Last Sunday we had our family birthday party for the twins.  Their birthday was on Thursday but as Kevin was going to be gone then, we moved it up to Sunday.  Cali and Cheyenne were more than happy to agree to the schedule change!  We had their favorite dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Gazdiks, opened presents, blew out candles, and enjoyed a pink cake!  It was a great time.  We are so blessed to have those two happy girls in our lives!  I just love them!

On Tuesday, Kevin left for Santa Fe to do the last week of his certification training.  He will be back tonight.  We have missed him so!  He leaves a big hole in our lives when he is gone.  We made it through the rest of the week because we had no choice but to struggle on without him!  Before he left, he and I got a chance to do a temple session together.  That was some great stolen time!

Tuesday evening we had our Young Women in Excellence program.  Megan and Mariah both earned some ribbons.  Sarah got to help with the presenting since she already has her medallion.  We had a red carpet theme and had each of the girls dress in formal dresses.  The young women loved it and I got to put a lot of those formals that Diane gave us to some use!  It was a fancy, fun night.

On Thursday, Megan and Sarah had a tennis meet.  Sarah got on the courts first as a member of the Varsity team at 3:30.  She and Allyson didn't finish until 6:30!  This is because they were so close in every set and split sets and had to play another.  It was a lot of tennis!  It was really good tennis, too!  In my opinion!  Meg was not so closely matched in her game.  They lost 0-8!  They had fun, though!  Sarah came home and said, "I love tennis but it can't take 3 hours!  I have homework to do!!"  I'm glad that she is responsible about those things and cares about getting them done.

Thursday was also the twins actual birthday.  We didn't do much since we had already celebrated but we did have pizza and root beer for dinner and Hostess cupcakes for desert.  It was still pretty festive, I think!

Friday we had the friend birthday party for the twins!  They wanted to have a late-night luau.  We had limbo and hula contests.  We had bbq chicken sandwiches for dinner and made tropical cupcakes for desert.  We even had a palm tree piñata!  After that, they all watched "Teen Beach Movie."  They had 10 girls over for their 10th birthday.  It was a really fun group and they all seemed to have a good time.  I can't believe they are already in double digits!

Saturday we helped Savannah move into the dorms!  She went to freshman orientation on Thursday although because of all the walking she made it through only about 2/3rds of it before she was worn out!  Her stamina is not all the way back, yet!  She still had a good time, though, and reunited with a childhood friend in her Y group.  It's a small world!  Saturday she and Sarah worked on packing her up and out of their room.  She was finally ready around dinner time so after dinner, Sarah, Megan, Mariah, Cheyenne, Beth, and I drove over to Helaman Halls with her and carried her stuff into her room.  With all of us carrying, it only took one trip!  Good thing since she is on the third floor!  3210 Taylor Hall.  We helped her unpack, too.  Chey and Beth even played a game of hide and seek in her room which was impressive since it is a small space.  Sarah even said, "Awww!  I want my own puny space!"  That may sound critical, but she was totally sincere!  Dorms can be pretty exciting!

Movin' in Skinner style!

As for me, I alternate between being excited for Savannah and feeling lonesome that she is growing up.  I decided that it was a good thing we took her late Saturday night as I was too worn out to feel much of anything by the time we were done.  Plus, I knew I'd see her tonight for dinner. . . She is really not that far away!  Buck up Mama Bear! Right?

Monday was our last day of summer vacation!  It was a gorgeous day and Sarah and Megan only had morning tennis, so afterwards, Sarah took all her siblings to the snowy shack for slushies!  Wasn't that nice?  They all had such fun. 

Tuesday was the first day of school!!!  It rained.  See?  Even the sky was crying.  Mariah left first to hike up the hill for her first day in the new junior high building and her first day of 8th grade.

Sarah and Megan left after that.  It was Meg's first day at Springville High School in the 10th grade!  Sarah showed her the ropes as an experienced 11th grader -- yep!  She's a junior!  They're taking Honors US History together and they had it first period!  Together!  So fun!

Then we had about an hour before Cali and Chey raced out the door (they use that hour taking turns on the piano for practice.  Love that!).  They wanted to catch up with their friend from down the street.  I made them stop for a picture first.  They're 5th graders this year and are so excited to have the school-favorite, Ms. Roach, who has been teaching for 35 years and acts as though she's loved every minute of it -- and every student.  She is pretty great and so are my twins!

After that, Ben and I got in the car and drove Bethany to school at Sage Creek Elementary where she started the 1st grade and her first day of half-day Chinese immersion.  She was pretty excited.  She is a pretty confident little gal.  Of course, it helped that her friends had already saved her a seat.

Ben and I went home and cleaned the room he shares with the twins and Beth.  It took us the whole day.  He played while I organized.  Then he said, "Mom?  We are all alone."  Pause.  "It's kind of scary."  Seriously, Ben, you are kind of right!  I've never had just one child home alone with me during the school year, unless you count baby Savannah and that was YEARS ago!  It's been a strange week for Ben and I.  I was wishing for a 4 year-old boy that I could just borrow EVERY school day for the next several months.  I didn't get my wish, but on Friday, SIX little girls from the neighborhood knocked on the door en masse and asked to play with Ben.  That works, too.

Savannah didn't start school this week but she did work full-time again.  She's been doing a lot better.  Kevin ran into her boss and he told him how much he enjoys having her work for him.  Isn't that nice?  It's always good to hear your child is doing good work and is appreciated!

In addition to starting school, Sarah and Megan had tennis matches.  They had a home match Thursday and a tournament Friday-Saturday.  They even had to miss school Friday!  (Although, Megan snuck back to school to go to Chemistry.  She was very scared of getting behind!)  They both won their matches on Thursday.  Meg played in the JV tournament on Friday and played in seven matches!  Her dad was there helping with the team and he said that she played "extremely well."  Yay, Meg!  She is feeling pretty stressed about her classes.  Hopefully, this year won't turn out as bad as she is forecasting. . .

Sarah and Allyson played three matches on Friday and won every time.  They went on to the finals on Saturday and won again winning 2 out of 3.  They played that team for two hours but they came out victorious!  They played great and emerged from the tournament undefeated.  Pretty awesome, Sarah!  Sarah is liking all her classes so far and reports that she is only scared by one class -- AP Language and Composition.  I told her that she should always have at least one class that was scary.  She just laughed at me!

Mariah went to a cross-country meeting this week afterschool and will probably start running next week!  She misses not being in soccer this year and is really missing sports in general!  She is liking her classes at school, so far, and seems to have some good friends.  She has sewing and cooking this semester so I am expecting to see some pretty serious skills developing!  Her favorite class, though?  US History.  When asked to tell something about herself she would say, "I like skits about eggs."  (That's from our trip to Nauvoo!)

Cali and Chey like school.  They got to have a snowball fight on their first day with wadded-up notebook paper!  It was pretty epic, apparently.  They've got cool, new binders and have started having homework already.  They're doing just fine.

Bethany comes home from a full day of school and then is out the door again to play with more friends.  I don't think she misses me at all!  Well, I am glad that she is so confident and has so much fun.  I was expecting some trauma from the first full-days of school even if it was just some exhaustion?  Nope.  Nothing.  About the immersion program, when asked about her first day of school she said, "I have two teachers and one I don't understand AT ALL!"  It was kind of funny!

Benjamin is doing an online preschool program that we work on for 15 -30 minutes a day.  It's pretty short.  We're going to do Joy School, too, but it doesn't start until after Labor Day.  Ben is pretty frustrated that it hasn't started yet.  He doesn't understand why everyone gets to go school except for him.  Poor kid.  We will see if we can make it through another week.

We started off this week taking a selfie at the doctor's office!  First we went to Bethany's doctor who gave her the go ahead to stop wearing her splint.  He declared her officially well!

After that appointment, I took Savannah to her follow-up, "how ya doin'?" appointment.  She, too, was declared well although she was advised to keep taking it easy for several weeks.  Lots of good news for us on Monday!

Savannah had more good news as her good friend, Scott, came home from his 2-year mission to Canada safe and sound on Thursday!  It was so exciting for all of us to see him again. 

Sarah and Megan continued to do bucket-loads of tennis all week long.  They had their first tournament on Thursday an hour and a half away in Mount Pleasant.  They each played three matches, winning two and losing only one.  They are doing really great.  Sarah and her partner, Allyson, have officially secured their spot on the Varsity team as Varsity Second Doubles.   It is pretty awesome.  It was fun to see both the girls in their new matching uniforms!

Mariah had a busy week babysitting!  She got a call from a family in our ward doing renovations on their house and asked if she could watch their two boys and baby girl while they worked every day this week.  She brought them all over here on a walk one day and she was doing super great with them!  What a competent young woman she has become!  She also managed to go with her friends a couple of different times over to the junior high to walk the halls and find her classrooms.  She can even now get her locker open!  Yay!

Cali and Cheyenne played and played and tried to get in as much friend-time as possible!  We took Cheyenne's rabbit, Pancakes, to the vet on Friday morning.  The nurse said, "So what seems to be the trouble?"  and I said, "Pancakes has been fathering too many baby bunnies!"  They knew just what to do after that!  He seems to be recovering just fine.  We did sell one more bunny this week!  Three left to go!  (And another litter probably still underground . . . )

Bethany and Benjamin were also very busy playing this week.  It's been a great summer for having lots of neighbor friends always available to play.  Beth and Ben came storming inside one day this week with treasures they had found in the yard.  Beth had flowers and Ben had snails.  It made me laugh at their delight in such different things!

Cheyenne wanted to do something fun the Saturday before school started so she decided we should go to the park for a picnic dinner and there say what we liked about each family member.  We went to the splash pad since Sarah could walk there from work during her dinner break.  It turned out to be really fun!  We had a nice time talking and the little ones had a great time in the water.  Ben ran and ran getting as wet as humanly possible and Beth walked around talking to herself and talking to each of the statues.  So sweet!  What a great idea Cheyenne had!

We spent the first part of this week staring at computer screens that looked like this!  This is Megan's high school schedule and we have it just about exactly how we want it, though it took some work!  We worked on Sarah's, too and have hers how we want it now.  I love how we can switch everything around ourselves!  I think I will, thank you!  We went to the high school and talked to counselors and to the new junior high.  We found Mariah's locker and even though we can't open it, we still think it will turn out to be fun to be in a brand new school! We are gearing up for school!

Monday was the first day of tennis try-outs for Sarah and Megan!  They both made the team (yay!) and have been playing 8-10 every morning M-Sa and 5-7 every evening M-Th.  It is tennis overload week!!   They are super excited to be on the team.  Both their doubles partners made the team as well.  Sarah and her partner may even be on Varsity.  Kevin and I are super pleased with all their hard work and subsequent success.

In addition to all that tennis, because other employees were on vacation this week, Sarah worked EVERY DAY at Funfinity Monday through Saturday -- 26 hours!!  Holy Shamoly!  It was hard on her!  She made it through, though, and (mostly) kept a great attitude.  What a trooper! 

Megan was also doing something in addition to tennis.  This was her second and final week of bluegrass camp which was an hour a day.  I've been having her practice driving on our way there and back.  She got a super big thrill this week when she got her own keys!

Kevin and I got to go to her concert on Friday evening of this week and boy was it some boot-stomping fun!!  I don't think I stopped smiling the whole concert.  I just love that kind of music!  Megan did great and looked so lovely.  She even SANG!!

Savannah made it back to work this week about every other day for half-days each.  She still gets tired out really easily but she is trying hard to make a comeback.  She even went out with her friends from Funfinity for some traditional mac and cheese for lunch on Friday.  On Saturday she got a call from Ana Smith, her childhood friend, who happened to be in Springville, and they went out to lunch and got a chance to visit.  What a fun thing!

The younger kids and I went to the splash pad on Tuesday and had a picnic!  Yay for the little kids getting something to do!  Mariah came too.  She and I just read our books, though!

On Thursday, Grandma Gazdik came and took all the kids (except the three oldest) to the mall and got them some new clothes!  Then she took them back to her house for lunch and some chores (to earn the new clothes)!  They all had a great time!

The other fun thing we did was on Saturday we went to the Spanish Fork Reservoir!  Again we left the three oldest at home, but this time, we brought DAD!  The sky was overcast but the swimming was still good!

Savannah spent most of the week in the hospital.  They kept her mostly complaint-free with pain meds and lots of anti-nausea medicine.  The first couple of days were pretty rough because of nausea but once they got that under control, she improved.  Finally, she just got bored and tired of the same four walls and was ready to COME HOME!  We were all ready for her to come home, too.  We all missed her and felt the big hole in our family.  I felt run-ragged with the driving back and forth to the hospital.  When I was home I felt like I should be at the hospital and when I was at the hospital I felt like I should be home . . .  On Thursday, she was finally cleared to leave.  Yay! 

She's been doing well at home although she tires easily and still has to stay on top of the pain.  She is doing great, though!

Sarah was busy this week with work.  She worked everyday Monday through Thursday.  She had to miss a lot of open courts for tennis so she tried to play when she could.  On Tuesday she got a new perm and on Monday she painted her room a bright green!  Both her hair and her room are adorable.  The only reason she didn't work Friday and Saturday was because she requested those days off for Youth Conference!  So, she was busy again but this time with friends and fun at a cabin up Spanish Fork Canyon.  (I got to go, too!)  She had a busy week and I'm impressed with all she got done.

Megan attended those open courts and has been really enjoying the chances she gets to play tennis.  She did a lot of babysitting for me this week as Tuesday was Kevin and my anniversary and I kept going back and forth to the hospital on the other days.  She's a good sport.  She is also doing an online health class to free up some time in her schedule next year and she has been good at keeping herself working on it even though it is not fun to write essays in the summer!  (As she assures me often!) She enjoyed Youth Conference, too!

Mariah has been great with the kids this week, too.  She even took a bunch of hers and Cali and Chey's friends to the creek and engineered a terrific time with rafts and all.  She is a really great leader.  Kevin has found a private coach to work with Mariah on basketball now and then and they met with him again this week for a workout.  She is doing great.  She also went with us to Youth Conference Fri-Sat and had a great time!

The only picture I took!

Chey and Cali were good sports as I was gone a lot this week.  They have lots of friends in the area and stay busy playing with them.  A lot of times they include Bethany and that is super nice, too.  When they're on their own, they read and play on the computer with Webkinz.  They also still spend a lot of time with the bunnies.    They got to go to a birthday party at the Springville pool on Wednesday afternoon and they had tons of fun there!  They were pretty sore the next day from all that getting in and out of the pool!

Bethany and Benjamin play a lot together with huge masses of children from the neighborhood.  (Okay, maybe not "huge masses," but sometimes it can get to be a big group!)  Bethany is good at including Benjamin.  It is especially easy when Beth's friends have younger brothers or sisters Ben's age.  Ben doesn't really mind if it is a girl or boy.  He got right in the thick of things when they were playing dress-up this week.  Of course, it helps that we have some boy things, too!

I registered Cali and Chey and Bethany for school this week -- at two different schools!  Cali and Cheyenne will have Miss Roach for 5th grade -- a teacher who has taught almost all their older sisters.  They are excited!  Bethany will be my first little one to go to Elementary school somewhere other than Brookside.  We're enrolling her in Sage Creek (also very close) to take advantage of their Chinese immersion program.  I think it will be great for her.  But it is also very weird for me.  I feel so out of place and so disloyal to Brookside!

As I mentioned above, Tuesday was Kevin and my anniversary.  20 years!  We wanted to do something memorable and kind of epic for our 20 year anniversary so we had planned to hike Timpanogos which is the third (?) highest peak in Utah, super close to us, and a beautiful hike we had never done.  I should mention that we almost always have blue-skies during Utah summers.  Rain is very infrequent.  All our green-ness is fed from the mountains which store the snow from the winter and gets released to us gradually all summer as the snow melts.  It is a pretty awesome deal.  So . . . imagine our dismay when Tuesday was rainy!!  Timp was shrouded in clouds all day. 

See Timp?  Ya, you can't.  It's behind all those clouds.

Kevin promises to take me sometime soon but we had to make new plans.  Since I really wanted to do something we had never done before, we decided to try our neighborhood indoor rock-climbing gym!  It was pretty fun.  Who knew that I could carry Kevin on a rope?  We had a great day. 

The best thing about our anniversary was that Kevin surprised me by making me a DVD full of pictures and music from the years throughout our marriage.  It was so fun and tender and nostalgic!  He said it took him a long time and he worked on it a lot while I was gone to girls camp for a week!  What a lucky girl am I!  I love that man and all the 20 years we've had together!  Here's to 20 more! (and more and more and more!)