Last night was Back to School Night, Monday morning McKenzie has her first grade orientation, and Tuesday morning she starts first grade! Today was officially her last day of summer vacation, so we went to Wheeler Farm and then to Arctic Circle for lunch. That's about as exciting as we can possibly be!
Two goofballs up in a "treehouse."
The longest part of the trip is trying to convince Parker to leave the tractors behind!
I like this rabbit. He was fat and looked soft. Kenzie had a fun morning, and when I asked if she was excited to start school, she quickly said, "Yeah, but I will miss you." Parker and I will both miss her, too, but I think Kenzie will love first grade. (Getting up early will be another story!)
I had to take a picture of where we stayed because I thought it was so quaint. We stayed at the Providence Inn this past weekend. It was my first stay ever in a bed-and-breakfast. (I think it's safe to say I don't get out much.) We had fun giggling about all the "Just Married" compact cars in the parking lot, as we got out of our still-dirty-from-camping minivan with sippy cups and coloring books strewn about. 
Chris waiting in the cute parlor for our room to be ready. He's a good sport when I want to take pictures.
He did laugh at me for wanting to take a picture of this, though. We ate dinner at the Bluebird restaurant in Logan, which was a cute little place, and we split this Teddy Bear Sundae. I wasn't expecting it to look like a teddy bear; I thought the name just referred to it being chocolate. The red eyes allowed me to not feel guilty about eating him, though!
I forgot to take a picture of the rest of the room we stayed in, but I didn't forget to take a picture of breakfast. (Obviously I document the things that are most important to me!) How fun is it to have someone bring you breakfast? We had a great time, it was nice to just relax for awhile. (And we tried not to just talk about the kids, hard as that is!) It is probably customary to end an anniversary post with a sappy comment, so I will -- I can't imagine a better guy for me. He puts up with my quirks, eats anything I cook for dinner, writes me the occasional love note, laughs at my jokes, goes to work so I can stay home, and sticks around even when life isn't so fun. So yep, I kinda like him. Happy Anniversary, Geeb!
Our good friends, the Nydeggers, didn't learn their lesson about outings with the Arnolds. Earlier this summer we dragged them out to Antelope Island so they could battle biting gnats and brine flies. This time around we dropped off our kids at their place for the night! I don't know if they'll keep hanging out with us, but I hope so! haha When we came back for them, Kenzie and Parker were having a great time ("I'm having the best day ever!" Kenzie said) and were ready to go swimming.
This picture makes me laugh.
Parker was so thrilled. Last year he was really timid in the water, but this year he's go-go-go. He only stopped paddling to splash Daddy in the face!
Not surprisingly, the kid worked up an appetite. Still, it was a personal record for him to polish off a breadstick and three pieces of pizza! He slept most of the 2 hour drive home after that, too. Sure glad we have nice friends who wear our kids out for us!
Kenzie and Parker were so excited for the tent! They played in it and read books for a long time that first night.
I got out the camera and Chris said, "Oh, Mommy thinks something is cute!" I did think this was cute, my two guys watching the fire together.
The second day we spent fishing at the lake. I brought a book!
Kenzie kept telling Chris she could give him fishing lessons. We were perplexed about this for awhile, and finally Chris told her gently he didn't need any lessons. She asked, "Then why did you say you needed to get some lessons?" Ah, then we realized she'd heard us saying he needed to buy his license before we left! Kenzie was all prepared to be helpful, though, and if you need lessons be sure to keep her in mind!
Parker fell asleep on my lap while at the lake, so we headed back to camp for some rest time.
There is a deer eating in the background here. What was funny about this was, despite how close it was, we had to point it out to McKenzie, and even then it took her a good minute to actually see it. ("Where? Where?") We won't be offering lessons on Wildlife Observance.
What Kenzie is good at, however, is keeping camp organized and well swept. She has always loved the camping broom, and it's the best toy when we're outdoors. Here she is brushing off her rock collection.
We ended our last day with an "adventure" according to the kids. Really it was a short walk along the trail behind our campsite, but they had fun picking wildflowers, blowing dandelions (a big no-no in our yard - I hate dandelions!), and spotting more deer.
Parker kept collecting rocks, so we were happy to find a little stream for him to throw them in.
