Back to School....

Well, School is officially in session again. It will be good for us to get back into a routine of doing things, but boy are we going to miss our summer playing! It has been an amazing summer with lots of great memories!!!

This last weekend we went to my great-grandma's 95th birthday party! She is such an amazing woman! It was so good to get everyone together to celebrate her and her posterity! If you ask her how old she is turning she will tell you 39...and she just about looks it! I really look up to her and hope I can be just like her when I get her age!

(Top: Jake, me, my mom, my sister; Bottom: Great Grandma Lou, Grandpa Halverson)

This weekend we also went out to my dad's house to celebrate his birthday and my step-mom Linda's birthday! (Lots of birthdays in 1 week!) We went shooting Saturday night and my dad and Jake tried to teach me how to shoot...to No avail!

We had a barbeque on Sunday with the fam as well. It was good to see everyone and visit, we don't get to do it as often as we would like. It was a good last weekend to finish off the summer! Luckily all went well the first day of school and we're off to a good start!

We LOVE Summer!!!

Wow!!! This summer is going way to fast! It blows me away! We've been staying busy the past few weeks with lots of fun things, so we'll try to catch you up.

The first weekend of August Jake rode his bike from Ogden to Heber City with the guys from the Bike Shoppe for their annual "Oger". Although Jake got a flat tire and I had to take him a new tire he still made it about 75 miles! Here is a picture of all of these dedicated souls...thanks to Karly! Jake is the one in the back on the left. Two days later Jake turned around and did another ride that was 125 miles, basically all climbing, which is just one example of his motivation!!! He is training hard to ride in Lotoja on Sept 6th.

Two weekends ago we went up to Cache Valley for the Cache County PRCA Rodeo with some of our friends and Jake's family which was a LOT of fun... one of our favorite things about summer time!

We were lucky enough to be able to spend the weekend up there and then go camping up at Tony Grove Monday to Tuesday because we had those days off (we thought we were in heaven becuase that NEVER happens!) It was gorgeous up there! We had a blast canoing in the lake and hiking to search for a cave Jake and Connor had gone to several years ago. We finally found it and it was pretty cool! I even saw some sparrows feeding their itty-bitty baby birds in a nest at eye level in the top of the cave.

Another big event that occurred while we were up in Cache Valley is I cut my hair to donate it, which was kind of a big deal to me! I cut off 8 inches to donate and then a little bit more to style it, but it is definitely the shortest I have ever had it. I don't regret it, but it is definitely going to take some getting used to!!!

BEFORE AFTER

This last weekend was also packed full of adventure. Friday night we went down to Salt Lake to watch a portion of the Tour of Utah bike race. It was pretty amazing how fast they are! Afterwards we went to Toscano's, a really yummy Brazillian restaruant. We even tried chicken hearts! My step dad, Woody, explained the texture very well by saying it feels like you are eating erasers, but the taste really wasn't too bad.

Saturday night we had a barbeque with our friends from high school at our place. It was so good to see everyone. We cooked hotdogs and then had a tournament of badminton, boys against girls of course. The boys seem to think they beat us, but us girls think they are crazy! It was so much fun to visit and catch up on what is going on in everyone's lives!

Happy Birthday Carter!

On August 1st, Carter (our nephew) turned 2! He is definitely the smartest 2-yr-old we know! Tammie and Jeff put together a fun birthday party for him and barbequed hotdogs and hamburgers. Carter had a yummy Elmo cake and then we also made shaved ices!
One of the most exciting times of the night was when they gathered everyone around and Carter said "Thank you everyone for coming" and then after a little encouragement he yelled to everyone that his mommy was going to be having a new baby! We are really excited...congrats Tammie and Jeff!

Carter had a blast opening his presents. He kept asking "What's inside?" as he was ripping open the paper. He was definitely spoiled...but then again how can you not spoil a kid as cute as he is!? One of his favorite gifts was his Harley Davidson Trike. As Jake was taking the parts out of the box to put it together, Eden had a blonde moment and said "oh look it even comes with a helmet!" referring to the windshield. After this Carter kept trying to wear it as a helmet and even wanted to wear it after it was already assembled onto the bike! Way to go Eden!

This is one of my favorite pictures of Carter. It was taken last Christmas at Jake's parents house. Jake had gotten some earmuffs to protect his ears when we goes shooting. However, carter had his own idea of what they were and he wore them around like he was a DJ rapping. It is amazing how much he has grown up even since this time!