August 2014

Brandon began his first day of first grade, his first day of ALL day school on Thursday,August 19th.  It was another rainy day, but that did not stop him from being very excited to see his friends again.  A week before school started I went shopping for school clothes at the DI and I was so happy that I was able to completely outfit him in great quality clothes for less than $100.00.  That included shoes and winter clothes.  YAY!  Brandon is sure a cute first grader!!

 Right before school we met up with two of his best friends Jason Rowser and McKell Brosnahan who were also beginning first grade with Brandon.  Not only was the first day of school a big deal but it was also his first day in the full dual immersion program.  He would spend the first half of the day learning in English and the second half of the day learning in Spanish, then the next week he would trade and Spanish would be first and English would be last.  His English teacher was Mrs. Iordachescu and his Spanish teacher was Mrs. Nichols. Jason was in Brandon's class (the green class) and McKell was in the blue class so they were all in dual immersion together.

 Brandon did very well for his first day of school - he was excited to take his home lunch and have three recesses and he was very excited to see friends again.  It was a bit unique going to school for the first two weeks in a temporary home, but Brandon didn't seem to mind the chaos at all.

 The next day was Friday so to celebrate the beginning of school Sharece and I took the kids to Wasatch State Park for some fishing and playing.  As a rule I do not take my boys fishing - thats Jared thing to do with them.  But Sharece has no problem taking her boys fishing, so I was grateful that Jason was happy to share the fishing with Brandon.  Just as we were about to leave Jason caught a fish.  Jason loves to eat fish, so they always take them home - Brandon and Jared always do catch and release because Jared doesn't like to eat fish.  It was amusing to see how the boys dealt with the differences and with each other.  Brandon was pretty upset that the fish died, but he handled it pretty well.  :)

 I still can't believe he kissed the dead fish - YUCK!

 YA - YUCK!!  funny boy :)

 I love these two boys and their fun friendship!

 So Heber is a small town - we knew that when we moved here, we also knew that it was a growing town.  While we don't want it to become a big city, we do look forward to the right kind of growth and we look forward to watching our children grow with the city.  Well Heber has very little in the way of recreation for families, and NO swimming pool worth going to.  Brandon's girl friend's, Rachel, mom was one of the lead organizers to get a swimming pool put in.  I help her put the float together - mostly working on the backdrop of the float.  Then our family walked with several others in both the Heber and Midway town parades.  Brandon and Grant were good sports to ride their bikes and cheer about the pool - while Jared and I (and Trent in the stroller) helped pass out flyers about the pool.  It was an interesting experience.  Unfortunately, Wasatch County voted against the pool, it was very disappointing!  It was a very heated debate in the county, but I am happy that at least my boys were able to learn a bit about the voting process.  

 After one of the parades we took the boys to the zoo - all Summer long we have been waiting for the new Savannah exhibit which would feature the giraffes, zebras, lions and a few other animals, to open.  With its opening the train was finally up and running which Grant could not be more happy about.  It has been fun to watch the zoo grow and change from how Jared and I enjoyed when we were children.  The new exhibit is awesome!  It was fun to visit!

 My brother Scott continues to work on his photography talents and he is getting amazing - he is doing weddings, graduations, and many more other venues, but my favorite pictures will always be the candid pictures he gets of my boys.  This one melts my heart - my little Trent is SO very cute!!  I love looking at this picture!

 And while the quality of this picture is not nearly as good as the one Scott took, I still love it.  Brandon and Grant decorated Trent with stickers one day while on a car ride and Trent seemed very happy about it. :)

 One of our last Sunday's living in the Boudwin's basement we decided to go on a family walk - even though the weather still threaten more rain.  The sunset at the end of our walk was amazing!!

 Cami and I would walk Brandon and Jason to school in the mornings with our kids tagging along and Sharece would walk them home.  Occasionally we were all able to go together and get in a good long walk while we were at it.  Grant and Patrick seemed to enjoy the opportunity to ride bikes early in the morning!

 I will greatly miss the days when Trent falls asleep in my arms!  They grow up too fast - I know everyone says it over and over again, but that is because it is so true!  And no matter how much I cherish the moment and take pictures of it and try to linger in the moment as long as I can, I know that nothing I do will slow time or make me miss it less when the time has passed!  But at least I wont regret missing the moment when I had it!