Our last hurrah!

Feeling totally guilty for not having done much this summer - casts put a big damper on the swimming thing which is usually a major part of summer - I decided to forgo my housecleaning plans for the last day of summer and surprised the kids with a trip to the dinosaur park in Ogden. They were thrilled!

The older kids thought the animatronic dinosaurs were great...

See the look of terror on the babies faces?

They are pretty cool!

Apprehensive about going into the park...

Two peas in a pod! These two are my non stop, into everything, bigger than their own breeches, think they are the cat's meow stinkers!

Growing up so much!

Spending time with Grandma

She is such a nap fighter! Up way past her naptime!

 I don't know why I didn't save the money and just find a manhole for them to throw rocks down!

She thinks she's such a big girl!

Grandma is always such a trooper. She follows along even when I know she is tired, but she would rather make the memories than stay at home in the air conditioning alone. We love you Great Grandma!

Love my kids!

This is Matthew's 98 degree sweaty-head hairdo!

Digging up dinosaurs!

I love this one!

So that's it. Summer is over and it's back to school. I will miss having them with me everyday, but I am excited for the growth and learning that is coming this year!

At Spencer's request...

The Werewolf...

...turns into the 6th grader!

He thought these were hilarious!

Jacob's Rough Week

Poor little man. First he breaks his arm on Thursday. Then on Saturday, he falls running along the sidewalk because the weight of the cast has thrown off his balance and gets a goose egg and road rash on his forehead. Then Sunday, at a ward members house for dinner, he runs over to play on their swing set two minutes after we arrived and gets stung by 5 wasps...on the face! I got stung by a wasp once, right on the behind. It hurt like crazy!! I was literally jumping up and down on the driveway in pain for like 10 minutes! I can't even imagine how bad 5 stings to the face would feel for the tiny little guy! It has been a tough week!

Jacob's temporary cast - until the swelling goes down! :(

Get well soon Jacob!

And just for kicks...pictures of Jacob and Avvy the day he got his cast. Avvy thinks she's something special...which she is!

Jenkins Family Thingy 2011

This years activity: The Living Planet Aquarium, lunch at the Training Table, playing at a splash pad/park and dinner at Dan and Kirty's house. The best part? Spending the entire day with our favorite people in the world!

Summoning the courage to pet the sting rays. Cade is such a helpful and concerned cousin, always willing to watch out for one of the little ones. Thanks Cade!

Spencer instructing anyone who would listen on how to properly pet the sting rays.

 Avvy just thought splashing in the water was great!

Spencer LOVED the sting rays! His shirt was soaked when he finished petting them! I'm sure it was a combination of the water and the slickness of the sting ray's skin that he found therapeutic, and any time we couldn't find him, he was back at the sting ray tank.

I don't think the girls ever did touch them. Maybe partly due to the fact that the boys told them about The Crocodile Hunter being killed by a sting ray?!

Enjoying the penguins. The kids watched them for a long time and laughed and laughed!

  See the arching bubbles? That's a penguin jumping in! The best part of their show!

 Smile!

Such a cute place for a picture! Reminded me of the southern U.S. (Spencer was engrossed with the glowing scorpions in the cave area and couldn't make time for this picture. Oh well.)

Ready for lunch and a nap! Thank goodness for a blankie in the car, a thumb and a few tasty french fries at The Training Table! Thanks for lunch Grandma and Grandpa!

 The water pad where we stopped for the afternoon to let the kids run and play.

 Enjoying the water pad.

 Turning the slides into water slides.

Note the look of mischief on Spencer's face? Zillia has not yet noticed the squirter concealed beneath the towel! Oh that boy! :)

 Kirty made a water bottle for each of the kids. They looked pretty fun all lined up!

 The babies were so funny as they splashed each other and fought over the shovels!  And I have to say that those two little girls can hold their own!

 And the old people sat around and chewed the fat! He he! (notice how I am not in the picture!)

Thanks Dan and Kirty for planning a fun "thingy" for this year! Can't wait for next year!

Afternoon Snack

Our Pretty Princess! What can I say? She loves mud! And yes, she is eating that!! Dirt, mud, moss, you name it. And it's not just a passing curiosity. As much as I try to keep her out of it, as soon as she is outside she runs straight for it. And she puts it all over herself, in her hair, throws it in the air and lets it come raining down on her. She scoops up handfuls of it and eats it! Is it because she has brothers? She does follow everything Jacob and Matthew do...On the other hand, Olivia has an obsession with bugs! So maybe it's just a kid thing?

I blame it on the fact that I have boys...

Someone pointed out to me that no one in our family has ever had a broken bone...NO ONE! Not on my side, not on John's and in the same summer, we've had two.

So now there's guilt!! Is it because of my lack of attentiveness? I don't just let my children run, I'm the opposite actually. More of a hover-er. I was right there with them, both times! So I'll just blame it on the fact that I have boys! :) Most of my family, and John's only have a few boys "intersprinkled" with all the girls. So we made up for the lack of boys by having boys. And boys play hard! (Boy, that was a lot of mention of boys! :) He he!

Anyway, Jacob broke both his forearm bones in his left arm, and Olivia broke her pinkie finger on her left hand. Thank goodness it was the left hand on both of them! But I have learned a few things this summer: trying to keep children with casts clean in the summer is a BIG pain in the butt! Three year olds have a hard time being potty trained with a giant cast, and only one person should jump on a trampoline at a time. Maybe Uncle Ric had some wisdom there. :)

Here's hoping for a cast free summer next year!