The First Day of Second Grade

School started August 9th this year! So early, right? Well the Kindergarten kids don't start until the 19th so Avery was the only one who went so far but can you believe I have a second grader? It sounds so much more grown up than a first grader!

She was pretty excited and had a nice first day. I drove her so I could go see her class and meet her teacher.

She did great. We had her ride the bus home but of course they are always late the first few days. Cam, Lil, and I were pretty hot by the time she got here! 

The best news is our bus stop has been moved to right next to our house! Last year it was a quarter mile away. This will be so nice to just sit on my deck and watch them wait for the bus.

After school we did our swim lessons and in the evening we went to Member's night at the Zoo. Merrick had been in Seattle all week so we needed something fun to do to celebrate school being in session. 

It was a fun night with free carousel rides and a nice animal show. I enjoyed the keeper talks where they told about the animals. The girls were so bored by those though! :) They just wanted to go play on the playground. 

It was soooo humid and sweaty that we definitely needed McDonalds ice cream cones afterwards. As we drove home Avery announced that it had been the best day ever and that I was a great mom. Made it all worth it! 

The Fair

We live half a mile from the Williamson County Ag Expo Center and so we were excited for the Williamson County Fair since we were so close! It was really fun. 

Loved seeing this mama pig and all her nursing piglets!

We saw a cool BMX show, rode some rides, saw some nice produce our friends entered in, pet the animals, and ate some fair food. It was a fun night.

Another perk is every night at 10pm the fair does a short fireworks show. So every night we could see these from our back porch! Kind of fun!

Pool time!

When we moved into our neighborhood we heard about the pool that they have been waiting 4-5 years for! We were excited that we were moving in at a great time- it was supposed to be done Memorial Day weekend. Well then it was June 1st and that became July 13th. It finally opened up August 2nd, one week before school started here! 

We were there the first night it opened and then we started private swimming lessons last week so we played every day! 

It was a little intense at times watching three kids by myself but Camryn wore a life jacket and Avery can touch in the shallow end so it's just Lily that is my hard work to keep track of! Luckily she stays in her floaty most of the time. :) 

The kids learned a ton in their first week of lessons and it actually wasn't crowded at all except the very last day we went. It was the first half day of school and 90 degrees and humid so everyone came after school got out. It was insane! Hopefully that's not what all of next summer will be like! 

We are so glad to have the pool and will definitely be there a ton until it closes for the season! 

Oregon

We flew all five of us to Portland Oregon for Merrick's brother Brett's wedding at the end of July. We had a really nice time and the weather was awesome. 

The kids did great on the flights and here they are making themselves at home coloring with a new friend on the Nashville airport floor. 

One of the first things we did while we were there was go out on Uncle Brian's parents boat. The boys went golfing so the girls went boating. Lily loved flying high with the wind in her hair with Aunt Lindsey.

We stopped at one point and the girls got in to swim. 

When the men finished golfing they joined us on the boat. Avery was brave and tried out surfing with Uncle Brian.

Merrick also tried out surfing and left his iPhone 5 in his pocket. Ouch! (Luckily after putting it in rice for 24 hrs everything works except the touch screen so Siri is making his calls for him now, haha.)

Anyways that afternoon we decided to do some casual family pictures wearing blue, white, and yellow. I don't have any official pics from the photographer yet but you get the idea. 

That night we had a family dinner at the bride's house and swimming in their pool. My kids were really tired that night!!

The next day was wedding day! We had Uncle Tanner watch the girls during the sealing and he brought them to the temple for pictures. 

The reception was at the Cottle's backyard. They had a nice tent and lots of yummy food. 

At the end they did dancing, of course, since Megan is a ballerina and Brett a ballroom dancer. Lily has got some sweet moves too. :)

Sunday we went to church, ate brunch, relaxed, and then went to the Butterfield's house for a BBQ birthday dinner for Lily. She turned two the next day but everyone was leaving in the morning so we celebrated a day early.

It was fun to have everyone watch her cute reactions to her presents. She even got an Oregon Ducks jersey with Uncle Brian's old number 8. :)

The next day we flew home. This picture of Camryn shows how tired we all were.

We all got a little sleep on the two flights home except Avery. We were delayed a bit so we didn't get home until 1am (11pm Oregon time). Lily and Camryn woke up at 10am. I finally woke Avery up at 11am! Whew! With only 10 days until school starting we definitely needed to get on a better schedule! It took a few days but eventually we were closer to better bedtimes/wake up times.

The day after Lily's birthday we celebrated the rest of her birthday and she opened her presents from us and Grandma Haws. Cute two year old!

That was our fifth wedding in three and a half years! The end of August my youngest sister is getting married in Utah so that will be #6! So many bridesmaid/flower girl dresses!! :) 

July 2013

July was a fun month with a visit from our cousins at the beginning and a trip to Uncle Brett's wedding in Oregon at the end. But in between those things we did a few other fun outings.

We bought a membership at the Nashville Zoo which was really cool. The paths are enclosed in trees and it feels like you're in a jungle searching for animals. The petting zoo was a hit.

Avery loved "Meercat Manor" because she did a big report on meerkats at the end of the school year.

We wore Lily out. :)

Here's a picture of the peach pie I made with some yummy tree ripe peaches we got. It was really good!

Lily wore some cute pigtails. Her hair is slowly growing!

And I won some tickets on the radio to the Grand Ole Opry show. Avery was my date!

Lee Brice was the person I recognized the most. Tyler Farr and Craig Morgan were some of our other faves.

It was fun but Avery was b.o.r.e.d. way too fast! I finally gave her my phone to play games on so she would stop laying all over me. :) Oh well. I enjoyed the experience. Definitely a must on your list of Nashville sightseeing!! 

We had a lot of fun in July and next time I'll post about our big trip at the end of the month- to Portland, Oregon!!