Manti Pageant

My busy week continued with the Manti pageant on Tuesday. This was our first time since the weekends of the pageant are always busy for us. This year we broke down and went on a week day so we could see it. We really enjoyed the show. Before the show we got to mingle with some of the characters and get some pictures with them. The kids were good though tired. They slept very snugly the whole back.

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

Right now the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House is going on. We got tickets and went this last Monday afternoon for family night with Jon's sister and her daughter. The temple is gorgeous and has some pretty windows and murals. One of the golf carts caught us and gave us a ride to the front of the temple for some pictures and took a group picture for us. Then drove us back. The kids had a great time and I'm really glad we got to go.

Bridal Shower

I have had a really busy week this week. It started when I went to my glowing friends bridal shower up in Idaho. She is getting married in a couple of weeks. I am so happy for her! We had a fun day of laughs and reunion with all three of my best friends from high school together. I needed a girls weekend.

Jacob's last day

Jacob had his last day today- it's sadder since he will be going on to kindergarten. I am not sure I am old enough to have a kid in kindergarten yet. His class put on a little program of songs the kids had learned- they were so cute! I was glad I could be there for him. He was so proud showing me his classroom and teachers. We had a long talk tonight about kindergarten and how it's going to be different. I think he is going to miss preschool.

Sam's last day

The boys had their last day of preschool this week. Parents were invited to come. Part of the class was a little graduation ceremony where the kids received a certificate and a "medal". The little ceremony made Sam so happy. He kept leaning into me and smiling throughout. What a sweetheart! I was so glad I could be there for him.

Stewart Falls

This last weekend we thought it would be fun to hike up to Stewart Falls and finally see what everyone has been talking about. We got a late start and didn't have time to go down to the base of the fall and get a picture of the whole thing- perhaps another time. The hike was pretty but a little long for our small kids. Katie got too tired and Jon had to carry her the whole way back. Still, I wouldn't mind doing it again when we had more time. Worth the scenery.

Jam Day

I had as much fun taking this picture as I had making my jam. Wal-mart had strawberries on a good sale and I knew they would be the last of the season. So I got all the pectin I would need and some peaches and raspberries and made a day of it. 5 boxes of pectin later I have 24 jars of jam plus 2 1/2 containers of freezer jam- pretty good for not having made it in 3 years. That should last us a while as long as the rate of consumption goes down soon. I love homemade jam. Fresh fruit is my favorite part of summer! We had some extra strawberries and Jon said they were almost as good as the Oregon berries he grew up on. Awesome!

There's a butterfly on my head!

When Jacob first stepped off his bus with this on his head my first thought that his preschool teachers had gone too far with all their special days- there should never be a wear a mini mouse bow to school day for boys. However, Jacob explained that they had made butterflies which had gotten stuck on their heads. That explains the colors too- if you were to ask my cute little boy (who is very much a boy) what his favorite color was he would list pink and purple among them. So here is a picture of my sweet boy with a butterfly on his head, and NOT a bow.

Backwards Day Cont...

Sam liked backwards day so much that he decided to continue it by putting his sandals on backwards. It must not have been very comfortable since he didn't wear them that way for long. Still- so cute!

Huber Grove

This was the second letter boxing adventure we took. This adventure took us to a place called Huber Grove that is located just outside Midway, UT. It's an old pioneer settlement from the late 1800's. I fell in love with the little place. There were bridges, apple trees just starting to blossom, two pioneer houses, bridges, aspen trees, etc. It was nestled in a quite corner and it felt almost like walking into an enchanted place. A great place to just think or escape from it all for an hour.

I get a Kix out of this

No pun intended, but it is funny. The boys ate kix for breakfast and must of gotten bored and decided to start sticking them on their faces. They paraded in and told us they now had "kix eyes". After that they kept going in and out of the room with kix now on their ears, now their nose, now their chin and Sam managed to get them everywhere at the same time. Too cute. Now I know why kix are for kids.

Murdock Canal

About a month or so ago my neighbor told me about a hobby called letterboxing. It's like geocacheing but you don't need a gps and you find stamps that you stamp in a journal to record where you've been and you make a stamp that you stamp in their journal. Basically, a treasure hunt you can do anytime with the whole family. It's a great activity to do with the kids when we get bored and my personal favorite parts of the activity are exploring the area and finding great picture places I wouldn't have found otherwise. Here are some pictures of our first adventure. If you want to find out more go to www.atlasquest.com or www.letterboxing.org for more information and clues to spots around your area.

Computer woes

I am way behind posting because I had a computer problem. I wanted to get more hard drive space on my computer and wanted to delete the iphoto trash bin since all those photos are backed up at least 2 times. Jon told me I should highlight them all and hit delete. Sounds good right? Wrong! All my photos ended up reloading into the library and all the sudden hours of work weeding through photos had gone down the drain. So I had to go through all the photos again to weed them out and google how to really get rid of them. To give an idea, I had over 10,000 photos in my library and weeded it down to 3600 over the last week and a half. I didn't want to work with new photos or old ones for that matter until the task was done. I am all good now. Whew! I never want to do that again! So I'll be posting some of the highlights of the last month or so when I have in an attempt to catch up a little.

Prairie Dogs

These were the funniest creatures ever! We found them at a rest stop and I'm quite sure we weren't the first people to feed them given their behavior. I counted at least 8 of them around our car at one time. They were pretty friendly and one even tried to crawl on Jon and into the car to go home with us and be our new pet. Sam, the animal lover, was in heaven and kept trying to draw them closer to him so he could look at them.

Martin's Cove

Martin's Cove is on the way to Mount Rushmore so we made a stop there on the way. We were hoping to make it during visitor's hours but were half an hour off. It was still nice to wander around and look at the plaques with the history and look at the monuments. It's sad and inspiring at the same time. The top picture is of Devil's gate which is in the same area. It has some cool Indian legends associated with it. You can't tell in the picture, but you could walk through the gate, it goes all the way down to the ground.

More Mt Rushmore

As promised, here are some more pics from our Mount Rushmore Trip now that I am more awake. It was fun to go East on a trip for a change and be crazy.

Mt Rushmore spaze trip

This was the craziest thing we've ever done- and among the funnest! We woke up Sunday morning and decided we wanted to go see Mt Rushmore- approximately an 11 hour drive from us- and within an hour we were on the road. We just got back this afternoon. I am very tired but will write more about the trip and add some more pictures later. I'll just say this for now- the drive was gorgeous and I hope to go again sometime when I can plan it out and take the time to do more- the area is rich in things to see including caves, wildlife adventures, historical landmarks, and more. We very rarely go east and this was fun.

Backwards Day

Jacob's preschool class had a "backwards day" where he wore his shirt backwards at school. He loved backwards day so much that he talked the others into having a backwards night with him and putting on their jammies backwards. I had to put my foot down on having diapers backwards like they wanted, but all in all they had a lot of silly fun. I'm happy to report that it was only for one night.

Spider Boy and Rock Girl

Sam loves Spiderman. This is a picture of him trying to throw a web at me with his spidey powers.
I wonder what she is thinking about while holding that large rock? I hope it is not her brothers- that could be dangerous.

My kids on marriage

This is a conversation I overheard today between Sam and Katie.

Sam: I can't marry you Katie.
Katie: Yeah, because you don't have a pretty dress.

Now we know, if you want to marry- regardless of gender- you need a pretty dress.

My son the Talking Doughnut

Jacob had a school carnival this last week. When they asked him what he wanted painted on his face he said a doughnut. Better yet, make it green and add brown frosting. It's so random and makes me laugh. I can't say it would be my first choice, but it sure made him happy. The rest of the night he kept telling everyone he was a "Talking Doughnut".

Baby J

We went up to my new Niece's baby blessing in Idaho this last weekend. I wanted to practice newborn photography and made a make shift studio on the hotel bed. These are my favorites. Isn't she just a doll!