On Sept. 28th . . .

. . . happiness looks like this.

I'm LOVING this summer-like weather!

Lovin' September

September has been a fabulous month so far! We didn't start school until after Labor Day this year, so the first week or so of September was still summer around here (aside from the fact that I spent most of the three weeks before school started in the gym coaching volleyball). On the day before Labor Day, the kids were able to show off all their hard work on the piano this summer. We hosted a very small recital at our house, where they performed a couple songs each along with two cousins and Tessa.
It was fun for them to get to show how hard they had worked and how much they improved. They were really proud of their songs.

On Labor Day, we had one last hoorah at Seven Peaks. We would have been pretty sad about this, but they were running a special on the passes and we were able to renew and upgrade our passes (adding another water park and a ski resort) for just $30 apiece, so there will be more hitting the slides next summer. Yippee!!! Olivia went with us since she's living in Provo now. We were able to see her apartment there at the Y, which was fun.

School started the next day, and both Connor and Mylie were so excited to go! I have never taken Connor to school on his first day (Tony always did since he was going there anyway), but this year I took them both. I missed Back to School Night for a volleyball game, so I felt like I really should take them and see their classrooms. But as soon as we got into the school, they both said "See ya!" and ran out to the playground, leaving me with really nothing to do but go back out to the van and go home. Oh well. At least they both are loving school! In fact, Mylie had a field trip a few days ago, and when I told her I was coming, she said, "Ah, Mom. Now I won't get to sit by my friends on the bus." I told her I was going anyway, and we actually had a great time together.

Of course, this change for Mylie has created a change for Mariah as well. She's gone from getting to play with this buddy every day . . .

. . . to hanging out with this buddy.
(Although, whenever I try to call her my buddy, she corrects me, telling me that she's Dad's buddy! I feel so loved lately.)

And I didn't want to miss out on all the change, so I decided to change my hair in a pretty drastic way. We cut off over ten inches and donated the hair to make wigs for kids with cancer. I like the new cut--it's a lot of fun! I just don't like how it flaps in my face during Insanity (another change--and a fun one so far!)

Finally, I can't write about September without mentioning the AMAZING Indian Summer we are having here. I kind of feel like we deserve it after last spring, but it's been fabulous. September is almost over and we havn't had freezing temps yet! I just picked fresh corn and tomatoes for our dinner today--on the 25th of September! Life is good.

It's GREAT to be 8!

This past weekend was a huge birthday bash for Connor! I felt so blessed that I didn't have any volleyball on Friday OR Saturday (the only weekend like that of the entire season), so I was able to be home and do this special birthday for him the way I really wanted to. Tony had staff trainings on Friday, but the kids were off school. Before Tony left in the morning, we let Connor open his presents. Usually for birthdays, the kids just gets one gift from us, and it costs under $10, but since this birthday is such a special one, he got a couple things that he REALLY LOVES!!

He got new scriptures, a new small hymnbook, and a scripture case, complete with scripture marking pencils and reading charts. He's been really busy reading from his scriptures, and has told me thanks for the scriptures over and over! He loves them!

Tony has been coaching middle school football this year, so of course, Connor has been to all the practices, and is LOVING football lately! So this jersey was about the best thing Tony could have given him this year. They got new jerseys for the team, but a bunch of them came in sizes MUCH too small for any 7th grade boy, so now a whole gang of little kids are running around with these sweet jerseys!

For his birthday party this year, he was allowed to invite some school friends as well as his cousins, and we had the swimming pool all to ourselves.

Needless to say, the kids LOVED the party!

Finally, Connor was baptized on Sunday. This was such a special day, and we had so many family members attend. Connor is so excited to be 8!! Connor is growing up into such a good boy. He has a sweet testimony and so much faith. I am so proud of him!

BUTTE Kicker

Two weekends ago, the Micheli family hosted the 1st (Annual, hopefully) BUTTE Kicker 75 mile relay race. It was a team relay with four teams involved this first year. We did it on the back roads between Fort Bridger and Evanston. The views were beautiful, the weather was nice, and we had SO MUCH FUN doing it! (Oh, and the t-shirts were awesome, too.)

Our team was made up of Tony and myself, Tami and Casey, Mom and Dad, Olivia, and Connor. We covered the course in 10 hours, 49 minutes. Nobody had to run over 12 total miles, so it wasn't too tough on anybody, but we all had a great time.

Our whole team, minus Connor, and plus a few cute little kids
Here are some of the action shots of the day.Go, Connor! He did a great job for us, putting in four miles total.
Come on Livi! Casey made her sprint to the finish for this handoff.

It was fun to be teammates with Tami again.

It took quite a bit of persuasion, but we finally convinced my dad to join our team. He helped us out a bunch, doing four miles total, and I think he had a good time, too.

Girls Weekend

After I'd been home from AK for a couple days, I got to spend a quick weekend with two of my favorite people ever--the Bishop twins!
These crazy girls saved my life as a lonely college freshman with no friends (or roommates, for that matter). They invited me to spend Labor Day with them, and were my absolute best friends from there on. I ended up LOVING my college experience in Laramie, and they were a huge part of that. So, of course, now 12 years after we first met, we had a great time getting together--catching up on each other's lives and remembering all the fun we had together in college.
This was only my second pedicure ever. The tiniest little Asian ladies did them, and they did a great job! The picture below is proof that we really haven't changed at all in the past ten years or so, just like we thought!

Our fun weekend included shopping in Park City, lunch at Cafe Rio, staying at Little America in SLC, a short visit to Temple Square, pedicures, some mini golf, and dinner at Olive Garden. Saturday, Annie had to head back to Arizona, and Beth and I slept in, and then hit Costco before going back home. We had a great time! I love these girls and hope we get together again soon!

I LOVE Alaska (Part 2)

Week 2 in AK was a lot more low-key, with very little travel, but a lot of visiting and playing with relatives. The kids loved playing with their Alaska cousins, but Mom never thought to take a picture of them together. (What was I thinking?!)
They loved Grannie's house, riding bikes, throwing rocks in the creek, playing at Aunt Carol's and Aunt Lila's houses, and especially playing on the pond in Grannie's front yard. They loved the paddle boat and the little kayaks. So fun!
We all also enjoyed the garden vegetables and berries, which were available at every meal and anytime in between.

I got to spend some time wandering around through the gardens and greenhouses at Grannie's and Aunt Carol's. (Below is just one of Carol's three gardens.)
Between wandering around there and going on a farm tour around the valley, I spent plenty of time admiring (but NOT coveting) the vegetable gardens,

admiring (but NOT coveting) the flower gardens,

and admiring (but NOT coveting) the DIRT!!

I LOVE these little flowers and think I definitely need some of these in my garden next summer, so Mom, if you know what these are, can you order me some next spring? Thanks!

The kids also really loved playing with Scamper, the three-legged dog.

On the last night in Palmer, I decided to take the kids on a drive up Hatcher's Pass, which must be one of the most beautiful places on earth, and which, of course, I didn't take any pictures of. But, on the way home, we finally got lucky and saw a mama moose with two babies on the side of the road. You can only see one baby in this pic, however. We were all pretty excited about them!

Aunt Bonnie was gone on vacation most of the time we were there, but on our last day, we were able to go visit her at her home in Eagle River. This is the view from her deck. Fantastic!

Although the entire trip was amazing, I think what I loved most of all was just spending time with and around these two wonderful people and the life and legacy they have created there in Alaska! I am so honored to be a part of their family, and I hope that I can somehow carry on their legacy of faith, ingenuity, hard work, self-reliance, and charity. They are truly two of the best people I know, and I felt blessed each day I got to spend with them.

I LOVE Alaska (Part 1)

This summer, we went on the most amazing family vacation we've ever had! We had so much fun and saw so many things. The kids were into it right from the start. They were already giddy with excitement just riding the shuttle from the long-term parking to the terminal at the airport. They loved the wait, looking out the window at all the airplanes.

Connor loved that he got the window seat first. With a layover each way, it worked out that Connor got two flights with a window seat, and Mylie got the window twice. And Mariah had no idea what she was missing, so no fighting at all!
We got to Alaska really late and just settled in a recovered a bit the next day. Then it was off on a road trip to Fairbanks! I've been to Alaska several times, but had never been north to Fairbanks. We drove up through Denali Park, which was a beautiful drive.

We mad a couple stops along the way to get out, see some sights, and keep our sanity! Our favorite stop was at Byers Lake where the kids started out throwing rocks, then stepping on rocks, and before we knew it, they were in up to their knees!

The hike down to the lake was BEAUTIFUL!! Look at this GREEN! And this particular photo was not photoshop enhanced. It was really that green.

Once in Fairbanks, we went to Pioneer Park, which is a theme park dedicated to the pioneers of Alaska. It was really a neat little park. We didn't take time to see it all (some would have been more interesting to me and Tony, but not to the kids.) The kids really seemed to like riding this giant salmon, however. One of our main motivators to take the trip north was so we could take the kids to Santa's house in North Pole, AK. Strange little town, I have to admit. The lamp posts all look like candy canes and the street names all have something to do with Christmas. But it was also really fun!

Mariah wasn't sure what to think of this giant picture of Mr. and Mrs. Claus. This was as close as she got to Santa, however, because when we went inside and the real Santa was there, she didn't want to get too close to him! Connor and Mylie were pretty excited to see him, though. They liked his summer attire, which was pretty great!

We also got to see some of his reindeer, but not Rudolph. We concluded that this was his summer home, since in the winter time, he lives at the actual north pole. Rudolph must have stayed there this summer. Makes sense, right?

Another reason I wanted to make this trip was that I really wanted to see Denali, or Mt. McKinley. We stopped at a few places on the way up, trying to get a look, but it was completely covered with clouds. And it was overcast on the day we went back to Palmer, so I was pretty bummed. But just when I was about to give up home, I looked out the back of the car and saw THIS!!!!! It was so spectacular sticking up through the clouds like that. This picture is from a couple hundred miles away. Just imagine how big this mountain really is!

The day after we got back from our Fairbanks trip, we took a short trip over to Wasilla to see the Iditarod Race Headquarters. We looked through their gift shop, saw a really cool film about the Iditarod (which actually got me choked up a couple times), and then--the kids' favorite--took a ride on a cart pulled by actual sled dogs.

Although Mylie was glad we didn't see any moose or bears on the Fairbanks trip, Tony, Connor and I were a little disappointed at the lack of wildlife and wanted to see SOMETHING! So we took another one day trip, which turned out to be our favorite day of the whole vacation. First we went to Portage, where we stopped at a wildlife conservation area. We were able to see moose, elk, buffalo, musk ox, bald eagles, caribou, and bears. It was really neat.

From there, we drove on South to Seward, where we visited the Alaska Sea Life Center. It was really cool to see all the different types of sea life in Alaska's waters right there in aquariums. There were all types of fish, crabs, octopus, seals, puffins, etc. They had these fun touch pools where you could feel different varieties of crabs, starfish, and anemonies.

Probably everybody's favorite thing at the sea life center was Woody, the 1700 lb. sea lion. Looks like a WHALE, doesn't he? He was really cool, and we were able to watch him swim around and around for a long time from both above the water, and down under through the glass.

We also walked around the small boat harbor there. This was the kids' first time to the ocean, so all of this was very new and exciting for them. We even stopped to watch some fisherman cleaning their fish for quite awhile.

One the way home, we decided to stop at Aleyeska ski resort. Tony had been there once before we were married and remembered a really great hike he had gone on. When we got there, it was 7:30, and we realized that the hike we wanted to do was 5 miles round trip. We decided to just go and then see as we got into it if we wanted to cut it short. We almost decided to turn around several times, but I'm SO glad we didn't because just before the turnaround point, we got to see this amazing gulch, and ride across the river on a hand tram! It was well worth the hike! And because it's Alaska, it looked like dusk as we finally found a place to eat at 10:00 that night.

Two days later, Tony had to go home to work, but the kids and I stayed another week. But because I've already posted WAY too many pictures for one post, I'll have to make a part 2 to cover the second week of the trip.