August - (Quanitity not quality)

Well as I went through my pictures I decided that August was just as busy as July. And come to think of it, we've been busy every since. But we've had fun and I'm not sure I'd trade the busy for sitting around not knowing what to do...

Anyway - on with the show...
Grandma Sandy set up the Tee-pee for the kids, which they loved.. They even got to sleep in it one night and thought that was the best thing in the world. I was just glad I didn't have to sleep in there with the kids - Grandma was the hero for all of us that night!

And - who can properly play in a Tee-Pee without dressing up like Indians?

A priceless self-portrait of Weston... I am just so happy he knows nothing about this!

Sandy helped me finish my quilt for Elayna... good thing too because her other quilt is too big and bulky for a 3 year old, so this is what she is using now.

We took advantage of The $2.00 Tuesday evenings at Thanksgiving Point and had a great time. Weston was his usual self and started directing all the kids around to work together to make one huge island.. I am constantly amazed at his directing/managing ability - especially with complete strangers.

Tyler being silly with the shark! 'Cause it's cool!

Elayna is just odd -most of the time... she did her own thing through our visit there.. Even in the excavation area.. while everyone else was digging up bones and dusting them off - she would go around grabbing the brushes and then spend all the time brushing off her legs and feet, that got dirty because she was looking for brushes.

Probably their favorite part of the whole visit... just playing on the decorative rocks before we went home.  ** But, I just remembered. - we decided to go get ice cream at their little cafe there at Thanksgiving point.. We ate outside and I was just watching other people, and I noticed that there was a small group inside at the booths that were looking out at the patio (where we were) and laughing.. I was curious why they were all looking so intently and laughing, so I watched for a while, and realized they were laughing at Elayna who was pressing up against the full glass window wall  - with both hands on the windows - licking up and down and side to side.. gross - but admitedly - very funny too!  She wasn't really interested in the ice cream, I guess the window tasted better.

Grandma was very patient with us, and came to our visit of the Bean Museum on BYU campus. I hadn't been there in years - and still just as strange with all those huge animals, stuffed, just looking at you! The kids were able to feel and watch some real - live - reptiles and watch some really cool documentaries on animals, which they somehow all loved!  And as you can see - were sporting their "happy face" which they all seem to have in common.

We took a day to go to the Thanksgiving petting farm.. always fun!

The city of Highland or Lehi??  Had a kids fair/carnvial with face painting, freebies (webkinz - very cool) and bike and running races.. Weston didn't win in the running, but was oh - so proud that he won the bike race. Admitedly I was proud too - he was the youngest and smallest by far, and significantly ahead of everyone else!  Tyler - well, he didn't win (he and another boy were the last two, but also 2 years younger than everyone else in their heat... so he got a medal too!

Jessica, my sister was so nice to meet up with us and go to the Childrens museum. My boys loved being able to play with Asher, and it was just great to have some time with Jessica since I never see her.  Elayna - again had a great time, but always on her own terms.

She spent most of her time in the grocery area. And while the kids were all taking out the groceries and doing their thing.. she went around taking all the groceries from the shelves and the other kids' baskets and would go put all the food back - in the correct places.  Fairly OCD if you ask me!  But she had a great time doing it!

Benjamin and Bethany let us come and play at their house one night.. where Bethany won the best Aunt in the world award because she could make baloon weapons!

On the 4th of July - we were fairly disapointed by the parade and festivities - so we decided we needed more mayhem and boy playing. Grandpa Ed suggested that we shoot of the water rockets and water balloons - so COOL.. everyone had several turns and we ended up spending hours outside. The boys still think that was one of the coolest things. Elayna found another purpose for the balloon launcher - and forced John to act as the play equipment so she could swing - inventive since she came up with that on her own.  After that - we think our 4th of July was pretty awesome!

The fun just continued the next night since we got to spend the evening with Stan and Julie - and the boys will forever think Spencer is the coolest cousin because he has an enormous bucket of bionicles that he let them play with - and He played too.

Hangover from all the fun.. 

And then the day started and ended like it did most nights. Wrestling. Grandma claims she doesn't instigate it - but I'm still undecided!

Elayna's get up - 

Then we got to have an evening with Jens, Shelli and their kids.. Elayna saw this picture and got really excited and said "oh - their's my friend!"  Pointing at Anna.. I thought that was sweet!

Sandy and I braved the single parenting crowd and took the 3 kids to the Thanksgiving water park. Definitely not worth the cost or the crowd for the "$2.00 tuesday" rate. But it was fun to see the children's garden, the kids had fun just doin' their thing!

After a while we (Sandy and I) decided we should see the real gardens since we most likely wouldn't get a chance later. And since we were tired and the gardens were huge.. we splurged and rented a little golf cart and had such a fun time seeing the gardens. I reasoned the kids couldn't walk the whole thing, but really I just wanted the cart! I think alot of the fondness and joy came from the actual driving of the golf cart (for Sandy and I) and for the kids - just being able to ride on the cart.. But the gardens were beautiful and we have so many fun pictures  - it will be built up so much in memory we'll never be able to go back - otherwise I think we'll be disapointed by reality!

At the end, there was a huge hill, and the kids demanded that they have a minute to roll down. So they did - I should have gone with them probably - but what fun to watch the kids - just being kids!

We took another trip to the Highland water park... this time with Bethany and her boys.. We were lucky enough to find a praying mantis on Elayna's dog. Weston took ownership of the poor little creature and spent the entire visit walking around showing it off to 'everyone' at the park.  We had fun, the boys had fun in a scienc-y sort of way. And Bethany's boys are just so cute!

That night we had a Taylor party... for a lot of fortunate people you know what that means.. For the rest of you, hopefully one day you'll get to experience the pure joy that comes in having your own full size soft serve ice cream maker in your house! Curtsey of Ed and Sandy, we had a gathering of some of our friends from Sawtooth who had already moved to Utah. It wasn't a planned thing, but I wish now it would have been because we missed a few friends that we wished had come.  But the kids were in heaven with their endless supply of ice cream and toppings, and we had fun just visiting and spending some time with each other as friends before we moved out to Ohio.

Thank you Lisa for coming... It was great to see you again!

We were in Utah for almost 5 weeks I think, but because John and I left on a house hunting trip - and John was still working, the visit seemed really rushed and short. So sadly we did not get as many visits with my grandparents as we would have liked, but the few visits we did have was great.  

Weston being his usual photogenic self.

And here we are AGAIN - at that infamous Highland water park! It really was awesome! and free!  Jessica came down to meet up with us - and the kids had such a great time.  How fun to see the boys (Weston, Tyler and Asher) get to know each other and have a chance to just play!

That night we went to Ed and Sandy's ward activity - the Chili cookoff. I did not participate in the cooking, but happily was able to benefit from everyone elses work!

Elayna sporting her usual yellow boots.. and "how come I can't play soccer with the boys' look.

Sandy - taking her "picture of the day" for her 365 album.

The kids enjoying a few moments of freedom in the back of grandpa's very cool truck!

The visit in Utah was short lived, but so much fun! (probably a longer visit for Ed and Sandy than for us!)  But we eventually started our trek out East.  And continued with our goal to get a picture at each State sign.

Colorado is just beautiful... I have a fondness for the state anyway - but they scored big by not only having a pull off for the state entry sign, but they had two signs.. 

Colorado was fun... The kids had a blast with their cousins.  Uncle Tyson - within the first hour we were there, commented about there being a whole lot of wild rabits around their yard. He told the boys if they caught one, they could keep it. Thanks a lot Tyson!  So the whole time we were there, all the kids were busy making rabit traps.  We had family pictures scheduled with my cousin, time to visit with Hilary and it was impossible to leave the house with any happy thoughts at all, because the boys were so obsessed with catching those silly rabits.  Luckily - nothing was caught (no surprise when you saw the traps) But it was very cute, although somewhat dangerous around the house, to see the ingenious attempts to catch little fur balls that might end up eating the kids who caught them!

By far one of my most favorite picts.. by the amazing blueprintsphotography.com 

On with the trip - our stop in very windy nebraska.  Construction again - I think we counted there was at least one long stretch of construction in each state we went through.

The joys of car travel... the back of the expedition was full of everything we had for the last 2 months.  our life - and not much of it. The kids were so good though. I am so grateful for their patience with all of the moving stuff.

And rainy Illinois - again, no pull off.

But it warmed up quickly - and humidly.. We spent a few days with Jared and Ali in Naperville, and were fortunate enough to be able to see Jason and Becca too while we were there.

We took a day to go visit Cantigny - they kids had been before but John and I were happy to see the famed attraction! The kids - had a great time playing with their cousins. It was so great to see them have so much fun with each other. There were little mifs now and again - mostly from the younger two, and Tyler lost a finger nail which is almost grown back. But all in all - they had a great time with each other. And were severely sleep deprived because of it!

At Cantigny there was a really cool historic house that we were able to look around.. While waiting to go inside the kids slowed down enough to get a few pictures. (mostly bad because of operator error) But I decided since I wasn't getting any pictures worthy of editing, I would just try to get the worst faces I could from my kids.. I did succeed with at least two - because Weston wouldn't even let me get a shot of him.

Addie looking as confused as the rest of us, as to what this was - very cool little dragon though.  They had a childrens garden which was fun to run through.

Next day - we took a trip to the local mall and the kids got to ride on the carosel. Very cool for them.

Then we took them all to a little dinner in Downers Grove where they had a train that ran along the counter (you can see the track) and the kids had dinner food.  The kids think we need to install a train that delivers food in our house, so we can enjoy our dinning experience more!

The visit was short, but we were ready to just be done with the move and finally unpack some boxes so we could have more clothes and toy options!   We found out we are only 6 1/2 hours from Chicago - but still a little far for a quick weekend trip. So we have yet to go back, but hopefully in the time we are here, we will get to see family a little more often. Although we were only 4 hours from Brenda in Portland, and we didn't see her very often either.... hmmm.

And 6 hours and a lot of sadness and frustration later we finally made it to the Ohio state line. The remainder of our drive was spent with threats of no video games, movies, DS time or anything else for the next 2 months.

They look happy - but John is actually "sternly talking to Weston" And he only looks happy because he's squinting from the wind and sun. 

The day we moved into the house it was probably 90+ degrees and matched by humidity. The truck came late but our kind neighbors fed us and let us borrow an air matress, the kids slept on the hard wood floors!  The next day was just as hot or worse, and I couldn't breath - it felt like I was breathing in water. After spending a few hours unloading - thanks to all the help from our new ward - we were hot and sweaty and ready to shower. But we found out we had no hot water.  That was a fiasco - and we ended up not having hot water for over a week. Welcome to cold showers and boiling the water for family baths!  

We were much happier when we found our boxed toys and clothes and stuff that we hadn't seen for almost 4 months.  John soon set to the task of building bunk beds for the boys since we got rid of their twin beds (good thing since we really didn't have the space - as suspected) And this is him, in his happy place - discovering, exploring and working with power tools!

We drove in Friday night - Tyler and Weston started school the next Tuesday. Tyler didn't get the exciting start Weston did. We were too preocupied with moving in, un packing and making them beds. But he was a happy boy. We wish he could have gone full day - but he is loving school and that is great!

We did neglect our kids a bit during the first week because of unpacking and trying to figure out how to set up in our tiny place.. and the kids were tired - so it was good to just sit for a while. They don't look happy - but I think they were!!!!

And when the beds were finally done, and the boys could sleep on a bed - which hadn't been the case since April - they were thrilled!

So that is our August.  September and October will be coming later.. Hopefully before too long since I don't want to get too far behind with all that we are doing now!