End of Summer Update

Haven't been to the ol' blog in a while. I still read all my friends' blogs, even though I don't often comment, so I don't feel completely out of the loop. When I first started blogging I thought of events and things that happened in my life from the viewpoint of "I could blog about that." Now I'm so out of the habit of blogging I don't even know where to start. So I'll post a bunch of pictures that I've accumulated over the summer and describe them a little. That should do the trick as far as keeping a record for posterity...

What kind of summer would it be without plenty of ice cream and Popsicles?

We had a family reunion at my house, but not everyone was able to make it (including myself) so we had a second reunion at Bear Lake. It was loads of fun, and the kids had a blast playing with their cousins!

My kids are suddenly fearless when it comes to water (compared to last summer when they would hardly go near it). Drew is especially brave when he has his life jacket on.

Owen, Drew and cousin Ellie on a merry-go-round. If I remember correctly, they all bailed before the ride was finished, which made for some tricky kid-juggling.

We also went to American Falls Reservoir. I don't know why we keep going back there. I guess because it's free and it's close to our house--just 20 minutes away. But the water is always so filthy!

Samantha didn't want to go in the water, so she sat on the shore chucking rocks into the water the whole time.

After we go to the reservoir, we go visit David's grandma. She always brings out this little car garage, which has been around forever and which the kids absolutely love.

I found this bug while cleaning the BLM building one evening. I have no clue what it was. It's body was shaped like an ant's, and it had six legs that it actually used, plus two appendages that just sort of did nothing, and two long antennae on its head. Its head and legs were reddish-brown, and its body was gray. Legs and all, it was about two and a half inches diameter. Huge! I couldn't bring myself to squish it, so I just took pictures, cleaned around it and left the room as quickly as possible.

I had some time off so I took the kids to visit my sister Roz. Roz lives not far from my Grandma Archibald, so we went to visit her, too. Drew was being a pill and wouldn't look at the camera. Oh, well.

The day after we visited my Grandma, we went wakeboarding. Our friend's boat is super nice; even I can wakeboard successfully behind it. (By "successfully" I mean that I can get up and ride. I can't do any tricks or anything.) This is just a picture of the full moon that rose as we were cleaning the boat at the end of the day. It made me think of James' Giant Peach. It was gorgeous and this picture does it no justice whatsoever.

Yesterday we went to a Railroad picnic. They had a firetruck there, which was the boys' favorite part.

Owen hopping down from the firetruck.

Drew sitting in the truck.

Samantha's favorite part was the playground. That girl is fearless! She'll shimmy up all the steps and ladders, and go down all the slides. The bigger the better! This little slide is surprisingly fast, but she seemed disappointed at how short it was.

We had the scare of the summer yesterday. Samantha and the boys were playing on the playground while I helped out with the Railroad picnic. I turned around to check on the kids and none of them were where I left them. A few seconds later I saw Drew and Owen. I asked them where Samantha was. Drew said, "That man taked her." Panic!! My heart almost stopped. I started running around trying to find her. Finally I saw my friend's mom holding her. My friend's brother had seen her on the playground crying and bleeding from the forehead, so he "taked" her to his mom who is a nurse. The mom was on her way to the announcer station when I found them. I'm just glad that the kid who found her happened to be someone we knew, and we got her back safe and sound (if a little bloody from the playground).

Samantha turns two this coming Thursday. I can't believe it! My baby is not a baby anymore! We're going to make a Samantha cake, and I got her some really cute clothes (which she helped pick out) for her birthday. I'll make sure to post some pictures before she turns three!

Oh, I almost forgot to even write about this: I got a new job. Yay! I started working as a Dental Assistant last week. In Idaho, you don't have to be certified to be a Dental Assistant, and a lot of dentists like to hire people with little to no experience (that's me!) so they can train them to do things a particular way. I love my new schedule: it's Tues-Fri, with varying hours depending on when the first and last appointments of the day are. Also, the dentist takes days off every so often, so I have days off dispersed here and there, including an entire week in October (too bad it's without pay). I like the work, too. It's pediatric dentistry, and it's fun to work with kids. A lot of them are scared, which can be tricky, especially with their parents hovering around, but they're all so cute. And it's fun to talk to them about keeping their teeth clean and healthy. I think this will be the start of a good career. I still want to do Dental Hygiene, but it will probably be a while before I get back to school since David's job still doesn't feel very secure yet. But at least working at the dentist office, I know that I'll be dumping all that tuition money into a field I enjoy.