August life

So besides California and Bodie's birthday party we also did other things to fill the month of August. One day before school was to start we headed up to Bountiful to hang at my mom's for a bit. A little QT with grandma. She showed the boys and had them help make lasagna. Since I never do stuff like that. Ha! And we had our last day of our weekly morning track we do at Olympus High with our friends the Davies. And I took a few pictures. Jax wasn't as "into" it this year as in the past. Creed did well with his mile this year, and Bodie and Rafe hardly ran like they used to. They lost their mojo I guess. And we or they had to cancel a few times. But we stuck with it. Lots of complaining and wanting to go home, but getting out and running is always a good thing. So I make them. The sprinting is always a favorite. The one picture Annie was teaching the kids how start a race like the Olympians or real athletes do it. So my boys look almost vertical in the bottom left picture. Fun stuff.

The week before school started we also took a quick trip with the Unguren's up to Silver Lake at Brighton to hike around. The kids had such a fun time exploring. I'm glad we went. 

And the new addition to the MTC in Provo had an open house so we drove down to see that. And I am really happy we did. So glad my boys can see the MTC, where they will go and live before their mission to train and see what it will be like. Jax was realizing in 6 years he will be there. I hope all the boys will remember being able to go and see that one day in the future and maybe it will help ease any fears of the unknown of going on a mission. They all enjoyed it and then we drove through BYU campus and parts of Provo so they could see it. In the picture with the map, we told them how it's where everyone takes a pic pointing to where in the world they are headed on their missions. So Greg is doing Russia of course and Jax and Creed are both doing France, the younger boys are pointing to maybe a french speaking island somewhere, ha!

I had to capture Creed mowing the lawn. He learned this summer and always does the front and Jax does the backyard. 

I also took a picture of Jax because we are so proud of him. He always talks about earning money or what he could do. And this August he decided he really wants to earn lots of money to invest and buy a hand gun pistol like Greg just got. So I helped him make flyers and he took them around and actually got a few jobs. He advertised saying that "are you sick of mowing your lawn, let me do it for you, $15" He is happy camper to be getting real money. The first times he mowed all 3 houses, he hated it and complained how hard and long it took, how big their yards were and how long the grass was and he wanted to not do it again. But the next week he was all about the money again and went back at it. Now he sees that it can be done and he will get his $300 to actually buy a gun.

Now I'm not a fan of kids and guns, but Greg says it's an investment for a lifetime to have, it's better than some toy or video game or some stupid thing. And it will always be locked in the safe and never a bullet in the chamber and never to be carried around. 

The bottom pictures are of our annual back to school pancake breakfast we do. All the boys were gathered around the grill messing around with the left over batter Greg left out. And the last is Creed and Jax doing their brother handshake. It's like 15-20 seconds long. It's fun to watch all their moves. I video recorded it of course. And their shirts are off because at night before bed they "lift weights and do push ups and stuff to get strong".

And at the beginning of the month Greg's bro Rick and Mari and girls came into town from Texas. So we saw them a few times, had dinners, went boating, went to Alpine Days with them and visited. Here's a big group picture of the fam!