*deep fried*

I have said before how much I love the fair.

The atmosphere is fun and crazy and there is not a better place in the state to do your people watching. I love how my taste buds tingle at the smell of cinnamon almonds and scones and other deep fried goodness.

We did not go for all you can eat ice cream day. Although I was a bit disappointed to find out that we could not make it that night, it was a nice change of pace to do and see things that we usually don't get to since we are gorging ourselves on dairy products.

Speaking of dairy products, (how did you like that segway?) how cute is this butter sculpture?

It was the closest I would ever get to the royal wedding so I reveled in the moment.

We walked around for a bit and found my mom's contributions for the year. She entered 4 or 5 things and a majority of them won some type of ribbon.

This awesome U quilt won best in show.


And this lovely ditty is my new quilt for my bed.

We saw kangaroos, a sea lion show, and looked at ourselves in funny mirrors:






There was also an exhibit that had all types of science puzzles and activities. We all had fun trying to figure everything out and when Liam solved one of his, he was in seventh heaven.



We of course saw the livestock.





And then the boys were able to finally choose their two rides. This spider looking contraption caught their eye. My dad was nice enough to accompany them. I gladly took pictures. They are in the red car.




Andrew and Luke went on their favorite ride from last year, the starship 3000. Liam opted to relive a moment from last year with grandpa and went on this other octopus looking contraption. I secretly wondered how my dad could handle two of these rides in a row.



Then this attraction began to be quite an obsession with Luke and Andrew. We would be looking around for a ride that looked interesting and they would quietly wander over to the sign and would have to be redirected to the task at hand. Luke started saying: "I wonder what that snake lady looks like" every chance he got. We had to walk right by the exhibit and I thought the boys would burst with all of the curiosity that was building up in their little bodies. My mom was nice enough to indulge them with the admission fee.


I won't give away what they really saw but they were thoroughly unimpressed.

The annual ferris wheel ride...



...and sharing of a deep fried delicacy. This year it was a deep fried snickers. One word: delicious.


I made a little resolution with myself to bring a little extra cash next time so we can do some of the crazy things there like walk on water in a huge bubble or go fishing or whatever catches our fancy.

I am counting down the days until next year.

*football*

In an attempt to keep this somewhat chronologically current there will be intermittent posts about the sport that has literally taken over our household.

This year Andrew began tackle football and it is absolutely crazy having two different practice schedules and game locations that take us all over the valley. There is practice for one of them every single night of the week. Every. Single. Night. Not to mention that we rarely get to see the boys play every game since the times are just different enough to have one parent go one week to see one boy play and then switch off. It makes me nervous for next year when Luke begins playing. We may need to hire a chauffeur.

It is a darn good thing they love it so much or else I would second guess signing them up for some good old fashioned me time. But this is our life and once it gets going, it really is fun.

I was the lucky one to see Andrew's debut game against Alta. He wears #39. The poor thing was so nervous before his game that he was throwing up. I was worried that this sensitive soul would not be very aggressive and let the game pass him by. I was surprised to see Andrew's inner beast come unchained.




He played very well for his first game ever in pads. I was very proud of him.

Unfortunately his team lost this one but he kept a good attitude throughout the game.
Nick did win his first game against South Summit.

The next week Nick and I trekked to Grantsville for his game. It was super far away. On the way out there, Nick turned to me and said: "Promise me we will never move out here." I double pinky swear.

Nick wears #20.


Look at him downing this guy.



And this guy.


I am sure glad they won because it would have been a long, silent drive home if we would have lost.

*first day 2011*

I have a child in seventh grade.

It freaks me out a bit. How did I get so old?

I was so happy when their elementary charter school announced that they would be opening a middle school. There are definately pros and cons to any type of school but I have heard stories about the public school that Nick would have been attending. And they weren't good stories.

One big bonus of attending the new school was his group of friends were also going to join him. This made me immensely happy. I am so blessed that he found sincerely good boys to hang out with.



This little man started kindergarten this year if it wasn't already obvious from the huge sign on the door.

He brought his walkie talkie to join him in this monumental event.



He has been so excited all summer to go to "kinnergarden." Since I am back tracking just a bit and he has been in school a while, I can say that he has loved it. His teacher is amazing and does learning plans that blow my mind.




Our back to school dinner consisted of french dip sandwiches, steak fries with fry sauce, corn on the cob, yummy sodas, and for desert we had strawberry shortcake.



Nick said his goal is to get straight As.
Andrew doesn't want any missing work.
Luke said ditto to Andrew's.
Liam just wants to have fun.

My goal is to do my best to be with it enough to help them achieve their goals. So far I think we are doing okay.

*s'more please*

Liam's birthday celebrations went on into the weekend (and actually even longer since his friend party was a little later into September) as we celebrated with our family.

Welcome to Camp Oogabooga.



My mother in law graciously hosted our party in her backyard. I originally was toying with the idea of having the party in the canyon but am glad I decided against it. It was super cozy at the Scott's house and near the very end of the party it began to sprinkle a bit so it was nice to have the option to retreat indoors.



We had a fun activity for the kids that involved glow in the dark paint while we were waiting for everyone to arrive. It was a little hectic so I didn't get any pictures but the finished product looked more or less like this:



To go along with the camping theme we lit up the firepit and gathered around it to make s'mores.

I adore s'mores. I think that they are one of the best treats in the entire world.

I put together a bar that had quite a few possibilities for s'more combinations.
There were plain, chocolate and cinnamon graham crackers. Marshmellow choices were regular, chocolate swirl, caramel swirl, toasted coconut, and strawberry. The candy centers consisted of milk chocolate hershey bars, dark chocolate hershey bars, reeces peanut butter cups, york peppermint patties, and to add a bit more variety there were bananas and oreos as well. I found itty bitty mint marshmellows but didn't know how they would fare getting roasted, maybe next time I will try to make my own minty delights.

I couldn't decide if I liked the cinnamon graham-banana-reeces-plain marshmellow or the chocolate graham-coconut marshmellow-dark chocolate combo better. Both are highly recommended.

We put lights up around the table to create the illusion we were out under the stars.


It was such a fun night. Sitting around a campfire visiting and laughing with people I love is one of my most favorite things in the world.





I think everyone else had a good time too.












Most importantly, Liam loved it.

Being the center of attention has never been a problem for him though.