Grandpa's Party

This happened awhile ago but I am finally catching up on the blog.  My dad has a work party every year and we were able to go with them.  It was a lot of fun.

We started off with some really yummy lunch - I think I ate too many French fries.

Then it was time to play.  Whitney was the only one brave enough to try the mechanical bull.  It actually moved really slowly but Whitney didn't seem to mind.

This is hard to tell but it is Whitney in a money machine.  Unfortunately, it wasn't real money.  But she did catch enough to earn a free blizzard from Dairy Queen.

There were several bounce houses for the kids to play on.

We went around to all the carnival games.

One of the great things about this party is all the free treats.  We got to try sno-cones, popsicles, cotton candy, and kettle corn.  So yummy!

There was a clown making balloons for the kids.

Whitney tries the rock wall.  We waited in line for literally like 30 minutes for this activity.  Whitney did awesome climbing up the wall.  She was faster than even some of the older kids we watched climbing.

And here is Adam with his new Seattle Seahawks teddy bear.  Doesn't he look happy?

Anyway, this was a fun party.

School Updates

Most people know that I am homeschooling Whitney and doing preschool with Rachel and Megan, but we have dipped our toes into the waters of the school system.

Whitney is going to Sunset Elementary School for music and art.  She joins another class of first graders and goes with them.  She loves going to school everyday and she talks about some of the other students.

Since Whitney is only gone for half an hour, we usually just stay at the school.  When the weather is nice, the girls like to run around the field.

Adam gets to hang out with mom.  Now that is has gotten colder, we usually spend the time inside playing toy people or reading books while we wait.  Adam has won over all the office people we see everyday.

Rachel is also doing some school.  She goes to head start twice a week for the morning.  Here she is excited about her first day at school.

And getting on the bus.  I was only a little worried all day and kept praying for her safety.  There has only been some bus envy from the other short people.

And this is Rachel inside her school building.  We were able to go inside and meet her teacher.  Her teacher promptly quit after like two weeks, so now we have met her new teacher.

Rachel is also loving school.  She tells me that she plays a lot and practices writing her name and gets to eat lunch.
So our toes are dipped into the water of school and so far it is going really well.  In fact, Whitney has informed me that she wants to go to public school full time next year.  I guess we will see.

Everything Else in Utah

So I know it has been a long time since we have posted.  Unfortunately, everyone caught a cold, which turned into fever and all that good stuff.  Now we are mostly recovered and I am ready to post some more pictures.  Now these pictures are from awhile ago but here are some pictures from everything else we did in Utah.

This is us at the dinosaur museum.

Rachel making a sand castle.  We played with the little toy dinosaurs for awhile.

Adam loved being in the dirt.  The girls were able to dig for bones; Adam mostly just ate dirt.

We were able to spend a day in Salt Lake and that was fun.  Here we are at temple square.

We went to the Church History Museum.  Adam and Megan are inside what was representing the prison Joseph Smith was held in.  After taking a picture I realized why Adam was upset, it was freezing inside.

This is a real angel Moroni statue that was removed from a temple to be replaced by a new one.  The girls were allowed to put on gloves and touch the statue.  Adam slept through the excitement.

Then we decided to go visit the home of Brigham Young - the Lion House and the Beehive House.  We were able to tour the Beehive House.

This is the real coat worn by Brigham Young.

Will's mom grew up in Salt Lake so we decided to go see her home.  We stopped for lunch at the top of the hill.  It was a beautiful view.

On another day we went to go visit the farm.  It was fun petting the animals.

And feeding the ducks was a treat.

On our last full day in Utah we went up the American Fork Canyon.  It was a little chilly but Grandma Keeler let everyone borrow some long shirts to stay warmer.

We had a tasty barbecue.  Will decided to try to roast an apple.  It was pretty yummy.

Then we went on a hike.  We found this huge rock and everyone pretended to try to push it over.  It was a really fun day.

On our way out of Utah we stopped really quickly at my friend's house.  Next time we will have to visit longer because it was too short.

Anyway, Utah was amazing.  I can't wait to go back.

Sibling Time

I have many siblings who live in Utah.  It was fun seeing them and spending time together.

We spent a lot of time at Erin and David's house in Lehi.  My sister Kylee and her husband Chas were also able to be there for Labor Day weekend.  So that made it extra special.

Here is Adam next to his newest cousin (although two more cousins are on the way in February).  Doesn't he look enormous?  It was fun hanging out at the house playing lots of games.  My girls loved it too because they got to watch many, many episodes of Super Why.

On Monday we decided to go to BYU campus and hang out.  I had forgotten how pretty it is.  Megan reminded me by pulling at the leaves and telling me how pretty they were.  Erin with her daughter Tessa are in the back.  We were in 'The Slow Group'.

The Museum of Art had an exhibit about Jesus.  I didn't get a lot of good pictures though because you cannot use flash and it was dark.

Here the girls are in front of the figurines of The Last Supper.

Right as you step into the museum you see a huge rainbow of stringy lights. It was beautiful.  

Then we raced back to Lehi to see the parade.  My siblings came to the parade with us and we met up with Will's parents.

It was a short parade but Adam didn't mind; he had french fries.

Giving the bear a high five after the parade.  Then we went back to Will's parents' house and played more games.  I love my siblings and being able to spend time with them.

Pools and Parks

We didn't want to do anything major that first Saturday we were in Utah.  But after resting for a couple of hours, we felt ready to go hang out at the Legacy pool.  My sister and her family were able to join us at the pool.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of them because I was always in the pool when they were there.  But it was fun being with them and seeing their new baby.

Here are a few pictures I got right before we decided to leave - Adam spends time with Grandpa Keeler.

Slightly blurry but you can see a kid on Will's back.

They had a neat playground area with a slide that was just the right size for my girls.

Whitney loved the water and never wanted to leave the pool.  There was a special baby area that we stayed at for awhile but didn't get any pictures.

On Sunday, the kids needed to get out some energy. So we went to the park after church.

Even Will got into the action.

It was a pretty neat park.

Whitney and Rachel did a lot of climbing of a lot of trees.

Megan preferred sitting by Grandma Keeler at the stream.  I believe there was even a stick or two thrown in.

So Utah was fun.  I will post some more pictures soon.