Hong Kong

JD had the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong on business the end of August and was able to spend a few days shopping, and traveling all over the island and to a few other small islands near by. He had a wonderful time and was able to bring home some really wonderful things for us.  JD brought me a beautiful green jade bracelet, a gorgeous tea set and I have always loved the Chinese soup spoons so he got me a set of bowls, soup plates and spoons. I love them I promptly looked up recipes for Egg Drop Soup and Hot and Sour Soup and made them and enjoyed eating them with my new bowls and spoons. Mason got a fun light up bouncy ball that he loves to play with, Ellie got a beautiful set of hand carved yellow Jade elephants that are amazing and Dell got a really cool remote control helicopter that her loves to play with and fly with his Dad. JD also got all the kids a little Chinese outfit and they all love wearing them the boys outfits match and Ellie's is purple. I'm working on getting a good picture of all of them together in their outfits but my camera is still acting up.

1st Day of School

Dell started school today and I can't believe he's in the 1st grade. The time has just gone to fast. He is in a wonderful charter school and I don't think there are more than 10 kids in his class. You can tell this last month has caught up to me because we thought school started today so we hurried to get to my Mom's and back before school started. Well I miss read the schedule and instead of starting the 19th they started the 16th so he's a few days late but still just as excited. We are happy for him and think it's going to be a really good fit for him. Here's my handsome boy all ready to go this morning.

August

In one word has been "crazy". We got home from CA on Friday night and JD had to be in Salt Lake for and Expo for work so we got home did all the laundry and headed to Salt Lake for the week. Again we came home on a Friday evening I got all the laundry done and then the kids and I packed up the van and headed to CO to see my Mom before school started. We had a great time in CO playing with Grammy we went to the Folk Festival and listened to some great music and Dell and Ellie had a great time playing in the river, painting rocks and getting their face and arms painted. We drove back to Salt Lake on Tuesday to spend the night with JD as he was back in town with a corporate trainer for one of his rep companies and then yesterday we hit the road to come home so Dell would be ready for school today. JD will be home tonight and we have the weekend with him before he hits the road to Vegas to catch a plane that will take him to Hong Kong. He will be there for a week working an expo for a new company that he is working for. He is excited to go and this new company he's working with is going to open a lot of doors and opportunities for both him and our family. We are very grateful for this company and the job they have offered him. So we are enjoying these few days we have together before he's off again. I took a count yesterday I have slept in my bed 6 days in the last 30 and put about 4500 miles on our van in the last 30 days as well. I'm home and not going anywhere for a while.

July

July was a busy month for us. We headed out on a family vacation and spent a week camping on Pismo Beach in CA. We had a great time hanging out with all of the family. JD's parents and both of his sisters and families were there so in all we had 9 kids and 8 adults.  One day all the Dad's and their oldest boys went out on an 8 hour fishing trip. A good time was had by all and they ended up catching close to 50 fish. We had a nice fish fry at the camp site that night.
  When we were done at the beach we headed up to visit with his younger sister some more and help her and her family move into their first home. She was really excited to get some space and to decorate. The guys painted the rooms for her and then it was move in day.  We also got to go spend part of a day in San Francisco  which was really nice, but I only got to take a few pictures because my camera has been randomly shutting off I'm hoping it just needs a new battery.
All in all we had a great time seeing family and hanging out.

Balls of Fun

My Aunt bought Dell this awesome 54 inch inflatable ball that you can crawl into an roll down the hill. Yesterday we finally got it out and took it to our neighbors who has a great big grassy yard. They kids had so much fun, and it was quite the work out for me pushing it up and down the yard. They can't wait to go do it again.

Me First

Cheese!!!

Push

YUMMY

OLIVES

We had spaghetti for dinner last night, and while I was cooking I kept giving Mason olives. He loves them I started putting them on his fingers and he would just giggle, then he's pop one in his mouth. I have to say that I think he's about a cute as they come. Not that I'm biased or anything.

We bought some of the fair trade Africa baskets that we like so much to sell at the Street Fair/Market that we are doing. They arrived the other day and after shaping them we had to move them to the basement because they were filling the living room. Dell was a great help he picked up as many as he could and down the stairs he went. I couldn't resist taking a picture of him.

Slip N' Slide

I bought the kids a slip n' slide yesterday thinking it would be better than a pool right now, and I think Dell would agree. We got it out this morning and he's been having a blast. He keeps telling me "this is the best thing we ever got" well at least he's easy to make happy. Ellie on the other hand won't have anything to do with it, she "tried" it once if you want to call it that and then told me "it's too cold". She is definitely not into outdoor water kind of girl.

Go

FUN

Ellie's Attempt

Battle Wounds