A photographic journey of our Butterfly - Sept. 2009

Each fall we look for caterpillars to take to school and have at home. It is such an amazing transformation that occurs! This year after hours and hours of searching across a few weeks span of time, we were only able to find one caterpillar. Shelly was doing an observational science project and journal for one of her classes. She let us keep the caterpillar at our house, since we only found one and we helped to take photographs daily and describe the changes for recording in her journal. It was a fun way to watch the transitions occur.

Jacob loves to hold the caterpillars and butterflies!

Hanging J stage

Next day just after it changes into it's chrysalis. It is an amazing thing
I observed it go from the j to the chrysalis last year.

After 10 days it came out of the chrysalis. The first few days after it comes out of the chrysalis it is pretty docile and you can hold it without it flying away. It is pretty fun. Jacob would hold it constantly if we would let him. After taking the first picture of the butterfly I dropped my camera! I was able to fix it, but it was making some weird noises.

We released the butterfly out to the big beautiful world. I didn't get a picture because as we were trying to open our cage it took off immediately to have a new journey!

Labor day campout 2009

Singing around the campfire. Jacobs favorite songs are
Going camping, camping, camping out under the stars and I love the Mountains!
He is my boy alright.

We finally had a cake and officially celebrated Jacob's birthday.


We decided to fit another camping trip in for the year, but we decided just a few days before the weekend and all of the campground spots were completely booked everywhere. We ended up dry camping off of a dirt road up above Tibble Fork Reservoir in American Fork Canyon. We actually loved our spot, except the dust and noise from all of the motorcycles and atv's that went by. The little area where we were hanging out was down away from the dust and noise though. We were down by a stream and the kids had so much fun playing in the water. Nathan make two little pools for them to play in. They also panned for gold. We didn't strike it rich, but we had a fun time trying.







We hiked to Timanogos cave. We were worried if we would make it, but they kids did awesome. Jacob even hiked a lot of the way. Mark did give him a piggy back part of the way, but overall he hiked the majority of the way. We had his leash/backpack on him so he wouldn't fall off the cliffs. We had a fun trip through the cave. We say flying bats inside. The ranger said that was the first time in her 10 years at the cave that she saw flying bats. The kids thought that was pretty cool. We loved seeing all of the formations. We went to the Jr. ranger program and the kids earned their badges. We also went to a gold panning class with the ranger. It was such a fun trip. I love American Fork canyon! I spent so much time there as a kid camping with my family and it was great to take my kids there to experience the fun.

Sept. 1, 2009 - Happy Birthday Jacob!

Jacob got an early morning wake up visit from his best friends the Smith boys. Gideon arranged to come before school because he couldn't wait until after school to see him. They got to wake him up and they brought him some gifts. Jacob was surprised and happy to see his friends. It was fun to have his second family there since the big kids were at their mom's house. I can't believe that my baby is three years old!

Birthday Campout - Aug. 14 - 16, 2009

We wanted to go camping one last time before school started. We went to Wasatch State Park in Midway, which has been a family favorite as we were growing up. This time we got David to come along and bring his trailer too. It was fun to have him there he always keeps us laughing. On Friday night we drove up to Park City for a little shopping. We ended up buying some warm clothes, because I didn't realize that it was suppose to be cold and I hadn't packed for the weather. We also got some new school clothes. Nathan, Scott and I have birthdays that are four days apart. My family gets together for a birthday dinner each month to celebrated those birthdays that occurred during the month, so we invited Mark and Scott's family up on Saturday to have a dutch oven lunch together.

That morning we woke up to rain and a big loud hail storm. We almost called and canceled our lunch but we decided to make the best of it. We put up some tarps over the tables and try to cook our dutch oven in the rain. We made a poncho for Jacob out of a garbage bag. There was no hood on it though, so we made a hood out of press and seal wrap. We just pressed it onto his head and it sealed the rain out! It worked really well and he wore it for quite a long time. It quit raining just in time for lunch and we managed to cook an awesome meal. We also went to the pond and went fishing with all of the family. It was really fun. The next day Mark and I went fly fishing on the Provo river. I didn't catch anything, but I did have a great time! It was such a fun birthday weekend!

This is the place - Aug. 13, 2009

August is always crazy getting ready for school. We took a day off before school started and went to This is the Place. Shelly didn't get to go with us last year and so we made sure to plan it so she could go this year. We only got to go for about 4 hours again this year. You really need a full day to do it all. We didn't get to do everything, but we tried some new things this year. We love to go there and even though we went last year the kid still loved it. It is a place that we could go every year!

Aaron & Jeanette's Wedding

On Aug. 11 our nephew Aaron married Jeanette in the Salt Lake temple. It was such a beautiful ceremony and a great reminder of the covenants that we make with each other in the temple. We are so excited for them. They are a cute couple.

Family Support

While I was gone at girl's camp our awesome family helped to take care of the kids. Grandma Gerry, Shelly, Nathan, and Grandma Linda helped Mark out with the kids while he was at work and while he was sleeping. Jacob always loves having sleepovers at "Shelly's house." They happened to be repaving the road and Jacob loved watching the trucks! Shelly took the kids to the BYU Museum of art for the Walter Wick display that was awesome. I am sad that I missed it. Shelly also took the kids for us on Aug. 11 when we went to Aaron & Jeanette's wedding. She took them swimming and then we meet up with them on the way home from Salt Lake at Thanksgiving Point at the Dinosaur Museum. We love all of our family and all of the help that they give to us!