All Things August!

August is such an interesting month and so full of mixed emotions. There's the sadness of Summer passing mixed with the anticipation of school starting and the beginning of Fall. When I worked as a schoolteacher, August was definitely the most stressful month of my year. I loved it, but it was hard. Life is different these days and we have had a great month. 

The highlight was definitely Brett and Chelsea's visit from Connecticut. The kids love them so much and I had to snap this picture of all the grandchildren (minus Ella) crammed into the car with them. Nobody wanted to miss out on fun with Brett and Chels!

 August always brings the County Fair and Rodeo. Garrett and Abby's favorite part was climbing on the tractors and playing like they were farmers. (Garrett does want to be a farmer when he grows up--just ask him and he'll tell you all about it.)

 Our neighbors are dairy farmers and we love watching them show their cows.

 We did lots of fun things with Brett and Chels, but I didn't get pictures of everything. We had a fun little water party at my parents' house with Chelsea's family and I did manage to snap a few photos.

 As we were visiting, I looked up in the trees and noticed this sweet little evidence of Fall approaching.

 We took the kids to a really fun park with a stream that runs through it. The kids loved playing in the water...everybody except poor Abby who didn't want to walk because she had a sore foot. I thought she was just being a whiner until we looked at the bottom of her foot and realized she had a bite or sliver or something that had gotten infected. It was nasty and got scary when it started spreading, but we got it taken care of and she is okay now.

 Garrett and Gracie were in the same swimming class this year at Gin's Swimming. I still plug my nose when I jump off the diving board, so I am in absolute awe of everything they learned and how great they did.

The diving board is always a bit scary, but they did it!

 Pretty good odds if your name is Garrett, right? Too bad he just wants to marry Abby and isn't really playing the field. (Funny story: We kindly tell him quite frequently that he can't marry his sister, but he is a determined little guy. He came home from Church one day and was so excited to tell us, "My teachers told me that sometimes if you ask the Bishop, it's okay to marry your little sister." Wow...I had no idea.)

 Garrett's biggest fan!

Of course, we had to celebrate the mighty swimmers with a little ice cream.

And this little princess pretty much sums up how we all feel after such a fun and busy summer.