Hill Family: August 2013

I can't believe that summer is already over! It seems like we just barely celebrated Memorial Day and now August is gone. We have had a busy and fun summer, but I think that we are all grateful to be back in school with a "normal" routine every day. Anyway, here is what we did this month:

Goodbye- We said good-bye to Brian and Suzanne at the beginning of the month. They have moved to Pittsburgh so Brian can go to University of Pittsburgh for his Master's Degree in Healthcare Administration (or something like that). Funny enough they are only going to be living about 15 minutes from Matt's brother Brett. Small world, eh? We are going to miss them, but are so excited for this adventure that they get to have!

Lazy days of summer- We spent the last couple weeks of summer vacation making forts in the living room, going to the Treehouse museum, playing in the backyard, reading books, watching movies, and doing all of sorts of random stuff around the house. It was good to be home and actually get to relax a little bit before the summer was officially over! I think the kids got a little restless, but I loved not having to go anywhere or do anything! It was the perfect way to end the summer for us.

First Day of School- Alora and Caleb started school on August 26th. Alora started first grade and Caleb started Kindergarten. I still can't believe that they are old enough to go to school, but I'm loving it! Alora was so excited for her first day. She had her outfit picked out the night before and was up super early and ready to go! Caleb didn't care quite as much. He didn't like getting on the bus, but hopefully he will get used to it. Alora has Mrs. Coles and loves her already! Caleb is going to his learning center kindergarten which means he is at a different school and has a smaller class size with more aides to help the kids. I'm hoping that this year will be his year to transition to regular education classes and he can go into first grade with his peers next year, but we are just taking it one year at a time with him. His teacher is Mrs. Jensen and she seems like a perfect fit to teach these special kiddos! Emily was so sad when we dropped Alora off at school. She started to cry and said "I miss 'Ra." It was so cute! She will go into preschool next year, but this year she is stuck with me, so hopefully we can find fun things to do together in the afternoons when Caleb and Alora are gone.

Little Miss Independent- On Caleb's first day of school there was an orientation so I had asked the neighbor across the street (Mirlene) to watch Emily for me. Emily just loves her, so she was super excited. Well, as I was closing doors and getting things ready to go, Emily turns to me (with her backpack on) and says goodbye. I thought she was getting in the car so I could take her across the street, but as I walked out of the house and looked she had already crossed the street and was to Mirlene's door! I was scared at first because our street can be pretty busy, but then I couldn't help but laugh! She is so independent!

Blackfoot Fair- For the past few years we have gone up to Idaho to visit Matt's parents and while there we go to the Eastern Idaho State Fair. We always have a good time seeing the animals and of course eating the fair food. Then the boys will stay and go to the Tractor Pull and us ladies go home and relax. This year we kept the tradition alive. It was fun to go and spend time with family and have a nice relaxing holiday weekend. The boys had fun watching the tractors and of course we all ate too much good food. On our way out of town we stopped to see our long-time friends, the Ellsworths (totally surprised them), and while there the three kiddos got together and played on their tire swing. It was cute! We had a fun weekend and look forward to our next trip up north!