Lion King and The First Day of .....School?

My amazing husband once again earned us an amazing treat! The agency had a contest to earn tickets to The Lion King! It was amazing! We made a date night out of it and went out to dinner before the show and then met up with practically the whole agency at the capital theater. The show was really cool and it was so fun to have a date night with Bryan. I told him we need to have them more often!

Outside the theater before the show

No matter what I do, or how hard I try, I can't stop Parker from getting older! If anyone has figured out how to keep your kids from growing up so fast, please let me know! So, since I can't keep Parker from turning 4 in Nov, we decided it was time to start preschool! He started on Aug. 31st and he LOVES it! He wasn't totally cooperative with me for his first day of school photo shoot, but with some compromising I was able to get some pictures of him before we went to school. He wouldn't let me take any at school, but maybe later this year I'll be able to get some! He goes Tues, Wed, Thurs and comes home every day talking about his friends at school and what they learned that day. I can't believe my baby is in preschool! So crazy!

Shades for the first day of school are a must!

Not exactly cooperative, but a good shot of his back pack!

This is my favorite!

And back to being silly!

August!

Wow, once again, looking at the pictures I tool in August, we were busy! The month started off with Youth Conference for me. It was a crazy time for me and my family between girls camp and Youth Conference! I felt like Heather and Gloria were raising Parker f0r me while I went to meeting after meeting after meeting! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! to them and other family and friends that helped take care of Parker while I was getting ready as well as while I was gone! Our stake did a pioneer trek this year, and boy was it a lot of work!!! I'm not gonna lie, I was not excited from the beginning. I thought there was no way I would be able to make the 9-ish miles we were going to walk with the carts, let alone the 10 1/2 mile hike out without the carts! But I survived it all and even had a little fun in between! We enjoyed turning cream into butter, making marbles, tug 'o wars, gunny sack races, stick pulls, pulling marshmallows into taffy and square dancing! There weren't enough young women, so some of the leaders had to dance as well so that all the youth were able to participate. I don't know how anybody even managed to move their bodies after pulling/pushing a hand cart the day before, but we had a lot of fun!
The following week we had playgroup at the zoo. It was so much fun going with a big group of our friends from the ward. Parker even went down the snake slide at the playground, which I don't think he has ever done! it must have been the peer pressure because all of his friends were doing it!
We also went to a Bees game with Vicki, Matt and Matson. Bryan's parents and his nephews were there too, but they weren't sitting by us. Swoop was also there since it was U of U employee night. Parker and I chased him down and got a picture with him, then later he came over to our section and was signing t-shirts that he had thrown out into the crowd. Parker had his U of U hat, so he wanted Swoop to sign it! It was fun eating ball park food and visiting with family. The game was ok (not a huge baseball fan and the Bees weren't very good that night!) and I think Parker had a really good time!

Trying to get a pic of us at the game, what a joke!

Parker was so excited to get his picture taken with SWOOP! GO UTES!

This poor girl! Swoop used her head as a desk to sign a bunch of shirts! She was a really good sport!

That same week Bryan and I went golfing with his sister Melanie and her husband Tracy. It is the first time I've been golfing in a long time and since getting my own clubs. We've been to the driving range several times, and I thought I was sort of getting the hang of it. My first tee shot we actually pretty good, and I thought I might actually do alright. We didn't keep score or anything and just played the best shot, but my game went down hill after my first shot. It was still fun and I hope we can go more so I can get some more practice!
We were also able to squeeze in a field trip out to the copper mine with Melanie and her kids before school started. I'd never been out there and it was pretty cool to see the actual mine as well as learn all the things that copper is used for!

The whole gang! Mel's kids, plus some friends, Mom, Parker and Matson! Mel and I were behind our cameras of course!

Parker and Bekah looking down into the mine

Parker had been asking all summer if we could sleep in our backyard in the tent. We didn't get any camping in this year until Labor Day because of how busy I was this summer, so we decided to go ahead and sleep outside. Well, we got it all set up and even took the portable dvd player out so he could watch a movie in the tent! Eventually we all went to sleep only to have Parker wake up at 3 am covered in hives! I have no idea what brought it on, but I spent about an hour up with him. I gave him a bath, gave him benadryl and rocked him for a while. Then he insisted on going back out to sleep in the tent! I ended up sleeping the rest of the night on a twin air mattress with him. It was ridiculous! The hives were totally gone in the morning, but came back again the next night! It was really weird and I still don't know what they were from! We'll see if we try sleeping out in the backyard again next summer!

Watching a movie in the tent!