1st day of school!

The first day of school 2012!

Josh left first at 7am to catch his bus to Fossil Ridge Intermediate School. 7th grade.

Sophie left at 7:45 to catch her bus to Pine View Middle. 9th Grade - FRESHMAN!

 David and Ben left at 7:30 to walk to school at Washington Elementary.  1st and 3rd grade.

They didn't have backpacks yet because our school had Costco supply ALL of the backpacks to ALL of the students in the entire school that night at back to school night.  They had 4 to choose from and the choose the same gray, black and blue one.

 So far so good when it comes to teachers and finding new classmates to have as friends.  

I hope the rest of the years goes as well.

So starts the next 2 years of his life.

So here is a picture of the teeth that were removed.  Well, the holes where the teeth were removed anyway.

Here is the ortho nurse giving him instructions on how to floss.  Ever thought about how to floss with braces?  Not fun for an 8 year old.

Here is the final product

Braces - Kid #3

Let me give you a little history on Ben and his teeth.  At age 2 he had an extra G tooth (the tooth right next to the front tooth on the right side) that came in right beside the other G tooth that had to be removed.  EXTRA!  At age 5 he noticed that he had all these patches if "dirt" in his mouth and he was trying to get rid of them.  Well they were FILLINGS!!!!  He had taken out 3 of his 5 fillings and the other 2 were loose. Poor Ben had inherited my weak teeth.  He was 5 years old and already had 5 fillings. Just at that time Mason was starting up his dentistry and we were in there twice a week for a month.  Ben had pulpectomies (baby tooth root canals) in the 3 teeth that he had taken the fillings out of.  Now fast forward to today:

 When Ben smiles he looks just like Goofy.  He has these 2 big front teeth and nothing else.  The teeth next to it look gone and you can't see the other teeth because they are molars.  But if you raise up his top lip you can find his to G teeth.  When he went to Mason 2 weeks ago he had one of his baby H tooth pulled.  If you look carefully you can see an adult H already coming in.  Good right?  WRONG!


What you are looking at is full digital x-ray of Ben's mouth. The bottom are fine.  A little crowded but not a problem.  The problem is the train wreck on top.  Now take a real good look at the right side.  You can even click on the picture to make it bigger.  He's got his G teeth pointing outward becuase the H teeth that are still under the gums are pushing on them.  But that isn't the biggest problem.  The biggest problem is the EXTRA permanent H tooth on the right side!  FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!  He goes back to Mason tomorrow to get it and the baby tooth on the other side pulled.  Then he gets his braces on on Friday.  If we are lucky the teeth will straighten up and come down on their own.  If not then chains will have to be put on those 2 huge canines to pull them down. Fun huh?  I will post updates as we go.  Pray for us!
p.s. Mason Wells is the best Dentist in the WORLD!  If you need one go to him.  Your kids will love him.

Wells Family Cabin - Our 2nd favorite place to be.

Disneyland would be our first but we only get there every 6 years.  We get to the cabin at least twice a summer and we LOVE it.  It's so incredibly peaceful.  No cell phone service but they do have a land line which give us peace of mind when we left Sophie and Shayne behind to go to a swim meet in Cedar.  One of the highlights is the golf cart.  They go crazy driving that thing all over.

  

And the hummingbirds go crazy over JoEllen and Kyle feeders.  I don't know what they put in there besides water,sugar and food coloring but they birds fight over it.

 

That night we made s'mores with the giant mallows.  They are awesome!

Then we slept over.  The little kids all up in the loft and George and Josh on the porch.  Josh loves to sleep out under the stars so this was great for him.

The next morning we hiked up to the water towers.  It's been years since we had been up there and it was under construction.  They have cleared a way for an actual road and poured a landing for a new tower behind the old 2.  But Kyle, George, Emily and Ben still climbed the tower and here's a picture of George jumping from one to the other.

 This is a picture of 1 of three of the tipi's that the construction workers must have made while on their lunch break with the dead tree limbs when they were clearing a path for the road.

 Next came the best thing ever!  There is a runoff pipe at the base of the towers that just goes 40 feet and out the other side of the road into a little stream.  David had thrown a stick down it to see if it would come out the other side and when it didn't they wanted to see why.

 

Then Evan came over and I dared him to crawl through the pipe.

 Then one thing lead to another and this is what ensued...see the feet sticking out of the pipe?

One after another they crawled through.

 

I don't know what was funner...crawling through or looking through to watch someone crawl.

 


Then the craziest thing happened...Kyle decided to try.  Half way through he faked to have claustrophobia and wanted to get out.  It was a tight squeeze but it was so fun.  And the kids LOVED it!









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Matty wanted to go too but she decided that just picking up dirt was fun enough.

It was another weekend memory never to be forgotten and I'm sure it'll be a new tradition as long as they don't dig up the pipe.  Another great Cousin experience!

Pioneer Day!

Our Washington Utah Stake always does a parade and carnival for the city every 24th of July.  I have no idea how this tradition got started.  All I know is that it's been going on for at least 8 years.  All of the city is invited to come celebrate but it's just our stake that is in charge of it.  It's a huge fundraiser.
Here is our wards Grand Marshall Brother Mickelson.  Cutest little old man ever!

Here are Josh and Logan on their unicycles.



Here is our "FLOAT".  I've said it before HERE.  Not really a float.






 And out AMAZING Primary Presidency.

 
















  We had face painting, that our wards YW were in charge of.



 
The bounce house that our YM were in charge of,
 

 races,
 
 live entertainment, a dunking booth, food, and a bunch of little different things like pan for gold and golf. 
 

It's really a lot of fun and is what makes me love this little town so much.