The radar showing Hurricane Fay. She is on her way. We are about 8 hours into it with a lot more to come.

Ayns saw a dog by the lake

She thought that dog was pretty funny. The boys cared more about the ice cream as you can see.

Aynslee

Jax and Shade

A very emotional week

I have always loved Friday's, but after these last two I am starting to change my mind. Today was Shade's first day of Pre-school!! I have been an emotional wreck this entire week. One day all my kids were at home, and the next I just have one. I don't even know what to do with myself. It has been a long time since I have had only one kid. It was a little easier to send Shade off this morning, partly because he has been begging me for a year to let him go to school, and partly because it is the same school Jax went to and I do feel comfortable sending him there. He walked right in, said hi to his teachers like he has known them forever and found a friend and started to play. I hung around to see if he needed me, but he was good. He said goodbye like he was a pro. Shade is such a funny boy, he is SO independant and makes friends so quick. He doesn't care if they don't want to play, he will play with them anyway. The house is SO MUCH quieter. I don't know what I am going to do without his MILLION questions about the same thing. He is going to love school and he is going to finally be able to be away from Jax a little and use his own mind and be his own person. I am as excited for him to go as I am sad. I will miss his cute little voice all day. I will be looking forward to 12:00..... I love my cute Shade

Showing his new "school shirt"

He is excited

We made it!!!

The first day of school is done!!! I honestly have never had anything break my heart like Friday did. Jax woke up early all ready and hyper for school. He couldn't eat breakfast, he was running around crazy, he was ready. I on the other hand was a mess. I had cried myself to sleep the night before saying over and over "I am not ready for this". I am pretty sure Zach was wondering who he married. A crazy lady, that's who. Anyway, I dropped him off and he was good to go. His best friend Gavin is in his class so there were no worries there. I took one last look back as I walked out and I started all over again. I had to hurry and leave before Jax saw me. All I can say is that I love that little guy, and it is so hard to see him be so grown up and independent. We stayed busy during the day by shopping and taking the other kids to a park with Gavin's mom Angela to take our minds off of it. It worked until I knew the bus was on its way. When the bus stopped at our house I was a mess again. It was so stinking cute seeing him get off of the bus with the biggest smile I have ever seen. He ran to me and told me he had the best day of his life. I guess that it makes it ok if he is so happy. He told me his favorite part of school is gym, and lunch. Sounds like a boy to me. He was ready again today and I did a little better at dropping him off this morning. I know it will get better, he will have so many great things happen. It is something that needs to happen, but I will sure miss him. I love that boy!!!

Getting dressed

He wanted a side view like he was walking down the hall.

Shade was crying. He didn't want him to leave

Picture with me before we left

As we were pulling out, our final wave

Shade telling him to come back. He loves his brother

Help

Heart failure!!!!!....Jax starts school tomorrow!!! I am not sure if my heart can take it!!! Help!!!

Part 3 and a bonus

So, now that a few days have passed, part 3 is not that exciting anymore. The trip home on the airplane were 3 hours I will never forget. All the kids slept for the first hour, it was very nice since we had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. They woke up and played for a while, I got comments on how great they were. I was feeling pretty dang good. The last 45 minutes were not so good. Aynslee started to cry a little and was just kind of bored. I was trying very hard to keep her quiet, but she is 1 and we are on an airplane so there really isn't much you can do. Well, this man that was in front of us made a very rude comment and then ran off the plane. Zach and I just looked at eachother and were mad, but there was nothing we could do. So we flew into Houston which is a big airport so we had to get on the train to the next terminal. While we were on the train the man that commented on how good our kids were was talking to a lady next to him that was also on our plane. He was saying what a rotten mother I was and that I did nothing to control my kids, (which was a lie) and how bad my kids were. He said you could tell we didn't fly much. Really, this was Aynslee's 14th flight in her 1 year of life and I have NEVER had a bad comment on her before. Well, it must have been the mood I was in, because I ran up to him and I lost it. I yelled at him like there was no tomorrow. I think I scared every single person on the train. I think Zach was afraid there might be some punches thrown. I was just mad that he was talking out both sides of his mouth about how good they were, and then how bad they were. Don't mess with my kids. Don't tell me they were being bad when they were not. I am a mother who expects a lot out of my kids, and I can promise you that if they were bad I would be the first to say it. I just hate how people have no understanding of childrens these days. They are stuck on an airplane for 3 hours with no where to go and nothing to do. I get bored. Anyway, a better person would have just let it go, but I am just sick of people hating kids. I love my babies and I will do just about anything for them. If you are in my way, Watch Out!!

I know I am random, but I am going to post two in one.....

I have been wanting to do something new to our kitchen since we moved in, and I finally talked Zach into it. Here are some before and after pictures of our kitchen. I think it turned out great. Thanks Zach!!!!! Before
Before

During

After

After

After

Part 2

And the saga continues... The second big event of the vacation was the Leak family reunion. I was especially excited about this one because I got to plan it. I thought it turned out really fun. The first thing we did was all drive to Twin Falls and got to see Jordan and Barbaras new beautiful home. I loved it. Then we drove to the Twin Falls Temple Open House. It was so pretty and the boys loved to see how special it is. It was a great experience to be able to be there with my entire family. We were also able to get family pictures taken there. Then, we drove back home and stayed the night at my parents. We woke up and drove to Bear Lake and stayed in an awesome cabin. Of course there is always drama when things like this are happening. We lost contact with each other and had no cell service so we were texting and driving around trying to find each other because no one knew where the cabin was. Then, the road was SO TINY and Matt was pulling his camper and got stuck, the boys had to cut down part of a tree so they could make it the rest of the way. The cabin was cool and so fun to be able to stay together. Bear Lake was SO SO BUSY, but still a lot of fun. The kids got very sandy but isn't that what Bear Lake is about? I think the reunion turned out great and I am ready for next year. We wrapped up our trip with a couple of cookouts at each families home. We love fire, food, family, so there is nothing better then a cookout. I will go up to that point with a Part 3 to come. My cute sisters and me. Sonnie, Rikki, Courtney

Getting the fire ready

My great friend Chazel gave these VERY CUTE skirts to Ayns and Ryanne. THANKS CHAZEL!!!

Hanging out in her skirt and loving it

Jax mad at Mitch(Sonnie's husband) for getting water in his face. He hates it. Kind of funny

Shade loving the water

Playing in the sand

Eating the sand. GROSS!!

Our family picture

We started out as 7. Look at us now!!

Part 1

We made it back from Idaho. Only one major bump in the road. More on that later. We always have such a great time in Idaho and love seeing all of our family and friends. We were out there for almost 2 1/2 weeks so I have a ton to post. I will do it in parts so it is not one HUGE post. I am not sure how many it will take though.

On our way out we had one 2 hour flight, a 2 hour layover, and then a 4 hour flight. The kids did great and we made it one piece.

The first big event was a great camping trip to Trial Lake in Utah with Zach's side of the family. I had never been there, but it was such a beautiful place to camp and hike. We had tons of fun just talking to everyone and catching up. We hiked, ate, sat, and ate some more. It was great!! Zach, Shade, Aynslee and I decided to go on a hike the second day and had planned to only hike about 1 mile since we didn't have a backpack for Shade and he had to walk. Well...that 1 mile turned out to be about 6 miles and about 4 of them I had Shade piggy back asleep on my back. I am not talking about a little stroll down by the river, it was a major hike. I was so proud of myself for making it. It actually was a great hike and we now have a new crazy memory. Thank you Mema and Papa for putting together a great camping trip. More to come in Part 2.

Zach, Ayns, Jax, Jed, Shade walking. I thought it was a cute picture

On the way back from the hike. We had to show the elevation: 11,527. Not bad

Where we hiked to. So pretty


We finally made it!!! Relaxing before the hike back down

We made it!!!!

Our camp spot

Trial Lake. I loved it!!

Zach and Ayns hanging out

You could always find Shade by the food

Playing a game while the adults chatted

Cheese