What's New?

The Summer is swiftly passing. . . sigh.

It is already almost registration for school, and I just took Mia to get her shots for Kindergarten yesterday. In a few short weeks I will be sending the kids off for the first day of school, and my baby off as well. sniffle. sniffle.

But until then, we will continue to enjoy our summer!

We have been lucky to see Julia and Jacob and their kids a few days this month. I only got this one picture of the kids on the tramp. . . . But they had a blast playing together. Even Macey enjoyed being bounced around on the tramp!

Other exciting new for me is I got a piano!!

Eliza ( my sister in law) decided that she was going to get rid of her piano, so I jumped at the opportunity! It fit perfectly. . . . so let the music playing begin!! (actually I have not played in YEARS, so I am not very good . . . in fact I was never very good to start, but I can't wait to play again). I just need to find some good sheet music to play!

And of course, there is nothing like stopping for some shaved ice on a hot summer day!!

Testimony

Last night for FHE we decided to have each of us pick one of our favorite primary songs and tell why it is our favorite, and then sing it.

Kennedy chose "If the Savior Stood Beside Me": If the Savior stood beside me, would I do the things I do? Would I think of His commandments and try harder to be true? Would I follow His example? Would I live more righteously? If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me. If the Savior stood beside me, would I say the things I say? Would me words be true and kind if He were never far away? Would I try to share the gospel? Would I speak more revrently? If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me. He is alway near me though I do not see him there, And because He loves me dearly, I am in His watchful care. So I'll be the kind of person that I know I'd like to be If I could see the Savior standing nigh, watching over me.

I think there is great power in singing primary songs and Hymns. When I asked Kennedy why she chose this song, she said she could feel the spirit as she sang and that she knows the Savior is near. Then Luke proceeded to say (without being asked or prodded. .. . remember he is a teenager now!). . . that as Kennedy was singing the song it made him think back of his day and what he maybe should have done differently and what he did right and what choices he made through out the day.

As I said. .. . there is power and testimony building experiences that come when we sing the Hymns of the church. We are not that great of singers, and we were off key a lot. . . . but the power of the words came true.

What have we been up to??

There just doesn't seem to be time to get caught up. . .. so here is another taste of happenings around hereSwimming lessons. . . All three girls have been taking lessons and are doing fantastic!! Of course Kennedy celebrated a birthday last month. We went to jumping jacks and Kennedy invited one of her good friends to come along. After, we asked her where she wanted to eat. .. and she said she wanted steak!! We went to the Golden Corral, figured there was a bit of everything there.

Elizabeth lost one of her front teeth. It was a bit of a traumatic experience for her. . . can you tell her eyes are red in the picture?? But we got it out of there and the tooth fairy came, too! We have squeezed in one more hike into our schedule. . . .but that is it. I am so busy at work that my one a week isn't likely now. . .. but we still get out when we can. This was a nice short hike up to another waterfall. Last night we got together with David's family at the Lindon Pool to celebrate a couple family birthdays. It was a beautiful day, and we really enjoyed playing for the afternoon and into the evening. The boys really liked the surfing simulater and spent the whole day on that.

I have been terrible at picture taking.. . . here are a few more things that have happened this month. .

• Luke Celebrated his 13th birthday!! Yikes. . . let the teenage years begin!!
• Kennedy took a week long trip to California with my parents to visit Shareen and her family. My Mom documented the trip on her blog.
• Luke spent a week at Scout Camp at Bear Lake. I think it is pretty cool to go to Bear Lake for scout camp!! He had a blast. . . .
• I have worked a whole lot of hours at Nordstrom!
• Jacob and Julia and their family came to stay a couple nights. . . .no photos. sigh. Luckily we get to see them again later in the month, so hopefully I will remember to get the camera out!
• Julia and I snuck out to see Eclipse one night. . . I really liked it!!
• David has spent a lot of hours working out at the school and taking care of the kids and running our business. . . .he is busy too!

I consider this my catch up. . . . not the best post. But a glimpse of things here. The Nordstrom Anniversary sale starts this weekend. . . .so a lot more working for me!!

Seven peaks. . . . Real Salt Lake

I am playing catch- up yet again. This post is from over two weeks ago. . .sigh. We had some free passes to Seven Peaks, the local water park, so took all the kids for some fun one afternoon. This is Luke and Chase striking a pose. . . .

We were able to get some tubes as some families were leaving to use on the rides. Lucky us!!

It wasn't the hottest day, so we definitely had to bundle in our towels when we got out of the water.

On June 9th, David and I took Luke and Kennedy to the Real Salt Lake professional soccer game. It was a blast. They did postpone the game for about 45 minutes due to some thunder and rain, but once the game got going, the weather was fantastic! AFter the game was finished, we were treated to a concert by David Cook. He was the American Idol winner a couple seasons back. I think Kennedy thought it was a bit loud, but the rest of us had fun! Luke and I went down on the field and got fairly close to the stage. We could have pushed our way up closer. .. but you know me. Way too passive. The stadium was awesome. It it recently built to host the team. Did you know that the Real team won the MLS title last year?? All the seats around us were actually full. I took this photo before the seats filled in. Not sure what is up with Luke's eyes here. . . . .

Why am I so far behind, you might ask?? Well things have been extra busy for me so far this summer. I got a job working at. . . .

I decided to go back to work this summer and help out with the big anniversary sale. I am pretty much working full time through July. It makes things a bit different for me and the family, but we are doing well. And I am enjoying my work, although I would prefer to work just part-time. I took a full time position for six weeks to get my foot back in the door and hope that come fall I can get the part time position that I want!!

I will continue to play blog catch-up for a while. . . . .so stay tuned.

Hike. .. number 1. Diamond Fork Canyon. Hot Springs

I have decided that I want to do some hiking this summer. My goal is to try to get out about once a week (not sure if once a week will happen. . .. but I will try!). So this morning we got up and drove up the Diamond Fork Canyon about 10 miles to the Three Forks trail head to walk up to the Natural Hot springs there.

As you can see, it was absolutely beautiful!! The hike was about 2 1/2 miles each way, but ran right along the river the whole time, had some nice shady parts, and wasn't too difficult terrain wise. All the kids made it on their own, including Mia. We had a blast in the Hot Springs (although it did stink from the sulpher), and the water fall and other surrounding were majestic. I had heard that there is sometimes a problem with people skinny dipping in the area, and was a bit leery to take the kids, but thought going during the day should be safe. I was very happy to find every one in bathing suits at the top!

End Of School. . . St. George

The end of May is always busy with school festivities. Here is a small taste of what was going on. . . .I attended two different Preschool Graduations for Mia. So my baby is heading off to Kindergarten next Fall. .. . don't get me started or I might tear up! I also attended 2 school programs for Kennedy and Elizabeth. This is Kennedy standing by her "body" she made of herself.

Luke had some fun festivities at the end of the year, including going to Lagoon with his school. I was also impressed with him when his report card showed up in the mail. . . 4.0! All year long!! Way to go, Luke!!

I don't have more pictures of ball games, but Luke's baseball team played in a tournament over memorial day weekend. They struggled their first two games, should have one their third, and then finally pulled it together and won their last game.

I decided at the last minute to take off and head to St. George with the girls for the weekend. Julia and Macey were visiting Mom and Dad, and we just couldn't resist going to see everyone!

I didn't take many pictures, but my girls LOVE Macey (well, I don't know who couldn't love her. . .she is soo sweet). They were crowded around her just about like this all weekend long.

On Saturday afternoon, Julia and I took the kids down to Main Street in St. George where they have a really nice water fountain, and river for the kids to play in. It was a nice way to play and enjoy the sun for a couple hours while giving Mom and Dad a little break from the kids!! We also went to the Tuachan Saturday market in the morning. There were some booths set up with crafts, etc. My girls enjoyed picking out some really cute flower clips and of course had to get some shaved ice. .. (thanks, Grandpa!). Mom, Julia, and I went on some killer walks about every day. I came home with the girls Monday evening. . . . we had a really good time. It was a great way to kick off the summer!

Before I left, I "stole" a few rocks from the empty lot next to mom and dad's house to bring home and put in the yard. One of them was nice and flat, and Julia mentioned to me how we should carve out our name on it. So I mentioned it to David as we were unloading our new yard rocks. . . .and you can see he liked the idea!

May Festivities!

David and I celebrated our 15 year anniversary by heading to Midway, UT for a two night getaway. Midway is about 20 minutes from Park City. We left Tuesday after school and were back by Thursday at noon, but it was an enjoyable time away. We spent all day Wednesday in Park City. .. hit the outlets, had some lunch, walked the desereted Main Street (it is definitely the off season right now. .. there was barely anyone around!). .. .and then went to the movie "Iron Man 2". We both really liked the show. Unfortunately, I was having some stomach issues, so we spent the evening with me laying on the couch, and then went to dinner where I watched David eat!! Despite my little illness, we had a really nice time! This was one of our stops in Park City. . . we tried Gelato for the first time, and we both loved it! Luke continues to play baseball. His team is getting better, but lost a couple close ones this weekend by just a run each. Luke went on a campout Friday night for scouts, and got home just in time for his games on Saturday. He had very little sleep, ate a lot of junk. .. add that to playing in the sun for 2 hours. . . well it doesn't add up to anything good. By the time Luke's second game came along he was feeling really sick playing third base.. . . and let's just say it wasn't very pretty! Luke didn't make it for his second game. No more campouts before baseball games!!!

The girls have each been taking a dance class since January, and their final performance recital was Saturday afternoon. They all did so good and looked so cute up there! David couldn't believe that Mia actually got up on stage to perform. .. he thought for sure she would freeze up! You can watch their performances here if you wish (It is a bit long, so I really don't expect anyone to. .. But if you do, Mia's is first. . .she is in the Pink. Kennedy is on the left with the hot pink skirt and white shirt. Elizabeth walks on first in her dance).

Mia and Elizabeth both took a ballet class, and Kennedy did ballroom dance. They all loved it! Their teacher has a small studio in the basement of her house and only taught about 5 classes. The recital was outside in her backyard. I loved how small everything was. . .. for me is was absolutely perfect!!

On another note, my baby is growing up! She will "graduate" from preschool this next week. As I dropped her off at one of her preschools this week, I watched her run in . .. and it made me a bit sad. At the start of the year, I had to hold her hand and walk her in to the classroom. Not too long ago, she started to walk in herself, but she would look back several time to wave to me . . .. now there are days that she runs in without a backward glance. Time goes way too fast!!