This past week

Bucko got his Bear badge on Tuesday at pack meeting! 

My parents are going on a mission for our church.  We are so excited for them!  We are lucky enough to live on the way to Utah, where they will do their training at the Missionary Training Center in Provo.  They will be serving for a year and a half in the Portland, Oregon mission.  They arrived late on Tuesday night, after driving over 14 hours that day.  We only had Wednesday with them, but we had fun.  We went for a walk/run/bike ride in the morning. We tried to make it to the elementary school, but there was a gas leak and the smell was awful. The firefighters were already there handling the situation, but we didn't want to be exposed any more than necessary, so we turned around and headed home.  It was still about 3 miles total that we did.
That afternoon, we took them downtown to Fargo's Pizza.  It's made to look like a saloon in the 1800's.  The pizza was really good too.

That night, we had back to school night at the elementary school.  We had to take all their school supplies.  It was crazy!  Their teachers seem wonderful and all three kids were excited for the school year. Thursday morning, we had to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa and it was the first day of school for everyone except Tink.  She didn't have to start until Friday.

Such cute kids, huh?  They had a "Boo-hoo Breakfast" for the parents of kindergarteners on Thursday.  I did surprisingly well that day.  Friday morning, though, when everyone left and I said to Baby Girl, "It's just you and me," I broke down.  They just grow so fast and I do miss them.  Goofy had a blast and told me everything that happened at school when he came home.  I don't think he stopped talking for about a half an hour!  He has been so ready for school to start!

Baby Girl and I ran some errands on Friday.  We had to drive through Black Forrest and I was able to snap some pictures as I was driving.  You can see the rubble and the chimneys left of the houses burned down.  It is still so sad every time I drive through there.  And I always love seeing Smokey the Bear and his warning sign.  That night we had rain and a beautiful double rainbow.  I was taking care of Baby Girl and had Bucko snap a picture of it.  Gorgeous!