First Day!

Today was the first day of school. The kids were pretty excited... .Ella more than Hannah. Hannah was excited to see friends again, but not for the school work. And Ella is just excited to get out of the house and play with other kids. It all went smoothly and well... no tears or nervousness (me included :-) I was thrilled to run errands with just one child. Ahhh!

Also, for our first day of school treat to the teachers I bought them each a Rocky Mountain caramel apple and attached a tag to it. Simple and who doesn't love caramel apples. They are my fav!

Utah Trip Part V

After Ephraim, we headed south to St. George, Ut. Grandma and Grandpa Brimhall live there. We went to the town splash park and rode the carousel. And then we headed to Tuachan Outdoor Theater and saw The Little Mermaid. On Tuesday, Chris and Grandpa took the kids to Zions National Park while I spent the day shopping with my mom. Here are a few pictures of the kids at Zions.







And then we spent an afternoon making and decorating cookies.

Utah Trip Part IV

After our fun trip to the mountains, we took off south to Ephraim, Utah. Chris' family has a family farm in Ephraim and so we wanted to take the kids there to explore and experience their heritage. As you can tell from the pictures, the kids had a great time running and climbing around the old buildings. We spent a few hours there just running around, playing and discovering things like old sheep bones, old tools and lots and lots of wood.

The farm has this great big climbing tree that the kids love. So, every time we are there, we always take a picture in the tree.

Ella and Jake could not get enough of the water pump in front of the farm. They kept coming back to the pump to play with. Even though the water smells like sulfur. That only bothered Hannah.









We stayed the night in Chris' Nana's house. Chris' aunt and uncle (Carol and Jay) were in town, so we got to see them and catch up. Ella called Aunt Carol "Nana with the white hair" since she looks like Ella's Nana (they are sisters)... but the difference was the white hair. Jay and Carol also had their little white dog named Jake. The kids were nervous at first, but within a few hours they were having a blast with the little dog and wouldn't leave him alone.



The next day we headed down to Manti to see the temple. We walked around the temple grounds and the kids ran down the big hill behind the temple. As you can tell from this picture below.. there were a few windy moments. I love what the wind did to Jake's hair!

Utah Trip Part III

The next day we headed up to Weber Canyon to spend the night at our brother-in-law's family cabin. We began the trip with a trip to the reservoir so the kids could throw rocks into the lake. Then we went to a campground and roasted hotdogs and s'mores over the campfire. Again, the kids had a blast because they were with each other and in the great outdoors.

We finally put the kids to bed and the adults stayed up until 1:30 am talking. The clock I kept looking at was broken, so I thought it was much earlier than it was. When I learned it was 1:30 am... I had to end the fun and go straight to bed. I don't stay up that late when I am pregnant. It just doesn't work for me.

The next day we spent most of the day riding ATV's through the mountains. The kids (and adults) couldn't get enough of it. It was such a fun little trip within our trip!

Utah Trip Part II

The next day we went to the Sweets Candy Factory for a tour to see how they make candy. It was very interesting and a fun thing for the kids to do. They especially loved the end of the tour when everyone got to pick out taffy from their big wall'o taffy.

Notice Hannah in her hair net leaving the factory. She wore that for the better part of the rest of the day. Funny girl!



That night we were supposed to have a BBQ at the pool, but a huge thunderstorm came rolling in, so we had to take the dinner inside. But that didn't stop everyone going to the pool. After the storm blew through and the danger passed, everyone went to the pool for a little fun. But it was a little cold... at least out of the pool.



Then later that night (it didn't get dark until after 9:30 pm), we got out the fireworks. This year in Utah, you could buy aerial fireworks that everyone would shot off in the street. The cousins had a blast taking turns lighting the fireworks. Wendy had bought deflection glasses for a science project for her class and so she brought them out as we watched fireworks. Man oh, man was that fun. The glasses turned the fireworks into a kaleidoscopes. It was so much fun to watch the fireworks through these glasses. I highly recommend it if you can do it someday. It makes street fireworks a completely different and fun experience.





This is everyone dancing behind one of those strobe light fireworks. The kids loved this!

Summer Vacation Part 1

This begins several entries recapping our summer vacation in Utah. During the end of July, we headed to Salt Lake CIty to spend time with the aunt, uncles and cousins.
Our vacation started with a bit of a scare. On Monday, we were going to go up to the mountains for a hike and campfire dinner. Ella went to bed that night with a fever and woke up at 1:00 pm the next day. So, I knew that she and I wouldn't be going on the mountain adventure. Ella had come upstairs and was lying on the floor near the kitchen. I was getting all the preparations ready for everyone to go, and I heard a weird noise coming from Ella. I ran to see what was going on and she was having a seizure. It was the worst 40 secs ever! We called 911 and the paramedics came and informed me it was a febrile seizure caused by her fever spiking too fast. But to be safe we rode in the ambulance to Primary Children's Hospital and had her evaluated and cleared to go home. Ella has pretty out of it for a few hours, but finally her fever broke and she gradually became herself again. It has like night a day. The prior 24 hours, she was lethargic, quiet and so sick. The next 24 hours, she was active, bubbly and full of personality.

The next day, all the cousins headed to Hogle Zoo. We had a great time together and seeing all the fun and exciting animals. Jake especially, couldn't get enough of the animals. We took a ride on the train. Ella isn't too happy in this photo, but it was the end of the day and getting hot.



We went to the bird show and the highlight for me was the American and Bald eagles. They are amazing creatures. So, when we were asked to donated $5 to the zoo and could get our picture with the eagles, I jumped on it. I think they are so pretty and majestic. And how often do you get to see one up close. (not very often).



Jake got to touch a snake. I think Ella touched it too, but Hannah didn't want anything to do with it when she found out it could bite.



Here are all the cousins playing on the rhino sculpture. I have a picture of them on the same statue about 5 years ago. I will have to find it. Pretty soon there will be too many and all too big to climb on it.



Here is a picture of all the cousins in 2007. Same sculpture at the same zoo. Things have changed :-)

Summer Craft Club

Last summer i did a craft club for the kids in my neighborhood, we had such a great time that I thought I would do it again this year. (You can find the crafts I did last year in my "kids craft" category on the sidebar). But due to my pregnancy and everyone's busy schedule, this years craft club wasn't quite like last years. But I did manage to get a few craft sessions in this summer.

Here is are a few of the crafts we have done.


The first one was our Hawaiian theme. We read a book about Hawaii and then we made leis. The tutorial for the lei's can be found here. Instead of using yarn, I used lanyard string. It is easier for the kids to use and thread. And of course I used my cricut machine to cut out all the flowers. For the treat, I made Hawaiian floats. I used orange sherbert, pineapple juice and sprite.




The next craft was a Three lIttle Pigs Theme. I read the cutest book "Wait, no Paint!" and then we made houses make of straw, sticks and bricks. For the snack, we had pigs in a blanket. As you can see, I used shredded paper for the straw, popsicle sticks for the sticks and I cut out red construction paper for the bricks.




The last craft was a rainbow theme. We read the book "Have you Filled a Bucket Today." This book has a great message and although it doesn't have to do about rainbows, it uses rainbows to show it's message, so I thought it worked. The kids then made rainbows out of pasta wheels. The tutorial can be found here. Then I made Rainbow Cupcakes like the ones found here. The kids loved these!

Craft Club wasn't in session very long these year, but the crafts were really fun and the kids always love it!

4th of July Weekend

We had a fun and eventful 4th of July weekend. It started out with our ward's annual 4th of july breakfast on Saturday. They had a kids parade and the girls were so excited to decorate their scooter and bike. We spent some time getting them all spiffied up! Then it was time for the parade and the girls were so proud of their decorated bike and scooter. They just rode around and around until Hannah bit it and then the fun was over. It was a hot day (106 degrees), so even in the morning it started out hot, hot, hot.






Then on Sunday evening, we decided to get away from the heat and head up to Shaver Lake to watch the fireworks over the lake. We packed a picnic and headed to cooler weather. We had to wait a few hours for it to get dark but the kids loved it, because they got to play in the water. They kept busy and were as happy as can be. Then it got dark and we watched the fireworks in the beautiful Sierras!







Monday we took it easy and just lounged around all day and then it was time for our annual neighborhood block party. We had fun with our neighbors. The kids had a ball using spray bottles. They were meant to keep us cool (since it was 105 that day, but the kids used them to spray each other, the ground, the food, bugs, etc. We then went to the elementary school to watch the fireworks at the high school stadium. Then we headed over to our friend's house to do our own street fireworks. The kids were too busy playing with each other that they didn't even watch the fireworks. We had so much fun, we stayed there until 11:30 pm. Then it was too much... I had to go to bed. The kids could have played much longer, but the night had to end sometime, so leave it to mom to be the party-pooper!

All and all it was a fun holiday weekend. I love the 4th of july... but maybe next week, it can not be so hot! Pictures of our 4th are coming soon.