Today is officially the first day of fall - well actually at 10:45 a.m. or something like that. We decided to end out the summer with a bbq at the lake. Hillsdale Lake is about 30 miles from our home. It has camping, picnicing, fishing, and boating. They also have jetski's for rent which we haven't tried yet but are anxious to do next summer. We bbq'd hamburgers and did our favorite - s'mores!
Finally got to our camping trip for the year. Didn't take any pictures worth posting though. Most of the time we try to go more than once but this year we plugged into Labor Day weekend. Our favorite place is Watkins Mill in MO. Mike and the girls went fishing and we took Marvin with us. He had a blast. But he was definately due for a bath when we got home.
Mike's cousin Jonas and his wife Rachel have moved to Lawrence for a year. We are so excited to have them close! Baby Anderson is due anytime now. Uncle Joe and Aunt Darlene were out here to help them move into their apt and we helped with what we could. We took this before they flew back out to UT.
Finally were able to get to the temple in August. I don't think we had been all summer! St Louis has this funky place called The City Museum. It was totally awesome. It had slides, lots of stuff to climb, caves (behind the walls and even under the floor), and tunnels. 
Went on the Belton Train with our friends Brad & Shannon. It was a fun activity that we had never done before. We were served hot dogs, chips and a drink but decided to get a "real" dinner and hit the local Applebee's on the way home.
I was reading my friend Shannon's blog and she had been tagged by one of her friends. I thought it was a great tag idea and Shannon if you don't mind I'm going to post mine.
To all you moms out there. I love back-2-school shopping. I loved getting new stuff as a kid and I love taking my girls to get their supplies. Last week was my date with Haylie and thats what we did. Yesterday was my date with Savannah and we went supply shopping. However......I don't know how many school districts offer this "special". We got a list at the end of the school year last year with an order form from EPI who offer to get the supplies for you and custom pack them depending on the grade your student is in. What a bunch of hokey. For instance: My first grader had a list of 17 items. EPI wanted to charge me $29. Spending just 30 minutes at Wal-Mart for all this stuff cost me $19.76. So for another $9.24 they would have given me a box and plastic wrap that I'd just throw away. Again, my fourth grader had a list of 27 items. EPI cost: $35. Same 30 minutes at Wal-Mart cost me $25.06. Instead of throwing $9.94 away on a box and plastic (which would buy three kids meals at Chic-Fil-A) I got out of the house, spent quality time with my daughters while teaching them the virtues of smart spending. Side note: the order form states that the supply packs are sold at the "school's cost" - yeah right.
My closest friends know that I REALLY want a big bad maama jaama truck when our hybrid is paid off. I know, I know, "but gas prices are $3/gal and they get 11 mpg! What the heck...... I want to crush cars......
we'll try again next year!
Our normal activity for good grades was going to the Great Wolf Lodge. This year we decided to try the new Coco Key Water Resort located in the Sheraton in KCMO. A fun time was had by all.
We decided to sleep in our backyard 1 night.
Happy 4th of July!!!
Annual fireworks activity at Corporate Woods
Jefferson Memorial
$1,000,000 in $10 bills at the Bureau of Engraving
The Hope Diamond
Our nations Capital
Mike & Pres Lincoln at Madame Toussauds
At the Washington DC temple.
President Kennedy's grave at Arlington National Cemetary
Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetary
Those who gave up their lives so that we may be free.
