Back to School!

The week before school started was busy with lots of back to school things!

Before their first day of school, I got to take each of them out to lunch. Carson chose 310, Travis chose to pick up Greek bus and eat at the park, and Landon decided on Maverick and we took it to the park also. It's always a fun to just have one-on-one time with each of them!

The Wednesday before school, the Elementary had their back to school. They boys got to go find their classroom, see their teacher again and see where they are going to sit. It made it all real!!

Travis with Mrs. Hendershot

Landon with Mrs. Nicholls

The Thursday before school started, the middle school had their registration night. Carson was asked to be a peer mentor, so he got to show 6th graders around the school and help them find all of their classes, along with finding his classes and getting his stuff put away in his locker. It's crazy to think that he's an 8th grader this year!!

The night before school started (Sunday), we had our annual back to school dinner. We had steaks, fried potatoes, corn and salad for dinner!

Monday was the first day of school for the boys. They said they weren't really sure if they were ready, but I know they were excited to see their friends, just maybe not ready to give up all their free time! I always dread this day. I'm never ready for summer to be over, but I know they will have a great year.

This picture pretty much sums up these boys...

Landon: 2nd grade with Mrs. Nicholls

Travis: 5th grade with Mrs. Hendershot (he was SO excited because this year he has all three of his best friends in his class...let's just hope they don't get into too much trouble)!

Carson: 8th grade (last year of middle school!)

After school, the neighborhood kids met at our house after the school bus dropped them off for our annual Benchview back-to-school party. We had yummy treats and enjoyed hearing about the first day from everyone!

Our group: Owen W., Parker S.

Landon, Ali W., Kandace W., Avery W., Tyler W.

Greyson W., Gemma W., Max W. and Spencer W. 

(Travis was there but he was in the bathroom and said he was going to be a while and just take the piture!)

Our group just keeps getting smaller and smaller each year, but I love this tradition!

The first week of school I had 3 subbing days. I was in the middle school on the 2nd day of school and got to go and take Carson for lunch!

Camping

This weekend, before school starts tomorrow, we finally made it up the Big Horns to go camping. Christian took Friday off, so we headed up the mountain as soon as the middle school back to school night was finished. We set up pretty much in the dark that night, but we were happy to be up there.

Friday morning, we had breakfast and then finished setting up our camp while the boys played. The had a blast building forts while they waited for us to get done. When we were finished, we loaded up our fishing things and headed to the Ranger Station fish pond to fish. Things started a little slow, buy by the end, the fish were biting every cast! The boys really didn't want to leave! We went back to camp for some lunch and ended up going for a drive when we were done, since it was a little chilly and trying to rain. We drove up to Bear Lodge, got some more worms and an apple pie for dessert!

Christian cooked pancakes, eggs and sausage for breakfast!

Landon starting on a fort.

Ready for some breakfast!

 Landon's fort. He had to show me where he sat in it and where the bed was.

Travis built his into the ground and it was hard to see if you didn't know it was right there.

Ranger Station pond.

Carson caught a tadpole.

Christian had the first catch of the day!

Working together to unhook a fish. We ended up having to keep 7 fish because they swallowed the hook and didn't make it.

Landon, Christian and Carson fishing.

My first catch of the day!

And another tiny one!

There were frogs all over. The boys enjoyed trying to catch them!

Landon was having a hard tome catching any fish, so he and Christian decided to hit the stream.

This fish had a deformed nose. Travis named it Voltimor (from Harry Potter)

Finally caught one on his own!

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All 3 boys caught fish at the exact same time!

Landon had the biggest fish of the day...and also the smallest!

We had hot dogs for lunch, but Travis isn't really a fan, so he talked his dad into cooking one of the fish for him to eat instead. He said it was delicious!!

The two older boys brought their BB guns and shot at pop cans.

Landon helped Christian build a fire that night for dinner. We had foil dinners and they were yummy!

Friday night, our friends, the Mangus', joined us. We cooked smores and shared treats around the fire and didn't go to bed until midnight.

Saturday morning, we got up around 9, made French toast for breakfast and then Ryan Mangus took us on a hike to an area where he has elk hunted before. The area was beautiful. It was fun to do some exploring of the beaten path. We hiked up some rocks and looked down over a little valley.

The creek below.

Walking through the meadow.

 After our hike, we hung out for a bit before getting an invite to go over to Crosby's cabin for dinner. We cooked more hot dogs and visited with them for quite a bit while the kids did some more fishing and helped build another fort.  After visiting for a while, we headed back to camp and started packing up our stuff. The Mangus's were planning to stay another night, and our boys tried really hard to get us to stay another night, but we decided to head home. We had a great time and wish we were able to make it up more during the summer. Maybe next year we will make it up more then once!!