Back to school

I can't believe we are here again! Another summer is over and school is back in session.....woooohoooo!!! It's been a long eventful summer for us. I think we were all ready to get back into a good schedule and routine. Since Parker came into our family all of that kind of flew out the window:) This first day of school was much different though this year. While our kids were here in AZ....Dave and I were in Iowa with Parker at a chiropractic conference. When I made the flights a while back I thought school started on a Tuesday morning so I made or flights for that afternoon. I thought it would work out great! We would take the kids to school....at a new school I might add....and then off to the airport. Then I found out that school started Wednesday and we were going to miss it! I felt so bad and couldn't believe that we wouldn't be there. We had a friend of ours Alyssa stay with the kids that week. She was their little mommy that saved our bacon while we were gone. They all survived the first week of school......Fewwwwww:)

Ty started 4Th grade

Ashlynn started 1st grade

.........and here is where we were.......a beautiful green gorgeous farm in IOWA........this story has to be a whole new post!!

Utah continued.....

Our last stop of our trip to Utah was the Markham's. For those of you that don't know the history of how we met this family.....here it goes......Dave and I had been married about a year and moved around the corner from Kevin and Lisa Markham.....so this was 12 years ago. We met them at church and were soon asked to teach in the Primary. They asked us to come over for dinner on a Easter Sunday. We later found out that their girls Michelle and Lindsey who were 9 and 11 had a major crush on Dave and wanted him to come over!! Forget about me all they cared about was hot Bro. Campbell!! We had the best time and they just took us in and have treated us like family ever since. They also have two boys Brad and Todd that were teenagers at the time. Brad was this big cuddly dude that was 6'5" and around 250lbs. You couldn't help but love him....we all became so close pretty fast. The house right next door to them became vacant and they asked us to move in. It was one of the best times in our lives and happiest. If I couldn't find Dave I knew where to look and if Brad was missing....Lisa always knew he'd be at our place. Dave and Brad became best buds and would hang out all the time. Many late nights talking....cooking together...Lake Powell trips....hikes and motorcycle rides. We had so many good times with Brad that we will treasure for the rest of our lives. Almost 7 years ago Brad unexpectedly passed away. It still doesn't seem like he is gone. We have such a special place in our hearts for this family. They honestly treat us like we are their kids and treat our kids like grand kids. We can't make a trip to Utah without getting our Markham fix.

Grandma Lisa meeting Parker

Lindsey with the kids....she is in hair school and Ashlynn decided that she wanted to cut her hair....SHORT!!! I just let Linds take her and trusted that she would do a good job.

BEFORE........and...........AFTER!!!!

She looks so stinkin cute!! But Kevin wasn't happy with cutting her hair....this is his "I don't like it" face. He said you should never touch a little girls hair. He was funny!!

Lisa and Michelle loving Parker

We went up to Sundance one day and had lunch.....so gorgeous up there!!

Still snow on the mountains....in JULY!!

Kevin taught Ty how to ride a quad and they drove around the house 3 or 4 times and he got the hang of it pretty good. Ty had a major serious face going on there....concentrating:)

One day Michelle took the kids on a hike up to the Y above BYU. Tyler went last year but we didn't think Ashlynn could handle it. She has been talking about not going ever since! This summer she really wanted to go so off they went!

She was so proud of herself and didn't need any help going up or down. She loved it!!

This was our little house that we lived in next door. There was no one living in it when we came to visit so we actually got to stay there. It was so crazy being back in that house.....all the memories and emotions of living there came flooding back. I actually got really emotional the first night when I was trying to fall asleep. So much love and happiness in that house and good times living next door. We had Tyler in that house.....we lived there for almost 5 years. We love this house. I gave Parker a bath in the same tub that I bathed Tyler in. It was so nice to be back and to stay there. After being gone for two weeks it was time to pack up and get back home. It was hard being gone from Dave for that long. He missed us like crazy especially Parker. Parker was changing every day and growing up so fast. We had such a great time on our trip this summer seeing all our family and friends. We look forward to it every year and can't miss it!!