After what feels like the shortest summer ever, September is here already. It's been a fun week with Aimie and Jaxon in town; wish they lived closer so we could get together more than once a year! We took the kids to Out of This World so they could run around and play while it was gray and drizzly outside. The boys had a fantastic time playing on the bigger play structures (Kadin had to give Jaxon a boost up some of the stairs) and Kylee would have been content to slide down the baby slide all day long. All the kids were worn out by the time we left at lunch time; just what we were hoping would happen!

Wednesday we got together with Andi, Justis, and Nia and took the kids to OMSI for the day. I haven't been there since I was a little kid and it was a lot of fun to go back and see all the new stuff they have in there. Upstairs they have a kids area with bubbles and water and sand . . . we could probably have camped out there for the day and the kids would have had plenty to do. When we took the kids downstairs to the rocket/machinery exhibit, we had a little bit of a scare when Jaxon ran off to see something exciting. With so many kids, we kind of lost track of who was watching who and no one saw where he darted off to. Luckily, he didn't go too far and we found him, but it got us all a little worried for a bit (I think Aimie was more than a little worried, which is totally understandable). After that, I took the kids over to visit Jeremy at work. It was fun to get to see him in the middle of the day and I think the kids really enjoyed seeing where Daddy goes everyday.

On Friday, I was feeling antsy being in the house so I spontaneously decided to take the kids out to Woodburn to see if they had any good Labor Day sales on fall clothes for the kids. I haven't ever really taken the kids somewhere like that by myself before so I was a little nervous how that would go. Kadin has a tendency to get impatient with running errands and Kylee can only handle being in the stroller for so long. Thankfully, they both fell asleep on the way out there so they weren't super tired and grumpy when we got there. I had my own lost child scare in Gymboree after Kadin wandered away from the child's play area and I couldn't find him for a few minutes. He popped out from behind a clothes rack with a huge smile on his face and said "Here I am Mommy!" I was torn between relief at seeing him safe and anger at him being disobedient and wandering away. I guess that's always the mix with kids; lots of love and lots of frustration.

Saturday we took the family up to Vancouver for the day. Mom, Dad, Aimie and Jaxon met us there and then Mom, Andi, Aimie and I took off for a little girl's time away. After the crazy few weeks we have had with Jeremy being gone at meetings or working late or whatever, I really needed a break and some grown-up time and it was so fun to spend it with them. We went to lunch at Olive Garden (their salad always makes me happy) and then just wandered around Vancouver Mall. It has been a long time since I just got to wander a mall and window shop with out kids or husband hurrying me along and it was nice to just hang out for a little bit. But, we had to get back because the boys wanted to watch the BYU football game and they didn't thinkl that babysitting kids made for the optimum watching situation (which I totally get). It was a really fun day, but by the end our kids were exhausted and grumpy and we all crashed as soon as we got home.

For the public school kids, school starts this week, but we have one more week before Kadin starts preschool. We signed him up at Bethlehem Lutheran down the street from us and he is really excited about going to a new class. He will be going with some of his friends from church, which will be nice for him to know some people already. I am excited for those couple of hours with just one child again! Not that I don't adore Kadin, but he is extremely high energy and most of the time I am not, so a breather every now and again is always appreciated! We went and got his school supplies this week; he is in love with his Iron Man backpack. It's fun to see him experience the excitement of school and getting ready for a new year. Hopefully, he has a great time and continues to love school.