First Day of Joy School

Eloise was so excited to start school.  She loves the songs and the friends and the coloring.  Everything about school is wonderful to her.  She especially loves to wear a dress to school.

I made Eloise a doll out of a butternut squash, she has grown rather attached.  She loves dolls and purses and plays house all day long.  Usually, Adeline is the mom and Eloise is the sister.

Eloise is growing up so fast, she makes me laugh so hard.  I'm grateful to be her mom!  

City of Rocks Camping Trip

We had such a fun time at the City of Rocks with the Durtschi Family Reunion!  We did a lot of exploring and hiking.  Adults and kids had lots of fun.

This picture made me laugh, we Durtschi girls love our blue!  

There were so many cool rock mountains to climb.  Teagan was in heaven and loved exploring with his cousins.

Brian and Zac decided to do a cool, "hanging from the rock" pose. 

Photo bomb!

The guys each had to prove their manliness by scaling the wall and climbing up this ledge.  The picture makes it look like no big deal, but it was actually pretty high up there!

Addy loved to be in the safety of the backpack.  There was no danger of anyone trying to pick her up, but she still got to be a part of the action.

Zac helped Eloise climb the rocks so she could be like the big kids.  She loved having her daddy by her side.  She would go from petrified and whimpering and crying to laughing and running when Zac was by her side.

These two are pals and I love them.  Eloise and Ty.

The days and evenings were loads of fun!  Hiking, exploring, cards, food, swimming, eating...the nights were not fun.  Adeline decided that being in the tent with everyone was a lot of fun and she decided to keep us up all night.  I took this picture so that we could always remember the time that we put Addy in our bed to keep her from waking up Teagan and Eloise and she thought it was hilarious to sit on Zac's face.  Zac ended up driving her around trying to get her to fall asleep.  We all woke up determined to leave that evening and abandon ship, but we ended up making it work and enduring to the end.

It was worth it, we had a great time and loved spending time with family!

First Day of Second Grade

Our handsome Teagan started second grade. He was pretty excited to go back to school, and he is loving his teacher this year, Mrs. Lathrop. I love her because she is not a big homework fan.  Hooray!!!

Teagan is very proud of the sunflower that he planted at the end of first grade. We are all in all of how humongous it has gotten.

The night before school started, Zac gave each of us a father's blessing and it was really neat. Teagan was blessed to do well in school and work hard. The part that stuck out to me the most was when he was blessed to be a good friend and to be an example for good to those around him.  Ever since, Teagan keeps praying that "he won't be a bully at school and can be nice to others."

I asked for a father's blessing too this year since I'll be taking a few classes this fall to redo my teacher certification. I was so grateful that Zac has the priesthood and could give that blessing me and the kids. I love that I was able to get a more clear focus for where my priorities should be and to know of my Heavenly Father's love for me.

Eloise was blessed to learn her ABCs and be a good friend and to have fun in her Joy school.  She felt very special to be big enough for a blessing.  Eloise is so excited to start school soon.

Adeline didn't get one this year, she was a little too wiggly. :-)

It's strange to think that one day Teagan will be old enough to give Zac a blessing, but for now he will have to wait for his dad to be in town. 

The school season is upon us, we are all excited for our new adventures that we will have this fall.

A Little Break

Tonight I was feeling burnt out.  It was a crazy day!  Babysitting 5 cousins, plus some friends over.  Add in some garden projects and by 8 pm I was exhausted.  I was looking for my phone and found it in the car.  Instead of going back in, I decided to enjoy a few minutes of peace before going in to face bedtime.

I had been out for about 5 minutes when Eloise came out to find me.

Eloise: "Mom, what are you doing out here?"

Me: "Just taking a little break before bedtime"

Eloise (in her cutest little voice with big, bright blue, excited eyes): "Me too!!  I just need a little break, I'm so tired.  I need to sit on your lap, can you lift me up?"

So I did, and we took a picture.  :)

She then proceeded to touch every button and knob in the car and ask lots of questions.  She is so sweet and cracks me up!  She definitely gave me the boost I needed to get through the evening.  I love that little girl of mine.

Salt Lake Fun

We had such a great time going to my cousin Jenny's wedding in Salt Lake!  We always are excited to find an excuse to spend the weekend with Jeff and Julie and Whitney and Joe!

We arrived in Salt Lake just in time for the wedding.  Aunt Rachel stayed with all the cousins while the parents went into the wedding.  These kiddos have so much fun together.

Teagan Scott Austin

Eloise and Ty have become buddies and love to pal around.  They are pretty cute Together!

For the reception that night we all switched cars and we got the boisterous big kids and Jeff and Julie got the younger crowd.  The reception was crazy!  About 15 minutes after we got there a crazy thunderstorm came and rained us out.  Everyone was sprinting to their cars and we were all soaked to the bone.  I've never been in rain that intense.  It felt very adventurous!

 We went a long walk to the famous castle park for our Saturday activity.

These cousins had a blast together, as usual.

Things not pictured, many games of Dominion, the kids dressing up and playing for hours in the basement, yummy desserts and giggling way too much during relief society.

Gardening Fun

We spend a lot of time out in the garden these days. I mostly harvest and try to get rid of blight while the kids play in the dirt and eat the harvest.

Oh, and Adeline eats a lot of dirt. And puts it in her hair.

This is what we picked when we got home from our city of rocks family reunion. I'm still trying to figure out how to use all of it! So much food!

This has definitely been our most successful year in the garden so far. We just harvested all the potatoes yesterday and probably got 100 pounds or more, despite having to harvest almost 2 months early because of the blight.

I think we'll replant that row with more onions and beets, why not?

Daniels Reunion, Bear Lake

We decided to start the Bear Lake trip early by going to lava Hot Springs on the way down. We were able to drive up with grandma and grandpa Daniels and then meet Zac after work.

Eloise and Zoe are becoming better buddies every day. They loved splashing in the splash area together and went down the little slide for at least an hour straight.

Addy could not get enough of the water this time around.  She would try to crawl and would go under water, but she never was scared, she loves water.

Teagan and Taylin had a blast too.  They move so quickly and so often that I never got a picture of them together.  Teagan ended up going on the platform several times.  He still loves the diving boards best.

The girls were out about 5 minutes after we got in the car, swimming pools are a lot of work!

The cabin was amazing this year!  Eloise still talks about when we can go back to the "big house with cousins."  There was plenty of room for the adults and the kids.

The little girls played all day, Polly pockets and CPK dolls were highlights.

Teagan and Taylin were all about the fort in the family room and sneaking endless pops and bags of chips.

Addy was a big fan of all the new space to explore and the candy.

She also loved Taylin, Tay was so sweet with her!

This is the filing fort area where they spent most of their time.

sheena and I both forgot to text the other to bring the matching PJs, but luckily we both had the same idea and it was a huge hit! The little girls love to be matching!

Zac and I made an awesome breakfast with lots of food from our garden. It's awesome to have a husband who isn't afraid to help in the kitchen. Yay for Zac!

Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. It was pretty chilly, and it rained quite a bit. We didn't let that stop us though! We tried going out on the boat but with crying kids and really choppy water and rain and thunder and lightning we took  the boat back after about an hour.

After a lot of persuasion, we got the kids to go on a tube. Even going at the slowest speed possible, the choppy water was too much and both were in tears. Whoops!  Hopefully we'll have better weather next year.

Zac and Kurt did go out on the big banana and it was awesome!  They caught air so many times and stayed on for such a long time! It was really fun to watch them, I'm glad they got to go out and have some fun. :-)

Because the weather was so iffy, we ended up spending most of our time playing pinochle inside which was 100% OK with me. We laughed so hard and had such a good time spending time together.

We had fun eating out, walking around town getting random snacks and the boys and big kids went golfing.  Who knows where my camera was for all of that...just look at last year's pictures and imagine everyone a little older.  :)

As corny as it sounds I realized during the weekend that it doesn't matter what you do at a reunion so much as who you're spending time with. The weather would have seemed to be a big problem, but we still had just as much fun playing cards. Hooray for family!