Good-bye August and Hello September

I cannot believe that August is almost over! Where has the time gone?! We have been super busy this month doing lots of things, hence the lack of blog posts (oh yeah, and we haven't had internet and won't have internet at our apartment anymore, grrrr).

So now you get a catch-up post for the month of August:

• On August 10th Ben took the GRE. He had been studying really hard all summer and he ended up doing pretty good on it. His scores are good enough for the universities that we could possibly go to. It is so nice to be DONE with the GRE. 
• I finished up my summer classes and took my finals. I was very happy to be done. I liked my classes but they were a lot of work (and most of the work, I felt, was unnecessary and repetitive). I finished strong and was very happy to start my summer vacation. 
• On August 16th, we celebrated our 1 year anniversary! We went to Ben's best friend's sealing at the Bountiful temple in the morning then we played in Salt Lake that afternoon. We went to Olive Garden for lunch and went to a pioneer museum and to Temple Square before going to Syracuse where Josh and Katherine's reception was. Their reception turned out to be really nice. On our way back to Provo we stopped in Salt Lake at Amy's to say hi to Ben's family who had just gotten in from Colorado. 

• On the 18th we went to our nephew Charlie's first birthday party. We had a lot of fun seeing all of Ben's family and visiting with everyone. Charlie is such a cute little boy and we love being his aunt and uncle. 

Trying to get everyone together and looking at the camera for a family picture

• The 19th-23rd of August was Education Week. I volunteered to be a host, meaning I was in charge of checking name badges and telling people where the bathrooms and other buildings on campus were. I was a host for a few hours in the morning Tuesday-Friday and the rest of the time I got to go to classes that I wanted to for free. I loved it. Education Week was so much fun! I took classes on food storage and home organization, family councils, symbolism and Mormons in the Civil War. It was so interesting and I feel like I learned a TON. Hopefully I can volunteer and go again next year but I may be teaching school...

• This past weekend we had the Nielsen Family Reunion. We went up to Mike's parents' cabin near Logan and had a blast! The reunion started Thursday night but since I was volunteering at Education Week Friday morning and Ben had to work that morning, we didn't get there until Friday afternoon. We had so much fun! The first night we got there we had a foosball tournament. Ben and I made it to the final round undefeated and then lost. But we still had a lot of fun playing. Saturday we went to Bear Lake. We loved being out on the beach and in the water. Even though we put on sunscreen multiple times, I think Ben and I were some of the most sunburned people. Sunday we went to church, had our family book discussion on Boys Adrift and The BFG and we also had a family Sunday School class. The rest of the time was spent having a sing-a-long, playing games and taking family pictures. Monday we cleaned, had soap boat races and cleaned some more before leaving and heading back to Provo. 

Us at Bear Lake

• Today we had our last summer fun by going to Seven Peaks for the last time this summer. We had so much fun! There were hardly any lines so we got to ride everything we wanted to really fast. The weather wasn't too hot and we left right before it started to get stormy. We have loved going to Seven Peaks this summer and it is so nice to have Pass of All Passes so we can go whenever we want and we don't feel the need to stay all day if we don't want to.