Trip to Idaho

My Little Sister Rebecca got married on the Friday before Labor Day. We went up to Idaho for the wedding. I swear we took pictures at the wedding, but they are not to be found, so If I do find them I will post them later.
Anyway, Devon stayed with us in Idaho for the weekend. On Saturday we celebrated my Dad's birthday. He doesn't want presents, so my sister Emilee planned this scavenger hunt of all of the things that he loves. We played tennis



Went to Reed's Dairy to see the cows and eat ice cream

Went to the airport to see airplanes
We ended in a park where the kids had boat races and played in the water.



It was a really fun day.
All of my sisters and their kids were there. It was fun to be with family, and Spencer loved playing with all of his cousins. Here is Kate reading the comics to him on Sunday morning.

Devon left on Sunday, but the kids and I stayed to have fun with Grandma and Grandpa.
On Sunday night Spencer and Grandpa had a rousing game of tinker toy "ice hockey." My dad set up goals and everything, so when Spencer got more goals he said he needed a golden medal. Grandpa is a great golden medal maker.

One reason that I stayed was to make applesauce. My boys love homemade applesauce, and my parents tree had a ton of apples this year. We made 40+ bottles. James helped by eating all of the apples.


Spencer was "the smasher." Now he loves to tell people how he made the applesauce when we eat it.

After 2 days of applesauce we decided to have some fun. We fed the ducks (and the crazy seagulls)


We went to my sister Natalie's soccer game. We had to practice saying "Go Tigers" since my kids always say "Go Cougars." Actually James still said "Go Coug!"


We also went to the zoo. It was a pretty cold and misty day, so no one was there, but the animals were quite active. This monkey came right up to the glass to check Spencer out, it was pretty cool.


Here are some other pictures from the zoo





I have never heard a lion roar before, but it must have been the weather or something, this lion was definitely roaring.


Here is Spencer being Spencer

Dinning tables and chairs were half off at Shopko, I have been wanting to get one, so it was perfect timing. My parents van was quite packed on the trip home. We only had one little seat up in the back for Spencer and he was totally packed in. I forgot to take a picture, but he called it his castle. He actually said he was a princess in a castle. We tried to convince him to be a prince in a castle, but you never hear much about the prince.
On the way back we stayed at my sister's house in Salt Lake overnight. Spencer loves to play with his cousins and dress up in the Superhero costumes. I couldn't stop laughing at him the Hulk costume.



Anyway, it was a great trip. We had a lot of fun. Just the other night Spencer said "Remember when we went to Grandma's?" He loves visiting people, which is good since we travel a lot.
I figured out that in less than a year's time we have been to California twice (10 hours one way) to Texas twice (16 hours one way) and to Idaho Falls twice (also 10 hours one was) not to mention trips to Salt Lake, Albuquerque and Walmart in Farmington (2.5 hours one way). It is really good that our boys are good travelers, they have a lot of practice!

First Day of Preschool

Or internet is finally up and running, and i am finally unpacked from Idaho, so i might be posting a lot!
Here is Spencer on his first day of preschool. We are just doing a little co-op preschool we each teach one day a week. It's nothing big, but it is fun. Spencer enjoys being with his friends, and whenever i ask what he learned about he says "letters."

Happy Birthday Sarah

Devon always makes my birthday wonderful. He had a big sign hung up for me to wake up to, and made me breakfast.

We went out to eat at our favorite place to eat around here, the Hampton inn. We tried something new, the Sheepherder's Sandwich, and now it's my favorite.
Of course I got lots of presents which is fun. Devon is a great gift buyer!



Then we had ice cream "pizza" which is even better than cake, it was a great day!

Our Garden

This year since we stayed in MV for the summer we tried our hand at gardening. Some things did not grow at all, but the things that did grow grew really well. We have lots of beans, tomatoes and cucumbers. Luckily the High School garden keeps us stocked up with everything else. I love harvest season- everything is so yummy!

Lightning Storm

Devon got a pretty neat video of a lightning storm one night. There are some pretty cool frames in there if you can freeze it just right. Of course, the real thing was more amazing- but this is pretty good!

Spencer has an amazing imagination. After using Elizabeth's camera he insisted that we make one for him out of paper. He spent a lot of time snapping pictures and looking at the screen on the back to check them out. He would even print them out for you.
The other day he was watching Backyardagins and they were using a metal detector. After I figured out how to make one he found a lot of gold and money all over the complex.
The great part about those things was that he really thought they were real, and he was totally satisfied with the paper version. Not so with the roller skates. After insisting for about 1 hour that I could not make roller skates (like he had seen on George) I finally cut out some paper circles and taped them on his shoes in hopes that that would satisfy him. I think he was quite surprised that they didn't actually work. He said "Well, they will work on the ramp." No luck there either. He finally tried his "Abra-cadabra wand" but even that would not make those paper wheels turn. He usually asks me to make roller skates about once a day now, until today when his friend brought out roller blades. He tried them, and since then has been asking all of the other teachers "Excuse me, do you know how to make roller skates?" At least he doesn't give up easily- or ever.
I do love to see him play though. He is always imagining something huge and wonderful. A few days ago we made a movie studio in his room with a flashlight and toy dinosaurs. Maybe he will be an inventor when he grows up!

Last weekend of summer

So I have been wanting to post these pictures for a while, but our internet has been mostly down. It usually doesn't work, but when it does it's like dial-up speed, how did we ever live with that? Today it is moving pretty fast though.
So the last weekend of the summer we packed with some fun things from around here. On Friday Devon had a school meeting in Blanding, so the boys and I met him and we tried the Dinosaur Museum. The boys really enjoyed it. James kept saying "Wow, Wow!" Spencer was running around looking at everything- luckily we were the only ones there.




Then we went to Monticello. We really made the whole trip to meet up with Thomas and Elizabeth on their way through to Texas, but Devon's meeting got over early, so we had some time. We stopped by the county fair. It was not too exciting. They had some big bouncy things, but they were expensive to go on. Other than that is was pretty much animals. But the boys loved it, especially the pigs. And they got to meet Smoky the Bear.



We didn't get any pictures with Thomas and Elizabeth, but we met up with them and went to a yummy burger place. Elizabeth let Spencer take pictures with her digital camera. He loved it. It scared me to death, but the camera was still in one piece when they left.
The next day we went on an excursion with the Whitakers. They have been gone all summer, so we wanted to have one last party with them. We went to this campground that we had heard about with the plan of roasting hot dogs and playing in the river. First the sign that said "No fires" ruined our plans. Also the river was quite high from all of the rain, so we turned around and changed plans. We ended up cooking our hot dogs at the church and roasting marshmallows over the burners.


We did find a place to wade in the river. It was so muddy! We had a good time though. James stayed right at the edge and threw rocks in. At that age Spencer would have been heading for the middle of the river. It's nice to have different personalities.
Now school has been in session for 2 weeks. It's been a much easier adjustment this year with no new babies. Actually, by the end of the summer (but not until the last week) I was ready to return to some semblance of schedule. It was a great summer.