September 2015

We had a fun month here at the Hastings' house.  We are keeping super busy with all of our schoolwork and other activities, and we are having a great time.

This was technically the end of August, but I didn't post about it, so I will now.  My cousin's son Brayden got married last month, and it was such a great day with a great reception.  The kids (and maybe the adults too) had so much fun dancing!!

The second week of September we were lucky enough to head out on a vacation to California!  We went with my parents and my sister and her family.  We had a very fun and a very busy week!

Look how excited Dan was

When we made it Vegas, I thought I was going to melt.

Once we made it into California we had dinner at Medieval Times.  Awesome! 

Hannah got a flower from our knight, she was super excited.

The next day we headed to Disneyland!!!!!!

Our first ride was Pirates of the Caribbean (of coarse)

Yay!

This was my favorite picture from the trip.  Jeffy looks like he is thinking "seriously?!?" hahahaha

Must have a Dole Whip

Hannah loved the giant corndog she got

Emma got herself a Maleficent cake pop

Watching the parade

I LOVE the Bear River Rapids ride.  It is definitely my favorite ride in California Adventure.  It's so much fun wondering who will get splashed next!!!

Kids love bubbles!

Wearing a turkey leg shirt and eating a turkey leg

Waiting for the World of Color show

After a few days at Disneyland we had a beach day.  It happened to be the only rainy day of the week, so we didn't spend much time at the beach.  It was also super windy!

Hannah has awesome hair when it get humid.  Hahahahahaha!!

The kids trying to get into the Jedi show.  They didn't get in.  I believe they need to learn how to be more excited :)

Day 4 in Disneyland, and we're all going a bit crazy.

Taking another ride on the Rapid ride.  Jeffy did not want to get wet, so I wrapped him in my scarf.

Seriously, this is the best ride!

We took the kids into meet Anna and Elsa.  They were not very impressed.  They really aren't character kids.  

Our last ride we rode Cars.  The girls raced the boys, and the girls won!!  Awesome ending to an awesome time at Disneyland.

Goodbye!

The weather has been still very nice for September.  Last week the girls and I hiked up to Donut Falls.  It was such a nice day and we had a great time!

And finally . . . Today my Emma turns 13.  I still don't know exactly how this happened, but it did.  Emma is such a silly girl.  She loves making us laugh, and loves hearing stories about Dan's childhood.  (I'm the worst storyteller, so she never asks me, hehe)  She is very artistic and loves sketching.  Although she did give me a little trouble while being born, I am so glad to have my Emma!!

And now we head to October . . .

August 2015

So we have made it to September.  This means that the weather will start slowly getting cooler as the kids head back to school.  Speaking of which, we are trying something new this year for school in the Hastings' family, we are homeschooling.  Hannah is being homeschooled full time, and Emma is taking her electives at the middle school and then coming home for the rest of the time.  This is something I've been wanting to try for a long time, and this year we did it.  Now, there is no major reason I pulled my girls out of school.  The schools they've gone to are great.  They aren't having troubles of any kind at school, it is just something I've wanted to do.  So, last year at the end of the school year I started asking my girls if this is something that the would want to try, and they agreed.  We are hoping to take this opportunity to follow Dan around a bit this year as he travels.  Who knows, this may just be for the year, or it may be longer.  We just don't know yet.  All I know is these past few weeks since starting homeschool things have gone pretty well, so we'll see what the future brings for us.

Anyway . . . on to the ongoings of August.

We've had quite a few birthdays to celebrate this month, including Cole, Jeffy, Nikki, Meg and my mom.  We've had a lot of parties and a lot of cake.

Cole turned 8, he will be baptized this weekend

Jeffy turned 5 and has started kindergarten

One day I heard water outside and saw that they were checking out a fire hydrant in our circle.  I told the kids to go out and play in the water.  It was cool!

This past month we had the Hastings Family Reunion.  We were in charge this year, so we planned a few activities for all the Hastings over a few days.

The first day we hiked Mount Timpanogos

Getting the info before we start

Off we go!

Look at all those handsome nephews I have!

We made it to the top

We also headed out to Cowabunga bay.  This was the first time we have been there.  The kids (and adults) had a great time!

Daddy playing in the water with the girls

Dan's two sisters, Angie and Kathy

Dan's parents

We also had the chance to head down to Yuba lake with the neighbors again this year.  We had a great time, but the lake was super low, and we had very noisy camp neighbors one night.

Where did the lake go??

We saw a lot of dead fish 

This used to be underwater!?!

We finally found somewhere to get into the lake

The winds kicked up one day and I sat in the truck with the girls while watching the men stop the canopy from flying away.  It was pretty amusing!

This weekend Cole is being baptized and Nikki asked me to take a few pictures.  What a handsome boy!

This is Emma as she started 7th grade.  Can you believe it?!  She is getting too big too fast.

I am so excited for her to head off to middle school, I am not, however, excited about getting up at 6:30 so she can be out the door at 7:20.  Hahahahaha!!

Alright, we are officially done with August.  I'm really looking forward to September.  We have a fun vacation planned this month that I can't wait for!!!