A quick glimpse of summer

Remember this? Here are some photos of some of the things we did. These are not all of the things because I am terrible about remembering to take photos.

Climbing at Cherry Hill

Such a cute belly!

 

 Playing in the water @ Cherry Hill

Slip slidin' away the summer

Lagoon!!!

Driver with an attitude

Ferris Wheel @ Lagoon

Jordan wanted time at the skate park

He's getting pretty good!



Hiking on our camping trip by Sundance

We hiked up the back of Mt. Timp to Stewart Falls

Summer Countdown

Normally I am full of trepidation this time of year.  I wonder "What am I going to do with them all day, every day?" But, after all the end of the year projects, make-up work, performances, field trips, dramas, olympics, field days, etc, etc, etc.  I am worn out and ready for some flexibility and fun.  We have been working on our Summer activity list like we did last year.  We had so much fun keeping track of all the fun we had and keeping those ideas fresh in our minds last year, we just have to do it again.

We have also started a tracking system.  I have ordered little bracelet charms from here to keep the kids motivated to work on things during the summer.  We are tracking how far they run, how far they bike, how many pages they read, and how many hours they practice piano.  We will also be working on the reading program from the Public Library and earning free books from Borders and Barnes and Noble.

Looks like it will shape up to be a fun productive summer!

Springtime at the Tulip Festival

Yesterday, we drove down to Thanksgiving Point for the last weekend of the Tulip Festival.  We met Paul's parents there and enjoyed walking around with them for a couple of hours and then stayed even longer after they left.  I have never been to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point and I had no idea how much there is to do!  There are so many different gardens to see including children's areas with hedge mazes and a big Noah's ark complete with bronze animals and Noah and his wife.  The waterfalls were amazing.  There really was something for everyone.  We had a wonderful time!

Waterfalls

Waterfalls from above

Eating dinner together

Spring Break

We spent our Spring Break in Moab.  Despite all the rain and cold weather, we had a fun time.  The first day we hiked around Arches, including Delicate arch which the kids loved and the three oldest were great hikers!  Jenna loved the pack, but spent much of the time hiking too.
On the second day, we drove through Canyonlands checking out overlooks and doing one short hike.  It was really quite rainy and cold that day.

The third day, we drove down to Edge of the Cedars museum to check out hundreds of Native American artifacts and climb down into a Kiva.  I had never been there and really enjoyed the feeling of history.  We had planned to go to Mesa Verde, but unfortunately all of the exibits and hikes didn't open until the following Monday.  We'll have to plan it again for another time.  The kids were disappointed, however we wouldn't have been able to see Edge of the Cedars if we had.



Park Avenue



On Sunday as we prepared to drive home, it was finally a beautiful, perfect day, so we decided to try one more hike.  We drove up into Arches and hiked Park Avenue.  It was amazing.  I wish the weather had been that beautiful the whole time.

The kids were very busy.  They earned Junior Ranger badges at both Arches and Canyonlands, and the Junior Archeologist award at Edge of the Cedars.  Then they went on to earn the highest award, the Red Rock Ranger award.  The Red Rock Ranger award requires at least 2 Junior Ranger badges from National Parks and 1 other program from a State Park in the area.

Delicate Arch

Wildlife spotted by Emma

Kiva at Edge of the Cedars

Newspaper Rock

Conversations from the car

We decided with sick kiddos, cold nights, and plenty to do around here, that we would forgo our planned camping trip in favor of a stay-cation.  Our itinerary included the following:

Thur.  Paul worked half day, then we went to Boondocks for some miniature golf and to Pepperbelly's in Kaysville for dinner.  We then went home to watch "Tinkerbell and the Great Fairy Rescue" from Redbox.

Fri.  We drove into Gateway went to Jason's Deli for lunch and the planetarium for the dome movie "Attack of the Space Pirates".  Then we walked over to Discovery Gateway to play for 3½ hours.  Amazing how tiring sitting all day can be, but we had a blast.  We went home and grilled steaks for dinner. 

Sat.  After fighting over getting jobs done (lest you think our days are all rose colored), we drove to Snowbird enjoying fall in all it's glory (my favorite part of the whole weekend) (and yes, I like to use parenthesis every chance I get).  We then had a picnic on the patio. Snowbird was having a food drive and so for six cans of food we all rode the tram to the top and looked over the surrounding valleys while the kids built walls from rocks.  We then walked along a fun little trail to the playground.  It is a great playground with the most amazing view.  We played, tagged, and the kids added their own improvements to a fort/den someone had built just off the path in the trees.  We ended our day at Joe's Crab Shack (Paul's favorite part of the weekend).  Whoever came up with the idea to put a playground area in a REAL restaurant was a genius!  We ate good food (crab takes a while to eat) while the children played!  It's a bonus that the kids like seafood too.

On the way home today, these were some of the things heard from the back seat.  Keep in mind that these are overlapping conversations.  No one actually takes turns talking.

Jenna: "Watch out Mom, the brave squirrel is coming!"

Mom: "What will the brave squirrel do?  Why do I have to 'watch out'?"

Jenna:  "He will kill us" (I attribute this to having older brothers??!!)

Mom:  "Why would he do that?"

Jenna: "Ummm"

Then Emma pipes up:  "Mom, my top lip is spicy."

Uncontrolled laughter from Paul.

In the meantime, from the back seat, Christian chanting:  Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, antidisestablishmentarianism, qugzuang..... (he is fascinated by long words)

Jenna: "It's okay Mom, the nice squirrel is coming."

Mom: "Oh good, what is the nice squirrel going to do?"

Jenna: "He's going to kill us."

Mom:  "That's not very nice."

This does not include the "Oww", "Ooch", and "Ahh"s coming from the back seat in a never ending game of how many subtle (and not so subtle) ways can I torture my brother, which resulted in our "hands up" consequence which we find very effective!  If they work their way through "keep your hands to yourself" warnings, we then say, "hands up!"  Which means they must hold their hands up above their heads until they are told they can lower them, or we reach our destination.

Paul just informed me of some riddles I missed while dozing (I tend to do that in the car) on the way up the mountain.  Christian was telling riddles to which Jordan would answer something to do with farting.  Every. Single. One. (That's fluffing for some of you, we used to try... some days I still do)  For example,
Christian: "...so, how did he get the handcuffs off?" 
Jordan: "uhh, he farted?"
This was then accompanied by raucous laughter.  I'm glad I wasn't coherent for that part.  But hey, they are 8 and 10 year old boys, and no matter what their mother says, anything to do with bodily functions is hilarious.  I just hope with coaching and some maturity, they will eventually grow out of this genre of humor...  Or maybe not.

Anyway, it has been a wonderful weekend with many quality memories made.  Sometimes it is nice to have low stress days when we can come back to home base and sleep in our own beds.  Although, I think I need a few more trips to the mountains to get my fill of Fall before it's gone!

Short Family Campout

We have a goal to try to get out in our trailer more often. We love to camp and the kids do too. And, after all, how many more years do we have that we will all love to camp together? When the beat all family activity is to sit around a little table all squashed together trying so hard (okay, not SO hard) not to look at each others cards or Rummikub tray.

Our kids are great hikers too! Both of the boys hiked Angel's Landing in Zion with Paul this year and Emma has hiked up to 3 miles without complaint at least 2 or 3 times this year. Jenna naps, sings, and talks up a storm in her pack in between insisting on walking by herself.

We took the kids out of school for the couple of days after labor day, after the crowds, and went to Spruces Campground up Big Cottonwood Canyon. Unfortunately, Christian is still doing makeup work for school, but he always agrees camping is worth it.

Spring Break in pictures

We went to Snow Canyon in Southern Utah for spring break. It was absolutely wonderful. I didn't want to come home! We did run over to Zion for one day because it was so close.

Here is a picture of Paul and the boys on Angel's Landing. It was one of the most nerve wracking 3½ hours of my life!