August iPhone

 Outdoor lunches on the back patio —love, love, love not sweeping up after a meal with these cuties!

 Dinner date with these old HS besties. 

Still some of the best people I've ever known and we have so much fun together.

 Since Angela was in town for a whole month all the way from Virginia we fit in a girls' ride and later in her stay we had a fun triple dinner date with all hubbies.

 I moved Luke into a big boy bed a few months ago and yet I left this lovely crib standing in an empty room. It was an oddly emotional thing to say goodbye to this "thing" but it definitely signaled the end of an era that I am finally ready to embrace. And now I am feeling thrilled about the prospect of having loads of kids and no more babies, so it was time to store this away (might be one key item I keep forever in the hopes that some grandbabies will one day sleep in it). Moving the crib freed up a room and Olivia was sweetly pleading for her own so we made it hers. Caroline lucked out getting the big queen bed in her room so it could still double as a guest room when we have visitors (and then we could assemble the bed that's been stored awkwardly in the basement!)

 Cute family of deer behind our house one morning

 Happiest, blonde cupcake eater celebrating cousin Anders' birthday

 

The younger Horsley cousins came to play one afternoon and being summer we just needed water to have a great time outside!

 Taking a break in the shade to dry off and eat lots of snacks :)

 And finally it was back to school for these two (on a rainy August day! Not the norm around here at all but we have the wettest summer).

Cares started 3rd grade and Bentley started 5th grade. I love these big kids so much!

 One week after the bigs started back this beautiful princess finally started Kindergarten. She was one hundred percent ready and so excited to go. She has done so well there and I especially love my 3 elementary kids walking home together every day. These are certainly precious years as a mommy.

This little man is very happy Livs only leaves him for half of the day as they play so well in the mornings and enjoy their time without big kids. Somehow that Luke cannot ruffle Livs' feathers like the bigs can and she is so patient an fun with him. My little sweethearts!

Back to Seven Peaks

Last year we only hit the SLC Seven Peaks so this year we opted to head down to Provo when we went (all 2 times :) We got there right when it opened but it was the last Saturday of summer break so it was a pretty busy there. Still loads of fun though!

After a long morning swimming and going on slides and enjoying the sun, we packed up and drove over to Kiwanis Park by my Tutu and Papa's old house. We had lunch packed in the cooler in the car so we found some big shady trees and spread out on the grass to eat.

 Livs was feeling a little worn out and needed a daddy snuggle.

These pictures are what we like to call the "evolution of the family selfie:"

Summer days with these guys are always crazy but we always have a lot of fun together!

Zoo Day

 We love the zoo, we really do. But we absolutely hate crowds! This summer I kept thinking we'd get over there early one morning and enjoy it in the fresh, cool air for an hour or two but of course August rolled around and we had never made it over there. The day before school started ended up being a crisp rainy day so we headed over after Luke's nap for a late afternoon visit and voila—hardly a soul in sight! We enjoyed the open paths and empty exhibits plus the animals loved the cool air.

 Checking out the zebras

 And the lions. We loved how synchronized these guys were that afternoon.

It had been raining all day but cleared up for the rest of the afternoon once we got there.

 

 I love this picture of all my darlings in the nest. I posted it on Instagram and Joseph's comment was "What will they do pretty bird? They will fly far away..." It's a line from one of our favorite lullabies around here Pretty Bird. And it makes me a little sad every time I sing it...

 Luke loves this little otter!

 My silly photobombing kids! Of course Cares was super mad about Livs wrecking her picture so we took a few more —but this one is still my favorite :)

 Bean then asked the girls to please photobomb his picture on the cats and everyone was happy and fine again!

A little fun in the gift shop at the end of our visit

BYU Day 2014

A favorite August tradition! This year Krista told me about the free golf cart tours of campus so I called ahead and scheduled one for our crew. We needed two golf carts because my sis and I have produced a lot of people!

 

 
We also shopped at the book store (of course) and hit the art museum where we saw a fun exhibit full of costumes from famous films.

 

 

 

Our outing ended with lunch at Los Hermanos and hardly any grumpy children (haha). Actually, these littlest ones are getting easier every year and starting to enjoy all of it as much as the bigger ones. We love this tradition! I just keep thinking about how close it is to the time when we could be headed down there and thinking "oh yeah this is where Ethan will be every day this fall!" My oh my how these darlings grow up!

Joseph's Birthday

Joseph is officially 37 and had the day off to do whatever he chose. Crazy dude that he is he chose a good, long run down Big Cottonwood and over into Holladay a bit. I am the best wife ever (if I do say so myself) because I volunteered to wake up at 5:30 am and drive Joseph and his running buddies all the way over there and drop them off at the top of the canyon (all while our littles slept sweetly in the their beds. Bentley was left in charge in case anyone woke up so Luke slept down on Bean's trundle bed that night. The kids did great and only woke up about 20 minutes before I got back home).

It was a glorious morning out and that early there is zero traffic so it wasn't too big of a deal. Plus, Joseph was so excited about it and considering his marathon coming up on that same route I wanted to help him get ready for his big race.

Running friends L to R: Miles, Joseph and Wilson (all of us live on the same street) and Tandy who met us at the mouth of the canyon. Tandy was in Vocal Point with Joseph at BYU and now lives in Daybreak. He and Joseph have been on a few runs together this summer training for race day.

The running crew also dropped a car at Rich's Bagels on 6200 south that morning so they could drive home in that and I didn't have to wait around for them to drive them back home.

The rest of the day we spent playing at the pool, eating out and singing to Joseph over a beautiful collage of Sweet Tooth Fairy cupcakes. We love that guy so much! It's hard to even imagine a second of life without him in it and I am so grateful he came into this world, grew up in one of the best families on the planet, and chose me to build a life and family with. He is our happiness and our rock and we love him!

 Had to throw in this silly picture of this hilarious boy. I just wanted a picture of him with his cute toddler body in his swim diaper and I ended up with about 5 pictures of silly faces and lots of crazy!

Albion Basin Wildflowers

Beautiful August morning high up Little Cottonwood — one of my favorite places in the world no matter what season it is around here!

The flowers were still abundant but I wonder if we had just missed the window on their full, blooming beauty. It has been so rainy around here that it's been hard to find a great window to hit these so we're glad we found time with both Krista and Mary to explore and enjoy the cool air, green meadows and sunshine.

 I felt kind of silly making my kids wear jeans and bring jackets but I was so glad I had mine. I think it was only 69 degrees up there when we arrived — glorious in the summer heat but also a bit of a shock.

I love these girls!