The crazy days of summer are over at the Roderick house and the kids are back in school. Along with that comes the welcomed routine that comes with it. Even though our schedule is full, at least we know what's coming for the most part.

This is our "First Day of School 2008" Picture. Chad is off to 1st Grade, Morgan is in 4th and Mataia is in 7th. How did that happen?

Because we kind of miss the "vacation" part of "Summer Vacation" we seem to wring every last drop out of the break. The following are some of the pictures of some of the things we have done in the last couple weeks.

Grandma Patti wanted to take all the grandkids on a hike before they went back to school. On the day that we decided to go, our niece Peytan was sick and Mataia had volleyball tryouts, so they were not able to go. So Grandma took them and a friend to Harriman State Park on a hike of their own. What a good Grandma!

For the Big Grandkid hike, we drove over the Jackson Pass into Wyoming and hiked 3 1/2 miles into Taggert Lake. In hindsight, it was a pretty ambitious hike with the little ones. But we made it and everyone had a great time and the mom's got a great workout packing the little ones.

The kids were catching frogs at Taggert Lake and Chad decided to try and keep this one. It wasn't looking so good on the way down, so he let it go in a spring along the way.

Morgan (showing her muscles in the back), Chad is right in front of her and Kace is in the front. Our nephews Wyatt on the left and Nathan in the center. It was so beautiful at the lake with the huge mountains in the background!

Grandma with the grandkids at the beginning of our hike when we all had fresh legs. We ended up ditching the strollers about 1/2 mile into the hike because the trail got a little rough.

My sister Mindy and her husband Brett invited us to go to Ashton Reservior boating with them. Their boat has a nice stereo system and so we would crank the song "I Like To Move It, Move It" and the kids would dance and bounce around the whole time they were on the tube. It was a blast!

Our niece Libby on the left, Chad and Kace getting a big squeeze from Nathan.

There were several families in our ward who rented a cabin in Bear Lake and went down for a few days. There were 22 kids under the age of 12. It was pretty crazy, but lots of fun.

Kace is famous for taking a nap on the boat. Our trip to Bear Lake was no different.

Jeff took Kace on a tube ride with Carson Crapo at Bear Lake. The water was turquoise blue and beautiful. But it was a little windy and there were so many other boats that it was too rough to do anything but ride the tube.

We recently had our family pictures taken and this is one of our favorites of all of us together.

Kace is Mr. Photogenic. He always has the "Cheese" smile on his face. What a fun kid!

Chad - our Big First Grader! He started piano lessons this summer, too. He is also playing NFL Flag Football and his team is the Green Bay Packers and Jeff is his coach. I'm not sure who is having more fun!

Morgan is looking forward to learning about Idaho History in 4th grade! She is in piano and violin lessons and we are thinking about dance.....

Mataia is growing up too fast! She has 8 classes a day which are going to require some studying this year! She is on the 7th grade volleyball team and she is still taking piano lessons.

What more can a mom ask for?