Here is the big man (Brock) on his first day at school (first grade).... Just so you know, (if you care) the school facilities are pretty darn old. The school district is currently building a new elementary school in another part of town and it looks quite state-of-the-art. if you will.


He is a good looking young man all excited for school.

Here we have Cody and Rachel. They are awaiting the arrival of Brock from school. The bus drops him off at the end of our little lane where we live. Cody and Rachel sit in front of our house till the bus comes.











And here is the bus...















And they're off to meet him

We finally set up the Ping Pong table...again. I lost the directions and it took me a bit to figure out what goes where... I'm not sure if any of you know the history of Ping Pong in our family, but this whole family started with a bitter loss (on my part) at Ping Pong. Right as Dana and I met, she challenged me to a Ping Pong game at the institute. Well, I'm usually pretty good at stuff so I agreed and upped the anty with the winner winning a dinner. To my lament, she beat me...barely...by like 15 points. So, naturally I paid up and next thing I know, I've got four kids, a mortgage, a minivan, and so on. So she bought me a table on which to practice, and I would like you to know that the running tally on who is winning is clearly in my favor.

And... those are cute kids...

This is our annual trip to the Lagoon in Utah that we took in August. This is the fourth year we've gone and our kids look forward to it all year. The day after we got home they started asking again when we're going to go back. We usually go with Dana's sister and family (Amy and Joe). Last year my parents and sister Erin came but this year they couldn't. This year Dana's parents came and we stayed with them in their sweet 5th Wheel at the camp ground (that was nice..better than tenting it like we usually do). This year Cody got to ride the "bigger" little kid rides with Brock and Rachel (and loved it), and Brock was tall enough to ride the adult White Roller Coaster with Mom and Dad (and had the bejeezers scared out of him). The music machine was the ride of choice this year for the kids... For Dana and me, it was the new sweet roller coaster called "Wicked," it was freaking awesome. The kids were so excited it was Brett's first year to go. We love family vacations!

Here are some random pics of the "the goon" rides. (that is what Rachel and Cody call it)

This was our reprieve from the heat... We are now mountain folk and cant handle the 100 degree weather.

This is a scary look into the future...

This is the dragonfly... it is freaking intense!

Joe (my bro-in-law) and I tried out our hands at the ol' "spill the milk" challenge at Lagoon... Well, we all know what the outcome was. Let's just say that mucho leche was all over the place. The milk was spilled....






Here are the little ones enjoying the spoils of victory.













Has anyone seen Cody?

Brock finally ditched the training wheels... We live on a bumpy dirt road, so it was hard for him to practice, but now he is ready to pass on his little bike and get a new bigger one.

Rachel is showing off her moves... Maybe she'll follow in her mother's footsteps and join the jump rope club.