Summer Trip to Utah

This summer we went to Utah to visit our family for a month. We made a road trip out there so that I could have the van to drive the kiddos around. We had tons of fun visiting with Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt, Uncles, Cousins, and Sisters. I was thinking it was going to be a good trip but you just never know. We came out on top though... the kids had a blast and we were able to enjoy some cool mountain air and spare ourselves a month and TX heat!

Road Trip

We did the trip overnight which was great on the kids, hard on the mom and dad. They slept pretty well in the car and watched enough TV to fry their brains completely. 

Bowling 

Jen found a great deals on Seven Peaks season passes so we were able to do lots of activities with our cousins. I had been telling Samuel about "free bowling" so of course he wouldn't let up about it until we went. Here we are bowling with the Barnes's on one of our first days in UT:

Neighbors

Harry and Dianne live in a great neighborhood full of kids. Our kiddos made fast friends with the neighbors. They loved always having someone to play with!

L to R: Reese, Lizzy, Lillie, Abby

G-ma and G-pa had a great front yard for rolling downhill. 

Trafalga

This place was part of our pass as well and we got good use out of it. Two months later and Grant is still asking if we can go to "Falga".

The kids on the hopper:

 I kindly offered to take Grant on a boat ride. And Christian kindly soaked me completely! I was having a good hair day up until that point too!

 Grant, Emma, and Samuel were my three mini-golfers. There was an indoor blacklight course and an outdoor course as well. We played them enough for me to never need mini golf again!

Dallin and Aunt Becca

A few days after we got in Aunt Becca and Dallin came to visit. This was the first time for all of the kids to meet him and they were excited to have a baby in the house! Dallin was such a good boy and we had a great time getting to see him for a little while. 

Lillie and the Barnes's new cat Percy. Percy turned out to be a girl later. I'm not sure if the name changed ; )

Lillie was completely twitterpated by Dallin!

Spider Man Park

This place isn't really spider man park but that's what the Barnes's call so that's what my kids call it. It has this awesome 40 foot climbing pyramid. Of course Lillie hopped right up to the top the moment she saw it. Samuel was nervous at first but after a little while he found his courage and made it to the top himself. Grant always wanted to go up but I'd only let him go up about ten feet before I brought him down. Poor Kid.

Some of the cousins:

Samuel, Emma, Lillie, Abby, Grant

Hiking in Provo

While Becca and Dallin, (and so was cousin Noelle!) we took a day hike in Rock Canyon. The kids had a blast climbing all over boulders and at one point or another I believe every child there professed that they would one day become a professional rock climber : )

Here we have:

Abby, Lillie,

Audrey, Grant, Samuel, Emma,

Dallin, Becca,Noelle 

Lillie loved to feed Dallin. No really, while she doesn't look like it here she actually really did! 

Family Picnic

Before Becca left we had a family picnic up in Alpine. Everyone accept Tim was there. Sorry you had to work babe : ( We had the Doolittle's, Barnes', Busath's, Costello's, & Whaley's! It was great to get together with everyone.

Grant and Uncle Brian who came over to visit from Colorado

Noelle spinning the kids

Grant and Grandma hanging out playing computer games

Grant was very interested as Brian showed us the contents of his Army Medic bag

Grandma teaching Grant how to listen to his heartbeat

Listening to Grandma's heartbeat : )

Sister's Trip to Rexburg

Since I was so close to my old Alma Mater, and the place of Tim's and my meeting, and Lillie's birthplace, and the place where two of my sisters currently live, I decided to take a trip up to Rexburg, Idaho. Laura came down from Washington and we had a wonderful four day visit with Katie and Allison. Dianne and Harry were kind enough to wrangle in my children for those four days!

This is the apartment complex where Tim and I lived when Lillie was born

Laura and I walked around campus a lot while the girls were in class. I also got to go and visit one of Tim's and my favorite professors, Stephen Smith and his family. 

Cheesy I know, but this is exactly where I was sitting the first time that I met Tim. Second floor of the Taylor building.

And this is where he was sitting ; )

Ah Fongs. I love this Chinese Restaurant. It's good. Not just good for Rexburg Chinese, it's good. I dream about eating here a lot so it was great to fulfill that food desire.

One of many late night's in the apartment talking and waiting for Allison to make us some amazing baked goods!

Chef Allison

Gotta love these girls! I am so lucky to have 3 wonderful sisters!

Allison had to go out of town a day early. The rest of us spent the afternoon at the local farmer's market.

On our last day there we spent some time walking around the grounds of the Rexburg Temple. It had only been announced when Tim and I left so it was amazing to see it in person.

Lillie helping Tim got through all of his memory boxes. His parents are finally making us take our crap home with us. The kids had a good time seeing his memories and they got a kick out of the old toys that he handed down to them. 

Sunning at the local splash pad

Tim is back! Hooray! Him and Samuel celebrated by rolling down a huge hill!

 Happy 31st Birthday Timothy!

Spending the Day at Temple Square & City Creek in Salt Lake City

The kids in front of the Church Office Building

The Salt Lake Temple where Lillie has announced that she will be married one day. I believe Samuel announced that as well : )

L to R: Abby, Samuel, Lillie, Emma, Christian, Grant

Waiting for the train

 The kids thought it was awesome to stand in the train without holding on and then fall over when the train started. I'm sure our fellow passengers just loved us...

Utah Wildfires

All the wildfires that happened in Utah this summer? Yeah, they happened when we were there. And they were all really near us. The first one came super close to the Barnes's new home and they had to be evacuated less than a week after they moved in! Luckily everything turned out alright for them.

This is our view of the Alpine fire from Harry and Dianne's front step:

This is the nighttime view. Plus my camera did something cool and caught a reflection of the moon which was over to the right:

Lillie and her favorite animal in the world: Grandma and Grandpa's dog Sandy

Happy 4th of July!

Aunt Jennifer, who is amazingly talented with hair, designed stars in all of the girls hair for the 4th.

To celebrate the Busath family had everyone over for a backyard BBQ and fireworks

Tim had dared Samuel to touch Grandma's hair. She came out with her classic "don't touch the 'do'!" 

Playing with cousins

Getting ready for fireworks

Uncle Ed put on a great show!

Grant and his favorite cousin Ben. I think Ben might be everyone's favorite cousin!

Throwing pillows with Grandma. This game went on for a long time. I believe it ended when the lamp got knocked over...

Kennecott Copper Mine

We went with Grandma and the Barnes's to the copper mine one day. When we first got there it didn't seem like much and I was initially disappointed with the time we had spent driving out there. However the kids had a blast and we spent a good 2 or 3 hours there. It was super informative. Plus Lillie went around with Tim who helped her earn the Kennecott Girl Scout Patch... Sweeeeet!

 Getting ready to watch the copper movie with Grandpa

Blowing bubbles with Grandma

Lillie and her new friend Lizzy, one of the neighbor kiddos

Samuel and his favorite cousin : ) 

We went to the Busath's before we left to help Ben with his Eagle Scout Project

We had a great time visiting with all of our family. We can't wait to see you next summer!

Swimming Lessons 2012

For the month of May the kids took swimming lessons at our local Y. It was a first for all of them. 

For Lillie who is a natural fish in the water and has basically taught herself to swim it served to refine her skills and she is now awesome in the water! She can go to the deep end by herself now and swim around for hours without me having to worry. I am so proud of her! 

For Samuel and Grant it really helped to alleviate their fears of the water. 

Samuel will now jump into the deep end as long as I am there to catch him. He swims underneath the water like a pro. He completely has the skills to take of himself in the deep end now he just needs to build up his confidence!

Grant did amazingly well with his lessons and really grew to trust his teacher. Before his lessons I couldn't get him to go into the pool unless he was in a life jacket and clinging to me with all four limbs. After his first lesson her learned to trust his life jacket and now paddles around the pool with the best of them! He is also comfortable now with water going on his head and will go off the slide into the deep end as long as I am there to catch him. 

I'm so proud of you guys!

So in Samuel's class there was a little girl there that was smitten with him! After the lessons the kids would go to the splash park right next to the pool. On the last day of lessons this little girl runs up and grabs Samuel's hand and drags him around for about 15 minutes. There was even a point where she forced his hand to her hip and held on to the other one and tried to teach him to dance with her. The entire time he kind of followed her around in a daze. He had an attitude that said "um, I don't really know what's going on here. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I guess I'll just let this girl drag me around. What is happening to me!?!" When she left he stood in the same spot and stared into space for a minute or two. He seemed so confused by what had happened poor little guy! 

Here you can see Grant coming to the rescue. He kept poking Samuel and saying "hey, what wrong?" until Samuel broke out of his daze. Too funny!

Last day of Kinder and 2nd Grade

The last day of the 2011-2012 school year was a lot of fun. All of us were very, VERY ready for Summer to start! On the other hand both Lillie and Samuel had a great year in school and it was hard to say goodbye to such wonderful friends and teachers. 

The kids made artwork for their teachers for the last day of school.

Samuel's Kinder teacher was Bonnie Miller and we were so blessed to have her to teach Samuel his first year in school. She loves teaching and you can tell that she truly loved each of her kids. She even made the special effort to come to Samuel's soccer games. Under her tutelage Samuel became the number one reader in the class and he is almost passed the reading level that he needs to pass 1st grade! This year Samuel's favorite thing to do in school was computers and he ended the year saying that he wants to be an engineer. I think he means structural engineer because he is always taking things apart and then trying to build them again. We'll miss you Mrs. Miller! Thank you for giving Samuel and wonderful first year in school!

Here is Samuel's Artwork for her:

I love how Samuel titled her as "Miller" Too cute!

Lillie's 2nd grade teacher was Melitsa Pena and we absolutely loved her! She was a perfect fit for Lillie. She loved her and she loved to teach her. She provided lots of challenges and opportunities for Lillie and we saw Lillie grow and shine even more this year in school. This year, as in all previous years Lillie's favorite thing to do in school was art. 

Here is Lillie's letter to Mrs. Pena:

This last picture depicts and Oklahoma University football helmet. This year at their school Lillie's classroom represented OU. They became pen pals with them and learned all about going to college there. 

Samuel and Mrs. Miller

Their college for the year was UCONN and Samuel is dead set on becoming a real UCONN Husky one day :)

Samuel and his best friend Jose

Grant and Lillie enjoying the last day of school party

Lillie and Mrs. Pena

Lillie and her best girlies. From L to R: Abby, Sophia, Seraiah, and Lillie

Mrs. Miller presenting Samuel with his Kinder diploma:

Lillie and some of her classmates: