Beautiful Butterflies

Two weeks ago we went caterpillar hunting. We found 14 Monarch caterpillars on some big milkweed patches in Moroni. I took three to school, gave nine to other teachers and kept two at home. Jake wanted to hold the caterpillars, but got nervous as they started to tickle his hands, so we put them on the high chair tray and he watched and touched them carefully. All but two of them have spun into chrysalis'. Now they are starting to come out of their chrysalis and it is so awesome. I saw two of them change from a hanging J shape into their chrysalis, it was the most incredible thing to see that happen and it goes from a J shaped caterpillar to a chrysalis in about two or three minutes. It is really cool. One of our butterflies came out today and Jacob is so fascinated by it. He loves to hold the butterfly.

We Love Autumn!

We went to up to Southfork Canyon to enjoy the beautiful fall colors and take some fun pictures. Shelly was our photographer. She did a great job. We did catch a few pictures of her too.

Another fun camping trip!

We went to the ward campout up Hobblecreek canyon on Sept. 5 - 7. The ward only stayed one night, but we stayed another. It was such a great fun and relaxing weekend. Mardi and the kids came and visited on Saturday afternoon and Gray stayed over with us on Saturday night. The kids had so much fun. It is amazing that sticks and rocks can keep kids entertained for over ten hours of play time. The kids were so great. They didn't even fight. Wow! We have had some great camp outs this summer.

Sammi the amazing gardner!

Sammi got the start of a cabbage about four inches tall from school in May. They were having a cabbage growing contest. Here are her results. It weighed 19.5 lbs! We are hoping that she could be the state winner and receive a $1,000 scholarship. We'll keep you posted if she wins. Does anyone want some cabbage? I am the only one in my family who will eat cabbage, but I don't think that I can eat that much.

Happy Birthday Jacob!

I can't believe that Jacob is already two years old! Kids grow up so fast. It seems weird to remember him in the NICU at Primary Children's Hospital and then to see how strong and energetic he is now.

Back to school!

Wow, we have been so busy. I was really dreading going back to school especially since it came so fast. I went back to meetings on Aug. 12. School started for the kids on the 18th. Sammi is in fourth grade and Joe is in 2nd grade. They are growing up so fast. I am still in kindergarten! This will be my 11th year teaching kindergarten. My first group of kindergarten students are now in 11th grade. I can't believe that.

This year I have 27 kids in my class. They are pretty cute. Two days before school started we had 33 kids in each class and we finally got approval from the district to hire another teacher. The principal asked me if I wanted to go full time. It was a bit tempting, but I decided that it was more important for me to spend time with family and little Jacob. So we hired a teacher the Friday before school started. We had twelve more kids register during the first week so we still ended up with big classes. Oh well, we will do the best we can to teach all of those cuties.

Mark and I went to Lagoon with my brother and sister, Nathan and Shelly on my birthday. Grandma Linda watched Jacob for us. We had a fun day. We rode on the new roller coaster Wicked and it was really fun. I realized that I can't quite handle the rides like I did when I was younger. I was feeling a tiny bit sick. Next time I go, I think that I am going to take a motion sickness pill just to take the edge off. We are going to take the kids to Lagoon and stay in the campground during UEA break.

We went camping at Payson Lakes last weekend. We took a canoe and boy did the kids have fun. They rowed all afternoon. We tied a bunch of ropes together and tied the canoe to the shore. It was like a dog on a leash. They would row out as far as the rope would go and then they would circle back around. They got really good a steering and paddling. We tried to fish, but we didn't catch any. There was a bear in the neighboring campsite, but we didn't know that until the next day. We felt safe in Shelly's trailer, but if we were in a tent I probably would have packed up and gone home.


We are doing piano again and Joe will be starting this year. It will feel good to get back in a normal routine.

Fallen Arch

I was watching the news last night and heard a report that Wall Arch fell this week. That is crazy. It is or should I say was a huge arch. We were there in June. The kids and Mark climbed up and stood right under it and had a great time exploring and climbing around the area. I am glad no one was there when it fell or it could have been really dangerous. I am also glad that the kids got to see it before it fell down because it was pretty impressive.