August Rush...

I've been trying to avoid doing slide shows but i'm so behind. August was a busy month. Lily started school, Sam had his 30th bithday :), and Lily turned 5. A lot of big milestones. I never thought i would cry on lily's first day of school cuz i was just so excited for her and it is only 3 hours so i was pretty sure i wouldn't miss her, but it was an eye opener and i understand now why mom's cry on the first day of kindergarten. It really is a huge moment and is the first in slowly letting go. Wow, i'm about to cry just thinking about it all again. I about lost it in the classroom as i watched her jump right in and just start playing with a new friend. I think about 13 years just flew through my mind and there was a whole mix of emotions from worry, to happiness, to pride, to fear, to excitement. Will she be strong enough? Will everyone be nice to her? Will she be nice to everyone? Will she love learning? Will she choose the right when she is exposed to the wrong? Will she be happy? Will I be there for her when she needs me to be? Will I know how to be there for her through the good and the bad? I now understand why mom's cry on the first day of kindergarten.

school from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

Sam's b-day was the next event. It was the big 3-0 and I really wanted to make it special. I told him to plan on taking a long lunch and that we would have lunch and do a little birthday thing at the park. We all had lunch together and then had a birthday party at the park. It was fun doing it just as out little family. His big gift was a fishing pole and all the stuff to go with it. I'm not too sure about getting into fishing since i've never really liked it but sam and the girls are really excited about it. We had cake and then poor guy had to go back to work. His surprise was for when he got home from work and I had all of his dirt biking friends show up in our yard all geared up and ready to go. He seemed pretty excited about it. I love the video of all of them taking off. Sam is truly awesome and I am extremely lucky to have him. I love you Sam! and happy 30th birthday.

sam's b-day from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

And finally, we had lily's #5 birthday. I decided this would be her first big friend party and that it would be a carnival party. Aunt Sarah made some awsome invitations and then the girls dressed up in crazy colorful costumes to deliver them. I even dressed up a little. The invitation was not blue, it was tan, orange, yellow and red, but for some reason this is how it came up.

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We invited 7 girls and they all came. I think it was a success. They all got money at the beginning and were able to use that for tokens for the different booths or they could buy whatever they wanted from the carnival shoppe. They had a lot of fun using their money to buy things. We had a face painting booth, a fishing pond, toss 'n win game, an aim to win game, and a petting zoo complete with a velvet black bunny, 110# tortoise, our little tortoise, a surprise kitty, and chickens. I think lily's favorite was squirting the cups to win what was underneath. she kept buying tokens to go to that booth. It was definitely stressful and required a lot of help but it was a lot of fun. Grandma made the darling circus tent cake and I had fun taking pictures of it. Anyway, here is a slideshow of our rush in august. Oh, the last picture is for tonya. It was kinda dark for the family party and her little boy didn't see the firepit and fell right in. Hate to admit it but i love the picture I got of it :)

I wasn't very nice with her cake. I put the candles all the way around, but she did it.

lily's b-day from Roxy Long on Vimeo.

home away from home

We did not get to go to my favorite place on earth last year and i was going through withdrawals, but we made it this year and it was all i remembered it to be and more. The beach was perfect, the weather beautiful, and the people were my favorites. After we got home I almost went into depression because i missed it so much. I don't think that has ever happened before. I just love Lake Powell!!

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Lily did awesome just swimming all over the place.

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Marah even got the hang of swimming by herself and I was very proud of her.

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This picture makes me laugh. Chris popped out from underwater and scared Lucy pretty good.

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Justin got a fishing pole for Christmas. None of us have ever thought of ourselves as fisherman and never really have done it, but Sam borrowed a couple poles and we all kinda got into it.

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Lily was actually fascinated by the whole fishing thing. She thought that fish head was pretty cool.

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Chris was the only one who knew anything about cuttin' up the fish and was stuck guttin' and cookin' up all the little catfish that we caught. He did great and I even liked it.

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I thought it was dang cute watching Sam teach Lily how to fish. Never thought anything would come of it but sure enough she caught a catfish. You have to watch the video at the end. Since Chris was the fish cook, Lily was so excited to tell him about it. You can hear her yelling for Chris at the end of the video. She also had no problems watching it be cleaned and cut up and she said she liked eating it. Marah and Sam fished for awhile together as well. She actually caught a fish but as she was reeling it out of the water it wiggled of the line. She was ecstatic reeling it in and Sam said he has never seen such a deflated and sad look the second the fish fell back in the water. I'm really sad we didn't catch that on camera. She told her sad sad story many times that night. It was very animated and very sad but made us all laugh.

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This umbrella blew away the first day and sunk a ways out. Chris and Whits happened to see it out there and went diving for it. Think they were suppose to get $5 for their efforts?

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This picture was taken by whits and i edited it a little. I love it!

Untitled from Roxy Long on Vimeo.