ROAR!!

Kacen loves to be painted and is my cute little tiger!
We did a few things the last part of summer before Alona went back to school, including going to Antelope Island. That was such a great activity to do with our family. We spent the night at Paul's dads home and then headed out there after lunch at Arctic Circle :) We made two stops, the Garr-Fielding ranch was really fun and then we dared venture out on to the brine-fly covered beach.
There was calf roping (barrel calfs) they all had a lot of fun with that. I got to sit there while feeding the baby and watch my children rope them and their daddy too (and their grandparents) what a sweet thing to be a part of. I've got some good ropers :) There was an owl up in the trees past the old homestead on the ranch. We explored the woods, looked at the old homestead and helped our children peer through the trees to find the owl way high atop the lofty branches. Abbi really liked the doll carriage inside the museum and wanted to take it for a stroll. She has such a great love for baby dolls.
Kacen was all daring sitting down with his pants on and getting down in to it all to play in the Great Salt Lake. The kids were brave and went out and played in the water. Alona picked up quite a few small rocks, sea shells and skipped them along the top of the water effortlessly.Driving along the road to the different destinations we were fortunate enough to run across an Antelope. We drove real slow along side it and were able to see it up close. There were also many Bison/ Buffalo just grazing in the brush there were a few big herds and also some lone ones. I was so curious as to why they would be out there all by themselves. You could clearly see that was not like them, that they normally traveled with their herd.

All the kids are growing and we are busy with a few things right now. Alona has started first grade. She has the same teacher in first grade that she had in Kindergarten. She really likes the consistency and how the class is simple but yet fun. she enjoys eating lunch at the school and is happy to tell me what she gets to eat every day. In fact that is the one thing that she remembers every day about school is what she got to eat :). She gets forgetful when I ask her what she did in class.
Today at lunch Alona fell backwards while getting up from the table at lunch. She hit her head and cut it open a bit. She told the lady in the lunch room that she got hurt but they didn't think anything of it. About an hour and a half later she touched the back of her head and felt blood. And then I showed up to pick her up ten minutes later when school was out. The cut was gaped open a bit, I was a little uncertain if she should be taken in and so I did. And instead of stitches, she got a staple in the back of her head to help her skin to heal together.

Her head was taped around a gauze piece filled with lydocaine to help numb it and then they cleaned it up and the doctor stapled her skin together.
Both girls have started soccer and are doing well. Alona's team has won both games that they have played. She likes being on a team with girls her age and was excited this past game when she realized that one of the girls went to her school.
And it is fun to watch Abbi's team, they are all so young and it is everyone's first year playing. She is most excited about the treats and the drinks that she gets. When it is Alona's game time, Abbi pretends that it is her day and gets super excited and impatient for her treats.