Basement is finished!!!

 The basement is finished! Two and a half months and many $$$ later and it's done.  Here are some pics of the progress.  Note the new TV, the picture doesn't do it justice.  It's big!

First Day of School 2012/13

As usual, it seemed like summer came and went really fast.  We went camping a handful of times, boating and jet skiing, we took a trip to Spokane for the family reunion, water parks, and we also went golfing a bunch of times with the girls.  Summer was awesome, but way to short.  Well last week we had our first day of school.  Ashley is in 6th grade and is a student body officer.  Megan is 4th grade and will start lacrosse with Ash in a few weeks.  Kaitlyn is in 1st grade and couldn't wait for school to start.  Britney will start her second year of preschool in a couple of weeks.  Kaitlyn actually missed the first day of school because she threw up that morning.  We were sad because Kaitlyn was the most excited for school to begin.  Mom and Dad (mostly Mom) are priming themselves for all the homework help the girls will need this year.  Time to get back on a schedule!

 Ashley, 6th Grade

 Megan, 4th Grade

 Kaitlyn, 1st Grade

Park City

 We had a fun, but short trip up to Park City this year.  It was short at least for me since I had to go to Reno for work during the trip.  We did get a chance to go up to the Park City Resort together and ride the Alpine Slide with Grandma Nancy, Uncle Lance, and Lindsay and Lonnie's family.  As usual, the older girls were nervous about the slide, and as usual, they loved it afterwards.  Is there medication that promotes bravery and courage with kids?  Let us know. The girls stayed up there a few nights without me and had fun swimming, playing hours of tennis, and crafts. We love this place!

After a speedy and exhilarating ride down the alpine slide, the kids deserved some snow cones and dipping dots.

 Ashley and Megan rode by themselves, while Kaitlyn and I, and Tara and Britney rode together.  Not much room for another person when I've got to share the space.  Luckily Kaitlyn is tiny!

Brits like sitting on the benches that may have been old chairlifts or at least designed to look that way.

Starvation Resevoir, Utah

This summer we tried out a new camping spot and went with the Smiths and Jaussi's to Starvation Resevoir. The campground was basically dirt with a fire pit and relatively no trees, just sagebrush.  But, the lake, sorry resevoir, was awesome.  Crisp, clean water (were used to Utah Lake), a dock floating off the beach for the kids to swim to, and some small cliffs to jump off of.  The girls all jumped off of a 4 to 5 foot cliff and three of them cried in fear prior except for our bravest girl Britney, who is the youngest at 4 years old.  No fear, she just jumped.

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We took up the jet skis and the other families had boats.  I wake surfed for the first time and that was way cool.  I think I'm going to have to spend some cash on a boat soon.  We are totally going back there again next year, but we are going to try to find better camping spots.  Fun place if you have never been, it's about 2 hours east of SLC.