Well after 7 days of school it was time for a break!  LOL  Just kidding, but Jay and I really did get to get away for 4 days thanks to Saladmaster!  
It was a fabulous trip full of fun and relaxation!

We made it to the airport by 6:30 am and with coffee in hand and swimsuits packed, we were ready to go!

We finally made it to the hotel by late afternoon, we checked in and headed to our room.  This was our view for the next few days:

Absolutely beautiful!!!  The water was so many shades of blue it was breath taking!

The first night we were treated to a dinner and some awards from Saladmaster.  Jay was recognized for his job as a corporate trainer.

The rest of the days we went from the room, to the beach,to the pool and back again.  Rough I know!

 It was an all inclusive resort which means ALL food and drinks were available whenever.  Including ROOM SERVICE!!  Which I totally love but never do because it is always so over priced but this time I could!  :)

So when we first arrived there was a sushi bar we tried:

The last night we were there Saladmaster hosted a poolside dinner for us.

This little place pictured below was by far my favorite place to eat.  It was a little taco bar and had the best fish tacos and the best view of the ocean.

 Alas it was all too quickly time to go home.  Loved the time with my honey and knew my kids were all in good hands.  Now time to go back refreshed and ready to continue our school year.

Back to School 2015-2016

Introducing the line up for this school year:  

This is the one and only year that all six are officially in school.  I took the last few weeks to start planning out this year and hopefully can stay on top of everything.  I am excited (and I think the kids will be too) for the topics we will be studying this year.  It is going to be an exciting and emotional year with lots of firsts and lasts and last firsts!  ; )

My Senior and my kindergartner.  Anastasia was gracious and humorous enough to pose in the booster seat once again.  I love this group of pictures!!! 

The kids talked me into making my famous Christmas cinnamon rolls for the first day back.  Ooey gooey goodness!  There were also some eggs cooked for some protein as I was the one having to teach them all day.  Ha!

The night before I put some goodies on the table for them to wake up and find:

The minion stuff was for Anastasia and the Paw patrol for Jadon.  Then the fishy crackers, smarties and water color paints were for the others.  We were 
"O-fish-ally" back in school so they need to be "Smarties". 

It was a good first day back even with one of the computers not working, the kitchen sink breaking, slicing my finger and Jay being out of town.  Oh my!

We love camping and were able to go for a 2nd time this summer.  This time we went up to Woods Canyon Lake with my sister's family, and two other families.  It was a lot of fun.  I love making these memories with my kids.  They always talk about our camping trips for months and years afterwards.  We always have a good time.

Yes, we only went up for two nights.....

Don't worry we split the trailer with my sister's family.  HA!

 I am still not sure how it all worked out but Jay and I ended up having our big 10 person tent all to ourselves both nights! The big girls shared a tent, the younger girls shared a tent, and the boys shared.

The first afternoon we got up there of course it rained.  It was really loud too!  So we hung out in the tents for awhile (praying the lightning would stay away). The little girl's tent partially flooded so we ended up making them beds in the suburban.  They were okay with this because they could have food in there.  All food had to be put up and locked away each night due to the potential for attracting elk!
 The next day was spent fishing and catching crawdads.  Crawdads are fun for the kids because there are always plenty of them and they are so easy and quick to catch compared to fish.  Us moms got to relax and just hang out for awhile which was really nice.  The best part was watching all the kids help prep the crawdads for dinner.  My kids have all done it before but their cousins never have so there was lots of eeewws and yucks and laughs!  

We were so exhausted both nights we didn't even get to enjoy the campfire, which is my favorite part of camping.  :/

Of course the days went quick and it was time to head home back to the heat once again.  Hoping we can get up again before the weather gets too cold up there.  I took a gazillion pictures but here are just a few:

Cousins

Our Curriculum Choices and Schedule

This is my 13th year of officially homeschooling 15 if you count Anastasia's two years of preschool!!

Each year looks so different but yet similar.  This year and only this year I will have all 6 officially being homeschooled!  I always take time over the summer to plan and we ALWAYS go to the convention each year.  It is such and blessing and encouragement.  Some curriculum I always stick with and others I change it up each year.  I am pretty excited about our choices this year.

Our general goal is to start about 8:30 and finish by 3:00.  We have an hour lunch break and the kids aren't working that whole time but I pretty much am with helping everyone.  Tuesdays we are gone in the morning to gymnastics for the 3 girls and Jadon, and Joshua goes to First Lego League. Anastasia takes him and stays there and does her schoolwork.  We all get home around noon and eat lunch and knock out school work by 3.  Twice a month is co-op.  Once a month (in the afternoons) is book club for Joshua and Keeper's for the girls.  Then once a month on a Thursday afternoon is our small science co-op that we do with just a few families.  Sunday's is Awana.  WHEW!!!  Be sure and ask me about my unsocialized homeschoolers.  ; )

Above is pictures of some of our curriculum choices for this year. I LOVE Easy Peasy!!!!  I have known about it for a few years but finally looked into it and absolutely love it.  It is free!  It is a full curriculum however my kids are all using it for reading and Language this year.  We are all doing Mystery of History and studying Ancient history this year.  All 6 kids use it and I love that!!!  It has activities and text so that my senior, my kindergartner and all in between get what they need from it.  We are also doing world geography!  Alexa and Anastasia use Math U See for math the rest use Horizons.  The youngers are all using Apologia once again for Science and this year we are studying Human Anatomy and Physiology.  Anastasia is taking two Language courses this year, Algebra II, World Geography, Ancient History, Accounting, Small Business, Typing, Bible, Logic and yearbook (at co-op).
My goal is to try and post weekly updates on what we do each week in school.  We will see how that goes!