Drake was pretty excited to head to first grade. I had him in a different school for Kindergarten, so the whole thing was a new experience. This year he gets to ride the bus to school and home. He is feeling very old because of it, in fact on the 2nd day of school on the bus ride home, he didn't even come home. There I was waiting at the end of the street(only because I was told " Mom, you don't need to come to the bus stop, you can just be at home."), and here come the 2 girls that he walks to and from the bus stop with and no Drake. Of course I was a little worried, maybe he didn't get on the bus, maybe somebody took him, or he forgot to get off...anyway all these thoughts were going through my head but I did have a pretty good feeling that he was alright. He's pretty obedient, so I knew he wouldn't have gone too far. Anyway, come to find out he was just heading over to a girls house to play and he was just going to call me when he got there. First of all I don't even think he knows our number very well, so I don't know how well that would have gone over. I ended up walking around the neighborhood and found him walking with a couple friends, so I let him know that the rule is after you get off the bus you come straight home and then we can figure out if we will play or not. He didn't quite know that there were bus rules, he was just feeling pretty independent with the whole idea of getting himself home without mom. I am proud to say he's made it home every day from then on and has been an excellent student! I hope he eventually likes to learn, he's never been too into school. I'm hoping first grade will change all that. We are so excited for our first grader, but also very sad to send him away into the real world. Mike and I took just him out to dinner just before school started and kind of explained a few things that were going to be happening in first grade and certain situations he's going to have to deal with. We just pray that we've taught him well and that he'll live up to that and be a great kid--especially to other kids. So far so good! WE love our Drake!
Drake and his new teacher Mrs. Campbell
Thumbs up Dad!
off he goes.... 
Coming home off the bus...
Holly, Carrie, Me, Melinda, Sarah, and Emily
We spent a couple of days at Sarah's house where we lounged at the pool, read magazines and books, ate lots of treats, and then made it over to her house to play(or at least attempt) Rock Band.
I didn't have my camera for the other events, but we took a day and spent it in Salt Lake. Some of us hadn't ever been to a session at the temple there, so we did that in the morning and amazingly enough, President Uchtdorf was in our session going through with his 2 grandson's who were preparing to go on missions. What a neat experience to have an apostle right close to you. It was so neat to see him and we even got to shake his hand afterward. After the session we ate at the Nauvoo Cafe, and then went and saw the Joseph Smith movie. We shed a few tears in that one, what a great show! After that, we took the trax down to the Gateway and did some shopping, and by the end of the day we were beat! It was pretty hot outside so we were all tired and ready to go back to my Mom's house. We did a lot of eating out at really good restaurants and playing a few games, but mostly just visiting and sleeping in. Gotta love not having any responsibilities. Thanks to our husband's for that. They stayed home with all the kids and sacrificed for us to get together! It's been a great tradition and I'm grateful to have such a great family! 
