Chiefs game

 It feels like time is speeding up, and we won't have these teenagers around for much longer -- especially our high school senior Max. They are big Chiefs fans, and JB took them on a quick trip to a Thursday night game earlier this month. 

They got into Kansas City late Wednesday night, and met my brother James for barbecue for lunch Thursday morning. He works and lives pretty close to Joes KC, our favorite restaurant.

Walking around the tailgate area was a blast.

Checking out Arrowhead Stadium for the first time.

The game was a thriller, and a great win.

Friday morning they went to the Kansas City Temple (which is actually close to Liberty, so it feels more historically significant to me in Church history). They were able to do a lot of baptisms and had the nicest guy helping them, who kept talking about the Chiefs win and how much it must cost to feed to tall teens.

They walked around the river walk before heading to the airport to come home.

We missed these three while they were gone! But what a fun trip and opportunity.

Museum and animal fun

This summer I've been able to take the three younger kids to do some fun things. In July, we won another free museum pass from the library. So we went back to the Leonardo downtown. The three youngest think this place is the best -- especially the Lego-building area, where they built these men and put them on each display shelf.

James tried the flight simulator

James and Andrew were fascinated by the sciency stuff

Millie loves this boat and toys

And we ended up back at the Legos

We went back to the Natural History Museum as well with Zap passes. This cave is a favorite.

And this dino head puzzle.

The color exhibit is a blast

She kept asking me to take her picture by these guys

On Friday Aug. 26, we went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. I had free passes that would expire on the 31st, and we still weren't in school, so I moved my work hours around.

Here's the construction zone near the front.

The grocery store

The farm

This girl played doctor for a long time.

The Lego test track was going well, until one car kept winning and the other car kept breaking down, making the owner of that car rather upset.

We had not seen the new paleontology experience, and all three enjoyed this part.

When we came back downstairs to do all the first floor activites again, we found Suzanne and her children and so we kept playing with them!

On Wednesday Aug. 3, Suzanne had told me about a little animal show from Living Planet Aquarium at the Valley Fair Mall. We got there before the cousins, saw the animals, then saw the cousins before the next show started.

Then we went to Maceys grocery store for Kong Kones (large and cheap ice cream cones)

Looking back, it seems like we had a busy summer, doing lots of things. But most of the time we were mainly hanging out at home using different screens and trying to keep cool!

School starts

School started on August 30. This year we have two children in high school and three in elementary school. They all leave at the same time, around 8:25 a.m. and can all walk to their schools. We are getting into a routine again of getting bodies and lunches ready and having time to do "Come, Follow Me."

Millie is in 1st grade

James is in 4th grade

Andrew is in 6th grade and it's his last year in elementary

Ben is in 9th grade and it's his first year of high school

Max is in 12th grade and it's his last year of high school (!)

JB and I walked down to the school the first day to help Millie find her line. James and Andrew knew where to go by themselves. JB took this photo of us in the chaos.

And then I took a photo of her sweet hand. Now the boys drop her off and pick her up at their meeting spot.

I'm so grateful our schools seem NORMAL finally. Salt Lake is much more liberal than the rest of the state, so two years ago, our district was closed for much longer than other districts, and then last year they required child masking and plastic barriers when the others didn't. I cringe to think of what all of that did to children.