September Start of school, license, health scare and Labor day

Ashley started school and right away the football games have started every Friday night.

Here she is on her first day of high school looking oh so excited! 

(For some reason she waits until she gets into the car to put her shoes on.)

She is loving it so far and knows a lot of the cheers. 

Jacob used to run all over the field and cause mischief but Ashley stays in one spot for the most part and does the cheers the cheerleaders do. As a result she isn't dripping with sweat at the end of the night like Jacob was ha ha. 

Jacob is loving the games for the time being too and loves still wandering around on the field, this time he doesn't have to wear the mascot suit. 

Jolene came to support Ashley. She ended up coming to most of the King games...however most of the time we never even saw her because she found her own friends to hang out with and cheer Ashley on :)

Labor Day we had an open invitation pool day. Basically anyone who wanted to could come over and swim and hang out. It's been really nice this year to have the pool and be able to enjoy it with family and friends. 

The trampoline is still a favorite...

These guys will always like the games upstairs. 

And more games...

The older kids always love entertaining the younger kids.

So I was a little worried but Jacob passed  his driving test on the first try!! I was worried since he only had a week before he was leaving and if he didn't pass he would only get one more try but he did it! Whew! What a relief.

He also got ordained an elder this week. So proud of him! 

A couple of weeks before Jacob was set to go he had a health scare. He was having some symptoms that made us think that he shunt was giving him problems but in actuality it was just a cold with sinus issues. 

Before we knew that we had a rush visit to the hospital...

and a CAT scan and doctor that was ready to do surgery right away on him. We were so relieved that it ended up being nothing and were grateful that we had one last confirmation that everything was OK with his shunt before he was off to North Carolina. 

Our trip to the temple with Jacob!!

We are so proud of him and his eagerness to go out on his mission. 

It's been a whirlwind to get him all ready. So grateful that his health scare was just a scare and everything is all good!

July and August - Cheer camp, girls camp, beach trip and party

As soon as we got back from our vacation Jacob was dying to open his mission call. 

With one day's notice people flocked to our home and were there to watch Jacob open his mission call. 

He was excited to find out that he would be going to Charlotte North Carolina, reporting September 15th which was one month after his 18th birthday. 

Perfect!

This was the first year that Ashley went to girls camp without me. It ended up being a busy year and I wasn't available to go up but Ashley had a great time and did fine without me. 

I am so glad that she is liking Young Women's and that she has a great group of girls to hang out with. 

At the end of school Ashley took a sunflower that Cassidy didn't want and planted it. This is how big it was before she went to camp. 

It got bigger and bloomed while she was at camp and ended up as big as she is. She also harvested the seeds and started growing more sunflowers from the seeds. She is becoming quite the gardener.

This is s dark picture of a gorilla. While Ashley was at camp Taylor and I went out to the Wild Animal Park for the day. It was nice to hike all over the place and not worry about anyone getting tired (I remember the days of pushing a stroller through the place)

Some tigers...it helped that Taylor was into Pokemon go at the time and he was able to capture a bunch of Pokemon (he didn't do it for long)

View at the Wild Animal Park

Since Jacob was leaving in September we decided to try and enjoy the beach as much as possible before he left. 

The sunsets are always Ashley's favorite. 

Cousins and friends...3 peas in a pod!

After girls camp was cheer camp for Ashley.

Happy to be going with friends.

Here are some of the Mascots. 

Katie Wolf, Jaeden Tapia, Noah Francis and Ashley Beaulieu

(There is a another mascot named Jaden Hackbarth but he couldn't make it to camp this year)

While Ashley was got I had a swim day at our house before school started for the Allen/Ralston family. We had the Smiths over too. 

Sharla had her babysitting charge with her and she enjoyed the pool more than any of us. 

(Here she is all lathered up in sunscreen)

Meanwhile Ashley is enjoying cheercamp by Knotts Berry Farm. 

Noah's mom treated them to dinner!

Practicing their stunts. 

Dressing up for the costume night. This was a great way to start their year being a mascot!

August 12 and celebrating Jacob's birthday with cake and a family night swim party with Steve and Tahna and family...

Another celebration going out to dinner at Panda Inn. David really liked the food there too. 

(Taylor had to work that night)

Ashley the animal lover got a new pet. 

Her name is Timmy and she is a leopard gecko and she eats crickets and worms...and likes to hide all day under her rock. 

A trip to Crystal Cove to bring David down to spend the day and night with his family on their annual vacation. We got to enjoy the day with them too. 

A beautiful day at the beach. 

We ended the day at the hotel pool before we took off. 

We attended Greg's mission farewell opening and he is also going to Charlotte, North Carolina!! The boys were both thrilled to be going to the same mission!!!

One more time at the beach as a family. We spent two days at Newport enjoying the beach and enjoying Jacob before he left. 

Great sunsets!

We'll miss him when he goes so we were glad to spend some time together as a family.