Back to School 2014

We were all excited to start back up at school this year.  We don't find out who the kids' teachers are until about one week before school so there is always great anticipation during the summer.  

Here they are in front of the "tree that never seems to grow."  Maybe when I take photos of them in high school we will finally see a difference in our scrawny tree.  But I swear that thing looks just like it did in Tess's Preschool pic...  

 Tess was thrilled to have Mr. Yamashita this year; he is one of the favorite teachers at the school.  He is a really friendly guy and all the kids who've had him love him.

 Miles is in the Spanish Immersion program at Freedom Elementary and we are so excited about it.  (It is only available beginning in 1st grade, and the program didn't exist until Tess's 2nd grade year, so unfortunately she didn't get the chance to do it.)  The students have 2 teachers and spend half their day in English and half in Spanish.  The Spanish teacher cannot speak English in front of her students.  Not a word.  It's a really cool program and I can already see Miles picking up some of the language.  It will be amazing to see how much he knows after the school year really gets going.  He will continue in the program throughout elementary school, and then the Junior High and High School will also offer classes in Spanish--not "learning Spanish" classes, but other core curriculum classes, taught completely in Spanish.  We knew Miles would have Señora Loya-Baca because she is the Spanish teacher, but we weren't sure who his English teacher would be (and I didn't get a picture of her!)  But her name is Mrs. Heaton.

Bree had to wait a few days for her big day.  We are doing a neighborhood Joy School (preschool co-op) again this year and I actually am teaching for the first 3 days of class.  So I didn't take a picture of her with her teacher (there are 8 of us, taking turns.)  But here she is, so excited to be going to school like her bro and sis!

 (Her princess backpack has a spot where we can put a picture of her in it.  I got a good one of her in her princess dress-up.  Tess used this backpack too, and I just think it's cute.)

(Just for fun I went back to Tess's preschool pic, in September 2009, and yeah, I guess the tree has grown.  But not a lot!  Tess, however, HAS grown a lot!) ;)

Throwback...

One of my favorite pictures of me with my brother and sister is this one, where we are all sharing a drink with Silly Straws.  I love how we are all happy and I love the hairstyles and I love how my big bro is looking shyly at the camera with a tiny grin.  It's just a cute picture.

 ....so, I thought it would be fun to re-create it with my own kiddos, since they are roughly the same ages we were in the first photo.  I actually had a hard time finding those dumb Silly Straws, believe it or not, and the ones I found were super long.  So the poor kids had to hold the drink way down low.  But other than that, I think it's a pretty good re-creation.

Ogden Temple Open House

The Ogden Temple is soon to be re-dedicated after its huge renovation.  We were happy to go through the open house as a family.  Unfortunately we were there on a super stormy night.  I suggested we take a few pictures first in case it started to rain.  Here's one we got during the crazy windy portion of the evening.

They quickly let us all file into the tabernacle to get us out of the rain.  We sat in there for a while waiting our turn.  By the time they let us go out across the grounds to the temple it was pouring!  And there was a log-jam to get in because everyone has to stop to get the little booties on their shoes to protect the carpet.  We were pretty drenched when we got in, but that's OK.  We had dried out a bit by the time we walked through and the rain had mostly stopped when we were done.

It is a beautiful temple!  The inside and outside is just stunning.  They have completely re-done the grounds as well and it's just gorgeous.  I am so excited to have this be our home temple.

I also have a neat opportunity to play the piano in the little exhibit tent they have set up in the parking lot.  It's just a place where people can walk through and see the missionaries if they have questions and learn more about what went into the building of the temple, including seeing samples of all the stone and glass work up close.  They also have a cool video there called "3 Years in 30 Seconds" which is a time-lapse video of the construction of the temple.  Anyway, there is a grand piano in the tent and they want music playing inside to just set a nice reverent tone.  I play the piano for an hour a week there until the temple is re-dedicated in September.  I really enjoy it!

Blacksmith Fork 2014

I blog every year about our camping trip to Blacksmith Fork Canyon in Cache Valley.  It's still our favorite!  So much fun!  This year Miles suggested that Bryan bring the zipline.  Great idea!  When we tried it at Simpson Springs, it worked, but only sort of.  The trees out there are short, dry, and they break easily.  These trees are huge and tall and strong.  So it was much better.  Bryan's sister Johanna and her family joined us and between all 7 kids there was a worn out path up and down the zipline trail.  They dragged each other up and down that thing hundreds of times!  When it would start going a little slow, Bryan would WD-40 it, but then even that wasn't cutting it (these kids wanted it to go FAST!), so he put a little motor oil on the line.  Man, did it zoom after that!  Unfortunately for the first few rides after the oil treatment, when the rider hit the end of the line a little bit of oil dripped down on her face....case in point:

Bryan and Miles did a little fishing and Miles caught his first fish!

He was really proud and excited to have it for dinner that night too.  He even learned how to gut a fish on his own (yuck.  I do not like to watch that part...)

You can tell by the looks on the girls' faces how they felt about holding the slimy wriggling fish...

(both of those pictures were taken milliseconds before each girl dropped the fish on the ground, disgusted by it.)

Here we are with Annika going on a little morning hike.  It's beautiful!  

We also rode four-wheelers, played games, and visited and ate around the campfire.  And we always like to go into Logan for lunch (The Bluebird) and to stock up on the cheap cheese and yummy milk at Gossner's.    What a great trip!