I have lots of tomatoes...my plants are absolutely enormous!

Swiss Days!  Such a fun day to go up to Midway and check out all the booths.  And of course the giant scones!

Up here the mountains are already starting to color!  These are the mountains out Uncle Mike's backyard. 

And others seen from downtown Midway. 

Later this afternoon I went for my long run.  They are getting long enough that no matter what I do, unless I want to backtrack 6 times (I don't), I run into hills!  Big ones...which are very taxing, and not really what I need to train.  Today put me in a neighborhood way over about even with the University up on the mountain.  From my vantage point on the hill, I could see Rice Eccles stadium directly south of me.  Very cool. 

It's definitely August, with grasshoppers, bugs, and other squirmy things out to get me during my runs! 

I am SO tired of cold sores.  That is all.

Yellow Leaves

Out on my run today, I saw THIS!!!  Do you see those yellow leaves on an otherwise green tree?!  I have always loved fall, but this year it has definitely been long awaited.  It won't be much longer, folks!

Apparently olives are not the only plant food that belongs on fingers!  We got these HUGE raspberries at Costco.  Onto fingers they went, almost immediately.  They get a kick out of things like this.  I remember feeling the same way as a kid.  Although not about raspberries, that I can remember...

I decided to get a pedicure today, a little treat to myself.  It is nice to sit there and have someone else take care of it! 

Red Hot

Another care package on its way to Afghanistan!  I have and had several more planned, but Derek seems to be traveling away from his 'home base' more often, these days, as the missions pick up and their schedules get more booked.  So I will likely lay off for a bit.  This one was pretty funny...all things hot and spicy, from sweet hot, like hot tamales, to savory hot, like wasabi and sriracha peas!  It's unfortunate, really, that he isn't more of a junk food guy...he sure is getting a lot!  My favorite part about this package?  The TUMS!

The girls are always asking 'when will we ever go out to eat, again?'  (as though we never do)...and admittedly, as the only adult in the house, I am inclined to take them out far more than I should!  Tonight's surrender was to Zupa's, where I can enjoy 'real' food for the grownups, and they can have 'kid' food.  Perfect, and bonus: built in FHE activity!

Exchanges

So one of the things that Derek and I do pretty regularly...and by regularly I mean at least once a day...is send pictures.  Often my pictures are me taking on whatever the day has, and his are similar.  I don't think I ever expected to be the selfie junkie that I have become during this deployment!  I must look like a crazy narcissist, taking pictures of myself everywhere.  ;)  Consequently, I have more pictures of myself than I have EVER had.  Bonus for anyone reading this is that they are NOT all contained here!  I think the highlight of this blog is my family: the girls, and me with the girls...not just hundreds of pictures of me!  These, however, were today's exchanges.  Sunday best for me, a pic taken in the dark of night for Derek.  :)

Saturday

Did the ALS ice bucket challenge, today...I took video, but here's the still I shared on Instagram...check out those ice chunks!  My parents had a giant OLD bag of ice in their big freezer, and figured this would be an excellent use for it.  It was very cold, but sort of refreshing after my long run.  I'm training for the half marathon at the end of October, and my long runs are getting longer!  It's been two or three years since I last ran one...I'm trying to take the training slow so I can avoid injury and pain to whatever extent possible.  Today's run was only 6 miles, so I'm not even halfway to the half marathon mark!  Slowly but surely.

After warming up and cleaning up, my mom and I headed to Granite Bridal to check out their cakes and other treats.  It was actually pretty fun.  They are skilled, and will do whatever you want for your wedding cake, and I think it's going to look gorgeous!  The best part?!  Trying different cake flavors and fillings!  These little pieces of cake were VERY good.  I'm super excited about how it will look AND taste!

Alo-ha!

Beautiful evening for a picnic and party at my parents' ward!  This year it was a luau, so we came prepared with grass skirts and they provided leis.

The girls were thrilled with their pink and orange grass skirts. 

After a wonderful dinner, there was entertainment!  They had a group of Polynesian dancers who performed, then they had the little kids who wanted to come up and be taught a dance.  It was pretty funny.  They were all very young, and somehow the older lady calling the moves was getting frustrated with them not listening and following the young woman in front.  I kept thinking, do you honestly expect these little kids to follow your unclear instructions?

Then things got a little livelier when the woman had some of the men of the ward come and dance.  It was equal parts frightening and awesome.

Then things got REALLY interesting...I guess the woman liked Dad's enthusiasm, so she asked him to come up alone...this was the result.

Then the long looked forward to fire truck!  These guys break out their ladders and shoot the water out onto the field.  Mimi chose to go into the water IN her towel, despite our urgings otherwise...

It's difficult to keep grandmere away from water...she likes it, and wanted to run through the water with the girls.

This looks like mist, but it's really not.  It's like HEAVY rain, sheeting down from the sky.

The evening was a little chilly for water play, so the girls didn't last too long under the onslaught!

It appeared to be perhaps just a smidge more than Grandmere anticipated.

After just a few minutes, Mac was cold and sad, so the night was kind of over.

Also being a school night, it was time to go home.  This event was earlier in the summer last year, but school is already upon us!  This was the view, although somewhat hindered by trees, from my car as I loaded wet, tired kids in.

First Day of School!

It's finally here!  The first day of school!  Mac is off to start first grade.

And Leiden is heading into fourth!

These little girls are not going to be so little for long!  Growing up before my very eyes!

Their school was chosen for Fox News to cover the entrance.  Each child decorated a pennant and they marched into school on the red carpet.  I located Mac as she walked by...but somehow completely missed Leiden.  I was looking for her and never saw her.  I was looking intently enough that as the 5th grade students started coming by I worried, thinking she had gotten separated from her class, but my friend said she had seen her.  My goodness.

And it was a successful first day!  Mac came home and said it was a long day, that it seemed like more than one day.  I laughed and told her I knew what she meant.  Otherwise, she was very pleased with how the day went, and was full of explanations and stories of how her classroom works, and who is in it.  I think we will do well!  And then, of course, she got to enjoy our strawberry flavored rice krispie apples!  Welcome back to school!

1 Day Before First Grade

Woohoo!  There is only one day left, folks!  Today's last activity was to visit the teachers!

Because of the creative scheduling I had to do with the activities, we got down to business today to make cookies for the teacher treat...that we only bought the paper for on the day of that activity!  This way they get fresh cookies.

Mac is super excited, and I love reusing cute teacher gift ideas!

Mac got to meet Mrs. LaFleur

and be introduced to her new classroom, Mrs. LaFleur's garden!  I love the play on her name and french.  So cool for little kids.

Leiden came with us to the meet the teacher, because as much as we have been focusing on Mac the last bit, Leiden starts school tomorrow, too!  Fourth grade for this little one!  She has two teachers this year, team teaching...Mrs. Dahlgren on the left, and Ms. Stroud on the right.  It looks like that arrangement will work out very nicely for Mrs. Dahlgren when her little one comes!

After the visit, we tried to take a picture of us in the parking lot...but we struggled to get everyone visible in the pic.  Mimi is hiding in this one.

Mimi is STILL hiding in this one...and Mac is pretty excited.

Now Leiden has somehow been edged out.

Mimi apparently struggles getting in a picture.

Seriously, right before we took this last one, someone driving out of the parking lot literally stopped her car, rolled down her window, and asked if we wanted her to take the picture for us.  We must have looked ridiculous!  BUT...we got our pic!  All four faces!

Tomorrow is the big day!

2 Days Before First Grade

We are so close to First Grade!  The girls are really getting excited, now!

We made these cute little 'apples' from rice krispy treats made with jello!  They were actually pretty good, although you could feel the grainy texture of the jello.  Funny little treats.

This evening we had a Back to School Family Home Evening, where we made a Back to School banner that talks about some important things we can do this school year to make it successful.  The girls were involved, and had good ideas!

3 Days Before First Grade

A bye Sunday dinner was here, tonight, and it was the perfect opportunity to have little Mac (and the other girls) get their back to school blessings from my dad!

Thank you Bapa for helping us out!  We love you and are thankful for your example.

4 Days Before First Grade

Mac has been asking to go to the Farmer's Market again this summer.  We had hit so many Saturdays that it just wasn't going to work out...particularly not to go downtown to the big one.  And then they are gone every other weekend, but I resolved that we would go to the smaller one at Gardner Village for Mac's countdown.

They loved the guy there doing balloon animals again.  Mac's parrot sat on her shoulder.

They all had especially looked forward to riding the ponies again, but I messed up with cash and they didn't take cards. The best we could do, which ended up being pretty cool was the petting zoo.  There were sweet little bunnies, which the girls got a kick out of. 

There were baby cows, which could be fed for an additional charge.  Mimi liked them.   

I remember coming to Gardner Village YEARS ago, like in High School, and they had bunnies at a petting zoo...one of them freaked out, and scratched my arm like crazy.  I've been a little leery of them since.  But this little guy was sweet.  Their little hearts go like crazy.  I think they are probably a little scared to be manhandled all the time.

There were goats and sheep.  The goats were very interested in my face.  Of course, I was getting right down there by them to get a picture to send to Derek.  This is the one he got.

There were also alpacas, which I didn't get a picture of.  It was a pretty darn good petting zoo, for the cheap price, and it seemed to be a good substitute for the pony ride.  The girls had a good time, and that's what matters!  And I love my new hat!