Where did it go?

Where on earth did summer go? Didn't it JUST START? I seriously can NOT believe that it's over, and that school has started up again. Don't get me wrong... I love having a routine (except for that whole "waking up early" part) and I don't have to hear about how bored the kids are, but really, I wasn't ready this year. I felt like it came way too quick! The three older kids' school started Monday August 23rd. In my mind, it was still July 23rd.  Nevertheless, my kids had their uniforms on, their backpacks and lunches packed, and were ready in plenty of time to go out and take some pictures. It's just too bad that the sun wasn't even up yet! Yes... we have to get up mighty early. My kiddos leave for school at 7:30 every morning!

First: My very favorites of the morning (there's one of Hayden down further in the post). Eryn had found these 3D glasses with the lenses out, and had put tape around the bridge. We thought it would be funny to do some "nerdy" pics. HEHE ;)

I LOVE uniforms. My kids? Not so much. (Actually, I should say ONE OF MY KIDS - the other two don't really care). But guess what? There is no "what-the-heck-am-I-gonna-wear-today?" stuff, and I don't have to buy expensive trendy jeans for my Junior-higher! Everyone looks the same (which is exactly why my Junior-higher is not a fan. She wants to be different!) But... I LOVE THEM!

I still can't believe how big they are getting. Seriously, I have a kid in 7th grade? Our charter school goes through 9th grade, but even though they are in the same school, they are treated the same as, and considered, Jr. High. The 7-9th graders have lockers, multiple classes, and their own "side" of the school.

Dang it! Stop growing up! (Don't you LOVE her lunch bag?)

My big 5th grader!

All ready to start 2nd Grade!

I REALLY can't believe that all four of my kids are in school this year!

They are all enjoying school so far. They all got AWESOME teachers, and the transition from Summer to School went quite smoothly for them...

The Kindergartner? Not quite as smooth, but we're working on it. He started the week after the other three. Hello! I LOVE this funny picture of him!

Of course I took that picture on everyone ELSE'S first day. I actually MISSED Hayden's first day. I was heartbroken!! I couldn't believe I wouldn't be there to take him, but I was with my Dad. My awesome dad always puts us into the drawing for hunting tags. He's been putting me in for Antelope forever it seems, and this year was my lucky year. I actually drew a tag. The sad part was the day I would have to go. I love going with my dad... it's the "thing" I do with him. It's fun to have a day to just hang out with him and do his favorite thing in the world (PLUS I did get one: that post will come next). This year was just a little hard as I thought about my baby starting school without me! Luckily, Jared was able to take the day off and make sure Hayden got to school okay. I left a camera with him so that he could capture it for me. Here are Jared's "first-day-of-Kindergarten" captures:

All ready to go!

All lined up at the school.

As hard as it was for me to not be there, I know Jared was loving every second. He has never been home to see anyone off on the first day of school, let alone their first day of Kindergarten. Hayden was very brave that day. He went in just fine. Things got harder when I was back and taking him. He got really clingy. Even CRIED! I never in a million years thought my crazy Hayds would have a hard time going to school. He is so friendly, and was the ONLY kid that just went right in without a problem when he started nursery at church. I totally thought he would be fine. Preschool was NEVER a problem.

When I asked him what was up, he said "Well, school is long!"

Knowing that it's only half-day kindergarten, I said "It's not any longer than preschool."

His reply? "But it's BIGGER!"

I think he was realizing how small he is in comparison to the huge building and bigger kids there. He is doing better now. I still have to hold his hand clear to the door, but there are no more tears, and when he gets off the bus at home he tells me "I LOVE KINDERGARTEN!" I love my little buddy, and I'm glad he's finally decided that Kindergarten is OKAY!

Our One and Only Campout

So... my mom had this AWESOME idea! She decided she wanted to have EVERYONE over for a backyard campout... complete with an outdoor movie at a park right by their house. Well, apparently that night went really well... for those that could come. Us Stafford's had a house full of out-of-town visitors, and tons of other craziness going on, and we couldn't go! Sorry guys! But... the next weekend, we got to have a turn. It would have been fun to have everyone there, but we still had a GREAT time hanging out with my parents, camping in the backyard. And although we had planned on going camping a few times this summer, this ended up being the only one. It was a good one :)

Getting "set-up!"

The boys had the best time messing around on the slide. I LOVE that my dad thought a slide off the rock wall in the backyard would be cool... because IT IS!!

Then, Kaitlyn was asking about the little house on the top of Timp. She asked Papa if he could bring out his "scope" so she could see what it looks like. Of course he brought it right out, and we looked at stuff on the top of Timp, then turned it around and looked at some sailboats out on Utah Lake. Yeah, my parents have the BEST VIEW from their yard. :)

Eryn... of course she has to get a little reading in. :)

Everyone else... hanging out :) And Jeff and Marie happened to be down that weekend, so we brought them along for the campout.

Thanks Mom and Dad. What a fun idea to have a campout in your backyard. I hope next year we can be there with everyone else. We sure did have a great time! :)

New Room!

Eryn and Kaitlyn have been asking (that is, begging) to have their own rooms for a very long time. We just didn't have the room to spare... until now. Not that we give in to begging, but seriously, they were crammed into a little room, and often had issues with keeping it clean (too much stuff for such a small space). Plus the bunkbed thing was getting old! Jared's sister, who has lived with us for the past two years, just got married, so we decided to move Eryn into that room. She picked out fun bed stuff from Ikea, then we chose three colors from that for paint. We decided to do stripes. I love painting. Somehow I always manage to mess something up, or even step in the paint at some point, but this time things actually went quite smoothly. When I started painting the pink, Eryn started having second thoughts:

 "I'm not really a 'pink' person, mom."

"Yes, I know that Eryn, but if you remember correctly... you chose the colors. Plus I've already started so it's too late."

Well, it turns out that Eryn LOVES it. We are still working on getting a few things put up and finished, but here is a peek at what it looks like. I'll take more pics when things are really settled in there. :)

Girls Camp!

So... this year was my FIFTH (Yes, you read that right)... FIFTH year as camp director. I LOVE going to camp. I'm not as excited about planning it, but I love to go. We kept things really simple this year, and good thing. We battled CrAzY weather the entire time we were there, and simple turned out to be much better.

We went to Mutual Dell, in American Fork Canyon, and we started off the day on Tuesday at the Ropes Course. I must say, it doesn't come close to the ropes course at Heber Valley Camp, but still... fun stuff. The best part of camp this year? Having Eryn there. I still can't believe she's 12, in Young Womens, and able to go to camp.

Later on that afternoon, we got to go up to Tibble Fork and canoe! It was so, so fun. And perfect weather!

Eryn thought canoeing was super fun. She really enjoyed herself. I don't think a single girl came away dry... they were tipping each others' canoes, jumping in... and the water was pretty cold.

I love canoeing. It's so relaxing and fun. Thanks to my sweet YW Pres for borrowing my camera while I was out ;)

That evening... we had a cute devotional that the YCLs put together. It was on the Armor of God. Eryn got to wear the armor :)

All in all, things were going great. We got into our tents that night and settled in... only to be awakened around 3 a.m. by the craziest thunderstorm I have ever experienced. It was literally "Flash! Boom! Flash! Boom! Flash! Boom!" So loud!! So bright!! So awesome!! We found out later that the girls actually screamed a few times, but the thunder was so loud, they couldn't even hear themselves! Needless to say, when the storm passed (temporarily) in the morning, we awoke to find everything wet and covered in mud. Oh well. Such is camping. We would make the most of it! I don't have many pictures of the next two days. My camera was "safe" in the tent while we went about our activities dodging storms all day. One major one came through and dumped some serious hail!! Luckily we were in the pavilion working on making Journals, but it was crazy! Our tent (the leaders) actually became so bogged down with water, that we decided that we would have to just collapse it before tent posts bent. Thank goodness Mutual Dell has a lodge. With the rain continuing to pour, we decided to move inside. We shared the basement of the lodge with two other wards from other cities. The girls weren't thrilled, but it was much better than having our tents collapse on us as we floated around in muddy water ;) So what did we do to pass the time inside? Well, I ended up braiding almost every. single. girls'. hair. And even some of the leaders! Funny :)

Thursday, thankfully, things cleared up. We were supposed to hike up to Timp Cave, and when we got there, we almost didn't get to go. They had the trail closed! Apparently there had been a rock slide, and they were still trying to clean it up. Just when we were about to pack up and leave, there was a message from the top... SEND THEM UP! Yay! I love hiking to the cave.  The views are amazing!

This was Eryn's first time, and she had a blast!

Me and my girl!! Yes, she is almost as tall as me!

Finally at the top!

Inside the cave... we ended up with such a cool guide. Since we were a young women's group (and she was a former YW leader) she tied EVERYTHING in spiritually, which was SO SO COOL! We loved her :)

Almost as soon as we returned to camp, it was time to do the ZIP LINE!

Everyone got to go three times. Eryn loved it!

What a fun camp we had. I would have to say it turned out to be one of my favorites... storms, mud, inconveniences, and all. I think the "hardships" we had to endure really brought everyone together. That night at testimony meeting, we kept seeing lightning and hearing thunder, but it stayed away long enough for us to finish... then it rained again. The worst part was just trying to figure out how and what to pack first the next morning, since EVERYTHING was covered in mud :) Thank goodness for an amazing bishop who took down all the tents, hauled them home, and got them all cleaned out before we even got home.

I LOVE GIRLS CAMP!

Sleepy Sunday

I got up to get ready for church, and Hayden came stumbling into our room. I told him "Go snuggle with Daddy." Not 10 minutes later, I came back in and saw this:

I love these guys!

Oh! Also, I'm still trying to get everything caught up and blogged. I've got posts scheduled for every other day starting on Monday morning at 6 am! :)

Baseball "B"

We interrupt our regularly scheduled "catch-up" to go back in time just a couple of months... I never blogged these cute pics of Bryson playing baseball! This year B was playing "coach-pitch," which is a whole new world after T-ball. Bryson did great. I know he had a lot of fun playing, and we had a lot of watching him play! Jared was the assistant coach for B's team, and I LOVE when he coaches our kids. He does such a great job!

B liked playing catcher, and did a great job.

Batter Up! I loved watching B hit. His face was always so serious, and he would concentrate SO hard! He really got to where he could hit the ball quickly, and I think he only had to use the "T" once the whole season!

He also took his job as an outfielder very seriously!

Hey, Slugger!!

He thought it was fun to be a "PIRATE." He was proud to wear his cap. :)

I just thought these pics were so cute.

RUN!!!

Fielding skills...

While B was playing baseball, I was taking a photography class, and I just happened to have an assignment to capture sunflare. Got it on this one ;) I thought it turned out kinda cool with his arm reaching through it to get the ball.

Home run!!!