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Back to School!

I cannot believe summer is over already. It was not nearly long enough. Sunday we had our Back to School FHE complete with routine scheduling and father's blessings. We are so blessed to have the priesthood. The kids headed back to school yesterday and everybody had a great day. Katry and Seth headed out our back door and across our backyard to the path that leads to school. We can see the school out our back window. I love being so close. It was Seth's first time in public school and he loved having friends to play with at recess. Kaleb, Kai and I had school at home together. I love being able to just focus on these two cuties. We had a great time learning letters and numbers, making kites, coloring, and building houses out of logs.
We celebrated after school with snow cones and swimming. They might be back in school, but we still have a bit of "summer" left in us.
If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!
(Just look where ignorance has gotten our poor country.)

Happy Birthday Brig!

Brig had a Birthday on the 16th. Exactly one month and 24 years after his namesake. We are now officially living with a teenager! He has been acting like one since he was eight- but its nice to have it official. Brig is Awesome! He is pretty excited to be heading to the USA vs El Salvador World Cup qualifying match in a week or so. He really wanted a dirt bike- but is content with what he got. Here are some things we love about Brig.

If something tastes good it is "Succulent".

Brig rarely misses reading his B of M everyday. In fact he read it entirely in 2 1/2 months for a challenge this summer.

He has a great sense of humor and laughs easily at himself.

He is a "charmer" and "smells manly".

Brig enjoys food from different cultures.
He is a "chick-magnet". (Yes I know- he is only 13)

He is an excellent straight A student.

He likes to write stories for fun.

He has a boat load of friends.

He is a "bomb-diggity" soccer player.

We LOVE you Brig!

Summer Cookies

Don't these cookies just scream summer! We made them at the beginning of summer to share with the cub scouts at pack meeting. They were so easy and so much fun to make. Just color your sugar cookie dough green, turn your frosting as red as you can and sprinkle on mini chocolate chips. They were a big hit.

(If you are really lucky you can enjoy an English Premier League soccer game in the background. :)

First Annual Thompson Family Reunion

This year we were lucky enough to be able to host our first ever Michael Thompson Family Reunion. We loved having it in our home. It was so much fun to have everyone under one roof making meals and sharing LIFE! We started the day off with a bang. A flour bang that is. Flour was flying out of our Bosch and we ended up in a flour fight.

These two are the main culprits- so its appropriate that they were doused. We had a trophy made up for the best meal of the reunion. Heath and Kelly won it with their amazing Moroccan Feast. It was divine. Jaleah and Brig were making up the Naan for it.

We also spent the weekend having a contest to see who the "Ultimate Thompson" was. There were 8 or 9 different competitions like racing, push-ups, soccer & football skills, racquetball games and lacrosse to name a few. Kaleb left with the trophy. But my mighty Brigham was a very close second. Way to go!

I love this picture of the footrace. Hilarious! I stole it and a few others off of Kelly's blog. They were just too great to resist. Thanks!That night we had a shower -to shower our reigning love birds, Jaleah and Mark.
Aren't they perfect! We love you guys!
The next day we loaded up and drove to Yellowstone. We had a yummy picnic in some pretty cold weather and then made it just in time to witness Old Faithful spewing off. We are missing the grandparents in this picture- but other than that it was the whole crew. I can't believe how blessed we were to have everyone at the reunion. A big thanks to Heath and Kelly for their huge effort to get out there. You made it perfect!

A friend is a brother who once was a bother.

Micah was the winner of our t-shirt design this year. Thanks Micah! They are SUPER!

Poor Seth was sick- throwing up and such. He felt miserable, but was a trooper. Here he is lying on the boardwalk in front of Old Faithful. Pretty pathetic- eh!

The next day we had a big swimming party and BBQ. We had some relay races. Heath and Kelly won the couples competition, but I actually won when the females raced. I came in dead last when all the women had a foot race(Lindsey who is six months pregnant won), so I was glad to see that I still had something in me. :)
Playing King of the Mountain

But everyone knows these guys are the real Kings of the Mountain.
It was nice growing up with someone like you - someone to lean on, someone to count on... someone to tell on!

When sisters stand shoulder to shoulder, who stands a chance against us?
To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time.

~Clara Ortega

We know one another's faults, virtues, catastrophes, mortifications, triumphs, rivalries, desires, and how long we can each hang by our hands to a bar. We have been banded together under pack codes and tribal laws. ~Rose Macaulay

We ended the night with a dance. We have a lot of funny dancers in our family. What a hoot! We were so sad to see the reunion end. A big thanks to everyone for sharing your time, talents, laughter and LOVE. We love you ALL!

What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life - to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories. ~George Eliot