September 2017

We started off September with our first trip to the Lindon Pool. 

Ben and Lucy went down the yellow slide together and we hung out with the Allred family. 

William had a blast in the lazy river and slides.  We hope to come back again next summer!

 Ben's Aunt Michelle hosted a BBQ and birthday celebration in Ben grandma Smoot's honor.  We all shared memories about her and how we've missed her since her passing last year. The kids love "Aunt Chel's" big backyard and trampoline. 

 Professor Lewis was back in the classroom teaching his last round of Business Management 387.
He continues to memorize all 200 students' names from their ID pictures.

 The girls were finally able to ride in the bike trailer together and make for a fun family bike ride.

Ben and I attended the BYU vs. Utah football game and were sadly disappointed in their loss. 

 The kids and I tried to enjoy any warm day we had left, and soak up the sunshine.

 We had fun celebrating William's birthday all week, mid-September.
The kids love The Bounce House in Orem and William got free birthday tokens to use on games and rides there.

 He chose birthday bowling and ice cream from Arctic Circle with the family.

 The morning of William's birthday party he had a soccer game.  He loves playing in games so this made his party day even more special.

 Afterward, he was able to attend the BYU football game with us and Maddie.

 Uncle Tyler got the hookups and was able to get us down on the field for a picture.

 We went to the Salt Lake Country Club for birthday dinner with my family and grandparents.

 We had dinner, presents and an incredible Ninja Turtle cake from the SLCC baker.  

This year William was set on having a Ninja Turtle birthday party.  I’m not sure how he got into them but we made it happen, nonetheless.  William invited a few friends and neighbors over for his party. 

 We had great weather with a ninja obstacle course outside, and pin the pepperoni on the pizza.  I made masks for all the kids and they took home a homemade “sword” as well.  

 Then William went to a BYU football game and was able to go on the field.  He had quite the busy birthday weekend!

 Grammy came back for General Conference and we were able to attend the Saturday afternoon session together. We met with some family for brunch beforehand at The Little America. 

Madeline started to army crawl slowly but surely!

August 2017

August began with a visit to the park with our friends we made while at Cornell.  We have so many fond memories with our friends the Hales and Ortons in Ithaca, New York.  It was fun to get our kids together and chat about the "good old days".

 Maddie started learning new tricks, like holding her own bottle!

 In early August, we went to the baby blessing of my cousin's son, Luca.  We had fun visiting with cousins and second-cousins of each other.

 During this time Ben was at his annual Academy of Management Conference, where he won the award of "Best Paper from a Dissertation." Grammy came to help us while dad was gone for the week.

 While Grammy was in town she helped us move William and Lucy's rooms together, as they now share the biggest room upstairs.

 Dad came back to Utah and we did some more bowling as a family. 

 There is always something fun going on around the Provo/Orem area.  We had a dance party with the Minions, shot off homemade rockets, and went to a "back to school" BYU sports party.

 The kids loved the Provo Rec Center outdoor pool this summer. 

It was tricky juggling Lucy and Maddie while swimming, so dad played with the "big kids" at the pool a few times.

 We watched the solar eclipse from the park.  We met Aunt Diana there for a picnic lunch and had fun watching the sun "disappear".

 William had been looking forward to his first day of BYU Kindergarten for a LONG time.  

We were so excited for him to be right by dad’s office and go to school every day! William was in Miss Amy’s PM Kindergarten class from 12:30-3:15.  He is in the same class as Josie, our neighbor, and Tegan, a boy from his t-ball team.

William gets to ride to school with Josie every day and I pick him up M-Th and dad picks him up and brings him to his office on Fridays.

 On August 26th BYU had their first home game. 
We brought the family to the pre-game party for games and photo ops.

 We feel truly blessed to have these three cute kids and love being their parents!