It is hard to believe that tomorrow is Jake's first day of school and the girls first day is Thursday...where has the summer gone:)
This week has paled in comparision to all the fun we had last week but we did have some exciting moments...least of which was our trip to Roaring Springs on Thursday.
Yes Brooke's dream finally came true, all winter/spring(and even summer) Brooke has been begging to go to "Summer Springs" ("summer" because we kept telling her we would go to Roaring Springs in the summer...aren't kids the best:) The kids had free passes due to reading so much last year and so we finally cashed in. I got the day off and we went with the Stampflis for a fun filled sunny day on all kinds of waterslides. It was a great day! Little Brooke and Maddie were in heaven running from the lazy river to the kid pool to the wave pool and then just dropping on the concrete walkway to warm themselves. Jake and Kate braved the big kid rides and had a blast. Sarah of course was in heaven - water and sun and I just tried to keep up (and not get sun burned...didn't do so well on the later:)
All week following work we have been going over to Jake's summer tutor's rental home to work on cleaning, fixing, installng and painting various things in payment for her tutoring. She is a reading specialist that Sarah found who is amazing...there is nothing like the bartering system...we have the trim to still paint on her house and hopefully we will have enough hours in for payment. It's a good thing that we don't have anything to do at our house (comment dripping with sarcasm:)
Speaking of projects, I am still struggling with building our horseshoe pit...somehow this has turned into the horseshoe pit of all horseshoe pits...its amazing how much time and money you can spend on projects - all in attempts to cover our septic field and get ride of a pile of landscaping rocks:) Saturday I was putting some pavers down to act as a border (where is John when you need him:) but didn't quite finish.
I did get a new calling a couple weeks ago. I am now the new Stake Young Men's president. It is a good thing that the church is still true and we are hopeful that this time I actually get it right:) I had my first stake activity Saturday night - a back to school party/rodeo where the old presidency passed the torch...lets just hope I don't drop it. I look forward to continuing to work with the youth and their leaders.
Today we had an awesome Family Home Evening thanks to Sarah. I think she gained some of her inspiration from her sisters but she focused on our kids names and we determined a goal for each of them using one letter of their name (as well as a coresponding scripture). Jakes goal if JaCob (Confidence), Kate's goal is Kind, MaDDie's goal is Dauntless, and BrOOke's goal is Obedient (imagine that:) We had a great back to school dinner and of course the father's blessings for the new school year...wow I can't believe tomorrow we are back into our morning routine. I love our mornings, the only problem is they start a little too early for me:)
Sorry no pictures...we'll do better next week!
Love
Dave, Sarah, Jake, Kate, Maddie & Brooke
