Bowens : August Events

August was another full and wonderful month, full of family adventures. Corban looks down to business here at the Highland splash pad.

Isaac enjoyed using a water toy we inherited from the Island Park cabin (which has since broken).

It was awesome to fix a rock chip, wash my car, and vacuum it for under $27. I love Grease Monkey in Lehi!

We were able to let our littles run wild in Peanut's basement.

Great cousin trip to the Provo Rec center--which is amazing, by the way! We took Grandma and she didn't get lost.

Then on Sunday, Dad went with me and the kids to Minnesota. He drove a huge chunk of the time, and we were all very well behaved except Corban. My goal was not to hold him during the car trip and we managed it somehow.

He recovered. Here he is on Al's lawn mower, over the moon. This was my 14-year-anniversary.

It was so great to have Jen and Hannah Hoff come play with us at the cabin! We knew Troy's family was arriving soon, so we snuck this event in and I am so glad we did. We're making it an annual thing.

The girls love playing rat with Dad.

I love this! We worked hard to get a shot where all their feet were off the dock at the same time.

The little boys had so much fun checking out frogs and turtles in our cages.

This white board gives us so much fun. I have no balance on it, but the kids do a great job.

Ah, stroller rides! I had to fix two flat tires on this stroller, and we finally ended up dumping it in a trash can.

We did "Ashley nails" because hers were dark blue and sparkly. Most of the cousins and aunts joined in.

Troy described himself as the great white angel here. I was laughing so hard.

Lots of relaxing at the playground on our bike rides.

The girls made a brownie and cookie dough giner bread man, and it was pretty good.

We got to use the three kid cabin bikes this year, and it was wonderful! The kids were able to take off and meet us at the park and then at home. Brook threw huge tantrums about the bike she had to use the first day, but she pulled through.

Isaac caugh our first snapper. After that, several family members found brand new baby snappers that were so cute. We tried to find one but struck out.

Yay for Doug joining our party! I picked him up on Friday night and the kids and I were thrilled to be back with him after almost three weeks apart.

I just love the action shot of what was going on at the cabin.

Jodi posted Lois Sheide's confirmation record on Facebook. I should add that to her history.

We had a fun zoo trip.

This wagon was lots of fun.

All the tree frogs were wonderful. Isaac let this one snuggle on his glasses.

Corban is my first kid to sleep on the canopy part of the pack-n-play rather than the mat. I don't know how that could be comfortable. I'm so thankful that he hasn't climbed out of his crib yet!

We left for Washington, and it was tough! Dough found some cherries and marionberries to assuage his grief.

Boys getting their wiggles out in the wrong place on our trip.

This was one of our seating arrangements that seemed to work pretty well. Corban still said he wanted to sit in my lap, but we all pulled through.

And back to the magical forest (I was going to say gloom, but I should be more positive, right?) we went. I love my bike path. I don't know if I can ever love a path more than this one.

My dream of turtles on top of turtles came true! Here's Teya and Rex. Teya got her name from Baby Tehina, and her name is also cool because you can call her "T" for short and have "T" and "Rex" in the same cage.

I love this chart from the LDS financial planning class.

Proof that my kids have been reading all summer. I've started doing ten minutes a day with the girls, which has been good. Issac read Lord of the Rings Book 1, and I'm still in it.

Ashley and Tan sent us a few of their engagement photos. The water shots were cool!

And then soccer started up and Isaac got to be my babysitter.

Preschool agenda for Roman and Cason. They'll have fun! My friend Brandi are doing this, and we'll just see how it goes. They love each other, so if nothing else, they'll have a blast.

The preschoolers.

Dirty room converted to clean room!

Much better.

My kids had daily chores in the summer, but they were done and I was still going on my huge job cleaning out the butler kitchen, Captain America was amusing his siblings.

It started looking better.

This was cool: my Olympia First ward Relief Society president went to Palmyra to pick her son up from his mission and ended up getting a tour from Kayla and Dave. They took a picture together. I found out afterward that Sister Falter called me to be the RS secretary.