First Day of School

Hayden's class at Open House

Rebecca's class at Open House

The kids started school the Tuesday after we got back to town.  They were so excited!  Hayden started second grade and Rebecca is in full day Kindergarten.  

Love, love, love this picture!  It is so her!

Isn't he just such a handsome boy?! 

Getting on the bus

 They both had a great first day.  Hayden kept commenting for several days how good his class is, and how quiet the class is.  Hayden knew a few kids from his class last year.  His class seems to earn parties every couple weeks.  Just little reward parties.  They are a very good class. 
I get the impression that Rebecca has a rowdy class.  She gives me the list every day of who had to flip a card - the behavior system.  She has been a little angel.  She loves school, and gets excited to go every day.  I actually heard from a friend of mine that saw her at lunch and she wondered if Rebecca was liking school because she didn't say a word at all during lunch.  I got a little concerned that she maybe didn't have friends, or if she was liking it ok.  Rebecca acted like nothing was wrong.  The more I've talked with her I'm realizing maybe she's a bit like me in that in new situations she can be very quiet.  Rebecca really wants to be on her best behavior.  It did take her about 2 weeks to adjust to the full day schedule.  She was very tired and emotional about little things at first, but now she's fully in the groove.

Luke's Birthday Book

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PARTY TIME!!!

One of the best things about going to UT is all the parties!  If I lived in UT no one would throw a big party just because I'm around, but when they haven't seen me for a long time, it's a great excuse for a party!  It also helps that I coordinated my visit along with a couple other siblings that were visiting from out of town. 

The night of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics we had a huge family party.  All my siblings except Mary and John were there.  We missed them:(  But it was great seeing everyone.

The next day we had our annual Sisters' Favorite Things party.  I look forward to this every summer - even though it is getting very hard trying to find something new each year, that is my favorite.  I just love learning all the new things about my sisters and getting lots of fun goodies.  It's better than Christmas - well, almost:) 

All of us hanging out and visiting before the sister party.

I was also able to get together with my girlfriends.  We have been friends since 7th grade.  So fun to get together.  I love these girls!!

I went up to Logan one day to go to the Opera at the Capitol theater.  It was My Fair Lady.  We had total nosebleed seats- very last row.  But it was still so much fun.

Afterwards you could go see the cast.  Look who happened to be there.  Elder L. Tom Perry.  Kinda cool seeing him.

Elder L. Tom Perry

We are family friends with the Ballams.  It was fun seeing Michael and Vanessa - his daughter in the musical. 

We had several other parties with the family.  I was also able to spend some one on one time with each of my siblings and their families.  It was a great vacation.
We stayed at my brother, Joseph's house.  We had to get a picture of the 6 oldest before we left.  It will be fun to line them up like this again next time and see the changes:) 



Hayden was so, so sad to leave.  He cried and cried:(

 We left Tuesday morning (7th)  We were going to leave Monday but had car problems.  Love spending lots of unexpected $$ on an already expensive trip right/?  On the Tuesday we drove to Colorado and stayed with my brother, Dave and his family.  Wed. we drove to Kansas and stayed with my sister, Mary.  We stayed up so late visiting, but it was so worth it.  Great talking with my sister!  Thursday we drove to Springfield, Ill. then home on Friday.  It was a long drive, and a long time to be away from home.  Everyone was happy to sleep in their own beds - or at least in mom's bed:)

Lagoon

One of our favorite places to go when we're in Utah is Lagoon.  Nostalgia for both me and Jerry, and we're determined to make it a wonderful "memory" place for our kids.  The kids were very sad that Jerry couldn't be there with us.  We were actually able to go twice because of Stake Lagoon day for family, which meant I could get in for free and just do a walk around pass, which you normally have to pay to go in, even if you don't ride anything.  And the next week we "bounced back" for cheap.  What made it even more fun was being able to go with cousins because they have season passes. 

Sydney and Hayden on the dragon fly

Hayden was so sweet and wanted to ride with his little cousin, Tanner for the ride.

Ah, what a sweet boy!

I love this picture of Hayden and his cousins walking

The kids got completely soaked, then rode it 2 more times - dripping wet!!

Love, love, love this picture of all the cousins at Lagoon

Treehouse Children's Museum

 While we were in UT we went to the Treehouse Children's Museum in Ogden.  I went with Angela and kids, and met my friend, Sunni and her kids.  It was so much fun.  I was amazed at what a HUGE museum it was, and the kids just loved it.  My kids, like most, LOVE dressing up.  They were in new costumes every few minutes.  We spent several hours there.  They probably would have even loved staying a few more, but Luke was beyond tired, and everyone was starting to get hungry.  I guess every day at 1 there is a children's theater.  The kids go to the theater room and they can be in the play.  They have costumes and go up onto stage to act out the play.  Hayden, Rebecca, Ethan, Alex, and Sunni's son, Cael all got to be in the play.  Whew.  Huge relief that they got to be in it.  They would have been so sad.  Sydney was a little sad, but she dealt ok with it.  Hayden got to be the main rancher of the play.  I never realized what a little ham he is till he was up there.  Improvising a bit and adding his own silliness.

 

Future president in the oval office??

Hayden, Mr. Rancher

The cast!

Sydney thought she'd died and gone to heaven.  She played "mombaby" for the longest time. 

Sydney and Luke

A Date with my boy

It was so great to be in Utah and see family that we haven't seen for a whole year.  That's the longest we've ever been away from Utah.  That's probably the hardest part of being in Indiana.  It is so far from both my and Jerry's families.  We feel very blessed to have been able to see both families this summer - Jerry's in May, and mine in July - but it's still hard being far enough away that we can't take a quick trip to visit.  I want my kids to know their cousins and grandparents well, so we will milk any time we get with them.  

My brother got some free tickets for a 24th of July concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Because Jerry wasn't there I got to go on a date with my handsome boy.  Seriously??!!  Isn't he such a good looking, and fun boy??  I am a lucky gal.  We had a good time.  Interestingly enough there was a little video presentation of the pioneers and their trek west that Hayden actually really liked, I'm sure having just been at Palmyra the week before, and doing our own trek west - lucky us, we got a car - and our stop at Martin's Cove made it come alive a little more for Hayden.

 These two boys are so cute.  Hayden and his cousin, Ethan are just the best of friends.  Hard to believe they are only 7 months apart, maybe Hayden will suddenly shoot up and Ethan will stop getting so tall! haha.

We went to a 24th of July party at a friend's house and got to see some great fireworks.  They had their own little soap box car that the kids had a blast riding down the hill in.

Luke and Annelise are only 2 weeks apart. 

 Umm, have I mentioned that this little girl likes to take pictures of herself?? haha

Martin's Cove and finishing the long drive!

Wednesday morning we left from Sturgis, SD and headed to Utah.  We were so excited that it was the last day in the car!  We were anxious to just get home, but we did take a small little stop at Martin's Cove in Wyoming.  I would love to go back some time, when we aren't so rushed.  There was a beautiful spirit there.  Martin's Cove is where many of the pioneers got stuck in the middle of an early winter storm that hit in October.  Many of the pioneers died. 

Rebecca pulling her own handcart

There are many of these plaques around telling stories of the pioneers.  Their strength amazes me. 

Then we got back in the car for the last 5ish hours.  

So, what do kids do in the car for 4 days??  Play with toys, rotate iPhones, and iPads every half hour.  Listen to music and books on tape.  Yell and scream every once in a while.  Eat, eat, and eat.  Spill, spill, and spill some more.  They also take lots and lots of pictures with my phone like this..

 and this...

and about 5 more just like this..

 and this

And these have to be my favorite ones - and a little worrisome too.  Seriously, she's only 5!! haha

 She loves to take pics, these are from once we got there, but had to include how cute she is.

Really, no idea where she learned to take pictures of the little kissy face?!