First day of 2nd grade

Rylie is officially a second grader now.  She is at a new school and rides the bus from her old school to her new school everyday.  She is growing way to fast and we keep telling her to stop growing, but she is not very obedient in that regard.  She looked so cute on the first day of school and it wasn't raining, so it was all good!  I don't even think she was really nervous.  We had checked it out the day before!
Go Ry!

Last days of Summer

Well, it is official, I am now 35 years old.  We celebrated by having Papa Murphy's pizza, brownies, and cake provided by my great friend, Kara!
I didn't do a whole lot that day, mostly just waited for the cable guy to come and hook up the cable.

All my children were smiling!

Mark decided we should go and float the Missouri River one night before school started.  We loaded the boats in the truck after work and headed toward Craig, MT to put in.  Our youth in our ward had done it the week before so Mark knew where and what he was doing.  The kids loved it, except Bryce who cried and screamed and generally disrupted all fly fishermen we passed along the way.  It was a lot of fun.  Rylie told everyone that asked what she did this summer, that she floated the Missouri River.  We did do other things, but she must have loved this.

The pelicans stay in this spot

Bryce with a smile, which was a result of shoving fruit snacks at him.  He was not happy most of float.

The baby is not paddling the boat and his dad is holding on to him right there.

Spokane Trip part 3-photos

The white dot on the right is me, Mark took this of me so you could see the scenery.  I had no idea a  very steep hill was just around the bend!

This was before we started.  This photo was taken prior to 6:15 am!  Love Nichole's hair!

We stopped for some fuel.  Heather apparently was all about the safety at dinner as well as running!

We made it to the finish eventually.  We were the last team to cross, but not the last team time wise.  Yeah!

She is her father's daughter

So, a few weeks ago, Mark got an email from a guy he knows that runs and cycles and does triathalons here in Helena about putting on a kids' triathalon.  Rylie is the same age as his daughter and they were in swimming lessons together about 2 years ago.  We asked Rylie if she was interested in doing it and she said yes.  She is not a big fan of swimming just yet, but has made great progress this summer and has even been swimming without her life jacket by herself.  She did a great job.  She made it through the swim and thought that best thing was the cool medal she got afterwards.

Rylie with her triathalon number on her legs.  I think she was more excited about this than anything.

The girls with their legs up crashed on their bikes.  Isn't it cool that most of them were girls doing it!?

Spokane Trip part 2

Well, we made it to the hotel in Spokane and I left the family before 5 am on Friday to begin our crazy relay!
It was a lot of fun, a lot of no sleep and a lot of running.  Everyone ran 3 legs for a total of 36 legs total, which matched the number of children we had between us all.  36 kids!  We were slow and steady and even rode the crazy rollercoaster at Silverwood in the middle of the night.

Ry, Rori, and I just before my first leg

The handoff and Rori wanting to run with me

I did pass the lady in the pink in front of me

The kids and Mark went to a park to hangout and play while we drove all over

It looks like Bryce is getting ready to hike the ball to Rori

Beginning my 2nd over 5 miles leg

Rori was racing up and down the sidewalk, this was in Coeur D'Alene, Rylie with the goofy hat