First Day of School 2014

The children did indeed start school this year.  On August 25th to be exact.  Ainsley started 5th grade and her homeroom teacher is Mrs. Price, but the fifth graders rotate to 2 other teachers so she gets all of the amazing 5th grade teachers!  Bonus for her!  She loved it and couldn't stop talking about it when she got home.  Literally couldn't stop talking about school.

Owen is our 3rd grader this year.  He got the teacher that I begged for, Mrs. Fisher.  She taught Ainsley as well and we lover her! While Owen claimed to have good first day of school he maybe said 3 words about it.  I believe he said his day was fine, good, and he liked the button they could push to make a fart noise when they did something good. 

 

Emmie had to wait a week for her first day of school. Every morning for a week she would hop our of bed and ask, "Is it school today!?"'  She LOVES school!  This year her teacher is Miss Megan.  Whom she already loves, mostly because they both love the color pink and Miss Megan has a dog named Hero.  I'm sure preschool will be a hit this year.

Cascade

 My mom's neighbor has a cabin in Cascade and she insisted that my mom take us all up there this simmer.  And so being the kind people that we are, we took her up on her offer.  Cascade is about 20 minutes south of McCall.  We usually visit McCall 1-2 times a year but we haven't spent nearly as much time in Cascade.  So it was fun to do a little exploring. 

We spent a good amount of time relaxing at the cabins....there were 2 babies with us.  Enough said.  But we still had a good time. There was lots of eating, shooting, bike riding, hiking, and some more eating.  We know how to party.

 

 We even found this great little beach.  It was perfect, until we found 3 little snakes.  Then it was not so perfect.

 We drove into McCall one day and spent time at the beach.  My children have never been so full of sand in their entire lives.  They loved it.

Owen's 8th

Owen chose to spend the majority of his 8th birthday in the water. My kids only get friends parties every other year. So this year Owen invited one of his good friends, Spencer, to spend the day with him. Spencer came over to play and have lunch (fancy mac n cheese) and then we headed over to Ivy Wild to swim all afternoon. Kortney and her girls joined us in an attempt to keep my girls busy while we played at the pool.   The boys had a  blast riding the slides and wrestling all afternoon.

 

That evening, after getting some Sonic drinks and Little Caesars to rehydrate and refuel, we headed over to my parents for more swimming and cake and ice cream. 

Owen got all set for church and scouts and was fully prepped for his baptism.  Plus he got some cool guns. Because apparently boys like guns and shooting things.

(Don't you love how Emmie finds a way to weasel her way into most picutres :)

I love how excited he is for scouts and all that being 8 allows him to do.  He is one of the last boys in his grade to turn 8 and has been anxious to join them in scouts and all of their fun all year! 

GIrls and Boys

Ainsley and Emmie made rock pets one day when they got bored.

Owen and is friend left me this....

 

Gilgrunt

Owen has a fish. He was given to Owen last year for his birthday. I am going to declare that Gilgrunt and Owen have the same birthday. I'm also going to declare that Gilgrunt is going to turn 1 on Owen's birthday.Mostly because I have no idea how to tell how old a fish is. It's quite amazing that our finned friend has lived this long. Hopefully he is with us to celebrate next year too.

Meeting Mae

While John drove the kids home to unpack, mow the lawn, and do laundry, I headed off to Provo for  a little relaxation.  I spent Friday night through Sunday only slightly caring for babies that weren't my own.  Being and aunt is wonderful!  And my children weren't there demanding things of me so I just got to rest, and eat, and hold babies.  I loved it!  These babies are about 2 1/2 months apart.  It's amazing how even a 2 month old can suddenly look huge when put next to a teeny tiny newborn. 

I worked a little while I was there and went and picked apricots with Cy on Saturday afternoon.  And since I have a wonderful  husband who took care of all of the post vacation crazy for me, I spent my first day home from vacation making jam.  Perfect.

Dinger Family Reunion 2014

We haven't been together with the entire Dinger clan since Ainsley was two. We've seen everyone in that space of time, but we haven't all been in the same room at the same time for nearly a decade.  So get ready for some picture overload. Because such a rare occurrence deserves much pictorial documentation.  So it's a good thing John was in charge of taking pictures!  Which is also sad because he is in none of the pictures.  We left on the morning of the 14th and took the scenic rout to Island park.  Which meant we got to drive by this beautiful field and go see Mesa Falls.  We also met up with the majority of  John's family there.  (All buy Dan and David's families.)

 

 

We rented two big cabins to fit us all in an had a great time all week.  My kids were in cousin heaven.  Especially Owen who never has boy cousins to play with.  He played and played all week long.  And if we were ever not playing with cousins because we were in the car or something my kids were asking when we would be with cousins again.

We spent Tuesday in Yellowstone.  Honestly it was a bit of a zoo and we spent a lot of time waiting (in matching outfits.)

 But we still got to see some cool things.  And quite honestly, we were just happy to be there with family so it didn't really matter what we got to see.  Although Owen looks purely tortured. 

We made it up to Mammoth canyon for my family's first time ever.  It was gorgeous.  But a looong drive.

We spotted a bear on our drive though....if you look hard enough you can spot his back.  I much prefer viewing bears at a far distance and not in my own campsite. 

On Wednesday we visited Johnny Sacks cabin and Big Springs.  We were a bit of a crowd where ever we went.  Just a bit though.

I love that area, it is just so peaceful an calm.

That afternoon John's dad rented us some rafts and we floated down the river.  I use the term float loosely however since we too much carrying our raft and paddling for it to truly be floating. I thought it was awesome.  Probably one of my favorite parts of the trip.  I wish we would have had a camera with us...although it would have definitely been soaked and pictures ruined anyways.   We spent our day with James and Shelly and their family and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not sure they enjoyed it as much as we did since we taught their children lots of new fun words.  You know, the kinds of words you want your kids to know and say, like crotch. We had leaches, laughing, crying children, and people even falling.  It was a blast.

 

Thursday (Goob's birthday!) we ventured into Yellowstone again with no real plans of staying together as a group.  And somehow we all stayed together as a group most of the day.  A very large group! I'm sure we were the envy of all visitors of Yellowstone.

Thursday night we grabbed some pizza in West Yellowstone an devoured it because we were starving.  And then we headed back to the cabins for Melanie's delicious birthday cupcakes.  We celebrated the beginning of Goob's 30th year with class and style.

Friday we packed up the cabins, cleaned up our mess, and all headed home. Except for me.  I went to Salt Lake with John's parents and Goob and Quin to go visit Syd and Mae (oh, and Cy).

It was really such a great family get together.  I loved getting to know nieces and nephews that I rarely see and that my kids got to form friendships with their extended family.  I was actually sad to leave.  Hopefully there will be more Dinger family gatherings in the future!