Ballet

In September Lydia started taking classical ballet classes downtown, at Ballet Idaho. I've waited 12 Years for this and it is just how I imagined....So much fun.

Milestone

The Sunday after Nathan turned twelve he was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood, in our church. It was nice to have both of his Grandparents at the occasion. After the ordination we all visited with the Bishop in his office. We were each emotional as we were able to share our feelings about Nathan and how proud we were of him. Since then he has been passing the sacrament each week and attending Mutual on Wednesday nights. Their Deacons Quorum planned the Joint YM/YW activity just days after his joining the group--No Utensils Spaghetti Dinner. There are only three Deacons right now. I guess that makes for a pretty straight forward Deacons Quorum Presidency...Nathan is the First Counselor.

Birthday Boy

In September our oldest, tallest and biggest son turned 12 years old. It seems like not long ago that Nathan was just a little fella imitating elephants, practicing football "Hikes!" in the living room and singing in a munchkin voice, "Heavy Equipment, you better get ready for something heavy!"

Now he is all grown up, almost my equal height and surpassing my shoe size. I enjoy our talks and the time that we get to spend together. It sure has been nice having a built in babysitter and someone we can count on to be responsible. Nathan- you are a great kid.

D.C.

Mike had been planning on going to the Boise State-Virginia Tech game since it was announced, like a year ago. Besides cheering on the Broncos, he and two of his brothers spent time seeing the sights of Washington D.C.

Balloons

We weren't very ready for the early morning wake-ups that first week of school. I kept trying to get everyone to "practice" getting up early in the weeks leading up to the first day, but those last few days to sleep in are just so delicious, that no one was willing to give them up, I guess even me. :) So after the first week of school we were really looking forward to a nice, relaxing, slow-to-wake-up-Saturday. However, I found out that Boise was having their Annual Hot Air Balloon Festival. I had done this as a kid and for some reason have always remembered it. You have to get up early. I think we left our house at 6:15 a.m. It was dark when we got to the downtown park. As it got lighter it was cool to watch the balloons fill with air and then take off. To me there is something magical about watching the balloons go up. I'm not sure if it is magical to me because it reminds me of that scene from "The Wizard of Oz," or because the music played at the launch is moving and awe inspiring. Either way, it WAS magical watching the sun peak out over the mountains and the hot air balloons defying gravity. It was a perfect morning. We followed the launch by eating breakfast at a cafe downtown and then checking out the Downtown Farmer's Market. We missed some ZZZZ's that morning, but made up for it later in the afternoon with naps. (Those are delicious, too). We are definitely making this a Yearly Labor Day Weekend Tradition!