Matthew's First Day of Kindergarten

 Gotta love his Angry Bird backpack!

Matthew is an official Kindergartener.  That seems so crazy to me.  I will never forget the day he was born.  Ok I will stop crying and get back to Matthew.  I have to tell you a little bit about my Matthew.  He is such a great kid and always tries to help me out.  He is a sports nut and could play baseball 24/7 if you let him.  Now with that in mind, he is also a very nervous kid when it comes to something new.  Before any sport he has played, he has been extremely excited but extremely nervous.  Usually it results in a breakout of tears for a few minutes and then he is good to go.  So first day of Kindergarten comes and Matthew wakes up and starts to get dressed.  He is being pretty quiet so I am just hanging out waiting to see what happens.  Sure enough... he comes out with buckets of tears telling me he was going to throw up.  I could see he was just really nervous so I had to be very positive.  It is a good thing Matthew doesn't understand that I cry at everything because I had tears too but I was so happy for him.  So Kimberly and I sat there and did all we could to get him super excited and not nervous for Kindergarten.  I even threatened Matthew I would dance really silly just to make him laugh.  It worked.  By the time we got to school, he wasn't nervous and was happy.  Of course when I picked him up, he was so excited to tell me everything about school.  He loves it.  He is typically a shy kid so I didn't expect him to make friends right away.  We have been in school for about a week and he tells me he is starting to talk to the kids.  I am glad.

I love this kid... no matter how many buttons he tries to push.

Kimberly's First Day of 3rd Grade

Here is my beautiful 3rd grader!  It is crazy to me to think she is now in 3rd grade.  It also scares me to death what is coming up.  I mean 3rd grade was very innocent for me (I do recall this was the chicken pox outbreak for me) but 4th grade I started noticing boys.  So I better enjoy this year!

Kimberly had a couple new things this year.  First off she didn't want a backpack.  She wanted an over the head bag.  Ok so I was fine with that.  I think next year she might want to go back to a backpack but we shall see.  The second is she is obsessed with zebra stripes (hence the outfit).  She is talking about so much zebra stripes that I dreamed it one whole night.

Love this girl... no matter how crazy she drives me!

Lagoon Day

We took the kids to Lagoon on a Saturday just for fun.  We had a blast.  The kids enjoyed riding rides, Brian and I even rode a couple big roller coasters, and we ate lots of fun stuff.  It was a first for Lagoon for our kids and it had been many years for Brian and me.  Even Jacob had fun riding the ferris wheel and train.

Great day!

Fun in the sun

The title says it all.

Pioneer Day

For Pioneer Day (July 24th), our town goes all out for celebrating the Pioneers coming out west.  Our Stake (church) holds a morning breakfast and then the Primary children have a parade around the church.  Then the town has a big parade and then lots of fun activities for the rest of the night.

 Here are our pioneer children.  While most children ride their bikes or dress up and walk like pioneers, our children wanted to ride their 4wheeler and tractor.

 Jacob was still a bit young to be in the parade so instead he just wanted me to take pictures of him while we were waiting.

 Aren't they cute!

 During the big town parade, we joined the Girl Scout float.  Boy it was a hot parade time.  The morning was threatening rain but by parade time it was beautiful and hot.

Yes this is me as a Thin Mint.  I swear I shedded about 10 pounds (I wish) during this parade.  I was a big sweaty mess when all was said and done.  But it was a lot of fun.

Happy Pioneer Day!

Crested Butte CO

My cousin and his (now) wife decided to get married at Crested Butte CO.  So for 4 days Brian and I (without chicklets) and my parents went for a vacation there.  We stopped at a lot of places on the way and got to see country I haven't seen before.  The place is like Park City... a cute little ski resort.  It was warm but a lot of fun.  The wedding was beautiful despite all the rain.  On the last day I was missing my kids and was excited to see them.  My in-laws kept the kids for us and they said they were really good.  They had a lot of fun at Grandma's but seemed to be happy to be with us again.  It was a nice vacation for us.

 This was the view from our hotel room... okay suite.  This place was beautiful.  We had a 2 bedroom, 3 bath suite and as you can see... had a beautiful view of the mountains.  There was a ton to do up there if you were the athletic type.  You could mountain bike, hike, play mini golf, zipline, disc golf, etc.

 Friday night the bride and groom had a dinner for everyone.  It was at a park and these parks are nothing like our parks here in Logan.  I was trying to find a park in Logan that was small enough to compare it too.  It was a nice little park though and barely held all the people that were at this dinner.  The house behind the park was part of the party so we had somewhere to go if need be and it housed all the alcohol.  And when I say alcohol I mean a bar.  Jeez they had a lot of booze to drink.  Luckily there was normal pop and water for those of us that refrain from that kind of stuff.

Here we are getting ready to go ziplining.  It was a blast.  They had 5 platforms that we ziplined to so it wasn't just one big zipline and you were done.  It was 4 little ones and one big long one at the end.  Our zipline guides were fun and made us try different ways to jump off each platform.  I am quite a chicken and so I didn't do all of them but Brian did.  He isn't afraid of anything.  I was pretty proud of myself for trying this... I have become quite chicken in my old age.

 This is the video that Brian took of me on the last zipline.  Yes I am a dork but it was fun for our kids to see what we did.

 This was the beautiful wedding location.  It was up on the mountain at Uley's cabin.  We were supposed to ride the chair lift up but as you can see the dark clouds by this picture... it wasn't the best of weather.  An hour before we were supposed to go up, it downpoured.  Then it started lightning and thundering.  This put a halt on the chair lift so we had to bus up to the cabin.  My cousin was determined to ride the lift up (I think he needed the thinking quiet time before he got hitched) so he was all prepared to bribe the chair lift people.  They made a few phone calls and agreed to letting them ride up.  Luckily through the entire wedding and a couple hours of visiting and pictures afterwards, the weather held up and was beautiful.  Then when it was time for dinner in the big tent, the rain came and didn't stop all night.  It didn't dampen their spirits though.

 Here is the happy couple and their dog Penny Bean.  Penny Bean was the ring bearer/flower girl.  I am so happy for my cousin Brian.  He is such a good guy and has met a great gal.

 Here are my folks just hanging out waiting for dinner.

Here we are.  Poor Brian couldn't wear a hat so he looks bald.  haha.

We had a great vaca and we were so happy to see Brian and Kelsey get married.

Matthew's Preschool Graduation

Matthew graduated from preschool this past July.  All year he did a government-sponsored preschool called Upstart.  It was free and on the computer 5 days a week for at least 40 minutes a day.  He loved it.  It was his cup of tea.  He is the type of kid that loves video games and what not and this program was designed to learn but have a lot of fun while doing it.  When we started the program, Matthew knew 10 letters, a couple of numbers, and that was about it.  Within the first month, he learned all 26 letters, 10 numbers and was starting on the letter sounds.  By the end of the program, he was reading books and recognizing power words like the, and, is, etc.  I was very impressed with this program.  Matthew aced his Kindergarten assessment tests in the spring due to this program.  We were really proud of all the hard work he did.

 The kids had to go in and take the final test to show what they learned throughout the year.  When they finished, they got their diploma and hat and a goodie bag.  Then they introduced them to all of us and we gave them a cheer.  As you can see, Matthew hates that kind of attention and wasn't too thrilled to be put in the spotlight.

This is Rusty and Rosy from the program.  Matthew looks like a dork but I still love the kid.

Now on to Kindergarten and new adventures!

20th (ugh) High School Reunion

Yes I am that old.  This summer marked my 20th class reunion.  Some people like reunions, others could do without.  I frankly am in between.  I came from a graduating class of 70ish people and I am probably still friends (thru facebook) with 50 of them.  I have enjoyed keeping in touch with everyone but wasn't too sure about going to see everyone.  But my besty from high school was partly in charge so I kind of felt obligated to go and support. 

The first night was a couple night at the high school.  We had a nice dinner, lots of reiminiscing, and just visiting.  It was kind of neat to go back into the high school after all these years.  My high school has changed a bunch so it was hard to remember it when I went there.  There were about 25 different couples.

The second day was a family picnic.  Less couples came but we still had fun.  We enjoyed a nice lunch and then a couple games.  The pictures below are kind of fun because it shows just how many kids we have all had.

Not sure if I will make anymore reunions but I do hope I can keep in touch with my class.  It is fun to see where everyone has ended up.

July 4, 2012

4th of July is our day to spend at my parents' house.  My home town does a big parade and carnival for the 4th and so we enjoy going up and seeing the festivities.  Thank goodness this year no one got sick beforehand.  The parade and carnival was fun.

 Jacob in his new chair from Grammie.  He wasn't too sure about the parade but he loved that they threw him candy.

 This is my dad in the Army truck.  Normally he martches but with a total knee replacement last year and a bum knee this year, he opted to ride.  He said it was pretty uncomfortable and would have rather marched.

 Kimberly and Matthew enjoying the parade... well sort of.  This was the part of the parade with the loud fire trucks and as you can see, Matthew isn't too happy about it.

 Smile and wave is what I have always taught the kids and it seems to get them more candy.

Jacob is guarding the candy bag... haha.  Well actually he is just eating candy like crazy.

We had a lot of fun and it is something we look forward to every year.
Happy 4th of July!

Girl Scout Backyard Campout

This summer we had a Girl Scout backyard campout at Stephanie Guerrero's house.  It was super hot but we had a blast.  Earned a few patches in hiking (around the neighborhood with a scavenger hunt), sleeping over (silly girls do not like to go to bed), and first aid (these girls know their bandaids).  We also learned some new games, learned a new craft, and had a ball around a campfire.  It was a great success.  Can't wait for next years!

 Making their team signs.  Our theme was Treasures in the Wild and we had a treasure theme throughout the entire campout.

 Having fun with glitter.

 Happy smiles after getting our tents up.

 Hanging out around the campfire.  Yes we had smores and sang songs.  There was some dancing involved.

The morning after.  Some of the girls have some serious bedhead!

T-ball for Matthew

My sports freak Matthew got to do T-ball this year.  He loves to play baseball with daddy every day so I knew he would have fun playing ball.  Sure enough he had a ball.  He is a pretty good player too.  He is a great team player and enjoyed playing first base and front base (his version of pitcher).  We are proud of him and what he did in T-ball.

 Playing catch with daddy before the game.  Kimberly took the pictures and was going for an action shot.

 He was an Oriole and loved looking the part.  He was so good to listen to his coach and not play around.

 His teammates.  Most of them were stinkers and did some crazy things.

Waiting to bat.  Luckily we were in the shade this day.  Whew it was a hot season (all of 1 month).

Swimming 2012

Our annual swimming lessons at Sports Acadamy this year didn't disappoint.  The kids learned a ton and did a great job.  Both loved their teachers.  They are little fish in the water.  I am so grateful for their love of the water.

 Kimberly swimming and cheesing it up.

 Matthew in his class.  He is in his alien green goggles.

 Kimberly side swimming.  This is the one thing she learned and did great this year.  She may not have the best form but she still gets to the other side of the pool.

 Matthew cheesing for the camera.

Matthew doing his back float.  He always asks me if he looks like a dead fish when he floats.  I tell him yes he does and I am so proud.  haha