Things are going great here. We had a great summer travelling to Montana for my family reunion. My sister, Shannon, drove up with the kids and I while David stayed home to work. David did start our trip with us as far as Lake Powell. We all had a blast on Gma and Gpa Halls' boat.
David went home to Pinetop while the kids and I headed up to MT. We stayed in a fun cabin in Grand Teton Nat'l Park, then toured through Yellowstone Nat'l Park. This was our second time to Yellowstone. The first time we went we missed seeing "Old Faithful", this time we saw it and the kids were slightly impressed. I guess it doesn't shoot up in the air as high as it used to. The one thing the kids remembered from our previous trips to Yellowstone was the smell. Yuck!
After driving through Yellowstone, we made it to my parents house. He had tons of fun with cousins and rabbits, horses, fish, sheep, kittens and everything else you find on a ranch.
David flew up and we took Mitch and Ryan up to Glacier Nat'l Park. Emily and Steve were having way too much fun with their cousins to leave. Glacier was beautiful! We would love to go back and do some hiking and camping. We stayed in another fun cabin, went whitewater rafting and even saw a bear! The kids were very disappointed when we left Yellowstone without seeing one, so they were thrilled to see a blonde grizzly right outside our car window. 
We had a great time with cousins and seeing old friends, it is always fun to go home. On the way home we stopped at Arches Nat'l Park and walked around for a few minutes until I realized the long trip I had to go home driving by myself.
After being home for a couple of weeks David, Mitch, and Ryan went to Silverton, CO. They went with a couple of our friends for an "off-roading" trip. They had tons of fun and the boys got to ride in our friend's jeep with the top off. That was cool!The kids are deep into school with science projects already completed and cold lunches already getting old. Mitch is in 4th grade now and he really likes it. He has had a substitute since the first day of school and we are waiting to get his "real" teacher. The sub is great though, she is very disciplined and follows the class plans of other 4th grade teachers. He has already completed his 4th grade science project, a pitching machine! He came home with the idea and I tried to talk him out of it. He insisted that could figure it out and that it wouldn't be too hard. I called another mother to see what her daughter was making and she invented a "stroon". A straw rubberbanded to a spoon so that you can drink your mild when you are done with your cereal. I thought that was a brilliant idea and easy to make also. I let Mitch know that the invention didn't have to be so complicated, but he still insisted. I backed away and told him that was a project for him and his dad. He went out to the garage and got to work. He cut a U shape out of a PVC pipe large enough for a tennis ball, took the front wheel off of his bike and placed the pipe on the bike forks. He had a hard time fastening the pipe to the bike, at the beginning he had a pencil with a nut on it holding the pipe off of the tire. It was so cute...obviously the work of a 4th grader. David gave him the idea of wiring the pipe down to the forks and using metal brackets to hold the pipe off of the tire. He spent several days modifying it and tweaking things and got it to work great! I was so proud of him. He would wake up early, get dressed for school with his chores done, and would spend time on it. Honestly, I didn't think it would ever work, but he proved me wrong. All of the kids at school were very impressed. They used it at recess and math and p.e. and any other time the teachers would let him. By the way, all of the other kids, besides the "stroon" maker, in the class made desk organizers for the pencils and things. I'm sure Mitch's teacher thought David and I did most of the work, but he did pretty much everything. He prompted one of Ryan's friends to make a table saw. It is made out of wood and two Styrofoam bowls taped together for the saw. I love kid's imaginations! ( Here is a picture of Mitch with his invention, I tried to post a video, but had problems. If I can figure it out I will add it to the blog.)
Ryan loves 2nd grade, two of his best friends are in his class and he is doing very well. I guess he has a couple of bullies that like to beat him and his friends up when the win in their soccer games. I heard about it through another mother and asked Ryan about it. All he had to say was that the other boys get mad when they lose, so they kick them and hit them with balls. I couldn't believe he didn't tell me about it earlier. He made it sound like it wasn't a big deal and that those bullies were just dumb. He probably knows that I would tell him to find a different game to play and he loves soccer.
Emily loves school! She is in half-day Kindergarten and loves every minute of it. I went in to volunteer the other day and fell in love with her teacher. She is such a sweet lady. It is such a change from Ryan's K teacher! Emily is also in Kindermusic. One of my friends is teaching it, so Emily gets to sing and dance for an hour, then she usually stays and plays with Callie, her best friend, when it is over. Wednesday is Emily's 6th birthday. We are just going to have a family party and David and I will take her out to dinner. She wants a Batgirl birthday cake, so I hope they have some cool figurines at the store! I am trying to keep things simple. I have decided that I can't have big birthday party for all of my kids. Mom, I don't know how you ever did it with seven kids!
Steve is doing better than I thought he would with the kids gone. He follows me around and helps me with laundry and dishes, even though sometimes he says it's too hard. The first day of school, he walked around calling, "Mitch, Ryan." No one would answer, so he would continue to look for them. I told him they were at school. We picked up Emily that day from school and on our way out to the truck, Steve asked where Mitch was. I told him that Mitch had to stay at school. He cried all the way to the truck saying, "Mitch, Ryan!" It was so sweet. Now he seems to enjoy his one on one time with me. We are working on his speech and it is getting better. We all love Steve, the kids keep saying, " I hope the new baby is as fun and happy as Steve." , so do I!
By the way, to those of you who don't know we are having another baby. I am due December 18th, on Ryan's birthday. We are having a girl, so if you know of any cute names, let us know. I was pretty sick at first, but I am feeling much better now. I have more of the pains now that come with pregnancy instead of the nausea. Several of my friends and my sister-in-law are all pregnant, so it makes it really fun.
David is doing well, he is suffering from a little depression because he lost out on buying a Land Cruiser on ebay. He was going to Phoenix to look at it and someone bought it before he could get down there. I felt bad for him because he was really disappointed. The truck had lift kits, lockers, ARB bumpers and everything else you could want on your truck. It was a great deal, but oh well. Please send him your condolences, just kidding. I don't want him reminded of the loss!
The dental practice is going well. They are going through some staff changes, so I get to go down and run the front desk occasionally. It is good for me to see the long days David has, it makes me want to rub his back more. I don't see how he sits leaning over all day. He is doing more sedations and implant placements, Invisalign(braces that are retainers) cases along with all of the other fun work that comes with being a dentist. His favorite days are days that are full of blood and surgeries. He loves what he does and is glad that he has extra training that allows him to do more than just fillings and crowns.
That about does it for our family. I hope that I can be disciplined enough to write more than once a year.
Ryan loves 2nd grade, two of his best friends are in his class and he is doing very well. I guess he has a couple of bullies that like to beat him and his friends up when the win in their soccer games. I heard about it through another mother and asked Ryan about it. All he had to say was that the other boys get mad when they lose, so they kick them and hit them with balls. I couldn't believe he didn't tell me about it earlier. He made it sound like it wasn't a big deal and that those bullies were just dumb. He probably knows that I would tell him to find a different game to play and he loves soccer.
Emily loves school! She is in half-day Kindergarten and loves every minute of it. I went in to volunteer the other day and fell in love with her teacher. She is such a sweet lady. It is such a change from Ryan's K teacher! Emily is also in Kindermusic. One of my friends is teaching it, so Emily gets to sing and dance for an hour, then she usually stays and plays with Callie, her best friend, when it is over. Wednesday is Emily's 6th birthday. We are just going to have a family party and David and I will take her out to dinner. She wants a Batgirl birthday cake, so I hope they have some cool figurines at the store! I am trying to keep things simple. I have decided that I can't have big birthday party for all of my kids. Mom, I don't know how you ever did it with seven kids!
Steve is doing better than I thought he would with the kids gone. He follows me around and helps me with laundry and dishes, even though sometimes he says it's too hard. The first day of school, he walked around calling, "Mitch, Ryan." No one would answer, so he would continue to look for them. I told him they were at school. We picked up Emily that day from school and on our way out to the truck, Steve asked where Mitch was. I told him that Mitch had to stay at school. He cried all the way to the truck saying, "Mitch, Ryan!" It was so sweet. Now he seems to enjoy his one on one time with me. We are working on his speech and it is getting better. We all love Steve, the kids keep saying, " I hope the new baby is as fun and happy as Steve." , so do I!
By the way, to those of you who don't know we are having another baby. I am due December 18th, on Ryan's birthday. We are having a girl, so if you know of any cute names, let us know. I was pretty sick at first, but I am feeling much better now. I have more of the pains now that come with pregnancy instead of the nausea. Several of my friends and my sister-in-law are all pregnant, so it makes it really fun.
David is doing well, he is suffering from a little depression because he lost out on buying a Land Cruiser on ebay. He was going to Phoenix to look at it and someone bought it before he could get down there. I felt bad for him because he was really disappointed. The truck had lift kits, lockers, ARB bumpers and everything else you could want on your truck. It was a great deal, but oh well. Please send him your condolences, just kidding. I don't want him reminded of the loss!
The dental practice is going well. They are going through some staff changes, so I get to go down and run the front desk occasionally. It is good for me to see the long days David has, it makes me want to rub his back more. I don't see how he sits leaning over all day. He is doing more sedations and implant placements, Invisalign(braces that are retainers) cases along with all of the other fun work that comes with being a dentist. His favorite days are days that are full of blood and surgeries. He loves what he does and is glad that he has extra training that allows him to do more than just fillings and crowns.
That about does it for our family. I hope that I can be disciplined enough to write more than once a year.
Talk to you soon.
Cherilyn
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