Big, Big Events...

For starters, Cowboy Cael completely stunned his parents by willingly and excitedly going for a pony ride on sweet Blondie here! He held on tight, loved every minute, and of course now wants a pony for his very own... Miss Kylie was so pumped for the school book exchange-all of the Goff girls have exceptional memories and planning skills when it comes to events such as this one. Even though the mother of the crew had a Chinese cooking class (delicious, by the way) at 7:00, the girls were quick to point out that we could totally go the book exchange at 6:00!! How lucky can one family get??
Uncle Allen was an all-star and came over to Curtis' early morning football game, with Sam and Ben in tow. Thanks guys!!
If there's one great thing about football (of course there are many, many great things), it is that we just can't get enough of it! We went to see another game close by and ran into our favorite 5th grade teacher, Mrs. Rich! Curtis was in her class, then Morgan, and now Kendell- Kylie still has a few years but the precedent has so been set...
Mr. Goff's big question is why I don't have his handsome mug on the back window of my car?! I must admit that I'd never actually given it any thought at all, but after seeing this fantastic display, and knowing that the Christmas season is right around the corner, hmm... Now would this be a gift for him, perhaps for me, or maybe for the world? Wow...

Summer Days Drifting Away...

' The summer of Curtis has come to an end-Jr. High actually started today and so lazy, lounging in the pool afternoons are now a thing of the past...
Cael injured his big toe and Big Daddy was there to save the day with a "bawn-dae"-Cael of course loves "bawn-daes" and immediately took this one off and adhered it to the wall there...
We got together with my cute cousin, Trish, (here with her cute Ashton) this weekend for an outrageous family barbeque...
Kylie and Cousin Mali-both with sweet new teeth...
And here's mom and Cael on the day when all 4 big kids are actually in school at the same time!!Cael has got to live it up for the next week and a half because the girls will be back off-track again the week after Labor Day! I guess it will be grand when they are actually all on the same school schedules, but that will just mean they are getting big and getting ready to leave the nest-we'll just be cool with the goofy schedules for now and they are all welcome to stay just the way they are...

Group shot

Just pretend that all of these cousins are on the same couch together at the same time-very nice, don't you think??

See how nicely the Thomas boys sit on the couch and pose for their picture? Apparantly, Cael needs his own photographic space (and couch)...

When my sister came to town...

Not a lot of blogging this past week, my very favorite sister came to visit and it was so grand!! We did fantastic things like find what has to be one of the best street names ever- Fiddlesticks, wow!! Good thing we were prepared to document this fine find...
We also took time to appreciate Cousin Ben's aquatic skills, fully clothed is definitely the way to go! Fortunately, Uncle Allen waded in to remove Ben's belt before it was completely water-logged...
We celebrated Miss Kendell (thinking aloha here with Gramma Sharlene) turning the big 1-0 (she is pumped to have turned an even number, we are all so relieved)-and how great to have cousins in town for the momentous occasion...
We also had the fantastic and original idea of heading to Thanksgiving Point for "$2.00 Tuesday" along with every other resident with small children along the Wasatch Front! Kari, Brody, and Curtis all get super-sport points for waiting in a long line to get to see smelly (and yet kind of cute) pigs and geese behind a fence. We were planning to take in the dinosaur museum, but the 45-plus minute wait to get in there greatly influenced our choice of attractions, although Uncle Allen and Aunt Jessica get bonus points for waiting in that very long line so the other boys could get up close and personal with the dinos...

Thanks for coming, Auntie Kari and Jack and Cole and Brody!! Next time we'll get a picture with the sisters both actually in it!!

Seriously, Kari, this is for Y-O-U

Okay, so these photos are just so darn good-from the lighting, to the shading, to the cropping-I have spent hours, literally hours, photo-shopping to get these ready for prime-time and I must say that the results definitely speak for themselves...
3 Gracious Smilers- Cousins Susan, Harry, and Amy

The Roger B's- Aunt Leslie, Uncle Roger, Deborah Dawn and her Crew...

Uncle Dave, Aunt Carol, and Cousin Sarah...

The Lou crew striking a pose just for me...

Aunt Pat's fam-and for the record, there is no way that Sarah's picture of this group could have turned out better than this one...

Wow, so there you have it! Don't you just feel like you were there? I truly feel like a master artist with such a breath-taking canvas here, simply breath-taking...enjoy!!

Saturday, in the Park

These kids get the "good sport" award for wearing their smiles (most of the way) at the Madsen Reunion! It was definitely warm outside, but Aunt Carol kept passing out the Creamies, so Cael was great, which translates that the rest of us were great, too...

We were so glad to have Curits with us- he was away at Scout Camp all week and they weren't supposed to get home until Saturday morning. However, when a giant fire began traveling up the mountain to where they were on Friday afternoon, the scouts had to evacuate with only what they had on or had with them. (This is not fun to watch on the news when you know your child is somewhere aournd there and the planes and helicopters are zooming in dropping the fire retartant stuff.) Curtis was pleased that he wasn't swimming at the time of the evacuation, because those boys did just have swimsuits to go home in! Curtis was also wearing shoes, which was a bonus, because his group boys had been ready to go fishing barefoot (note to self-shoes are almost always a super idea)...They had to leave all of their gear up there and hope for the best and then lucky Paul and the other scout leaders got to go up on Saturday and retrieve the stuff. The stuff is all fine, but sorry Paul, no Madsen reunion for you this time around...