August 2026 - Back to School

We celebrated the last few days of summer at the City Pool, Splash Summit, and Boondocks.  Audrey was too young to do the go karts but she loved the water boats.  

On the drive home from Splash Summit Alexa got to experience her first car accident. There was a slowdown on the freeway so she stopped and so did the car behind her, but two cars behind us didn't stop in time and hit the car behind us into our van. Thankfully, everyone was ok but it took the police 30 minutes to get there and our van was in the shop for almost 4 weeks. The kids loved the Wagoneer rental because it had so much room, but we were not huge fans of how much it cost to fill up with gas!

We headed back to school in 10th (Alexa), 8th (Tyler), 5th (Tad), 3rd (Liam), 1st (Nathan), and preschool (Audrey).  It's Miss Audrey's first year of preschool and she is beyond excited that she finally gets to go to school like everyone else.  She is really social and didn't look back at all as she walked in on her first day.  We tried to get a copy of her in the same pose and outfit as Alexa on her first day of preschool.  It's crazy how much they look alike! 

Alexa saved up and got blonde highlights right before school started.  

Audrey's first day of preschool

Alexa's first day of preschool

Nathan's celebrated his 6th birthday with an alligator water slide bounce house in our back yard.  We got him some Sonic pajamas and a Hot Wheels Bowser Castle race track.  Tad made him a handmade Mario action figure and coins.  Liam drew him a bunch of great Mario pictures that he said were posters for his room.  His birthday was on a Sunday so we brought donuts to hand out in primary.  I was really proud of the Sonic birthday cake I made at his request--it actually turned out looking like Sonic and he was so happy.  

Alexa had a recital for her vocal studio.  She sang The 30th by Billie Eilish and did so well.  She has loved taking voice lessons over the summer.  She also loved going to the temple with the YW before school started back up. 

They kids saw Michael Jackson play Twister in the Michael movie and wanted to play so we taught them how.   

Videos:

Alexa vocal solo: https://youtu.be/n-SJEqFlw0w?si=0V1lSWsuM-7YRP2_

Tyler was asked to played violin in church: https://youtu.be/ImIusQcsuTI?si=UAOcq7_hMV8psKAI

Tyler and his friend Noah dancing: https://youtu.be/BzIZ2RKNsVY?si=GBWOPYG7r-j_I35x

Funny Quotes and Stories:

Dad: singing "Oh Canada" at the top of his lungs
Alexa: I didn’t know Antarctica had a national anthem?! No one even lives there!
Mom chokes on her cracker

Nathan, in a British accent: “Cheerio, top o the mornin! Who forgot to flush?! …I forget what to say.” He randomly quotes our Boston Tea Party script in the middle of every day life and then adds other phrases with his fake accent and I love it.  For "who forgot to flush" he pronounced it "eww four-gawt dew flush."