So long summer...

Trading in the pool for the backpacks, though we certainly hope there are still some warm days ahead.

So far so good with school. Elijah started kindergarten today and Carson started 2nd grade last Monday. Feels kind of weird to have two kids in elementary school now. Clarissa still gets to stay home with mommy, but she wanted to put her back pack on and have her picture taken anyway.

Stitches and Kitties

Elijah took a spill in Michael's on Friday afternoon. He tripped running down an aisle and hit the edge of something or other. No more hanging out in crafty stores with mommy for a while. Here's the result. He's doing fine now. The trick will be keeping him out of water for the next week until the stitches come out, since he and Carson are instantly drawn to any activated sprinkler systems within a 200 mile radius...

(that's a dog painted on his cheek, by the way)

In unrelated news, a little cat wandered into our lives last week, and she's not going anywhere. The kids love her to death and it's been neat to watch how they (especially Carson) care for her and look out for her. Callie is a cute little thing. In some ways it's like having another toddler around, but she behaves well for the most part and doesn't require a ton of attention, even though she gets it...

Park City 2010

This past weekend we enjoyed our annual Jones Family gathering in Park City. We had a blast. The kids didn't want the vacation to end. The time went by way too fast.

Swimming was probably their favorite thing to do. The kids are turning into good little swimmers and seem comfortable in the water, as long as there are floaties around...

Grandma provided fun activities and games for the kids. It's great to see all the cousins have so much fun together. They made puppets...

Clarissa shows off her cat puppet...

Grandma and Carson taking part in the puppet show...

Mommy and daughter waiting patiently for the pizza to arrive...

Elijah and some cow...

Grandma took Clarissa on the merry-go-round while Christina and I took the boys to the Alpine Slide...

Up the mountain we go. The boys liked the ride up and really liked the fast ride down...

Elijah and I get ready for a ride on the merry-go-round...

Carson giving the rock climbing wall a shot. He did really well...

Family at the bottom of the Alpine Slide...

Thing 1...

Thing 2...

Thing 3...

(we love the Things very very much, by the way)

Before heading home, we visited Smith Morehouse lake and had a nice picnic. Then rocks were thrown...

And sticks were collected...

One more family photo before departing for home...

Playhouse Part II

I thought it was done, but I decided to go ahead and make a door for the playhouse. Now it's done, at least until winter when I'm going to have to figure out a covering for the windows. We're discovering that spiders and bugs really love the place...