We met and became friends with so many wonderful people when we lived in St. Louis.
Below: Grace decides to marry Kennan about once a month.
About 1/3 of the trampoline area is netted off for smaller children. Even Joe was able to run and bounce. 
Nicole is a very cool mom and friend that I love to hang out with. And such a talented aerialist too.
Nicole has turned us on to lots of super fun indoor play places. They will be invaluable this winter when it is far to cold to play outside.
This is the first ever "getting on the school bus" picture I have. There are four little boys at the bus stop with us who mostly just stare. Ella loves to play "Simon Says" at the bus stop. I am always Simon and if the command doesn't involve running, skipping or hopping somewhere Ella says, "Mom, you're not playing right." I love, love, love taking her to the bus stop.
In kindergarten Ella only rode the bus in the morning so two bus rides in a day is a new thing for us. Everyone wanted to come and meet the bus yesterday. Ella was super excited that we ALL came.
Ella had a wonderful first day of first grade. She likes her teacher, loves the two recesses, only ate half her lunch and wasn't the lease bit tired after seven hours of school. In fact, she was up (in her bed) until 10:30 last night. I hope she doesn't crash at school today.My kids are blessed to have the best and coolest pappaw, pretty much ever. My dad makes an extra effort to stay close with my kids even though we live so far away. Ella and Grace LOVE to call pappaw at night for bedtime stories. They put the phone on speaker and lie in bed, in the dark and listen to my dad tell them stories that he told me as a kid. He then sings them a few songs. He sings them songs that were passed down from their four times great grandma (Grandma Dean) whose husband died in the Civil War battle at Shiloh. And he sings them Elvis.
My dad (and mom) were supposed to be here Wednesday night to stay for a week and attend the Boston Family reunion. But work got all messy for dad (other people, not dad) and now he HAS to stay in Memphis. Thankfully my mom is still coming but we are thoroughly bummed that pappaw wouldn't be.
I am so terribly thankful for the wonderul parents Heavenly Father gave to me and the incredible grandparents they are to my kids. The video above is black since it was dark in my girls room when story time was winding down. This is my dad singing Elvis to my girls. How cool is that?
Joe loves him some egg rolls 
Does every kid in the world do this with olives?
My kids will totally chow Sonic corndogs.
Joe finally figured out how to eat corn on the cob. 
No outing is complete without fruit snacks. I don't keep them visible around the house b/c when I do the kids ask for them CONSTANTLY. I save them for fun outings like this one. 
When Joseph finally decided he liked the water he had a blast. Apparently he's thirsty and the bottled water I brought is boring. Adam will die when he sees I let Joe "drink" the water. I actually have pictures of all my kids "drinking" the water but since Joe thought of it I used him.Near the water feature is a stage where, while we were there, a dancing/singing group of teen something girls was having a recital. Ella was mesmerized (sorry, no cute pics). We stayed and listened to some really awful singing and embarassing dancing for 30 long minutes. Ella talked about the pretty singing and beautiful dancing all the way home. She is just dying to take a dance class. I want to settle into full day first grade then see how the schedule looks. You never know, you all may be able to say, "I knew her when. . . . "
Ella and Grace helped me clean up the house before and after our Pioneer Day guest visited. Ella, especially, is loving having music on in the house. The girls have their own playlist with their fav songs. They rock out to Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, REM, Sara Evans, Blake Lewis, Laurie Berkner (very cool children's music) and SheDaisy.
Ella was wiping the walls (since her footprints were on them from practicing head stands) when I sneaked this video. She was really into the cleaning and dancing. Enjoy the moves and the music.
Above: Joseph thinks splashing is just so fun. It is, unless your face is right where his feet are. Joe loves the pool. He mostly loves throwing every rock in site into the pool but at least he's happy. Good thing Ella LOVES to dive for rocks.
Just this week Grace has started jumping into the pool without us having to "catch" her. She is finally getting totally comfortable with the pool. Thank heaven!
Ella is our resident mermaid, not fish, mermaid! Here she is showing Grandma that she can dunk herself over and over and over. She got to 40 this time. I would pass out but she loves it. I love having help at the pool. Its usually just me with the three kids and there is nothing relaxing about it. I actually got to swim a bit then relax is the warm sun today. It was a good day all around.
This is my laundry room/ storage closet. I love, love, love having this space for all the extra stuff life requires.
This is my new, improved and clean laundry/storage room. The picture totally doesn't do it justice. Now there is more floor space to walk, everything is off the washer/dryer and I can get to what I need without knocking other things onto the floor.
Above: Some float displays even had extras as part of their display. I don't remember the float this sand play thing went with but Ella and Grace loved digging. Look closely, there are little plastic bugs in the sand to dig for. Loved it!
Look at all these Hutchinson men. Adam's dad, Steve, hanging out with Adam and Joseph while the girls played in the sand.
Loved this "Preview Party" especially b/c there was face painting and clowns making balloon figures for FREE. For just the cost of tips we got two faces painted and three balloon figures. The girls and cousins all got butterflies and flowers. Couldn't have guessed that one! Notice that Joe is already chewing on his little blue dog.
And before too long the little blue dog was no more. Joe wasn't at all concerned that he popped the dog but freaked out when Adam took the dead balloon from him. Sorry little man, no eating balloons. We are such mean parents.
I heard talking in her room and found her "reading" to herself. It was so cute! I left her in HER bed "reading" and went to shower. I got out of the shower and found her in my bed watching mass, yes mass. I'm guessing she got there by accident but why did she leave it there? By the time I finished getting ready for bed, she was out. And it was only 11:30 pm.
So here is my Grace sleeping in mom and dad's bed, wearing her sisters ruffley nightgown (made by her mammaw last Christmas). Now I could move her into her bed or leave her and let Adam's do it. I think I'll leave her for Adam to move.
Adam has been so good to assemble bikes, put on training wheels and fix flats. Hopefully this will be the last "fix" of the summer. Notice the line of chairs, blankets and pillows off to the left. Everyone was "watching" daddy fix Grace's bike. Who knew flat tire repair was a spectator sport?
Miss Grace on her purple bike with her new training wheels. She ended up getting super frustrated saying, "It keeps stopping."
Joseph wanted to go but didn't want me to touch him or his "bi". Since he can't pedal it yet he ended up screaming ALOT.
Ella has finally gotten the hang of it. I'm thinking we'll be able to take off her training wheels by the end of the summer. She's loving it and I am too. 
Joseph loves to wear these Superman pajamas. Maybe he was feeling extra special and super when he decided that he didn't want to eat the super yummo hamburger steaks (my mammaw Christine's recipe) that I'd made for dinner but instead just wanted salad. Joseph has never eaten salad but today he chowed it. I wonder if he'll eat it next time I put it in front of him. You never know. 
I forgot the "Then" pictures. We last took the girls to Wheeler Farm in April 2006. I was pregnant with Joseph, Ella was 3 1/2 and Grace was 1 1/2. I can hardly believe that my big, grown up girls were this small and look at those baby faces.
Oh, my sweet girls! 
We had a picnic lunch then let the girls play in the creek. Here is Adam helping Joseph not fall into the little creek. It was cold and he would have hated it. Believe me. I know from recent experience. Joe does not like cold water on this feet or anywhere else. I love this picture of my boys!
My sister-in-law, Angie Homer, posted a picture of her messiest room and "double dog dared" us all to post a picture of ours, so here it is. This is our bedroom and I loathe it. I make no excuses other than I have terribly expensive taste and just haven't dropped $3000 for our bedroom, YET! I don't want it done half way and I don't want something I don't LOVE. I want it all or nothing at all. So this is how it is and I am fine with it until we 1) get out of debt and 2) move, one last time and settle (in a couple of years).
The scenary around the lake was beatiful. I miss all the green of home but this will do for now. I'm continually amazed at how blue the sky is here. 
Adam has been making an effort to take more of the pictures when we are out. He got some of me with the kids from the front but not any I'm willing to share. I love this one best. It reminds me that my kids are at such cute and fun ages. They frustrate the fire out of me sometimes but they are also my greatest joy.
I LOVE being up in the mountains. They are a wonderful escape from the dust, people, noise and traffic of the valley.
Everyone else arrived shortly after. We got settled, cooked our foil dinners and then made smores. Looks like a happy bunch to me.
Gracie's foil dinner sat nearly untouched but she sure loved the smores. Who wants carrots and potatoes when there are marshmallows and chocolate?
We put the four older girl to bed all together in the king size bed so the adults could have a game night. Ella and Grace were excited for Uncle Randy to tell stories. They are seriously into bedtime stories. Notice three of the four are sleeping in big shirts. Not because we forgot to bring pajamas but because its the cool thing to sleep in a "cabin shirt".
The next morning after breakfast Randy took some of the kids fishing in a nearby pond then we played on the golf cars. Randy sells golf cars for Intermountain Golf Car. If anyone wants a golf car anything, Randy is your guy. Randy always brings a car or two to family outings and they are always a huge hit.
Then it was off to the creek to cool off. This is all run off water so it is COLD. Ella got brave enough to stick her bum in but that was it. Ella was wearing her Disney Princess shirt but it is way too special to get wet in the creek so off it came.
This is as close as Joe would get. He sat and threw rocks into the creek for the longest time while Grandpa kept a watchful eye on him. Joseph isn't much for shirts lately. If I say anything about water or swimming to him, the shirt and shoes come off immediately. I have managed to get him to keep his pants on. That's something. Right?
Here is the manliest, man of all. Adam was the first to get "all the way" into the the cold water. He loves it. I think I'll have this picture blown up and framed for our home.
We had, and always have, such a fun time at the Homer cabin. Thank you Homers everywhere for sharing with us. We were only there 24 hours but our kids will talk about that 24 hours for weeks to come.
I've got about a million more pics from this weekend. I'll see if I can figure out how to make a slide show and put them all on. But that will have to wait for tomorrow.
As promised, here are a little better pictures of the girls' face paintings. Grace's got smudged, of course, before I could get a really good face shot.
