14 months & TROUBLE

Mitchell is a big 14 months today.

He decided to welcome the big day not by walking yet, but by stretching way up to try to open the door to outside. Great. Once he can open doors our lives will really be chaos!

This kid is our most inquisitive by far. He loves to lift the heat vent covers from the floor & try to back down into them. He's figured out how to lift the toilet lid & splash in the water. He finds that Sarah & Emma's room is a real goldmine (it is, but to a 14 month old it's quite hazardous!). When we are outside he does not like to crawl on the grass, he prefers trying to crawl on the curbing around the flower beds, once he follows that to the RV pad he crawls in circles around the trailer. He's also discovered how to crawl up our big yellow slide on the swingset. He usually gets stopped at the bump in it, but Sarah says he's made it all the way to the top, yikes.

He's quite the little dude!

Since originally posting this, he did get the outside door open & crawled on out. I also saw him make it to the top of the yellow slide, crawl onto the platform, & bounce around excitedly since he'd made it up. It was a bit scary for me to watch.

And he's off!

Mason started kindergarten today!!! Yay!

He's in the afternoon class, so all morning he's been asking "is it time to go yet?"

After his favorite lunch lately of bowtie noodles it was finally time to take him!

We went into his classroom & he marched to the rug to sit down without a backward glance.

He did wave as he saw me through the window. He was excited, but nervous too. He did not know anybody in his class. As we drove to school he said "I'll make lots of new friends, maybe even some girls."

Masonism

Mason's into telling me whatever he just did wrong was an "accident". Such as, "I accidentally hit Emma & made her cry" or "I accidentally squirted Mitchell in the face with a water gun while in the kitchen". Today's "accident" was a great one.

He & a friend & Emma were playing in the kiddie pools in our backyard. We have one placed at the bottom of the swingset slide. He came running in to tell me he'd "accidentally" put the slide INTO the pool & could not figure out how to get it back out. I really would have liked to see him "accidentally" lift it up. Hmm.

Sarah's first day of school!

Sarah started third grade today! Yay!

The school did a red carpet welcome. There were teachers all dressed up to welcome the students back to school. Sarah ran through them before I could catch up to get a picture.

Mason had his kindergarten assessment. He's quite a numbers guy! I think he'll do well in math. He starts next Wednesday.

Final summer hurrah

We decided we'd better finish up the summer with some fun.

Monday we went to the Discovery Gateway Children's museum.

The kids had a great time!

Sarah working at the deli.
Mitchell & Emma in the toddler area.
Mason filling a car with gas.
Emma at the construction site.
Mason & Sarah on the news.

Mason & Emma flying a Life Flight helicopter.

Tuesday afternoon we went to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point with the Glines.

Sarah took over my camera so I have lots of animal photos & few of my kids.
It was a great way to end summer!

The big dozen

Todd & I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary this week! Wow!

We went to see the Lion King to celebrate. It was great!

Snowbird

We made our yearly trip to Snowbird a few weeks ago. We had a great time, as usual! Sarah had Mary Jane come up with us. We were there with Todd's family, then had mine come up for a day.Sarah, Andora, & Mason by a stick fort that gets better every year.
Mason & Adeline at the park.
Andora & Mason falling off the cliff (to the hill & parking lot below).
Mitchell in the 5 point safety harness swing. All the kids love these swings.
Emma & Adeline.
Mitchell crawled all over the pavement while the big kids were bungie jumping & climbing the rock wall.
Sarah & Mary Jane mining for semi precious stones.
Mary Jane scaling the rock wall.
The kids at the top of Hidden Peak after riding the tram. I always get a heart attack up here chasing my kids around & hoping nobody falls off.
Mason figured out how to flip over on the bungies.
Sarah & Mary Jane racing down the alpine slide. I took Emma on this & she loved it. She like the chairlift ride up too (that part makes me nervous with her since she insists on her legs dangling & that she lean over the safety bar).
Sarah on the mechanical bull.
A hike to Cecret Lake. The kids all decided to put their climbing wall skills to the test on a real rock.
The flowers were gorgeous on the hike!

Cecret Lake.

Another rock to climb.
The end of the hike.
Emma & Ava getting ready to swim.
Mitchell, 13 months old on this day, loved playing with all the rafts in the hotel room. The poor guy had a gross nose & did not get to swim.
A lucky shot!
Ava, Liam, & Emma on the path to the park.