Two New Posts!!

Two New Post. Scroll down to see lots of pictures below!!!!

First Day of School

Alex has officially started Kindergarten! The night before school started he told all his toys that he would not be home to play with them. Then he says to me. "Just in case they come to life when we go downstairs."









The kindergartners get their own playground



This is a picture that Alex drew of himself walking to school. Complete with Stripe shirt and 20 fingers. His teacher uses funny expression's like Oh Dirty Darn, Bummer. It makes Alex laugh



His Cubby





We got to stay at the school for Instructions, a tour and to help the teacher stuff all their folders until lunch time. Alex said that after we left he got lost and could not find his teacher. :( It seemed like he wasn't so sure about this school thing. But this morning when I told him he didn't have school today, he was sad because he wants to go to school everyday. Jayden asked "where Alex?" Then he said. "He's Lost"

In the Summer Time, When the weather is fine

Okay here are our pictures in the for the summer of 2010. Hope your fingers don't cramp before the end of this post. It has taken me 3 days so far to just to get up to the fourth of July.

We kicked off the summer with the graduation of my Brother Jordan! Yea! Congrats!!

This year we have had the privilege to take two family vacations. It sure made the summer go by quickly. Our first one was a week up at the Cabin. This one was a partial working week for Stillman but it was still full of lots of Fun.

Here are the kids playing on the beach in front of the Cabin. I was surprised that we had any beach at all and even more surprised to see the kids jump on in the water.

Alex is pretending that he is on a raft going out to sea.

The swings was the smartest thing Grandpa ever built, it is a life saver to all us mom's. Its like an invisible fence that distracts the kids before they can get to the water. Jayden loves them!

Me, sitting in favorite spot with a book.

More swing pics

We decided to go on a hike with a two year old and a five year old. Are you laughing yet? Because the people who were coming up the hill from the hike sure did. First of all the Nice people who take care of the forest decided to build a place to park which threw Stillman off because the trail head looked different than it did when he went on the hike 12+ years ago. So we hiked up a long hill that was not the actual trail before decided that we went the wrong way. So we started back down and took the real trail head which went back up. All this while pushing two kids in a jogger stroller. Then the trail started a nice, STEEP, ROCKY downhill climb. Which was nice until we got a nice view of the valley far below, and realized that every step that went down we would have to climb back up when we turned around. That's when the people started laughing at us. "Your crazy to continue down there with them in tow." they said. So We went back up again and took pictures of our weird little hike.



Jayden was all for it and was running, No Sprinting ahead of us and jumping off as many boulders as he could find.

our attempt at a family picture. Thank you Rock for holding our camera for us.

Yummy smores!

We tried to make it to the Cascade fireworks but we had missed them. We were sure they wouldn't have done the fireworks on a Sunday. They sure did, and we missed them. Luckily McCall was doing there fireworks on Monday. If we had our heads screwed on right we could have made it to both.

We spent a lot time in the water despite the cold and got some water skiing in.

Here's Grandpa showing us how it's done.

Stillman giving us a big rooster tail.

Even Blake and Ellie gave it a shot. Here is Ellie giving it her best. She was able to get up, but not able to stay up. Hang in there girl.

Blake is now a master at it. He decided he had better get a hang of this thing because he sure wasn't going to be beat by his sister. He was able to go a couple of rounds around the lake!

Nathan and I tried experimenting with HDR photography. They make very beautiful/painterly pictures. You take three picture by bracketing in order to expose your Low tones, Mid tones, and High tones. Here is my try at it. I need a newer photoshop program to really do it right. Here is one of the before picture

Here is the after picture.

We had a try at water balloon volleyball, but gave up and just had a water fight instead. Very fun!!

Ellie practiced all weekend in order to perform a song for her mom.

We forgot to let off our own fireworks so we invited Michelle's family over to set them off.

Jayden hiding during the loud ones.

Okay so here is our vacation to Utah. Treasured Portraits had the opportunity to photograph a dance studio this spring which took a lot of time and energy of a lot of people. As a thank you and payment for all our hard work we took a much needed vacation. We used the Visit salt lake city passes which took us to all kids of sites around the Salt Lake area. Then we all went to Lagoon.

Jordan came down with us Saturday night, Late Late Saturday night. The next day we went and walked around Temple Square.

We got a tour from a very nice tour guide. Some of you might recognize her. Yes that is our very own Danae. (sorry if I spelled your name wrong)

On Monday we went to Shawn and Heather's house to celebrate Shawn's Birthday. This picture is for you LaVerne. I could not get Jayden to eat one. Which is weird because he likes watermelon. but your picture of him is pretty recent. We picked up Mom at the airport that night and then Brigitte and Jeremy came in really late Monday or really early Tuesday. However you want to look at it.

We just hung out and rested and caught up on our sleep on Tuesday. Then we went to Toy Story 3 in 3D. I have to say that I do not like 3D. It bugs my eyes and I do not enjoy the movie. Toy Story 3 was a little scary for our kids. I KNOW! It got a little to intense for Alex at one point. And I have to say I even got a little scared that our favorite toys might not make it. We all cried at the end. Jayden is still crying in the pic but for different reasons.



The next day we headed up the mountain to Snow Bird. We road the big tram up the mountain. He we are on top of the mountain. It was beautiful.

These pictures are out of order but that's ok.

Jayden loved going "UP HIGH"

Grandma bought the kids a bag of dirt and they got to mine for Gem stones.

We then went back down the mountain which our brakes did not like. We started smoking up the place.

This is the aquarium. A few years ago Alex started saying that he did not have fun if one little thing went wrong. So I started rewording my question and asking what his favorite part was, so that he would focus on the positive. When I asked him what his favorite part was at the aquarium he said "everything! I liked all of it!"

I don't know what the kids are looking at here, but we saw Sharks, Sea Turtles, Eels, Snakes, Penguins, and lots of fish. They had a touch tank where you could touch Sting Rays and Starfish.

My camera did something weird.

feeling the shock of an eel

Jayden thought this fish was pretty funny!

These pictures are out of order a bit too. But next we headed over to the dinosaur museum. These are some pictures of us in a crawl cave for the kids.



The dinosaur museum was Jayden favorite.

The Adults had fun too.

We sat here for hours while the kids played in the sand and water, building islands for their dinosaurs.

More fun pics. Mom and Jordan did a scary face picture too. I posted this one because they look unassuming. This picture freaks Jayden out. He is very worried for his Grandma and Uncle.

Alex loved this part and really thought he was excavating a real dinosaur. I did not correct him.

we went home then and ate at In and Out.

Again out of order. Thursday we went to the Discovery Center. The Kids loved it so much we went twice. We also went to the Clark Planetarium and watched another 3D movie. We went to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for Carmel Apples and Chocolate Ice cream after the planetarium and a new shirt to boot! Should have got vanilla.

Driving Home with their groceries.

We also got to eat at the Lion House Pantry. Alex loved their Rolls. "Daddy smell them." Daddy takes a bite and says yeah they're good. "No Daddy smell them first, They smell soooo good." Then he made everyone smell their rolls.

Shopping for groceries at the pretend store. Alex once asked me why Heavenly Father didn't make shopping carts for kids. Well he did.

another water play place that Jayden loved.

Alex's working on the farm.

The toddler area had a tree house for baby birds. Fully furnished.

I think Alex enjoyed this horse rather than the real horse he rode the next day.

Playing house. Again fully furnished including a fully furnished mouse house in the wall.

These pictures are of Friday at the This is the Place National Monument. Callie and a friend joined us early in the morning. poor Stillman had to wake up and bring all the stragglers home. Jeremy and Brogan are mining for gold.



The Train ride. Which Jayden refused to get off. We should have just let him ride again. He Loves Trains!



Touring the Pioneer village by train.


Alex and I mining for gold.






Riding horses. Alex's horse was a little naughty and tried to bite me. Alex says he didn't like all the flies.

Indian Village

The kids got to take the nuggets that they found to the Bank in pioneer village and trade it in for a treat of salt water taffy.

Jayden saying "CHOO CHOO, All ABOARD!"

Jayden and his horse

Alex and his horse. That is actually a smile.

We then headed over to the Hoggle Zoo and met up with Shawn and Heather. It was very hot that day. Our favorite parts were standing in the misters. Stillman got picked for a demonstration this Eagle Hawk flew over and landed on Stillman arm and took a five dollar bill out of his hand and then gave the money to his trainer. Then the bird kindly returned the five dollars and a coupon to stillman's hand. It was a really fun show. The birds would sweep over the audience so low that their wings would hit your head.

Baby Zuri

A fuzzy picture of the kids looking at the monkeys.

We then headed home for a barbecue and some swimming. This is the kids playing with their shadows.



And then Saturday we went to Lagoon. One last straggler, Jason, came in on the bus. We had so much fun. There were so many rides that the kids were able to go on we wore them out. We split up into groups and we changed the groups up that we were able to keep everyone entertained. We were not able to go on all the rides and would have loved to take advantage of the bounce back day but sadly we had to come home. I think everyone's favorite ride was Wicked. Brigitte and I were laughing so hard by the end. We went a second time with the guys and Stillman convinced me to ride in front. That was awesome. We got caught in a tsunami just as we were getting on the white roller coaster and they shut the ride down. We waited about 20 minutes before they started it back up again. sadly our camera unbeknown to us was sitting in a little puddle at the bottom of a bag that we thought was protected. We are now awaiting a replacement.

here are some pictures of the kids and a few adults on the kiddie rides.

Jayden and Brogan could not agree on who should fly the plane and fought the whole time.

Alex and Emma got into trouble on this ride when they rode it a second time, without going to the end of the line. poor Grandma and Grandpa. They also had trouble on the bumper cars when they rode that one over and over and over again. The lines were so short that Gma and Gpa could not catch them before they were on it again.

I have some funny videos I hope I can post soon. But at last this post is done and I am caught up.