McKell's Birthday

McKell turned SIX on August 21st. She was pretty excited for her special day! 

Because her birthday was on a school day, we did some celebrating the Saturday before. When asked if she'd rather have a party with friends, or do something extra special with just our family, she, surprisingly, opted for family time! So she got to pick fun treats and drinks from the store to enjoy while we watched "Peter Rabbit" together at home.

Even though she had school on her birthday, she got to go out for donuts with Dad in the morning, and Mom brought her some pizza and chocolate milk for lunch, and M&Ms to share with her classmates. 

 

Her birthday gifts were pretty much all toys (and a unicorn nightgown), because that's what she loves. All the girls enjoyed helping her open and try out her new stuff.

She asked for a Barbie birthday cake this year. She was happy with the way it turned out!

We adore this little girl who rounds out our family. She is silly and smart and sweet. She is independent and happy and creative and organized. She makes us laugh with the funny things she says and does. We love McKell!

Back to School

We all survived the summer, and the girls went back to school on August 20th (Aug 22nd for Ashlyn).

The younger girls are at Bowen Elementary. Brenna in 3rd and McKell in 1st.
Ashlyn is in 6th grade at Harmony Science Adacemy, a charter school we moved her to after a not-so-great year at the public school last year.
And Kaylee is in 8th grade at Davila Middle School. (I can't believe she'll be in high school next year!)

Here are all their back-to-school pictures through the years. :)

MCKELL

BRENNA

 ASHLYN

KAYLEE

Utah Vacation - Part 3

After we returned from our Bear Lake reunion the girls and I stayed an extra week in Utah. The other out-of-town families were there for part of the time, but headed home on Wednesday and Thursday morning, so we had some time just with my parents as well.

All the women (and  baby Hannah) went out to lunch one afternoon, and visited Mom's office at WIC.
We've decided this should become a tradition!

Fun Family Home Evening activity at Nate's house.

We drove up to North Ogden one morning to visit some friends who used to live by us in Texas.
On our way home we stopped in SLC to have lunch with Grandpa.
We had a few vehicle adventures this day, but made it home all in one piece.

This game was a hit among all the cousins this year.
I'm pretty sure it got played by someone every single day.

Spent a morning on the beautiful BYU campus.
The girls got to choose a momento from the Bookstore, and of course we capped off the expedition with ice cream from the Creamery.

One afternoon we drove up to SLC with Grandma and met Grandpa at the Church History Museum.
McKell is playing in an area that highlights some various places Joseph Smith had to hide the gold plates.

We went to PF Chang's for dinner that night.
McKell ate rice. And chocolate cake. And she had fun with the chopsticks.

One of the highlights of the trip for all of us was seeing "Newsies" at the Hale Center Theater.
Even McKell loved it!

We had a good trip. We got to spend a lot of time with family. We made some awesome memories. And we were VERY happy to be back home with Russ when it ended. :)

Utah Vacation - Part 2

Russ headed back to Texas on Monday, and on Tuesday everyone else traveled up to Bear Lake for our reunion. 

The house we stayed in was large enough to accomodate everyone, had plenty of seating in the dining room, had lots of games outside and inside, and afforded an amazing view of the lake. It was pretty close to perfect!

Wednesday was our day at the Lake. Linda did an awesome job of choosing a beach, securing a pavilion area, and renting water toys. We had a canoe, kayaks, paddle boards, jet skis, and a water trampoline. The weather was awesome, and everyone had a wonderful time!

Thursday was our movie party day. Adam and Diana chose "The Greatest Showman" and led us through activities fit to train us for the circus. We were split into teams and had to come up with symbols, names, and cheers. We participated in various contests challenging our skills. My favorite was the clown act! (We'll never forget Dad's somersault!!!)

Zach was the hands-down hula hoop champion.

Testing our balance and speed - and you can see what a beautiful view we had!

Becca has some serious painting skills.

Friday we went on a trip up to Soda Springs, ID. Mom and Dad took a little trip there eariler in the summer and planned an awesome driving scavenger hunt along the way. Kaylee felt like she was on Relative Race. We had lists of various landmarks and interesting sites to check off along the drive. It was a great way to keep everyone engaged !

The weather was perfect again, and we had a lovely day together.

Family pictures on these bear benches in Montpelier was a fun stop on the way.

And who knew Soda Springs had a geyser?!?

Of course our final destination was Hooper Springs park.
The grandkids got their first taste of Hooper water (and universally preferred it mixed with the lemondae powder!)

Here's the group gathered up before we headed off on an excellent family history treasure hunt planned by Nate and Kristine. Every clue included details about our Walton ancestors, and concluded with treats and some leg wrestling. It was fabulous!

The kids (and adults) had a great time on the old-school playground equipment (some of which was there when we were kids). 

On the way home I took a small group up to Minnetonka Cave. The drive was longer than I thought it would be! We learned a lot though, and since we were the last tour group of the day we got to see some extra items in the cave. 

No Walton family reunion would be complete without puzzles and games!

And everyone made sure to head into town for a famous Bear Lake raspberry (or other flavor) shake.