~My Baby Begins Preschool~

It's official!  My baby is growing up.  He started preschool this past week at Smarty Pants Preschool and was so excited to finally be able to go to school like the big kids.

He has his cute little neighbor friend, London Prisbrey, in his preschool class.  They both LOVED the first day of school.  Although Garrett informed me that he didn't get why everyone was crying, lol.  I guess that is what you get when you have the oldest child in the class.  He was confused at why most of the kids were crying cause they didn't want to be there.

~Time Out For Women~

For Darinda's birthday this year, Randee had the great idea of going as Ropelato girls to Time Out For Women.  It was such a fun, uplifting weekend.  I'd never been before, and after these 2 days I swore I'd make it a yearly tradition.  Truly so uplifting!  Thanks Randee for thinking of it.

Stacey was here with us some of the time, but came late and snuck out early because she wasn't feeling well.  I was bummed that I didn't get a picture of us all when she was there. Next time :)

While I was up in Logan, Dave was manning the fort back at home, which included getting the girls to the Peach Days parade in Brigham City to perform with their dance group.  He's such a trooper!

~Lake Powell with the Ropelato's~

We all thought it would be fun to go to Lake Powell with the Ropelato side of the family.  Darinda had never been and that was something she always wanted to do, so we planned a trip for Labor Day weekend.  As the date got closer things started falling through.  Marc and Randee ended up not being able to go because they were going to be moving into their house, Nate and Stacey ended not being able to go because Stacey was worried about being down there and having complications with her pregnancy.  So we let Hunter invite several friends (we knew we'd need strong hands) and Becky's sister, Angie, and her family came with us.

Dave and I ended up having to take 2 cars down to hold all of these extra kiddos, but I enjoyed driving with these boys.  They are really such good kids.

We took a pit stop at Dairy Queen.

When we got down to Powell, we thought we'd get right on the lake to go scout out some spots for the following morning.  We hadn't been on the lake for more than 10 minutes when we were pulled over because Hunter was sitting on the back of the boat.  That dang kid!  What was funny, was just minutes before I had told him to come sit down inside the boat and Dave said, "He's fine"  Well, I guess they should have listened to me, lol.  We didn't get a ticket, but it took quite a while for them to go through all the  boat checklist (life jackets, fire extinguisher, flag, etc)  They were very nice though.

Brex, Hunter, Rexton, Isaiah, Ryker.

As we were waiting for the cops to do the boat inspection a storm started blowing in.  We pretty much got done with the cops then headed back in cause the wind picked up and we could see lightning lighting up the sky off in the distance.  So we pretty much got on the lake, got pulled over, then got back off, lol.  Good times!  I could tell the boys were getting pretty nervous about all the lightning headed our way.  I think they were glad to get off of the water when we did.

It was nice to have all these boys help us load the boat :)

We lucked out and was able to snag the exact spot that we had back in June when we came with our neighbors.  It is such a sweet spot!  The water was a lot lower than when we came back in June, so it kind of felt like a new place.

Garrett is quite the little fisherman.  He was in heaven!!!

We ended up buying a second tube.  The kids had so much fun jumping back and forth from one tube to the other.  It was fun to watch.

They also had fun double knee boarding.

Then the boys got really daring and we had 2 knee boarders and 3 surfers up.  All at once.  Very impressive!!!

One day we were out boating when a storm blew in.  We were too far away from the house boat, so we just had to find a safe cove to go in and let the rain pass.  It really came down hard.  I know most of the kids were pretty worried.  The rain and wind was a little scary.  In fact, some of the kids admitted that they thought we were going to die.  Especially since those girls from the area had just died at Bear Lake last summer when a storm came in.

 We just huddled all together and hid from the rainstorm under towels.

The storm lasted for about 10-15 minutes.  After the rain, it was blue skies again.  We decided to head back to the houseboat to make sure they were ok.  As we started heading back, we noticed waterfalls coming off of the rocks everywhere.  So we decided to go look for waterfalls instead for a little bit.  It was gorgeous!!!!

Rodney and Angie (Becky and Jeff's brother-in-law and sister) came down a day after we did to join us.  They ended up getting in a lot later than expected and Dave ended up having to drive back with them in the pitch dark.  He said it was the scariest thing he has ever done in his entire life.  It was hard to see with the lights on, because of the reflection, so they turned the lights off to drive in the dark with the moonlight.  They couldn't see the rocks at all, or where they were going.  Thank goodness for GPS so they could follow the exact route they took to get there, and they followed the bouyes.  He said he will never try doing that again though.  Super dangerous.  When they weren't back by dark, I just assumed they got held up and decided to stay at the marina.  I was shocked to see them come driving in about 2:00 am 

 When we got back to the houseboat we could see that we had waterfalls everywhere.  Huge waterfalls.  The kids that stayed back at the houseboat even used one waterfall as a waterslide.  They would slide right down the rock into the water.  It was fun to watch.

One thing about going to Lake Powell in September as opposed to June is I didn't get in the water at all.  I am one who likes really warm water.  The water wasn't too bad, but the air wasn't warm enough for me to get into the cool water.  The air temps were perfect mid 80s, but not warm enough for me to jump in to cool off in the water, like it was in June. So if I had my choice, the summer months are the time to go.  We had a really funny story about when we were heading back in.  Jerry was driving the boat down the channel, the kids were up top just enjoying the ride and the view.  It wasn't long before they were running into the main cabin shouting that their was poop on the houseboat.  We kind of just dismissed it.  How could there be poop on the houseboat?  Becky went to investigate though, cause she is a good mom.  Sure enough there was poop all over the side of the houseboat and some sitting on the little ledge of the boat.  For whatever reason the cap that covers the sewer dump came off, which is weird cause its on the side of the boat you really don't have any access to, so we are confused as to why it came off, unless the marina didn't put it on tight when they had dumped it from the previous group.  Luckily the cap was sitting on the ledge along with some goodies.  YUCK!!!!  Jeff was a good sport and went in to save the day.  He replaced the cap, cleaned off the ledge, and cleaned the side of the boat.  All while being in the water with rubber gloves.  It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it, lol.  This will be a trip we will never forget. :)

~Back to School~

I cant believe that summer is over.  This summer has flown by way to fast.  The kids weren't quite ready to start back up.  We could have used a couple for weeks, maybe even another month, lol.  This year Hunter is in 8th grade, Mckell is in 6th and has Mrs. Stowers as a teacher, Lexi is in 2nd and has Mrs Powell (my childhood neighbor) as a teacher, Garrett will be starting preschool at Smarty Pants Preschool (he doesn't start for a few more weeks).  My babies are growing up.

I surprised my kids this morning with a French toast breakfast, with balloons an all to celebrate their first day of school.

I also gave them each a little back to school treat.

Hunter and Brex heading to Jr High.

Mckell cracks me up, lol.  I love that my girls will go along with my taking a zillion pictures, Hunter is over it, lol.

Garrett still likes to be in all the pictures.

My beautiful girls

Heading to school in style

Lexi is still at the age where she doesn't mind me coming in her class to take pictures, lol.

 Celebrating the first week of school with a treat at Fiiz with our carpool group.  Kaylee Hadley, Brex Patterson, Rexton Schenck, and Hunter. 

Then celebrating at Zeppes with our Elementary carpool.  Elli Irick, Mckell, Lexi, and Lucy Holty.

~Boating~

Along with our Lagoon trips, we have tried taking weekly boating trips.  Hunter and Mckell have really gotten good at surfing and Hunter has mastered wake boarding.  Even I am feeling more comfortable with the boat.  It has been fun spending our evenings on the lake this summer.

2 man surfing

One weekend we were watching Jasmin and Jocelyn.  We decided to take them out on the lake to get warmed up for our family Lake Powell trip over Labor Day weekend.

Garrett LOVES when he can drive :)  We have made a lot of fun memories on the boat this summer.  I am glad we decided to buy one.