Back to school!

It's back to school time! The last weekend of summer we went camping to Jellystone Park and had a fantastic time! The kids were in the water all day Friday and most of the day Saturday (until it rained). The park had a beautiful lake and two swimming pools. Matthew did an amazing job swimming. He was jumping in the deep end at the pool and even jumped into the 20' lake (with a life jacket on!). I can't believe how great of a swimmer he has become. The girls are good swimmers too and they all had a blast. 

Jellystone Lake

Yogi Bear

Erik took the kids canoeing on the lake Friday evening. The weather was so beautiful and the kids loved canoeing with Daddy!

Craft time

The kids and Erik are standing on the platform ready to jump in

The park was huge and you really needed bikes or a golf cart to get around otherwise you were walking a lot. We didn't bring bikes therefore we were walking a lot. At least I got my steps in! I was able to finish Sea Spell, the fourth book in the Waterfire Series by Jennifer Donnelly. It is a series Jenna read too (something for 11 and 41 year olds). When it rained we sat inside and played the bean game. We even made smores in our toaster oven!  I also finished Legend, the book from our book club. It was so disappointing. I wish I could unread it :(.

Playing Through the Desert

On Wednesday the kids went back to school!  The night before Matthew prayed that it would always be summer and never winter, he would never have to go to school, and Panda would come back. Such a sweet prayer for a 6 year old.

Jenna is now going to middle school. She is riding a bus, has a locker, and is changing classes. It was a little overwhelming to her at first but I think she is doing well. Sarah has a fantastic teacher who is a strong Christian and one of my friends. I'm so glad Sarah is in her class. Matthew started kindergarten as well. He will go to school Tuesday/Friday every other Wednesday. He was nervous to start but I think he really liked it.

Jenna

Sarah and Matthew

Matthew with Mrs. Menary

Sarah with Mrs. Gunn

Matthew and his new quilt made by Aunt Shelby!

It's going to be a great school year! The kids are ready to be back and I'm ready for them to be back too!

Goodbye Panda

Last Friday we lost Panda. He had been a member of our family for four years. Prior to that he was Erik's parents' cat so we have known him for awhile. We weren't exactly sure of Panda's age but we are thinking he was about 19 years old. The past 6 months he has really gone downhill. We watched a video of Panda from a year ago and he seemed like a different cat. 

Panda and Twinkles sharing a meal

The kids and cats

Shaved Panda

A week ago Panda was walking and then he just fell. That seemed odd to us but he had been having trouble walking for the past several months. On Friday Sarah said that Panda was stuck in the litterbox. I went to the litterbox and he seemed fine - just hanging out in there.

Well a few hours later he was still there. Erik picked him up out of the litterbox and he couldn't walk. We knew it was bad. We didn't know whether to take him to the vet then or wait until morning. The fear about waiting until morning was that the kids would find him dead. So Erik took him that night to the vet. They took a look at him and said he wasn't going to make it. We were not surprised. I got to say goodbye to him though so that was good. He was a good cat for our family.

The kids are asking for a new cat but Erik wants us to be a one cat family. Twinkles doesn't like other cats anyway. She ignored Panda.

We will miss you Panda!