How did September get here so fast?!

Wow, not only is it September, it's almost halfway through already! Summer went way too fast and I'm a little sad that it's over. We packed it pretty full this year (again) and it kind of feels like some of the things that happened during the summer happened a long time ago. Weird, huh?!

So now we're trying to get back into the swing of things as the school year starts up and "real life" has begun to sink in.

  I'm back in school and taking a humanities class, taking two institute classes, working for the Boise school district as a substitute lunch lady, teaching clogging on Thursdays, taking Irish on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and trying not to go insane as I do all of that on top of the everyday things that are always going on.

Malia is still working at Petsmart and loves it, her and I go to institute together, and she's been extra busy lately by taking care of Frodo. He had to have knee surgery last week and it's been quite the recovery! Lucky we have her to take care of him because I don't think the rest of us would have the patience to put up with all the schedules/therapy/pills/and keeping him from moving around too much that Malia takes charge of (but, also lucky for us, Mom is the one who's right there to help when she needs to).

David got a new job and works at a battery shop. It keeps him busy, which is good! :) He also goes to seminary every day and tries not to annoy the seminary teacher too much - no, I'm kidding. The seminary teacher we've all had is a good friend of all of us and I'm sure he gets a kick out of David and his shinanigans.

Kelani just turned 15 and is starting her first year of seminary (she goes to the same class as David - there's a pair for ya!), and is in the Jr. high choir this year. She's the last one for Mom to do school with!

And of course, Mom and Dad are just trying to keep up with all of this, as well as keeping up with Dad being bishop, and Mom a counselor in YW. They're extremely patient, that's for sure!! :)

Anyway, here's some pictures of a few things we've been involved with the last few weeks. Enjoy!

The scouts did their own tri-athlon at the end of August and I think overall it turned out pretty good.

David was the decided winner even though there's a scout or two who thought otherwise.

 Even Dad decided (the morning of) that he'd give it a try!

I looked out the kitchen window one morning and saw this! Isn't it pretty? These are the kinds of skys I miss once winter hits so at least it will last in a picture.

At the end of August our Irish group got to perform at the Highland Games in La Grande, OR. We had quite the trip, which could fill a whole new post. But it was fun and we covered ALOT of ground over Friday and Saturday.
  Here's the awesome Boise Highlanders who are so great to listen to! One of our friends from church is in the group and plays the bagpipes. He's 14 and he is amazing on the pipes!! He's in there somewhere...towards the middle left.

  The stage that they made for us was awesome!! Too bad you can't hear how great this dance sounded! And luckily it was one I got to watch and get some pictures of.

On our way home we took a detour to Wallowa Lake, which I was seeing for the first time. It was BEAUTIFUL!!! I would totally go back there some day when we have more time. Definitely worth checking out if you're ever "in the area".

  We also stopped at Hell's Canyon, also a first for me. It was right before sunset so the colors up there were awesome.

Well, stay tuned because you know that we've already got more things in the works. We just can't seem to sit still, can we?