In all truthfulness, it wasn't the most peaceful trying to snap a shot of the kids at the fountain!! We were just about done and we were hot and ready to go eat, but life is good! We got this shot, smiles and all:) Good times, kids, good times!! We adore these three!
WE had the BEST time at the Living Aquraium while we were in Utah!! I think we all agreed that "Flappy" the Stingray, was our favorite, however, this picture of Brant and the Octopuss is definately my favorite photo of the day!!!
One of Jacob's favorite foods is Lobster & crab!! He was sooo excited to see this gigantor lobster...he wanted to cook it up and eat it!
Tiger Shark
Lost in the Swamp
cute kids in a cave
Rissa LOVED these fish!!! I think our next pet will be a fish or two for her-it was so fun to see her and listen to her in all of her excitement---"FEEEESH!". Oh, and to a two year old, feeesh are very interactive with you!! She loved that they play 'Peek-A-Boo' with her...popping out from the rocks and stuff
Brant must be wearing some good Worm smelling Cologne!! These fish followed him to each side of the tank, but they wouldn't follow anyone else! Maybe it's the red:)
FLAPPY!!! The kids gave this Stingray the name, Flappy, b/c he would litterally pull himself up the wall and flap, looking for someone to pet him!!
I started petting him and he just sat there, seriously, for about two mins! It was kinda like our dog-lol!! We all fell in love with Flappy!!
"Here Flappy, here Flappy!" 
"....good boy, good boy Flappy!"
When we go visit G'ma, we always tell her to make a list of things that we can all do together to help her around the house. Well, boy did we get to her!!1 We were so excited that we got to help clean out and organize her shed!!! Marty always likes finding "old memories" stuff!
G'ma rigged up a cool trash bag despencer--clever clever!!
Brant helped tons with keeping Rissa occuppied when she needed breaks from "hepping"! G'pa's old walker did the trick most of the time.
I just had to get a shot of this! JB White!!! I loved finding this box bc of two reasons: 1-for the longest time I shopped there (man they had good sales!!) and got my hair done there ...along with the fact that they were bought out years ago and no longer exist!! 2-When I was growing up, my dad was a Supervisor there, in the warehouse and so we ALWAYS had JB White gift boxes on hand! This was just one of those things that sparked a lot of memories for me.
We found Marty's Dad's Postal Jacket. Along with being in the Air Force, he was a Mailman. Our kids love the fact that G'pa was a Mailman....the old school kind, ya know! He didn't wear t-shirt and shorts and tennis shoes like ours! He was a hard core Mailman who dressed in the uniform and walked from door to door devlivering mail to the people of the world! It meant a lot to come across many memories of Dad.
OK----SSoooooooo...here's something else we found!
And upon ripping up the linoleum -- here's what we found!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING?!
So it wasn't before too long that Marty and I headed off to Lowe's to buy supplies for a NEW SHED FLOOR!! This was the first time we've ever replaced any type of floor by ourselves, so we had to do a little research at the "Do It Yourself" counter, but it didn't take too long before we had gathered our supplies and were heading out the door!
It was exciting to be taking this project on....but what if we TOTALLY SCREWED UP G'MAs shed floor??!!!! That thought did make us a slightly nervous, but didn't stop us!
Jacob was oh too eagar to saw something!!! We had even brought his Scout book with us, so it worked out well that he could knock two birds out with one stone!
We figured that since there was some water damage in the past, that we should water proof the wood, so Brant took on the job of weather proofing the wood. He actually took on many jobs, and his work was GREATLY appreciated!!!
I know that the Lord hears our prayers!! Our last two boards were, seriously, 1 inch too big! And G'ma had no power tools..only a hand saw! I just couldn't figure out how we were going to get the long, 1 inch strips cut with that tiny little saw! So I offered some very serious little prayers, and then I went and just started digging in all of G'pa's tools!!
When I saw the blades I just knew there had to be an electric saw of some kind - somewhere!! I think I also saw the Pearly White Gates of Heaven at about that same time!!! Not too much longer and I found this hand held saw, attached the blade and started cutting awayQ!!! I made sure that everyone got a chance to experience the joy of Power Tools!!!!
LOVE IT!! That was SSOOOooo much EASIER!!!! (Thank you G'pa!!!)
So here's the floor before Lanoleum
Nailing the Lanoleum down...I really liked the design I picked--I think it really brightened the place up! (G'ma loved it, so I'm happy about that:) ...and I am aware that there's a slight ripple in the middle....(huummmmmm...don't really know what to say bout that....I will probably use this picture in a lesson someday--talk about how sometimes there are ripples in life, or something weird like that?)
So here's the finished product!! The ripple isn't so obvious when 'stuff' is in there:)
One of our stopping points---this was too beautiful not to take some pictures!!
Rissa and Luke :)
All went smoothly til we came across an accident.......
Once we hit Filmore, we ended up stopped, sitting on the interstate for...well, honestly I'm not sure how long. Maybe an hour.?. We kinda had fun, so I didn't even pay attention to the time! Fun? well, maybe not FUN, but we had our friends right behind us, so it was way better than sitting there by ourselves! 
...So back and forth we ran to each other's car! some guys got out and just strolled up and down the side of the interstate, while another guy decided to crush a few golf balls out into the desert! Me? I sat in the back and watched a movie with the kids while letting Rissa climb from the front seat to the back, front to the back, front-back.....I must say that after being in her carseat so much, she loved the freedom!
We didn't know for a long while what was going on b/c the interstate was backed up so far that you couldn't see anything at first. Before too long we saw tons of black smoke and then the fire trucks and all and we realized that something horrible had happened! It's blury, but Marty pulled it up on his Blackberry. A Semi-truck ran into the back of another, catching the engine on fire. In turn, the other caught fire too. The drivers were Air-Vac'd to a hospital. 
Allyson I know has better pictures b/c I turned around and she was hanging out the drivers window snapping shots!! I was sitting in the back, on the opposite side of our car, so this is as good as I got. I think you get the point of how bad the accident was though.
After 12 Hours or so of driving...and just sitting on the interstate:)-we made it to Grandma's House!!! Before we even went in the house, we tackled G'ma with hugs and kisses and helped her add a little "bling-bling" to her garden! 
It was fun to see Rissa instantly bond with G'ma! She's old enough now to understand who she is and I think she was glad to finally SEE the G'ma that's in pictures!! We all loved staying with her and having so much time with her all to ourselves!
I cannot believe that it's time for school to start again!! After a fun filled summer with lots of family and friends, Jacob was feeling like a "Mr. Grumpy Gills" (a term from Finding Nemo that the kids and I have picked up and use from time to time when we're not feeling the most positive:) about having to go to school this morning. This first picture tells it all. He wouldn't turn around b/c he said that he was "not happy about starting the fourth grade, this is a terrible morning and I'm not gonna let you take my picture!" So being the good mom that I am, I listened to his argument, said, "Ok Jacob, that's ok-you don't have to look at the camera" ...and then I snapped a shot of him from behind walking into school:) On the way in, the Principal saw him walking in and rushed over to greet him in this chipper, happy voice, "Good Morning Jacob!!! It's sooo good to see you back in school!! Are you excited to start the 4th grade?!". He didn't really stop, maybe slowed down a bit and kinda growled at her as he walked by. lol--thankfully our Principal has a good sense of humor and she also knows Jacob pretty well so I don't think she was offended by it:)
It's amazing how fast a child can change their attitude!!! All it took was one glance at seeing his name written in cursive on his new desk and all of the sudden he wants his picture taken!! Other than being a tad on the grumpy side this morning, he had a great day at school and did admit to me when I picked him up, that he loved seeing his friends again and that school's not so bad! He's going to learn tons of new stuff this year that I think he's going to enjoy.
Brant had a few 'minutes to chill', as he put it, after I taking J to school, so after we 'chilled' for like, 10 mins, Rissa and I walked him over to the brand new middle school! I love it b/c it's literally just across the street from our house!! As you can see, they haven't even finished the landscaping yet! Brant was sooo excited to start school today!! It was a little hard for me to drop him off, though! I'm excited for him to be at a new school where he has so many good friends...and he's so close to home!
He still had a smile on his face on his walk home!
