Just horsing around

Becca just sent me these photos from Maks' birthday. Jacob loved riding the horses. Thanks Ivan for capturing the fun in these great photos!

Joe's Baptism

Joe got baptized on Sat. July 11. It was a very nice program. There are so many people that love and support Joe. He had so many family members there from all four of his parent's families. After his baptism, we had Mark's and my family over for refreshments in the backyard. Later that evening Joe and Sammi went over to their Mom's for a barbeque with Scott's and her family. It was such a special day. We are proud of Joe and his choice to be baptized!

4th of July Weekend

We had a fun 4th of July weekend. We started out by going to the Balloon fest early Friday morning. It is always neat to see the balloons take off. We went over to the Colonial Days fest and played games. Sammi made a corn husk doll. We then had a picnic and walked around to all of the booths. Sammi and Joe went back to their Mom's and we went down to F.G. We went to a fun birthday barbeque where Jacob got to ride on the horses. The next morning we went over to Moroni for the parade. We enjoyed food at the Malt shoppe in Ephraim and then went back to F.G. We helped to paint the patio for a while and the kids played in the pool and playground. The boys went for a ride on the Razer and 4 wheeler. Then in between rain storms we enjoyed fireworks. It was a busy and fun weekend.

Humpty Dumpty

Jacob loves to read Nursery Rhymes with Grandma Gerry. He always gets his little "lamby" and sits on her lap to read. If he starts reading without "lamby," once they get to a rhyme with a lamb in it he has to stop and go get "lamby." The other day he was sitting on the back of the couch looking out the window and then tipped back onto the couch and said, "Humpty Dumpty had a great fall." It was so funny! It is fun to see him making connections to his world, (text to self - for all of you teachers.) He is able to recite several words and phrases of Nursery Rhymes. He will often finish the sentences while reading them. We are working on memorizing the entire rhyme Humpty Dumpty. He is at a fun stage of development!

Provo Airport

We took the kids plus two of our neighbors, Gideon and Ammon, to the Provo Airport during the last week of June to see the last operating B-24 Bomber that was on display there. There were also many other planes and a few helicopters on display as well. The kids got to sit in many of the them and touch them. They thought it was pretty cool. Then to make it even a "cooler" experience the fire truck squirt down all of the hot kids. The big kids loved running in the water. Jacob liked walking in the puddles. It was a fun little trip.

Fishing Fun

For family night on June 29th, we went to Vivian Park for a picnic dinner and fishing. It was the first time that we let Jacob have his own pole. He did pretty well. He sat in his little camp chair and watched his line. Just as I was taking his picture he got a bite. Mark helped to hold the rod while he reeled in the fish. Sammi and Joe were so excited for him they were cheering him on and jumping around. Just as Jake was reeling his in, Sammi got one. It was fun! Jacob was a bit afraid of the fish at first until Dad helped him touch the fish. Then he really liked to see and touch the fish. Joe didn't catch one that day, but he is a great sport because he knows that somedays you catch the fish and other days you don't. On the way home we stopped to show Shelly and Grandma the fish and she cooked them up right then and we ate them. Jake tried a bite or two, but he didn't really like it too much. Shelly and I enjoyed the fresh trout though.

Bread and Jam for Jacob!

We were almost out of our freezer jam and when we saw strawberries on an awesome sale we bought two flats and made more jam to replenish our supply. Jacob loves to help cook and will pull a chair over to help stir, so when he saw the big bowl of strawberries he wanted to help. We used a lower sugar recipe and it tastes really yummy. Now I need Mark to make some of his homemade bread and we can have some yummy bread and jam.

Happy 8th Birthday Joe!

Joe turned 8 on June 12. I can't believe how fast kids grow up. When I met him he was just three years old and now he is already 8. Wow! What an exciting birthday. Joe got a new mountain bike for his birthday. He is having fun learning how to use gears. He constantly is riding his bike. We had a fun birthday with a hot dog roast, smores, and a sleepover with his friends, the Smiths, in Fountain Green.

Joe is excited to be in Cub Scouts and is looking forward to his baptism. He is such a great kid and we love him so much!

Rainy June

Jacob was fascinated with the rainbows, lightning and thunder that came with our wet June weather.

VACATION - BRYCE CANYON & CALF CREEK FALLS

Wednesday after we left Zion we headed over to Bryce Canyon. On the way we stopped at a rock shop. Then Nathan and Joe went up a canyon rock hunting a while. We rode into Panguitch for lunch and a shake and then went over to Bryce. We stayed in North Campground in the park. We were really close to the Visitor Center again. We went on a ranger walk along the rim of the canyon that evening.

On Thursday morning, we rode over to Calf Creek Falls which was about an hour a way. We hiked the 6 mile hike to the Lower Calf Creek Falls. The kids loved it so much. We all wore our swimming suits under our clothes so that we could swim in the pool when we got to the end. It was cold and refreshing. It was a bit too cold to put our heads under the water though.
We had our picnic lunch at the waterfall. There was a raven that was hanging around trying to find some scraps of food. Jacob hadn't eaten all of his sandwich, so we put it back in his bag for later. We tucked it in with our stuff. As we were walking away from our blanket the raven went over and grabbed his sandwich from our pack. Jacob has talked about the raven taking his food ever since. We have gone on a few picnics since then and if a bird comes around he will grab his food, hold it tight and tell the bird, "It's my food." It is pretty funny. It was the perfect weather. There was a little breeze while we were hiking which helped keep us cool enough. There are several sections that are sandy like the beach, it was harder to hike on those sections. It was kind of long and Joe was pretty slow, but he did hike the whole way and he did a great job.

That evening we went to the ranger program and learned about the nocturnal animals in the park. Then Mark took the big kids over to look through the telescopes. They saw the moon and Saturn. They could even see the Saturn's rings. They said it was so cool and they wanted to get a telescope after that.

Friday morning Nathan, Sammi, Mark and I hiked down into the canyon on "the best three mile hike you will ever go on!" We hiked the Queens Garden Trail over to the Navajo Trail. It was really pretty. It was cool to see the hoodoos from a different angle. The weather was a little cool. It was nice that we weren't hot! We hiked back to camp because the bus wait was longer than we could have walked back. When we got back Shelly and Mom had camp all cleaned up and we hitched the trailer so we could check out of the campground in time. We parked it in the parking lot and went on the shuttle to all of the overlooks. We had our picnic along the way. At lunch there was a cute little squirrel that kept coming over. Jacob had fun watching and talking to the squirrel.

Friday we drove back to Ft. Green so that we could stop to mow the lawn. We stayed the night there and then came back to town on Saturday. We had a great time. Mark was already trying to plan another trip before we were even back.

That was our big trip of the summer. We had fun and hiked about 20 miles. Now the kids have gone to all of the National Parks in Utah. We need to start on the National Monuments and State Parks. We are hoping to go camping a few more times this summer on the weekends. We love camping!

VACATION - ZION NATIONAL PARK

After leaving the Grand Canyon on Monday morning we headed up to Zion National Park. On the way we stopped at the Moqui Cave in Kanab. The kids liked to see the gems that glowed in the dark and of course shopping in the store.

We camped at Watchman campground in the park. We could just walk over to the visitor center from the campground and get on the bus. Jacob loved the bus and loved that there was a "trailer" on the bus. We always had to sit in the back bus so we were in the trailer. On Monday night we went on the bus tour with the ranger. It was nice to see an overview and learn some of the history right in the beginning. That night we went to the evening fireside ranger talk about the flora and fauna of Zion. It had rained earlier in the day and the road was still wet. As we walked in the dark to the ranger talk, Mark almost stepped on a frog. We turned on our flashlights and saw many frogs. After the talk we went frog hunting until about 11:00 p.m. We had fun walking around looking for frogs.

On Tuesday we hiked to the Upper Emerald Pools. We also hiked the Weeping Rock trail and the Riverside Trail. We did a lot of hiking about 8 miles or so. We had a great time exploring the canyon beyond the bus tour. The kids loved wading in the water at the Emerald pools. There were tons of tadpoles and frogs. They even saw some mating. A big hit for the big kids.

Wednesday morning the kids went to a Jr. Ranger Program where they learned about wild turkeys. They got a special patch to go along with their Jr. Ranger badge. We left Zion that afternoon to head to Bryce Canyon. The kids liked riding through the tunnels. Zion is beautiful! Mark wants to go back in the fall and hike Angel's Landing. I hope we make it back there. Zion National Park is 100 years old this year!

VACATION - GRAND CANYON

The last day of school was on Friday, May 29. We left straight from school and went with Shelly, Grandma Linda and Nathan on our big camping vacation. We started at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We arrived Friday evening and stayed there until Monday. The weather was rainy each afternoon, but it didn't hamper any of our plans. We just put on our jackets and rain coats and still had fun. Who would have thought that we would be wearing our coats at the Grand Canyon in June? I didn't pack many warm clothes because we were going to the Grand Canyon and it was suppose to be warm, right?

We camped in the campground in the park. It was really nice and there was a big place for the kids to play. We went to ranger and evening programs about the California Condors, bats, stars and of course the kids did the Jr. Ranger program. We love to learn about nature and enjoy the ranger programs. We hiked several of the trails that were on the rim and overlooks. It was really pretty. We didn't think that we were quite up to the 15 + mile trails that dropped down in the canyon, but we did enjoy the beautiful views from above.

Crazy May

May flew by and is long gone but I had a few pictures that I wanted to post. We love the springtime in Fountain Green. We love to go up to the farm and see the baby lambs. Sammi always says that she want to be a sheep farmer after going to the farm. We helped to plant the garden. This year we are trying to grow a sunflower circle. I got the idea from a children's book. Then it becomes a playhouse during the summer. We will see how it turns out. I survived the end of the school year with all of the deadlines and our end of the year program. May is a crazy time of year for teachers, but it is a the time of year that we look forward to because it means that it is VACATION TIME!