{Family Visits, 12th Anniversary, 1st Day of School, Owies: August 2014}

We began the month of August continuing our trip up to Washington and went to see my sister Angela and her daughter {our niece} A in the play "The Sound of Music".  They both did a fabulous job on their parts.  We loved watching them perform.  It was an amazing show.  Angela played one of the lead Nuns {Sister Sophia} and A was Gretel. 

 Our son E received his Bear Badge at his Scout Pack Meeting.  My brother Danny, his wife Jolie and their two kids came to visit us and we had a lovely time with them.  We went blueberry picking with them while we were still up in Washington.  We had two visits to the Emergency Room, to get our daughter K's head super glued and also because our son C had swallowed a penny.  I think we need to put some of our kids in a bubble!  It's so hard to not be able to protect them from everything.  But that's a difficult part about being a parent, I guess.

 Mark and I celebrated our 12th Anniversary in August.  Mark's parents {in Oregon} watched our 5 kids {I was 3 months pregnant with our #6 at the time}.  We went to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and saw and learned some amazing things about the history of the Oregon Trail.  It was a lot of fun!

 We tried new restaurants, viewed sites around the area, and had some much needed alone time together.  It is always nice and very important to spend some time alone, away from the kids.  And your relationship and the kids are all the better because of it.

 We also rode the train in Sumpter, Oregon.  It was really fun.  We enjoyed looking at the beautiful views from the historical train's windows.  We had a wonderful time on our anniversary together.  I'm so grateful to have had this incredible man in my life for the last 12 years.  I'm Lucky, I'm in Love with my Best Friend.  Here's to Eternity. 

   Here are our Kiddos playing at Grandpa and Grandma's {in Oregon} and the Park together.  

 Here are our Kids getting the mail with Grandma {Mark's mom} and having fun playing with their cousins in Oregon.

 We had a wonderful time visiting with our Friends and Family, in Oregon together.

 We sure do Love these Kids!

We love going to the Library for Story time.  Before we moved into our house, we lived in an apartment across the street from a library {pictured above} in a smaller town {outside of the bigger town that we now live in}.  My parents came to visit us and helped us pack our apartment up to move into our new house, that we were moving into at the beginning of September.  It was especially helpful with being pregnant with our #6, to have their help.  We loved having them in Idaho to visit us!  It was a joy visiting and spending time with them.

 One of the special things of being married to a teacher, is having them home during the same vacations that the kids get.  School started for the kids and Mark at the end of August this year.  Our son E, started 4th grade, our daughter R began 3rd grade, and our little K, started Kindergarten this year.  Mark also started teaching his 2nd grade class again.  They are all at the same school.  Which is so much fun for us!