First Day of School

Mark's is a big 3rd grader this year. That is practically the upper grades. I don't worry so much when I send him off to school. He knows where to go and what to do. He seems to have a great teacher and there are a ton of kids in his class that we know.

Dax started Kindergarten one week later. He is so excited to finally be going to "real school." Dax also got a great teacher and I'm excited for him to make lots of new friends.

Mark and Dax wanted to match on their first day of schools. They didn't start on the same day, but they wore the same outfit both days.

Seth started school last week! He is going to attend a neighbor co-op preschool this year. It's once a week for an hour. Seth loves spending time with friends. He is definitely our most social child. And he loves school already!

Garden Service Project

This was when we were leaving--the sun was just warming things up!

Our ward had to send 8 individuals to the Lindon Garden early one morning, and not a lot of people could make the 7am - 9am assignment. But Dad is not back to work yet, so we decided we could be 5 of the 8 volunteers.

We weren't sure what to expect, and we didn't know if we'd be weeding or hoeing, or what. This turned out to be perfect service for the boys, though. Mom and Dad were given knives to cut zucchinis, cucumbers and squash, and the boys were given buckets to stack them in. They were very gentle with the vegetables and loved looking through the leaves to find something to harvest.

We picked zucchinis mostly, but Dax helped gather these squash.

Dad, Seth, and Mark helped pick cucumbers too!

Next, Mom got assigned to wash vegetables and the boys were assigned to gathering. This meant riding around in the dune buggy with the senior missionary and gathering up the buckets. They were super eager to ride along and jump out to pick up the buckets, but they especially liked honking the horn, which they did a lot.

Everyone got to ride!

They thought it was so much fun to honk the horn.

They weren't slacking. Even though they rode around, the boys had to collect the empty buckets.

Mom got to wear this awesome apron while she washed veggies.

When it was time to go, the boys were asking when we could go back, so the senior missionary, who had quickly become their friend invited them to the store. He gave us a full tour and explained to them how Bishops send people to get the food they had harvested for free if they needed it. He gave them each one of the seconds (they took a zucchini, a squash, and a cucumber) which were slightly damaged or imperfect to take home.

We also helped them unload the veggies into the Bishop's Storehouse.

Mark got to push a cart. Dax pushed one, too.

We were so proud of the boys and how hard they worked.

It was an awesome experience and we will gladly do this service again anytime!

And we went to get a Roxberry afterward...lucky us!

Swimming Lessons

This year all three boys took swimming lessons. Mark and Dax are getting close to being able to swim. I am just glad that they are not afraid of the water anymore.

Seth took a mommy and me class last year (it was daddy and me half the time), and so this was his first chance of swimming alone. He cried the first day, the second day he cried for 10 minutes, and then for the rest of the days he loved it! All we wanted for Seth this year was to have fun and I think that happened.

Seth would put his face in, but not his head all the way under!

He wasn't a huge fan of the back float. He would rather be playing a game.

He even jumped in the last few days! Go Seth!

Every time I looked at Dax he was under the water. Seriously, he just bobbed up and down. I kept asking him if he was listening to his teacher, and he promised he was, and he also passed his level, so I'm assuming that he was doing okay.

Dax had a hard time keeping his shorts on! 

Always under the water. Always! 

I finally caught one of his face!

Mark worked really hard at swimming lessons, but there were lots of things that challenged him. He is in the levels were they work on different leg movements and strokes, so it's a little more work. But I was proud of him for doing his best and never giving up.

Here comes Mark! 

Mark dove into the deep water. A bit scary...

Everyone in his class was wearing goggles, so finally the last two days of class I let him wear a pair.

Randy and I had fun sitting poolside and chatting. There were three moms from Highland who joined in some days too.  Overall, swimming lessons were a huge success!

Space Derby

Mark and I made these rockets.

This year instead of a pinewood derby, we held a space derby for our Cub Scout pack meeting. Mark and I each got to make a rocket since I am a leader. Dad helped a little with the building, and mom did all the painting. Then we took our rockets to the park and launched them with all the Cub Scouts. Randy was in charge of one of the rocket launchers. So he helped Mark and I launch our rockets. The rockets shot almost 400 feet in the sky. It was awesome!

Mark is all set to launch his rocket.

Dad was the rocket launcher so he helped us launch our rockets.

I was really excited to launch my rocket!

There was a beautiful rainbow on the night of the Space Derby.

Boating on Uncle Glen's Boat

Each year we try to get out on the boat with Laurie and Glen at least once. This year we went down to Utah Lake, and the water level was very low. In fact, while Dad was swimming even out in the middle he could easily touch the sludge on the bottom of the lake.

The boys didn't care, though, and all of them made it out on the tube. Mom and Dad also tubed, and we enjoyed lunch of sandwiches and chips. Only Mom suffered a little with seasickness. She wouldn't have made a very good pirate. Still, the boys really enjoyed driving the boat and moving very slow and very straight on the tubes. Each one took a turn riding with Nate, which was really fun for all four of them.

We are ready for some boating FUN!

Mark got a little brave this year...standing up!

All of the boys tubing together.

Dad went too...he gets the crazy ride.

Mom went for a short ride. Nate kept drenching her with water.

Seth with no hands!

Seth standing up. It was his first time tubing and he was by far the bravest of all our children.

They also love driving the boat!

Nate was such a great cousin and good sport about tubing with all the little boys.

Don't get a sunburn dad!

The Alders are great! They are so nice to take us out on the boat.

Fun in the sun!

East Canyon Yurt

Mark sitting inside the Yurt. He's a trooper to take pictures for the other blogs.

Our boys love staying in Yurts. And we love visiting new places in Utah, so when we saw that East Canyon State Park had Yurts to stay in, we set up a camping trip. We went the day before Pioneer Day!

After unloading everything into the Yurts, we headed down to the water. Unfortunately, the beach was mostly mud, so we couldn't really enjoy it. The only fun thing we were able to do was float from the dock back to the shore in our well-loved boat. The boys seemed to like that, and of course throwing rocks. So we didn't spend a ton of time at the water's edge.

Mud..Yuck!

You can't visit water without throwing rocks.

I can't believe how much they love this boat.

Even dad rode this time!

We headed up to Morgan County to check out some of the cool rock features and eat dinner. First stop was dinner at Taggart's Grill. This restaurant is fun because it has it's own exit. It has a beautiful yard and there were peacocks wandering the yard. We had yummy food and a delicious chocolate cake for dessert.

I was a huge fan of the onion rings.

Seth being silly for every picture!

Dax also being silly for every picture!

It was very beautiful outside at Taggart's Grill.

Mom tries to take pretty pictures sometimes.

Then we headed over to "the devil's toys" as Randy termed them. Devil's Slide is fascinating, and it's just a pull out on the side of the highway. Then we drove to look at Devil's Looking Glass which is an arch. And finally, we tried to find Devil's Gate. We drove past about 3 times on both sides of the highway trying to decide if what we were seeing was it, so finally we declared something Devil's Gate and headed back to camp.

Devil's Slide

Devil's Looking Glass 

Devil's Gate????

We went for a short little hike that started behind out Yurt and saw deer, bunnies, common nighthawks, and lots of bones. The boys really liked picking up the bones, which seemed to have been plowed up as the trail was newly cut. It was a nice evening hike and we had a lot of fun! We also spent some time looking at the stars because it was a beautiful clear night.

Lots of bunnies everywhere.

We watched this chipmunk eat berries for awhile.

Deer peeking up at us as we hike.

We are looking good for being so old!

Finding bones was the highlight for our boys on this hike.

Dax thought this was an antler, well he wanted it to be an antler. (It's not!)

Twins!

The next morning we had breakfast and packed up to go home. We saw tons of bunnies and squirrels running around the Yurts, and the boys enjoyed watching them. There was also a hummingbird that lived behind our Yurt that Mark and mom loved watching.

The hummingbird!

On the way home, we stopped to hike the Mormon Pioneer Trail since it was Pioneer Day. The trail supposedly follows the path that the pioneers took through Little Emigration Canyon as they headed down to Salt Lake. We walked about a mile and then turned around. It was a pretty little hike and we told pioneer stories as we hiked. None of us had spent much time in this area of Utah, so after the hike we drove down a dirt road through the canyon to Jeremy Ranch. We had a moment of excitement when Dad claimed to see a beaver, and there were certainly plenty of dams and ponds, but it never showed itself to the boys.

I love Dax's hat on this hike!

Poor dad. He is always carrying someone on these hikes.

We love being outdoors together!

It was a fun camping trip! We can't wait to stay in Yurts somewhere else next time.