Fishin

Mattie LOVED it...

Friday August 28th Mattie has a head cold. I found him leaning his head to the side and rubbing his ear. I asked him if he had an ear ache and he said "no there's a monster in my ear, get it out!"

Thursday August 27th

The girls went to their great grandma Mary's funeral today. Meg was bummed that she had to miss the second day of school. Ali was a little nervous about what it was going to be like. Mattie and I went to the zoo after the girls left this morning. It was nice and quiet at the zoo and we just walked wherever Mattie wanted to go. When we came out of the reptiles exhibit we found the grey wolf sitting in the shade pretty close to the fence. He's usually hidden amongst the tree's so you count yourself lucky when you see him. We sat and watched him for awhile and as we watched I asked Mattie what does the wolf say? With all seriousness he blew a great big gust of air out of his mouth. "Ill blow your house down" he said. The girls seemed to do fine after the funeral. Megan told me all about it, including what she was wearing, how the casket looked, how SHE looked, how they put flowers in her casket, how she had a little smile on her face, and how Megan chased a boy her age out the door of the church and it locked on him. The big neighborhood party at the park was tonight too. They had a huge slip and slide running down the hill with water. The girls quickly grabbed their suits and we went over. Mattie enjoyed climbing around the playground while the girls spent two hours going down the hill. I didn't particularly enjoy it as I am not a social butterfly but it was worth it to watch the girls have such a great time. Mattie is getting so big too, climbing all by himself.

First day of school

Wednesday August 26th First day of school. Megan was so excited the night before that after her bath at 7 she asked how long it was before bedtime. I told her she would go to bed around 8 in about an hour. She asked "can I go to sleep this hour?" . When I checked on her 20 minutes later she was sound asleep. Ali couldn't sleep from the excitement. Both girls got up and dressed in their outfits they'd picked out.. It will be the first and last day this year that we won't have to drag them both out of bed to get ready this year! Taylor had the day off so we all walked them to school. Ali found her best friend Mikayla right away and she was gone. We walked Megan to her line and waited but she didn't even need us there. When we picked them up after their first day, Taylor asked Meg how her first day of school went. Megan said "lets just say it was great and leave it at that". Ali just like last year was the last to leave her classroom. I hope this will be a great year. Megan told me later that she'd taken a poll of the girls in her class and she was the best because she had the most outfits from "Justice" I explained to her how that was not nice, that it could hurt feelings and that she shouldn't judge people like that. She said "oh...." like she didnt get why not. How did she get so pretentious! for heavens sake we get 90% of our clothes from the thrift store and just because Steph and Mom took her to Justice she's got a huge head! ugh. Hopefully it sank in but my goodness. Makes me think of Kids 50 years ago showing off their shiny marble though.. guess its semi normal..just hope she doesnt keep it up.

Friday August 21st

We went swimming tonight for the last time before school starts. Its still hot outside and it felt great. Taylor had the night off so he got to come too. He usually doesn't because of his schedule. Keena and Chandler came and Steph even bought Pizza. It was such a nice way to spend the evening.

Thursday

My Mom and (Sister) Stephanie took Ali shopping today for school clothes. If you asked Ali how it went you'd probably guess that she'd just one the lottery, or a Ms popularity contest. She was ecstatic. I came home from work to find her standing in the kitchen wearing a 2 1/2 inch pair of snakeskin heals! She took one look at my face and immediately put her hands up explaining, "it's just a joke mom, they're just a joke!" I knew it of course but I'm guessing she didn’t want to push her luck according to the look on my face. After we had a few laughs over her awful shoes (which were specifically chosen by My mom and Stephanie to torture me) Ali proudly picked up her two HUGE bags from Justice (a store for 'cool' girls) and swung them around giddily. She tried on and modeled each outfit for me, twisting and turning so that I could see from every angle. Excitedly She told me about standing in the dressing room while Steph and my mom grabbed things for her to try on, at first she was hesitant but then the store employees (which she pointed out are ‘you know, like in their twenties and cool ya know?’) came over and began paying special attention to her, oohing and awwing each time she came out with a new ensemble. Steph said that she had looked at one of the mannequins liking the outfit it displayed. Stephanie told the sales girl “ I want that whole outfit in her size” and she got it! Complete with scarf. She fell in love with the feeling and after that it was’ hard not to keep Shopping’, she explained to me.. Before the 40% discount their bill was well over 400 dollars!! I couldn’t believe that after spending all that money they went and picked out shoes too! I told my Mom and Steph that they very well could count this as one of the “best days of her life” because to her ten-year-old little heart, and for now at least, it WAS! Just to be clear, Megan was invited to this shopping adventure, but adamantly declined the invite because the Cason’s were here and she preferred playing to trying on jeans.

Jet skiing again

We went back to Pine view for some more jet skiing fun.

we brought the snorkel set with us. Megan put it to good use.

Keena came with us. Chandler stayed with his Grandma. That didn't leave Keena without parental duties (like feeding babies Gogurts) though.

Once again Mattie had a blast playing in the sand with his cousins

Aryanna and Dakota ran too far down the beach.. Taylor carried them over the hot sand so they wouldn't burn their feet.
Megan, Keena, and I went out on the jet ski together.. We went SUPER fast and got MAJOR air on the AWESOME waves. I have bruises on the insides of my thighs, and saddle sores on my bum to prove it! It was GREAT!

Ali and Taylor went out together. Taylor let Ali drive.. She LOVED it, and 'did really good'.

Another GREAT day with family.. Can't wait to do it again.
We stopped at Grandma and Papa's pool on the way home to wash off some of the sand and lake.

It felt nice to swim in clean water.