I love this time of year.

The leaves start to change...

The weather starts to get a bit cooler...

Football season starts...

WHAT? I don't keep up on football?

Nope... i don't.

I could if i put a little effort into it.

But really, it's not on the top of my to-do list.

It's not even in the top 100... sorry.

BUT... it is that time of year when the little kids are invited by the highschool drill team, to do a half-time dance during one of the home football games.

Every year Rianne signs up. And every year it's been a kinda "hit-and-miss" sort of thing.

Last year was one of those kinda "miss" years.

Right after she signed up, she ended up with the flu and missed the whole week of practice and still wasn't feeling up to even going to see the girls dance.

This year happened to be a "hit" year.

We've spent every day after school for a week at practice for this one night of dance. Those few minutes of half time chaos.

Just one night of dance and i missed it.

It was all a miscomunication really and his intentions were good.

But i didn't get to see it, and that really bummed me out.

He said he took pictures, this is the only one that worked out naturally.

And... he had really good intentions. So, of course i forgive him.

But i missed it... and there will always be next year.

BTW... South Sevier won AGAIN!!! Undefeated BABY!

Really... i'm not keeping up on the football but isn't that just awesome all the same??!!!

what we did over summer vacation...

...and then some

Science Camp for Daylon

Visits to Capitol Reef

4th of July

another visit to Capitol Reef

Daylon's 11th Birthday

Pudge - May he rest in peace

day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 of our annual Fish Lake Reunion

and the 24th of July right in the middle of that

Daylon's Arrow of Light

Fremont Indian State Park

Back to school for Daylon and Rianne

garden goodness

Fremont Indian State Park again

and again

The New Harmony fire that darkened our skies for a few days

Western Governors UniversityWGU - I'm a college student again

Labor Day vacation

Sam's first day of school

and inbetween all of that, there was
family, more family, even more family, and even more family... and more and even and more

and inbetween all of that, we managed to have time for:

movie night

and pool time

WHEW! it's been a heck of a summer. I'm actually glad to have the school year back again.

Labor Day Weekend

WOW! can you say a big busy weekend?

Maria and Justin took the kids (plus Tory but minus Sam) for the weekend for Justin's Be-lated birthday gift to himself (is that really what it was? cause it really felt like a gift to us) and it so happened to be the long Labor Day Weekend that worked out the best for us all. The kids got their weekend with Maria and Justin and we got time to go visit friends and my parents.

After finding out all the stuff that they were going to do with the kids, we didn't want to miss all the fun either so we tagged along for part of their weekend.

Here is what we/they ended up doing all weekend:

• Friday: it was Maria's birthday, so we stuck around to wait till Justin got off work. To kill time we vegged out at Cabela's for a couple of hours and then had pizza and cake with Maria and Justin
• Saturday: Thanksgiving Point @ the Museum of Ancient Life to see the Dinosaur exhibits (which happens to also be world's largest dinosaur exhibit!) and watch the Dolphins and Whales 3D film. I loved watching the kids experience a REAL 3D film (and it was just as amazing for me cause i've never seen a REAL one either!).

{Tory and Daylon checking out the fossils}

{Daylon and his favorite fossil}

{I loved all the staged photos. The kids put a lot of work into it}

{they even got Sam in on the action!}

We went out for lunch, which was great! Later on, while Justin was watching the big BYU game, Maria took the kids to Gateway Discovery. I snagged all her pictures from there since we didn't go. The kids had a TON of fun and are still talking about it.

{Daylon making movies with his one big eye}

{Even Tory loved it!}

{Rianne doing what she loves most... being with the horses}

• Sunday: I'm not exactly sure what the kids did on Sunday but i did hear that they got to go see UP. From what i hear, it's a must see movie

• Monday: We met back up with Maria and Justin at the Utah Museum of Natural History to see the "Toadally Frogs" display along with their other perminant displays. I had no idea that they had so much there to look at!

{awesome circular aquarium with a hole in the middle so you could see all around you}

{one of my favorite frogs}

{bless Maria's heart. She saved Sam so many times from a frustrated dad that we couldn't count any more}

We headed to the Gateway for lunch (mmmm... Applebee's) and to hang out at the fountain, which broke down just as the kids were getting ready to go play in it. It was a complete bummer for the kids.

We ran back to Maria and Justin's to pick up the kids and their gear and head home. Apparently we wore Maria and Justin right out. Maria was crashed on the couch and Justin was about out himself.
We hope they weren't too much trouble.

We can't thank you enough for taking on the kids like this. We appreciate the patience you have for our kids. And the kids love to spend time with you both. We love that you guys are able to show and do things with them that we aren't able to. Thanks for making this something that the kids will always remember.
You guys rock!

Fremont Indain State Park - Week #3

Yup, that's right... Week #3. And all because we didn't catch it all the first two weeks. But that's what's nice about it being so close. We don 't feel like we need to cram it all in one day. The kids get tire? fine... we'll hit the other spots next weekend. I love being close to things like that.

This week we hit:

• The Canyon of Life... again
• Spider Woman Rock Canyon
• Cave of a Hundred Hands... again
• Arch of Art AKA Coy's Canyon
• and, as always, the Visitors Center. But only mostly because we had Tory with us and the kids wanted to share that experience with her.

First stop was Spider Woman Rock Canyon (Point of Interest #13). We got confused and hit the wrong canyon to start with but did find some bonus petroglyphs there too. Amazing the places these people got to, i tell ya! Finally finding the right canyon, we started with what we could find on our trail guides. This canyon had a lot of REALLY great petroglphs and pictographs... VERY cool! The hunting scene was a favorite of the kids. You could really pick out what kind of animals they were REALLY well. Our favorite was the elk, until we found the moose!

{the kids looking at the hunting scene panels. I really hate how the big one is all shot up though... stupid people!}

{still in the Spider Woman Rock Canyon. This one was my favorite. It was really clear and had a great story to it. And just around the corner to the left of it, we found some bonus petroglphys AND pictographs that weren't on our trail guide}

After the Spider Woman Rock Canyon, we headed to the Visitors Center to get a better idea on the petroglphs we couldn't find the week before at the "Canyon of Life". The desk lady was really funny about it and said that she hadn't been in that canyon before and she doesn't plan on ever going into "that" canyon ever. She was sorry she couldn't help but she didn't want to chance coming out "fertile" as the legends go. LOL - it was kinda humorous. She did, however, give us a few pointers and a bit more history. We decided to take our chances again, and headed up there for lunch and another quick look (and oddly enough, a "facts of life" exericence for Tory and Daylon, which was kinda fun)

{FINALLY finding the Mareo Panel we couldn't find the week before. It was WAY up high and really hard to find. It was a pretty steep hike to get up closer to it, but so very worth it to get a better look at it}

The other big Point of Interest we stopped at was the "Arch of Art" or "Coy's Canyon". It's just off the side of the road and if you look close, all these petroglphs just start popping out at you. Amongst all the petroglphs you start finding "Coy" written everywhere (or maybe you find COY first and then the petroglphs)
{a shot of the rock wall}

{the same shot, only with petroglphs and graffity circled}



This is definately worth going back and looking at better. By the time we got to this Point of Interest, Sam was wiped out and the kids had lost interest. Daylon came out and checked it out with me and we both decided we needed to do it again. Next time we'll check this one out and go check out the Rim Trail View from the road.


We've pretty much taken the kids on all the kid friendly hikes/trails/intrests in the park. Of the 13 points of interest, we've hit 10 of them. We hope to wipe out another one, maybe two if the one isn't too much for them, of those next time we go back. The last one is a scenic hike and WAY too long for the kids so we definately won't be doing that one.


Although, one of these days, i'm going to book a private "tour" for the Rim Trail View where they take you right up high on the cliff side right next to the petroglphs.
Definately not a kid hike but something i really want to do.

Femont Indain State Park - Week #2

Because one week just wasn't enough

We decided that there was SO much more up there that we wanted to see, we headed back up there the next weekend. We hit 6 points of intrest this time. Three of which were new to us. But we got to see stuff we missed the first time which was really nice.

• took the Parade of Rock Art Trail/Court of Ceremonies backwards this time and ended up findingn the Hidden Secrets Trail...{i'm assuming this was one of the "hidden secrets". Very very cool!}

...the end of Coyote trail and one of the trail heads of the Alma Christensen Trail that ends up by the visitors center (Points of Interst #5-8 and then some){a hunting scene on the "Parade of Rock Art Trail" that we missed last time because we took off on another trail}

• Point of Intrest #11: the Picnic Grounds and Centennial Cabin where we had lunch in the trees by the river.
• {pretend we got some great pictures here}

• Point of Intrest #2: Canyon of Life {a pretty intersting story that goes with this point of interest along with some pretty clear petroglyphs. This one was on the right side of the canyon. The ones on the left side of the canyon, we weren't able to locate this time}

There is just so much to see, even now after being there twice (actually three times... see the next post). Definately something to keep going back for.

so much to catch up on... AGAIN!

but... i couldn't let the day pass without sharing pictures of my little man on his first day of pre-school! He's been waiting for this day since the other two started school, 2 1/2 weeks ago. It snuck up on me so fast that i spaced that he needed a backpack and so we scoured the house through. The only pack we could find that didn't drown him out was a cute little hot pink and pretty blue Scooby-Doo of Rianne's (actually a hand-me-down from cute little Ali!).

He was pretty excited to have it and wanted nothing more.

Even when i brought him home his own little backpack when i went to town this afternoon.

I guess we're sticking with the cute little pink and blue backpack .

All in all, preschool is a hit. Especially for the treats!