Welcome Home

My younger brother Kevin got home this month!   He's been in Uruguay serving a 2 year church mission.  Since we were just in AZ, I wasn't able to be there. :(  It was fun to be able to talk & skype with him though.

My parents were glad to have him home... for a few days!  He had gatherings, appointments, gave his homecoming talk in church, and then flew up to Utah to start another semester at BYU.  My sister Stacey had been attending his classes for a week until he got back.

The boys in my family all together at last: Bryan, Brett, Dad, Travis & Kevin.  Obviously all decked out in BYU gear. :)  We were glad to have Trav & fam back from the island as well.

And of course the infamous "Father Handshake" My dad uses this lots during BYU football games.  Love these boys. Welcome home little bro!

Labor Day Camping

At the beginning of the month, we joined our friends, the Sorensens, on a camping adventure at Shenandoah National Park near Fort Royal, Virgina.

It was so beautiful! This was taken on the drive to our campsite.

It was pretty foggy, but a fun retreat from the city!

Scenic view from above.

Grayson in the tent. This was one of his favorite places to play. He actually wanted to go to bed that night. Haha! We kept him up to roast marshmellows though!

The campsite- as taken by Grayson. Oh and I guess you can find Strider, Tolman and me on the side. Here you park and camp, which makes it not as outdoorsy & you're close to neighbors, but at least it was easy with kids. :)

We had such a fun time! Tolman even slept in the tent with blankets since I forgot the pack-n-play. We pitched our tent on a slant and I kept finding Tolman near my feet. Good times! We would love to go again.  We just know it'll be gorgeous soon with Fall coming.



2nd Year

 School is back in full swing... and has been for like a month. :) Here are some pictures from the first week of school.

Grayson enjoys wearing Dad's hats

Playing army men

Gotta love boxes!

  And buckets...aka football helmet

 Grayson has started to interact with Tolman more

 And of course love him so much he wants space!

Moments where they laugh & play nice together make up for the other times. ;)

Grayson's "angry eyes". He loves Toy Story way too much!

Follow-up on Grayson's photography... he's still got it! :)

 Grayson & Stride sharing their shake mustaches.

 Grayson downed it! My boys have been eating and growing up so much these days.  I can't believe how big they're getting.

 Tolman kicking his feet up after breakfast.

Strider has started second year with more classes & reading than he had last year. We sure are hoping for the best as this year looks like a tough one.  So far Stride has had one test and has been able to balance school & home life really well. We all love when daddy is home!! 

We are also very thankful to have been just fine during the recent earthquake & hurricane in our area. We were on the outskirts of Hurricane Irene and it just took our power out for a few hours.  Our neighbors we very lucky as their nearby tree missed their car & home (picture above by blue SUV)