First Week of School

Summer is officially over and the kids started back to school this last Wednesday. I think they were all a little secretly excited, though they have still complained about school being boring and wishing they could sleep in. We took our usual first day of school pictures. I also included myself this year. ;)

Avery had to be there first at 8:00. So at about 7:50, me, Gabe, Caleb, and Avery piled into the Buick and drove across the street to the elementary school. I walked her and and we found her new classroom. The teacher is Mrs. McCoy and I know her well because she is in our church ward. Caleb also had her for first grade. She said hello and Avery hung up her little sweatshirt and her Shopkins backpack. Pretty soon Avery was working on a coloring page at her little spot at her desk and I said goodbye to her and left to take the boys to school. There were no tears or anything. She looked a little nervous, but she has her friends Adrie and Chloe in there and I think that helped too.

Next, we headed to the Jr. High to drop off Gabe. That school is the furthest one from our house. Traffic was a bit crazy so I kind of took a back way. We arrived there at about 8:15 and I pulled up to the curb. I was absolutely SHOCKED that he did NOT want me to walk him in (haha) and so I just said goodbye and off he walked up to the school! We had gone the day before and found his locker and practiced opening it and everything. He is sharing with his best friend from down our street, Porter. (They got to choose their locker buddy.) So that will at least be one thing he is at ease about!

Finally, I headed to the middle school to drop off Caleb. I felt like we were really rushed when I dropped him in front of the school because there were a lot of cars behind us and didn't really get to say goodbye. So he got out and hurried into the school and then I went and parked and ran in and happened to catch him right at the door of his classroom. I wanted to give him a big hug and a kiss and say a proper goodbye. He didn't seem thrilled. lol Here is a picture of him ignoring me.

So then I came back home and cleaned up the house from the morning mayhem, did a couple things on my computer, ate breakfast, and at 10:50 I headed over to the elementary school for my first day helping as the front secretary! It was pretty busy with first day kinds of things. The two hours went by fast and then at 1:00 I left and met Josh at the police station for lunch. He told me that a big crash had happened at the intersection up by the temple about 1 minute after i had gone through it this morning! A girl from Africa who is here for college and had just gotten her license the day earlier accidentally turned left on a yellow arrow when she didn't have the right of way and turned into a car coming straight through from the opposite side. It was pretty lucky that we weren't there a minute later! My car would've been totaled!

Then I went home and dropped off my car, then walked to the corner of our neighborhood to wait for Avery and the rest of the neighborhood kids to walk home. They showed up at about 2:40 and there was a crew of about 40 of them! Seems like yesterday it was just Gabe! Now our neighborhood has grown and there are TONS of kids.

Avery and I got to relax and look over her backpack things for about 30 minutes, then it was time to go pick up Caleb and then Gabe who get done at 3:25 and 3:35. Gabe didn't seem too thrilled about his first day. His biggest complaint was that he didn't know anyone in his lunch hour. He said it was mostly 8th and 9th graders. But then by the second day he found one kid to sit by and then by Friday he listed of about 3 kids that he sat by. So hopefully he is making friends fast. Caleb, on the other hand, said he sat at "the football table" and knew a bunch of boys from his team. He also said his little friend, Benson, from down our street, sat there with them too. (Benson is literally half the size of Caleb. lol) But I'm happy he included him! I don't want him to be the jerk football player who doesn't talk to anyone else. Caleb said he loves his main teacher, Mr. Tanner, who is a big guy who loves superheros and cartoons and plays lots of games with his students. Basically I think he is like an older version of Caleb. Caleb said in one game they had to cross the room only stepping a certain number of steps on the ground and his team was running low on steps so he ended up carrying two girls across (at the same time) on his back. lol I wish I could have seen that. He was a little ticked off on the second day because he wanted to be the class president and apparently he lost to the other candidate (it came down to him and one other boy) by a few votes. I told him, "Do you really want to go to planning meetings during your lunch and recess anyways?" Then I think once he thought about it he decided that it was better he didn't win anyways. Avery seemed to do well on her first few days of school too. Her teacher plans so many fun things it's probably hard for them to ever get sad. They did this watermelon hunt on the first day of school that ended up with them getting to eat some watermelon, which is like Avery's all-time favorite food. So, hopefully they are all off to a good year!

Also this week, Caleb had his first football "jamboree" where they met up with lots of different teams in the area and play each one for about 20 minutes. Caleb's team dominated against all the teams they played at the jamboree. Then they had their first official game on Saturday morning, but it was against the Madison Red team. Basically the Madison Red team is a very strong team with a very obsessive coach who films every game (of every other team) and then goes home and watches the footage at night to plan their plays against them. He's what some people would call... crazy. lol But his team did beat our team on Saturday so I guess it paid off! However, Caleb did very well playing center and didn't let anyone by. Josh had warned him that the center on the other team was known to just plow through and sack the quarterback. Caleb didn't let him through once and on one play he actually pushed him to the ground and just laid on him for about 20 seconds. LOL We got a holding penalty for that. Josh was laughing so hard about it though. So anyways! I think it will be a good season. I think that is probably the toughest team we will play all season and our boys still played really well against them. I will need to get some good pictures of Caleb once they get their new uniforms. They have been wearing their old ones and it's very obvious that Caleb has grown out of his! haha It looks kind of like a belly shirt on him (he always has to wear a tshirt under it.)

Later in the evening on Saturday, we got our family pictures taken by my friend, Claire. She is just starting out her photography business and I thought it would be great since my kids know her and are comfortable with her. Well it turns out they were maybe a little TOO comfortable with her and didn't listen to direction very well during the pictures. I haven't gotten them all back yet from her so hopefully we got some good ones! Here is one she did send me so far though!

 That's all for now!

Wrapping Up the Summer Fun: Rigby Lake, Rexburg Rapids, Packsaddle Lake and Hike, Wade Lake and Camping, Heise Hot Springs....1 week 'til School Starts!

Only 7 more days until Summer Vacation 2018 is over and the kids are back to school! (But who's counting...?) I will admit, at the beginning of this Summer I thought, "How am I gonna make it through this Summer?" But now here it is almost over and it went really fast! The kids seriously seem to fight like crazy when they are all home and we are just hanging out at the house bored. So really we just tried to keep them busy and keep going places just so that I wouldn't completely lose my mind. So in May, I had made a list of all the possible things we could do this summer. And I think we did just about every single one of them! There's a couple of hikes we haven't done and horseback riding with grandpa's horses, but I think we will still do that in the Fall as it cools off a little.

So since the last time I wrote a blog, the things we have done are as follows:

Rigby Lake
We actually went here a few times this Summer. It's only about 15 minutes from our house. Josh bought this inflatable canoe from a neighbor who was moving and the kids have loved taking that out to Rigby Lake and other lakes. The boys always have these fights to see who can tip the other one off into the water first. We also have borrowed a little blue canoe that's perfect for Avery and she is getting to be quite the good little paddler. She can handle herself on that really well. So anyways at Rigby Lake we like to just go and the kids play in the sand and the water. Here are a few pictures of that...

Rexburg Rapids:
We also went here I think four times so far this summer. One time was just Josh and the kids with the soccer teams right at the beginning of Summer. Then I took them twice just by myself. Then once was with the whole family for the "city employees" night. I think we actually have two more punches on our pass to use up before next week so we will have to go one more time. The boys are old enough now that I basically let them run off and do their own thing. Avery sticks by me and is getting braver about swimming in deeper water. I usually make her wear her life jacket still if she's going to be in the deep end for linger than a couple minutes with me. But she's definitely getting more confident in the water. I don't know that I would trust her to swim across the pool from one end to the other where she couldn't touch... but probably by next summer. She did go down the water slides for the first time this summer! So that was an accomplishment! They don't let you wear life jackets down the slides either ("it can scratch the slides" - eyeroll face here....) so I would go down first and then kind of linger for a minute to help her as she came down the slide - just to make sure she could swim to the steps because it's just deep enough that she can barely touch on her tippy toes I think. So anyways! That's Rexburg Rapids. Here's another picture (that's a neighbor friend's little boy, Ethan Call, we went with their family one day while Josh was working)

PackSaddle Lake Hike (July 28, 2018):
This was one of my favorite weekends of the whole summer. And that's saying something because we did a LOT of fun things. We have done this hike once before and I just think it's such a beautiful hike and then it ends as i think ALL hikes should: with a beautiful lake at the end to swim in.

So my friends, Stacey and Kamrie, came up from Utah for the weekend of July 27-29. They got here Friday night and we just stayed in and watched Mama Mia 1 on Netflix. Then on Saturday we woke up early (by 8:00... very early) and had a big breakfast (thanks Josh) and then packed some sandwiches and put on our swimsuits with some comfy hiking clothes over them. We loaded into our SUV and drove about 40 minutes toward Teton. First you have to drive up some kind of treacherous dirt roads. But the higher you can get in your car, the less hiking you have to do. We made it to a certain point last time and we got about just as far this time. Any farther and the deep trenches in the road would be too much for our Buick Enclave to handle. So we parked off in some trees and then put on our backpacks and started the hike. First you hike up the road a little bit farther for about 15 minutes. Then you get to the very top part of the mountain, which looks out over the whole valley. (See photo:)

Then, you basically start the descent down into the trees again and the path is pretty narrow and gets kind of steep and rocky. Avery did really good though and I think Caleb complained more than her. Actually I know he did. Especially on the hike back out. But here are some pictures as we started to drop down into the canyon:

Once you get down the steepest part, then it becomes easier again and it's kind of shady and in the trees for about another 15 minutes. Pretty soon you are able to catch a glimpse of the lake as you hike lower and lower (Gabe is in official pre-teen mode in the picture:)

Then a few minutes later and you reach the lake! It is so beautiful! Surrounded by trees and very remote feeling! There was no one else there when we first arrived. As we stayed longer there were about two other families that hiked in, but still not too busy. As we were driving out we did pass more people so I think it's best to go by like 10am like we did! Here are some pictures of Avery doing her handshake with Kamrie and Stacey and Gabe by the rope swing. (We didn't attempt it this year because the water was pretty low and it would've been tricky to swing far enough out.)

After we got back home from the hike, we showered and then just me, Kamrie, and Stacey went out to Idaho Falls for dinner and to see Mama Mia 2. It was awesome! Such a fun night! Avery also loves when Aunt Stacey comes to town. (As you can see there's definitely a family resemblance:)

Wade Lake Camping Trip (August 1-2, 2018):
This was something that we really wanted to do this year. We had gone up to Wade Lake and Cliff Lake (they are right next to each other) last year and were just amazed at how beautiful and clear the water was. It's this hidden lake area that you get to by driving about an hour and a half from our house, heading north into Montana. It's just between West Yellowstone and Ennis. You have to drive on this gravel road for a while, then down this mountain valley. We decided that if we were going all that way we should try and camp overnight. So we got there just by fluke RIGHT at the best time, which was about 2:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday, August 1st. Apparently people need to vacate their campsite by 2:00 unless they want to pay for another night. So we got SUPER lucky and drove in to the camp site right as someone was driving out. Our camp site wasn't very big but it was about 30 steps from Wade Lake. It was super convenient! So we set up camp first, then swam that evening. We took along the little blue kayak for Avery that we borrowed from Josh's sister and then also our inflatable kayak for the boys. They had a blast trying to knock each other off. Avery is like a pro now with the little kayak. At night we made hot dogs and smores for dinner on the campfire and slept in a tent. Then we swam again the next morning and packed up by about 1:00. The weather wasn't awful but it could've been a little better. We got sprinkled on a little bit here and there! We did have some sun though! Here are some pictures! Everyone always sees my pictures of this place and asks in awe, "Where is this magical place?!" Now half my friends have gone up there too!

 Rhodes Family Reunion River Float (August 4th, 2018):
Josh's family tries to have a "reunion" every summer. I always think it's funny because all six kids and the parents live within about a 50 mile radius of each other. Heck, one of Josh's sisters and her family literally just moved in down the road from us. But yet, we need to "reunite". lol So this year Bryan (Josh's older brother) was in charge and the activity he picked was to float the river in Ashton. Everyone brought their own tubes and kayaks and things. I opted to take the inflatable kayak for me and Avery. I was glad about that decision because the water was COLD. The boys and josh each had their own inner tube that they floated in. It took us from about 1:30-4:00pm to float the whole thing and then we got out and drove to the church for a cookout.

Heise Hot Springs (August 10, 2018):

This was one place I had never been! We had driven by plenty of times on our way to pick huckleberries in Kelly Canyon, but we had never actually gone swimming here. It's kind of pricey, which is probably why I've avoided it (about $65 for our whole family to get in and use all the pools and slides for the day), but they kids really enjoyed it. I did too actually. It was super hot this day so you would jump in the pool and then lay down for like two minutes and be hot again. They have one pool thats a natural hot springs pool so it was SUPER hot. We didn't even really want to be in that one. The kids spent a lot of time going down the big green tube water slide and then on the diving board. Avery went off the diving board for the first time ever! At first we was a little hesitant but that after the first jump she was running and jumping in like a fearless pro!

So! I think that is pretty much all of the Major Summer fun activities we have done! I got a part-time (VERY part-time) job that I started today working at the elementary school across the street from our house as a front desk secretary. Avery is starting first grade there so I'll just follow her there I guess. Today was registration day so they asked if I would just come today. Then I start on the first day of school, which is next Wednesday, August 22. There is another full-time secretary that will be there everyday from 8am-3pm and they just needed someone to help her over the lunch time from about 11-1 each day. So I figured that would be a fun place to chat with lots of moms I already know and just do some easy work! I was starting to feel a little sad about being home by myself all day every day in about a week, so I'm glad that this will be someplace to go and converse with people and get out of the house a little! I also still have my Etsy stuff that I can do to fill the time. Heck who knows, maybe I'll even go to the gym!
Okay, let's not talk crazy. We all know that won't happen. ;)

That's all for now!

Avery Rides a Bike - Huckleberry Picking - Caleb at Water Scout Camp - Soccer Season Ends for Avery and Caleb

It has finally happened!! This is a momentous occasion. It may not seem like that big of a deal, but Avery has been terrified of her bike ever since Josh took the training wheels off it over a year ago. To be honest, I’m not even sure when or why he took them off. She didn’t want them off. I think Josh was just seeing all the other kids in the neighborhood zipping around on two wheels and thought it was time for Avery to ride on two wheels. But she didn’t want to! So then basically she just rode her little Hello Kitty razor scooter for the next year and a half! Whenever we would go for bike rides she would ride her scooter. She had NO desire to ever ride her bike. So there it hung in our garage. Finally, on Monday night (July 23, 2018 for the record) I decided it was time.

I told her “You are going to learn how to ride your bike tonight.” It was about 7:00 and Josh was going to take Drax for a walk. I got her bike down and Josh started to say “Come here Avery. You’re going to learn!” Avery then freaked out and sat crying on her bike saying “No! I’m scared!” Then Josh responded by also freaking out and saying, “Fine. You can go sit in your room then!” Nope. Not the right way to handle it. So, being the calm, rational, expert parent I am... I told him “You go take your dog for a walk with Gabe and Caleb and I will stay here with her.”

When they returned about half hour later, guess who was riding up and down the street on two wheels. Yup! Me. Just kidding. Well me AND Avery. She was such a pro! She only let me hold onto her back of her seat once or twice and then once I explained what she needed to do she got all like “no mom, don’t touch me! I can do it!” And she just kept at it until she’s got it! The hardest part of riding a bike is getting started and that’s what took her the longest to get (about 20 minutes of trying) but soon she got the hang of pushing one pedal forward then getting her balance and starting to pedal both feet. Once she got going she easily rode down the street the whole way! She was so proud of herself and kept saying “I can’t believe I learned how to ride a bike today.”

So now she’s a pro and she woke up this morning eager to go for a bike ride again! She loves to ride around the neighborhood and practice her turns in peoples’ driveways. She’s already almost two tall for this Hello Kitty bike so a new one will probably have to be a birthday gift next summer. But we are so happy to finally have her biking so we can go on real family bike rides!

In other quick news, Caleb went to a special Water Days Scout camp where they just had some fun games during the day. Here he is with another boy that is actually in his class - yes they are the same age. Caleb's at one end of the growth chart and Benson is at the other.

And then we went up and picked some Huckleberries on Sunday (July 22) at Kelley Canyon. It looked like a lot people were up there picking so I think the area we were in might have gotten picked over, but as we moved around a bit we did find some! I think we may go back again another day! There were a lot that were still green the bushes.

Finally, we also went up to Yellowstone and went swimming at "The Firehole." I did not expect it to be so busy but there were a LOT of people there. It would've been more fun with about 75 percent less people there. Or 100 percent. But the kids still had fun and Caleb even broke the law and "cliff jumped" off a little rocky area that was about 7 feet high. Even that high I was against, but Josh scouted the water below first and made sure there were no rocks. Some other crazy people were jumping from much higher!

And one more thing! Soccer ended for Avery and Caleb! Here are their team pictures! (Caleb's is missing Camri Call) Football will start up for Caleb next month and then Avery will probably do dance in the Fall. Gabe is trying to decide about this fall but I think he will do soccer again!

Avery's 6th Birthday - Unicorn Magic!

Yesterday was a big day. And to be honest, my house is still a mess. But I wanted to write about Avery's magical unicorn birthday before I forget.

First of all, let me just start by saying that about two weeks ago I wasn't even sure if I was going to throw her a big party this year or just go somewhere as a family and call it good. But then when I was teaching my 10-11 year olds Sunday school class, we were talking about pets and one girl mentioned her family had two white miniature ponies. This family just moved into our ward so I didn't really know much about them. But I said, "You should put unicorn horns on them and say they are unicorns!" and she said "We have done that before!" So then I said, "How would you like to help me have a unicorn birthday party for my daughter?" And that's how the idea was born... lol

So I texted her mom and we decided it would be easier for them to just have the party in their backyard. They have a big backyard and they only live just down the road from us, but that way they wouldn't have to load up the horses and figure out where to tie them up at my house, etc. So I made the invitations and started the planning about a week ago! Here is the invite I made:

Then we had to figure out how many little girls to actually invite. I really wanted to keep it smaller this year so the list started out with 6 including Avery. Then it grew a little and we ended up with 9 little girls, plus of course Gabe and Caleb, plus then we had one of the girl's older sisters (Katelyn, who lives across the street and is in Gabe's class) come and help do some face painting with Kenzie (the girl in my Sunday school class who started this whole idea. lol) So there ended up being quite a few people partying in that backyard. The family that lived there also had some of their kids coming in and out and helping and playing too. It really went pretty smoothly though! Josh even said later, "I was skeptical about having it over there but it actually went really well." (Like he should EVER doubt me.)

I went over there at about 12:30 and started setting up decorations and games. Then I went back and got Avery and the family and went back over and finished setting up. When I went back ti get the family and I was getting everything loaded up in the car, Avery all of a sudden started crying and I said, "What's the matter?" and she said, "We forgot to do my nails!!!" She had been asking me to repaint her nails for the past two days and I kept saying we would before her party. So I quickly ran upstairs and got my gold nail polish and did a quick nail redo as she was sitting in the car and we were all waiting to go. She is such a girlie girl. I mean, I wouldn't want my nails to look crappy for my big day either, so I get it.

So anyways, we got over there and finished setting everything up (the tables, the games, the bouncy house..) The girls arrived at 2:00 and it lasted until 3:30. I think it was the perfect amount of time. We started off by doing a few pictures with the "unicorns". The unicorns were really mostly interested in eating the grass the whole time so it was hard to get a decent picture with them. But here are a couple we got:

After we got a couple of group pictures, we started off with some games. I always, in my mind, think that I'm going to plan these amazing structured activities and everyone is just going to love them. But in reality, they really only like a couple of structured activities and then just want to have time to play. So we did three somewhat organized things. The first was a game where I took Josh's traffic cones and wrapped streamers around them to make them look like "unicorn horns" and the game was "lasso the unicorn horns" where they threw a cool hoop around the cones.

Next, we did a piñata. Every girl got at least two rounds of hitting it. Then we invited Gabe and Caleb to take a turn and then candy flew! The girls all ran to pick up candy and I had little bags ready for them with their names on them. Each girl also got a unicorn horn headband, a little unicorn rubber duck toy, play doh, and a couple other little things in their bag. After the piñata, we did the "pin the horn on the unicorn" game.

                                       

A few pictures of the decor and gift bags...

Once we finished those three games, we turned on the water bouncy house slide and just let them play on that and jump on the trampoline for about a half hour. This was probably the highlight. It was about 90 degrees and sunny so I think they were excited to cool off! It was kind of hard to keep Caleb off the slide, so eventually we just game up and let him slide down it too. Luckily it didn't pop! Meanwhile, we also had faceprinting going on so the girls would go back and forth and get that done too. Katelyn so was so sweet to come and volunteer to do that. Part of it may have had to do with Gabe. I'm pretty sure she has a little crush. ;)

Once they all were done with their face painting/tattoos and jumped for a while on the tramp and bouncy house thing, we gathered them up for cake and present opening. I wish I could say I remembered who gave what but it all happened so fast, I honestly have no idea. Avery's cake was a Walmart special... hence why it looks weird. I usually have this girl named Ashley do their cakes and they have always been AMAZING but she said she couldn't do it this year because she had something going on. I was so sad! So I thought, "Well I will buy a cake topper with the horn and ears and all they have to do is make a white cake with some flowers on top!" Buuut... it still turned out kind of weird looking. The girls all though it was really cool though so I guess when you're six it's easy to impress you. 

So that was the party! At about 3:45 everyone had left and we got everything cleaned up pretty quickly. We did have to make two trips to get everything (including the inflatable slide) back home. We had borrowed that from our neighbor so we just took that straight back to them. The once we got home and got a little bit cleaned up, we let Avery open her presents from us and from grandma sue and "Poppy" (aka: my dad). She got some Hatchimals, two Hatchimals games, some Magic Tracks, unicorn pajamas (which she picked out and I let her wear last night). some little princesses, and then a ton of things from girls at her party, including a unicorn toy, a Barbie, a blanket, and lots of other things. I think she is quite the spoiled girl. After dinner we went for a walk and she sat and played with one of her new unicorn toys. Then we got home and went to bed and now she is down there with Caleb still playing again. I don't think my house will be clean again for about a week. I keep trying to put things away and they keep coming out again. Oh well. 

And that marks the end of "Birthday Season" in the Rhodes home. Phew. See you again starting March 23, 2019.