Labor Day

All the Jenkins' women and kids went swimming at Missy's for Labor Day. All the men went up to Ashton to finish the radiant heat on Mark's cabin. Grandma bought Chik-fil-A for lunch and we swam for hours. We left before everyone else so that I could nap Van. He fell asleep in the car and wouldn't transfer so that was a bummer, but it was still a fun few hours. We swim quite a bit at Missy's, but it is always super fun when everyone is there. 

Malad

 Claire didn't start school until after Labor Day. So once the big kids were in school we planned a day to go visit Steph at her new rental in Malad. I hadn't seen it yet and the kids were excited to play with Winnie. We went and saw her house with my parents and Shannon, and then went out to lunch at a little drive in diner. Then we stopped at a park and let the kids play while we just chatted. It was a super fun day and I was home right as the kids got home from school. 

Claire loves Winnie! She was running her all over the place and Winnie was constantly giving her kisses and licking her. Van wasn't quite so sure, but he was okay with her from a safe distance. 

First Day of School

Corbin, Maggie, and Kent started school on August 23rd. Corbin is in 7th grade at North Ogden Junior High. He is a 7th grade officer, but they don't have their jackets yet. He just got voted to be the Vice President for 7th grade a couple weeks ago. Corbin has really enjoyed school so far. He was ready to be out of elementary.

Maggie is in 5th grade with Mrs. Jorgensen, (Ms. J.) She was thrilled about getting the teacher she wanted, but doesn't have any friends in her class yet. She has been hanging out with Abbi and Blakely more even though they aren't in her class so it is all working out. Abbi's mom took this picture of Maisie, Maggie, and Blakely before school.

Kent is in third grade and has Mrs. Romrell. Mrs. Romrell is a half day teacher so his class has 28 students with her in the morning and then after lunch they split into the three other teachers classes. So in the afternoon Kent has Mrs. Ellis. I wasn't thrilled about the half day schedule so I actually requested him to have Mrs. Ellis is the afternoon so I knew he had one awesome teacher. Mrs. Romrell is brand new this year. Kent has like her okay, but he never says much about her. He talks mostly about his afternoon class. It is super unlike me to request a teacher, I swore I would never do it, but I am very happy with my choice this year. 

 Overall, we are all excited and think it will be a great year!

Last day of Summer

The last Friday before school started Corbin and Maggie got invited to go to Lagoon with some friends. Corbin was not thrilled because really they were his friends and they invited Maggie also. But they spent the entire day at Lagoon. They had a lot of fun because it wasn't super busy. A couple of school districts were already back in school so they were able to ride everything they wanted to.

I wanted to do something fun with the younger ones too. We hadn't been to North Shore this summer yet, and Maggie and Corbin already had been. So the four of us spend the afternoon at the pool. It was actually super cute to see Claire and Kent play so well together. Kent has played great with Claire quite a few times this summer when the older two were gone. It was a great way to send off summer.

 

Riding Horses

Maggie has been asking to ride a horse for years. Aunt Shelly is the best and made it happen for her this summer! Michelle works with a girl that has horses and does rodeo. She set up a night to take Maybree and Maggie to ride horses. Maggie loved it! Apparently she is allergic to horses and by the time she made it to Farr's her eyes were swollen and red. 

Mantua

One afternoon I wanted to get out of the house so I invited everyone to go up to the Box Elder Campground for the afternoon. Shannon and her boys and my mom and dad met us up there for lunch. At first we didn't have a spot to go because the camp host was really weird about us using the day use because she was mowing. We went to another spot for a while and then realized we could pick any spot and just use it for the day. The spot we found was great and really it was fun to go somewhere different than where we go every year. It was right by a little stream. There were trees for Beau's hammock and it was shady. The boys went down by the bigger stream and collected clay. Then we had a little contest who could make the best creation out of something we found. I braided some grass, the kids made some pots out of clay. It was just a nice afternoon to not be at home. 

Bear Lake

 This year the Jenkins went to Bear Lake for there annual vacation. We stayed in Matt's owner, Eric's cabin. The first night we got up there pretty late because Matt had to work all day. We left on a Monday this year, which was super different. That night we just hung out for a little while before bed. On Tuesday we spent the day at the beach. Corbin had a soccer tournament so Mark drove him down to Layton for his game, which took most of the day. The beach was perfect! The kids loved the water and the sand.

On Wednesday we spent the morning at Bridgerland Adventure Center. The kids were able to ride the huge slide and do the harnessed trampoline. The littles had a bouncy house to play on and the two oldest rode the zip line. It was a super fun morning. I did the slide a few times with Van and Claire, they both loved it.

In the afternoon we went to Minnetonka cave. I really enjoyed the cave. Claire was super nervous. I told someone she was a little scared and she replied back that she was a lot scared! Van loved it, but wanted to do it all by himself. No one enjoyed it more than Kent. He was the tour guide's best friend. He had so many wonderful questions. He was in his element!

On Thursday we came home and Matt went to work. I didn't like that is was sandwiched in the work week because it didn't seem as long. It was still a super fun little vacation though!

Ice Blocking

 The week before Ben got set apart as a missionary, Erin tried to plan something fun for her family to do each night. She invited me and Shannon to go ice blocking with her one night. My kids weren't too sure of it initially, but they had a lot of fun. I actually had never been, and I was a little bit of a scaredy cat. Van did great and loved being held on the ice as far as I could down the hill. All of my kids had points that they hated it because they got hurt or were mad, but overall it was such a fun night!

Ashton Adventure

 Matt was supposed to take the kids on his annual back packing trip, but it wasn't quite working out. Too many kids had different schedules to work around. Instead, we went up to see the land that Mark is building his Cabin on. It ended up being everyone except Marianne, Michelle, Maddi, and Mylie. I wasn't going to go, but last minute decided to. The land is in Ashton, Idaho, about three hours away. There is nothing up there yet, just a hole where the foundation will be. We brought tents and just camped for the night. It was actually really fun, except for the fact there was no bathrooms anywhere. The kids loved it. We went up on a Friday afternoon and just hung out that night. We set up tents and the ground was so hard! The stakes couldn't even make it in the ground. We ate dinner and roasted smores. It was so fun to have a campfire. I feel like they are so sparse these days and I do love fires. 
The next morning we did some more exploring while the boys chopped down firewood and cleared some land. We drove over to see Mesa Falls because Matt didn't get to see it last year with us. Van ended up falling asleep so I carried him part way and then sat on a bench and talked to a very friendly grandma. We all went out to lunch at the local pizza place after.

Van was a mess the whole time. He loved just playing in the dirt and throwing it everywhere. On the way home we stopped at a spot on the river that Matt had heard was great for playing and tubing. It looked like a blast. Of course Kent was the first one all the way in and lived it up for the few minutes we were there. We will definitely be visiting that spot again.