2 weeks left...

It's sad, but true! We're leaving for Utah in 2 weeks! Ben passed his certification exam, leaving the house selling as our final hurdle. At this point, though, we're going whether the house sells or not. Ben starts his new job on October 16th in Logan.

Leaving Oregon will be strange and sad, but we're so excited to get closer to family (sorry Diana!). We love the Northwest and would definitely consider returning. Who knows...

Beaverton "Oldtown" Parade

Saturday (the same day BYU beat UCLA 59-0- Whoohoo!!), we took the kids to the Beaverton "Oldtown" Parade. We're not sure of the reason for the big celebration other than a chance to extend the summer fun into the school year. The parade was a blast: lasting longer than an hour and providing enough candy for us to hand out at Halloween this year. The grand marshalls of the parade were the Roloff family (the stars of "Little People, Big World"). They live about 20 minutes from our house, although we've never watched the show.

Here are a few pics of the fun day.

Elena's 1st day of Pre-School

Not to be outdone, Elena also required first day of pre-school pics. She was in pre-school last year, but, no matter, it is a new year! She was pretty cute in her first day outfit. She goes twice a week for 2 1/2 hours. Good times!

Rachel lost her first tooth!!

Rachel has been wiggling her tooth since the end of her Kindergarten school year. Lately though, she has been giving it a lot more attention.



After letting us all take turns wiggling it...



...and after biting into an apple during her second day of school...



...she finally pulled it out on her own!! She was so excited and told everyone she saw that she lost her first tooth!! She looks pretty cute with the gap in the bottom of her mouth, and she talks cute too. Her other bottom tooth is loose now so we'll be able to listen to her little lisp pretty soon!

1st day of 1st!

First day of school! First day of school!
Rachel started 1st grade today! She looked pretty cute in her new clothes, which, of course, had been neatly placed out the night before. Mrs. Jackson is her teacher and Rachel already loves her. Rachel even gets to take her lunches in her new lunch box.

Also of note, Rachel is about to lose her first tooth! Each of the kids gets to wiggle it a bit every day. Should be fun to see her toothless!

"Laborious" Camping over Labor Day Weekend

Whew! It was a quick trip, but taking 5 kids and 1 pregnant lady camping is quite an adventure! The Riley girls, Paige and Taylor, joined us for an overnighter along the Wilson River. We went on a hike, threw rocks in the river, ate lots of good food and had a pretty good time.

Sleeping was another issue. First Creed took forever to fall asleep, then Elena threw up (twice!), Rachel got scared, etc, etc. I'll add a video soon describing the event.

It was fun, though, to get out and enjoy Oregon before Rachel started school.