Yellowstone Family Reunion

WARNING: There are a lot of pictures to follow!

Over Labor Day weekend our family attended a reunion for my side of the family...in Yellowstone! Everyone was there except my younger brother. We missed you, Jeff!
Day 1- We arrived at the cabin in the evening and had dinner outside and a campfire. The kids had fun running in the woods and exploring the cabin.

Real men build fires while holding a baby.

Day 2- We drove for 3 hours to get to our first stop. Thanks to a road closure, it took us twice as long as it should have. But what a beautiful drive.

Here's just part of our caravan, starting with the black car. There were two others somewhere.
One would think that Dave was viewing wildlife, but no....license plates. Each family battled against each other to see who could find the most plates by the end of the weekend. Oh yeah...we won!

My awesome sister, Laurel designed these matching shirts. We got quite a few comments and stares from other tourists. What like people have never seen a huge herd of white shirts before?
The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Day 3- We attended church at the local branch. It was the most people I have ever seen at one Sacrament Meeting. They counted more than 1900 people and they still passed the Sacrament which took about 50 minutes. We sat in the kitchen, but others were lined up outside the building, lined in the halls, packed into every classroom, and outside huddled next to windows to hear the testimonies. They even held a second meeting which hosted about 1200 more. What a cool experience.

After church we drove to Big Springs and fed fish and walked the bridges. It was a beautiful scenery!

We then drove to Old Faithful and walked the boardwalks to Morning Glory Pool.

We sure got an up close look at some Bison and watched one roll in the dirt. Really cool! In fact some tourists got a little too close and a couple Bison came to protect the baby. They growled and stamped the ground, but did the tourists get away...no, they wanted their pictures. Crazies! It was like a train wreck...I couldn't look away.

Day 4- Sad day. We ate breakfast, packed up, played a little more, and said our goodbyes. I dread this part. But it was a great weekend together!!

I love my family!!

Taylor's Day Came

I am slowly getting caught up. Sigh...

Taylor started school on August 26th (one week after Derek). He wanted to start with Derek and it tortured him to watch Derek go without him. Finally his day came and he LOVED it.

Once in his classroom we took his weight and height, found his cubby and coat hook, and turned his frog in his attendance chart. Then the teacher prepared a hat for them to color at their table. Taylor was happy to see that he sits next to one of his friends from church. McKenna decided that she REALLY wanted to sit and color as well, so I caved and gave her a paper and crayon. She loved it and I knew she would cause a scene when it was time to go. So I said my goodbyes to Taylor and grabbed McKenna (who did cry..surprise, surprise) and ran....well, to the hall. I just had to spy on Taylor for another 5 minutes. It's so fun to watch kids interact with other kids. I would have stayed there all two and a half hours, but I had to cut the strings.

It was very quiet without Taylor.

They were so cute, all lined up, when I came to pick him up. I don't know when Taylor grew up, but this milestone surely crept up on me. He still loves school and says "I love homework, Mommy. I wish I could do more. I love projects." He does his homework immediately after walking in the door. I think it's a great habit to encourage. I am so proud of my little guy.

Go Lions and Mustangs!

There is just one week left of Fall soccer for my boys. I better blog about it before it's over. This is the first time the boys played for Spanish Fork. They were ecstatic when they saw that this league uses goalies. They've each had their turn in that position and it was like a dream come true. This is the first year that Taylor has played. For the first 4 games the coach told him to play defense and to "stand by me". Taylor took this instruction literally and followed his coach all over the field like a shadow. Funny.

Derek's team has a lot of players on the field at all times, so he really hasn't had much of a chance to touch the ball. However, he is great at defense and nothing gets past him!

Soccer is fun to watch when they are this age, however, it will be nice to have our nights back again.

Wow! 7 Already?!

Derek had a great 7th birthday last month.

I asked him what kind of cake he wanted and he said "a camo cake" and that triggered a whole "army theme". We invited some family and a friend over for a little party. It was very low-key, but fun all the same.

My 7 Year Old

I bought army hats at the dollar store and the kids played a relay game where they tossed plastic "army dudes" into them.

Instead of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey", we blindfolded the kids and they shot Nerf darts at the target.

My brilliant sister, Stephanie, made up an obstacle course on the fly. The kids loved it!

After games, we ate cake and ice cream and Derek opened presents. I must say that I was quite proud of the cake. After I Googled "camo cake" for decorating ideas I found fun camo tank cakes. I convinced Derek to let me try a tank instead. It was a lot of fun to make.

My parents...ahhh. McKenna and her cousin Clayton.

Happy 7th Birthday, Derek!! We sure love you!

Derek's First Day of School

I've been looking forward to this day, which is a totally opposite emotion from this post. The boys are getting bored at home and I think school will help. (I still could have used a couple more weeks though.) Derek's birthday is a week from the deadline (Sept. 1) to enter Kindergarten. I put him in when he was 4 and I've always felt like I should have put Derek into school a year later. So with the new school and new neighborhood, we put much thought and prayer into it and decided to put him into First Grade again this year. I think he'll enjoy being the oldest in his class instead of the youngest. He seemed happy to go to school on his first day, and came home happy with reports of new friends already. He told me that his teacher "is young and nice, so young teachers must be nicer than older ones". (His last one was older and a little short-tempered.) He also told me that his teacher is as nice as I am. Ahhh... But there is already trouble and it is very serious. Listen to this..."There are kids blocking the tunnel slide!! And it gets very hot in there!" I'll take this kind trouble versus the teenager kind any day. :)