Our crazy busy life-Catching you up

On the 4th of July we went to Helen, Georgia and tubed down the Chattahoochee river.  It was such a blast.  We celebrated Katya's birthday while we had a BBQ with friends in Helen.  My friend took the tubing pics and we didn't get some of the kids because they were so far ahead of us.  This was so much fun, it is definately a new family summer tradition.

This turtle was found in our garden eating tomatoes.  We removed him more than once.

 At the Tennessee Aquarium spending time with Kyler's 2nd and 3rd grade teacher.

Joseph, me and the 4 older kids spent a day at Six Flags.  We had so much fun riding all the coasters.  Katya was too short for a few of them and wasn't sure what to think on the first couple of coasters, but by the end she was loving it.  Kyler passed on a few of them.  When we got on one of the biggest coasters Brigham started having a panic attack and made them let him off, in the midst of Brigham's panic Daniel freaked out so he got off too.  Dad and I showed those kids our true sense of adventure/or how crazy we are.  Even the 2 hour lightening storm didn't ruin the day.  The storm came in while we were at the car eating lunch.  We waited in the car for a while then went back into the park.  We went to a coaster where the line was under a cover and sat on the ground in the front of the line and waited for a little over an hour.  During that time dad went and bought us a shake that we all shared.  There was so much excitement when the workers got the go ahead to start the ride back up.  It was such a great day.  No pics though because I was too busy having fun and didn't want to hold onto anything.

We went to yet another state park camping.  We were really worried about camping in July in Georgia, but the weather was okay.  We camped lake side which allowed for swimming and fishing.  It rained quite a bit while we were there, but no lightening so we swam in the rain and enjoyed playing games in the trailer and sitting under the awning.  We also took a drive to a waterfall that sits on a small Christian college campus.

 This chipmunk enjoyed eating the doritos the kids dropped.

 Daddy asked our camping "neighbor" if he could try out their paddle board.  We have been checking them out, but weren't sure if we wanted to buy one so we took a test drive.

 Hodson is silly as always.

Katya had a pool party for her birthday.

 Katya and her best friend, Joseph, pushing each other into the pool.

 Hodson is allergic to peach fuzz.  Took about 3 hours for his skin to recover from this reaction.  All the kids were helping to can our 2 1/2 bushel of peaches.  Each peach came with a sticker and so Hodson, Gammon and Katya were taking the stickers off when this happened.

 Last day of summer.  Enjoying some swimming before school starts.

 Gammon learned to swim this summer.  Still does a lot of doggie paddling, but working on his freestyle stroke, swims underwaters amazingly and is awesome at his back float.

 Daniel took a lot of diving lessons this summer.  Now it is off season.

School started on August 5th.  All of the kids were very excited.  Especially that cute kindergartener.  He loves school and is learning to read "Dick and Jane."  Daniel is enjoying middle school and is learning to play the clarinet.  Kyler is part of a news crew at school where she helps deliver the morning announcements via television.  She is also part of the school chorus.  The chorus sang The Star Spangled Banner at a minor league baseball game.  Brigham is enjoying honor band and last weekend participated in marching band at the HS football game.  He REALLY liked it and wants to join Marching Band next year.

 Katya got this butterfly kit with caterpillars for her birthday.  Here she is ready to let them go.  Everyone enjoyed watching their transformations.

 Joseph had his birthday in September and I made this icecream cake.

 Kyler wanted so badly to learn to mow the lawn.

 Katya loves the missionaries that serve here especially the Sisters.  Sister Porter really took a liking to Katya and came to say goodbye when she got transferred.  Katya is now penpals with Sister Porters 9 year old sister.

 Saying goodbye to Elder Pasa.  We really enjoyed having him in our home.

 Mommy and Hodson get to spend lots of time together while the kids are at school.  Mommy promised Hodson we'd have playschool so once a month we invite friends over to make a craft and play.  In addition to that we go to story time and playgroup each week.

 Dress like a pirate and get a dozen of free doughnuts EACH!  The older boys went on a scout campout and so we had doughnuts for dinner and breakfast.

 Saying goodbye to another favorite missionary Elder Gottfredson.  The Elder in the middle is Elder Howell from Joseph, UT who happens to be a former student of Mr. Brady as well as the older brother of Makenizie's good friend Kim.

 Conference Weekend.  We made personal pizzas while dad and Brigham went out to eat before Priesthood session.

 We took a walk at Freemans Mill park in between sessions on Sunday.

 Daniel got glasses and enjoys being able to see better.

 Spiderman fell thru.

We are really busy right now with Katya's softball, Kyler's choir, Brigham and Kyler's piano, Brigham's honor band and church activities.  I am swapping piano lessons with a friend.  She is teaching Kyler and I'm teaching her son.  It is working out very well.  Joseph and I have also been on several team-ups with the missionaries.  I think that's a pretty good update on the last 3 months.  Hopefully it wasn't too long.