Happy School Days!

Ethan's first day of school! He is in Miss Halter's AM kindergarten class. He liked playing basketball today. He even gets to ride the bus home.

This was not Erica's first day, but it was within the first week of school. :) She is in Mr DeGraffenried's third grade class.

Allison is in Mrs. Greer's sixth grade class. It is her last year of elementary school.

Cherilyn is in eighth grade at Payson Jr High.

We had the Elder family reunion the first week of August. We went to a rodeo, hiked to Stewart Falls, played games and had a water fight at the park, played corn toss (corn hole) and generally had a great time with the family (except the stomach flu that went around). Here are some of our favorite pictures. This is most everyone who was there, taken at Mark and Diana's houseThis is Joshua playing at the park in Highland.

The kids that went on the hike. Erica isn't there. She helped Grandma babysit instead of hiking.

Here is Eli opening birthday presents. His birthday was the week before the reunion. He is four now.

Joshua is walking! He took his first steps alone today.

We got a kitten! A neighbor asked if we wanted one of her outdoor cat's kittens. A few days later the kids found a mouse on the porch. That night I heard a mouse in the eaves. Charles found evidence of a mouse in the attic. The next morning we decided to get the outdoor kitten. The children all love her. Cherilyn and Allison have been good at taking care of her. They decided to call her Tiger Lilly. She has "tiger" stripes that are not visible in this picture.

We had the Buchanan family reunion the weekend of the 4th of July. We went to parades, the park, golfing (for the men) and shopping (for the women and Cherilyn and Allison). We also had a talent show again. Cherilyn, Allison, Ethan and I played the piano. Charles also played the piano, but his official talent was demonstrating the rubix cube in four minutes. Erica sang I Like to Eat Apples and Bananas. Eli did a running somersault. Joshua knocked over stacks of blocks.

This is the grandkid craft that Grandma B helped the kids with. They each made their own quilt board (except the Fab 4).

On Monday we hiked up to first falls in Provo Canyon with Mark and Ben and their families. This is Emma, Mark and Sarah's daughter, Eli and Ethan.

Ben, Stacy, Matthew, Allison, Sarah, Mark and William looking back down the hike.

Erica, Charles and Cherilyn sitting by first falls.
It was a very good reunion.

The Fab 4 (as Grandma B calls them)
The four grandchildren born last summer. Here is my favorite picture of them from the reunion. Uncle Charles gave them all a piece of licorice and they loved it!

Another of the Fab 4.

Isn't Joshua adorable?

At the park in Tooele we played games and then ended with a relay race. Here we are getting ready to start.

A group crabwalked down the hill. They also bear walked up the hill and of course some rolled down the hill, resulting in at least one upset stomach.

There is a circle of new sod here. Work with the tractor and piles of dirt ruined the grass there. Our garden boxes are inside the fence. The first is filled with rocks to build a small retaining wall.

This is the other end of the garden boxes and our firepit.

Here is the sod in the back.