An early Christmas in St. George

Since Grandma and Grandpa won't be here for Christmas this year, we decided to celebrate early while we were all in St. George (excepts for the Fords who are in St. Louis - we miss you!).
We decorated the tree.

We ate a big breakfast of French toast, bacon and juice.
We were so excited - Gavin especially!  He thought this was the best idea and couldn't believe we got to be in St. George over Labor Day and celebrate Christmas!

And we opened stockings and presents!  What fun!

It was a really fun 'Christmas' morning and one we will never forget!
After presents, our family rushed to get ready for church.  We went to our usual retirement branch and everyone loved the kids.  The rest of the day we played games, went for walks and watched some movies.  It was a great 'Christmas'.

Zions

Our family hasn't been to Zions in years, and now we have been twice in a matter of months!
We were visiting St. George with the Randalls over Labor Day and Grandpa wanted to go into the park.  He also hadn't been in years.  We, unfortunately, choose the busiest day of the year at Zions.  It was so crowded.  We parked half way through Springdale and rode the shuttle to the entrance (after eating our Subways on some grass in town).
The kids had done their entire Junior Ranger packet in the spring and the only thing they had left was the Ranger talk.  We rushed to get to one at the Museum.  The Ranger talked about animals in the park and that was fun for the kids.  Enoch even volunteered to be a water tiger.

Can't you see how much fun we are having?!

We wanted to take it easy with the kids this trip so we opted to go on the Weeping Rock hike.  Grandma, Grandpa, Jarom and Gavin went on an overlook hike that was a bit more strenuous that we wanted.  We meet them back at the condo that afternoon for dinner and swimming.

We had a great time on our hike!

The best part of the hike was the stream at the bottom.  Greg and I made ourselves comfortable on the sandy banks and let the kids play for as long as they wanted (I think we were there for about an hour).  The water was just the right height for Guard and still enough for Kate and Enoch to have fun. 
They had a great time - water, sand, sun and family.   It was so good to see them outside playing and not looking at a screen!

Guard gets the prize for the biggest stick!

When the kids were tired and thristy, we headed back down the canyon on the shuttles.  They were crowded, but the park had enough going that it wasn't too bad.  We had the stand most of the time, but we got where we were going.

Back at the Visitor Center, the kids turned in their Junior Ranger packets, took the pledge and received their pins (we also got patched at the bookstore).  Wow!  That makes six Junior Ranger pins this summer!

Hmmm...we were all a bit exhausted at this point, but still more fun.  After dinner at Randall's condo, we all went swimming.  I can't believe the kids still had energy!

It was a great day!  And, we all slept well that night!

Scattered Thoughts on Kate

1.  Tonight Kate asked me how old Gavin was when we moved into our house.  I told her four months old.  She looked amazed and then said, "Wow!  You have lived here a long time.  That must be why it's so dusty."  Yep.  Sixteen years of dust.  Or seven days, since I dusted last week.

2.  Kate came home from gymnastics with a hurt, swollen wrist.  She fell off the beam.  We gave her some Advil and iced it.  Her first real injury.  I hope there aren't too many more of these!

3.  Kate's lunch is completely gone every day.  She is 'starving' at school and she finishes off her lunch and then eats a big snack after school.

4.  She is loving riding her bike to school.  She always zooms ahead of Enoch and then Enoch comes home and yells at her because they are suppose to stick together and it's his job to make sure she is okay.  I know Enoch's yelling comes from a place of love (hehe).

First day of School

Last night, Kate came into my room and said she didn't feel well.  I told her it was perfectly normal to feel nervous or scared before starting school, especially first grade.  That most of her friends were nervous too.  That everything will be okay tomorrow.  That she would be a wonderful first-grader.
She gave me her look.
She interrupted me and said, "Mom, I hit my knee on the beam tonight at gym class.  I'm not nervous about school, my knee hurts.  Are you scared about me going to school, because it kinda seems like you are."
Typical.
Kate just goes and does.  She usually isn't too worked up about things.   Her mother does all the worrying for her.
And guess what - she did great!  She came home from school tired and hungry, but so excited and couldn't wait to go the next day.

Enoch, unfortunately, tends to take after his mom and does his own worrying about school.  He has a love-hate relationship with school; he loves to learn, but often a traditional classroom setting isn't really his preferred way of learning.  But, he is excited about his teacher this year and thinks that she will be great.

Gavin is now a junior.  That's about all I know about him this year.  He doesn't talk to us much about how he is feeling and if we ask, we get his look.  I do know he is happy to be busy again.

We started our morning with our traditional french toast with bacon.  I jazzed it up a bit this year and also had peaches and caramel syrup for your french toast.  Most of the kids opted for normal syrup.

Greg and I drove to the school with Guard while Enoch and Kate rode their bikes.  (Gavin left 45 minutes before school started so he could get a parking spot.  Yep.  That's the over-crowded Utah high school he attends.)

The kids are so excited to ride their bikes together.  I am so excited that I don't have to drive and pick-up everyday (at least until the weather cools off).  Guard was pretty mad that he couldn't ride his bike too.  Probably will just continue with the mad theme when he realized that both his friends are now gone most of the day and he gets to hang out with mom.  Fun for him!
At school, we dropped off each of the kids at their classrooms.

The both were excited to be there.  We explained to Enoch that he needed to look after Kate.  He was to drop her off at her class in the morning and then pick her up after school and ride home together.  He is taking his responsibility very seriously.
I think it's going to be a great year for everyone!

After school, everyone washed their hands, told me about their day and then we ate gingersnaps and read Harry Potter.  It was a great day!

Zoo with G & G Fowler

We went to the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa Fowler.  The kids were so excited to show them all their favorite animals.  We rode the new train, which Guard adored.  He asked to ride it again and again.  We could have just stayed on that for two hours and he would have been happy.
The new African Savannah exhibit was open and it is fantastic.  The lions, zebras, ostriches and guinea fowl were out - no giraffes yet.  The lions came right up to the window and were checking out Guard.  Hmm...looks like a snack.
We did all the zoo stuff, including losing Enoch, which we do every time we go.  A lot of the animals were not very active, it was a very hot afternoon.  The biggest hit was the splash pad in Rocky Shores.  The kids loved it!  They played until the sun went down and they got too cold.  After a few trips to the zoo earlier in the summer, Mom has learned to bring towels and dry jammies in the car to change in to at the end of the day.
It was so much fun to go with Grandma and Grandpa.  For days after, Guard kept saying, "animals papa, animals papa."  I'm glad we squeezed in one last trip to the zoo this summer.

Bean and Ice Cream

My sister, Michelle, invited us to go to the Bean Museum today with her, Marcus and Lucy.  Of course!  We love BYU.
We have not been to the newly renovated Bean Museum yet.  It is fantastic!  They really have done a great job with it.  Once we got there (apparently, I have forgotten where the museum is and we had to drive around a bit) the kids loved seeing all the animals - Enoch liked the falcon, Kate always loves the wolves and Guard's favorite were the bears climbing in the trees.

After losing Enoch and Kate (they went downstairs and I couldn't find them anywhere!), playing on the slide, being grossed out by the huge beetles and walking around the giraffes a few times, the kids were done the animals and ready for ice cream.
The creamery was short-staffed today so we waited 30 minutes to get our scoops.  Enoch and Kate had chocolate, I had raspberries and cream cheese and Guard had, what else, orange sherbet.  It was so yummy!

What a fun day!  Thanks for inviting us Aunt Michelle.  We had a blast.