Stewart Falls Hiking

On Labor Day our friends Chris and Jenny invited us to go hike to Stewart Falls with their family. We'd been talking about taking our kids on this hike so we jumped on the opportunity to do it with friends.

The girls all did really well on the hike. I was impressed with them. They didn't whine or gripe about anything other than being hungry (we were eating at the falls). The 6 girls often led the way and had lots of fun.
Time to pose on a rock - 5 of the girls and one little guy.

Bag lunch at the falls.
The falls were really nice although VERY crowded. The falls - beautiful as always. We took the trail from above Aspen Grove (2.0) and then came back down by Sundance (1.5 miles). The Sundance trail was much less crowded than the Aspen Grove trail which was nice. If you ever need ideas for hikes in Utah ... this is a shameless plug for www.utahhikinginfo.com Its a website my brother-in-law started and it has lots of great info for hiking.

And the season begins...

The flag went up last weekend ... just in time for the first BYU Football game of the season. We had a chance to meet some of the players a month or so ago, and my thought was "WOW, we are young." With the Cougars going independent for football and moving to the WCC for other sports, I have mixed emotions about this season. I don't have great hopes for our season, I expect our "youth" to show. Its a bummer and I'd love to see us win the conference since its our last year in the MWC. I'm not sure it will happen this year, but that doesn't change how we bleed at our house! Go Cougars!

And after the flag went up, off to the game we went ... of course we went early in time for a great tailgate party! We had about 15 people there and it was great. Anyone is welcome for the next game ... Sept 25th at 1pm we'll be firing up the grill again!

We had some of our friends from BYU band and some of their friends we've met in the past few years, Steve's dad and a friend from Steve's current band. Good friends, good time and ... GOOD food!
Steve firing up the LITTLE grill to warm up some applesauce and pork and beans.
The big grill cooked the steak for steak tacos, brats, dogs, warmed up the chicken, pineapple and corn on the cob.
Part of the spread ... in addition to the items above we had chips and salsa, pasta salad and some desserts.

And of course, while food is cooking and after we're done, the boys play a bit of their own football before we clean up and head in to the game. Here we go Cougars!!

The Cougs won their opener against Washington, although we are still not convinced it will be a dream season. Two new quarterbacks make us a little nervous.

Rise and Shout the Cougars are out! (Aren't we cute?) I've discovered a new feature on my phone ... I HATE my phone, but this is pretty cool! It takes panoramic photos ... Gotta love Lavell Edwards Stadium.

Long time ... AGAIN

Ok, so summer and blogging didn't mix for me. I just never get around to it. Kind of sad, seeing as I missed blogging about Alyssa's 10th birthday and Taylor's 7th birthday, more geocaching at Ghost towns, swimn meets and Lagoon in June! In July, I missed posting about our awesome block party, two July 4th BBQs, one of my best friends moving to Texas, a family reunion in Idaho, a trip to the Gardens at Thanksgiving Point, cutting 8 inches off my hair, all 3 kids losing a tooth on the same day, swim lessons and Alyssa's swim meets.

August ... where did it go? A BYU Date Night with Steve, a sudden trip to Colorado (including driving to the top of 2 mountains both over 14,000 feetand seeing one of my best friends from elementary school days), a service project the girls worked on with their cousins and grandma all summer, a camping/boating trip to Pineview with 9 other families, meeting teachers, first day of school, two kids with strep throat, my birthday and Jessie's first day of Kindergarten ...

Phewww ... That's a lot that I haven't blogged about. But now I have! :) Now that we are back into a routine, hopefully, I'll have time to blog again. Maybe I'll get to backtrack and blog about some of the above, but if not, I'm just moving forward instead of trying to find time to write about 20 entries at once. :)

Review of May

I have been absolutely SLAMMED busy the last month. I am very grateful for that, because most of it has been extra work which is a huge blessing right now. We are so grateful for my business because we just don't know where we'd be if I didn't have it. Yes, we are at just over 9 months since Steve lost his job. He's working hard at getting his company (audioShare) going stronger and we're biding our time until he finds something new or audioShare is running well enough to pay all the partners. Anyway, I haven't had much free time and I haven't been in the mood to blog when I have had free time. Blogging is my time to think and contemplate and I haven't exactly wanted to think lately.

SOOOOO ... this post is a review of our May! Its long, but hey, it covers the whole month. A review of the 1st half of June will come soon.

Jessica's field trip to Thanksgiving Point Farm with her preschool. I'm so glad I get to go on fieldtrips with my kids, help with class parties and be at all their school programs during the day. And having Steve home so he can go has been fun too.
Our trip to Florida - I posted about the space shuttle launch - a dream come true - but also wanted to share this picture of the front of the rental car ... yes, it is COVERED with bugs. It had not rained and those spots all over the window are BUGS! And don't miss the BLACK front bumper - covered with them! They are called Love Bugs and it was absolutely DISGUSTING how many of them we hit in the 2 days. They even have a setting on their car wash machines called Love Bug Scrub.
Steve's bday party - thanks to all our friends who came. It was fun to see so many friends. I can't find the pics from his party, but here is one of his cake - made by our good friend JennyLynn. See more pics on her blog (link at the side). Alyssa's dance recitals - she has really grown a lot this year in her abilities. So proud of her!

Jessica's gymanstics performance - our girls LOVE Heather's gymnastics class and have learned so much over the years. Jessica gets to do one more year before she ages out of Heather's.Taylor's 1st grade class did a CUTE year end program. We LOVE her teacher, Miss Crowton.Jessica's preschool had a fun little field day and we happened to be at the school, so we took a few pics. Snow - yes, snow on May 24th and enough of it that Jess put on her snow suit (the other two were at school) and played with her friend Paige for quite awhile. The built a snowman using most of the snow and then made snow angels in another area of the lawn.School dance festival - its always fun to see the creative dances each grade does.Jessica graduated from preschool ... my baby will be in kindergarten next year!
Taylor's class had 4th grade reading buddies ... and it happened to be Alyssa's class. Taylor and Alyssa got to be buddies which Alyssa loved. They did an end of the year party and we were again at the school for something else, so we got to take pics of that too. They were playing a version of freeze tag. It was cute to watch all the 4th graders with the 1st graders.Last day of School! Wahoo! So excited! Alyssa took her own camera to school this year, but broke it so she didn't get pics. So, I just have some of Taylor. This is one with Taylor and one of her best friends from school, Ally. Yes, these two are both standing up and the same age. Tay is just that small and Ally is just that tall.Memorial Day - we opted to go siteseeing at ghosttowns and Geocaching. Way cool day! So cool we did it again in some different towns in June! Didn't take a picture of the rattle snake that was quietly sleeping on the rock next to me though ... scared me half to death when the girls screamed snake and I realized it was about 18 inches from where I was going to put my hand to steady myself in order to help the girls down a rocky ledge.And that is our May ...

My Favorite Thing this Week

What a week it has been! ...Final dance recital for Alyssa on Monday, Dance Festival on Wed for all three girls at school, Field days, preschool graduation and last day of school for all.

Memory Mixer (the digital scrapbooking software that I use) posted the question on their blog this week ... what is your favorite thing this week? They are giving away a gift certificate. It got me thinking! My favorite thing this week is the last day of school. Its such a play day. They only go to school for an hour and a half so its kind of a silly day. But I always try to go to their classes and take a few last pictures of them and their friends. Alyssa took her own camera this year (so I didn't go to her class). Its fun to compare the first day to the last day shots! I'll probably upload them later. The last day of school represents the beginning of summer! Wahoo. No more getting up early for school, carpool to school and HOMEWORK! I enjoy the summer and have been looking forward to it. Give me a few weeks and I might be singing a different tune as I go crazy with them home and running around the house all the time. But for now, I'm ready for a break! But the last day of school is also a day for me a day to compare how much they have grown.

I think back to Jessica, just 4 years old starting preschool at Eaglecrest. She was a bit more timid than she is now (but she was always bubbly and outgoing). Now she will be in KINDERGARTEN! Yep folks, that means all 3 of my kids will be full-fledged students at Eaglecrest Elementary in the fall! CRAZY! And I think about all the basics she has REALLY learned (some she knew but not as well as she does now) ... colors, recognizing all of the upper and lower case letters, writing the alphabet and the sounds of each letter, shapes, counting to 100, counting by 10s, writing her numbers, some basic math, and songs, songs, songs and more songs. She is very curious about everything and likes to ask lots and lots of questions. She is so happy but it is hard to see my baby growing up so fast. It seems like just a few weeks ago that she was a baby in my arms.

Taylor ... WOW!! Is this the same kid that started 1st grade? She is a CRAZY girl now. My shy, timid little Taylor has blossomed into a little social butterfly! Don't get me wrong, she still plays that shy card sometimes, but she chatters and talks and sings and interacts with others in a way that makes my heart rejoice! She has truly come a long way in the last year. She still struggles a bit in some categories and will be continuing her speech therapy next year, but she is so much more confident and has caught up so much this year, we are very proud of her. A big thing for her this past month is she has added applesauce to her list of things that she eats! YEAH!!!

Alyssa ... my little girl is gone. She has definitely matured from little girl to pre-teen this year. She'll be 10 in a couple of weeks and it shows in her attitude and abilities. She is a smart girl - only one B+ and the rest A's. She has definite opinions and wants to express them. She likes to be in charge. She likes to be "in-the-know" and wants to be a grown-up so badly. She's learned a lot and likes to share that information with others. She can be a very thoughtful girl, thinking of others and always wanting to do big projects. I definitely need to find a way for her to do some service projects, because she LOVES that! She's always thinking of ideas of things she could do but sometimes lacks the focus and follow-through when she has started on some thing.

And so it is ... SUMMER TIME! Another year of school is over and its time to play a bit! We've made our "I'm Bored List" to hang on the door so that if they say "I'm bored" I can point them to their list of ideas.

I'm always looking for ideas for things to do with the kids (other than the more obvious) and ways to make summer a happier time (instead of arguing with sisters and getting in trouble for not doing jobs). What do you.have you done that works? Keep in mind, I need CHEAP or FREE this summer and I need SIMPLE. Last year we did a Disney Jar (with pennies, nickels and dimes earned for doing chores and other jobs)- they were earning money to go to DisneyWorld. It actually worked pretty well. But I also want my kids to understand that they don't do jobs at home just to earn money to do what they want, they do jobs here because they are part of our family and we all work together. Does that make sense? I hate job charts because I constantly have to check in on them and make sure they were done and mark them off .... what do you do?

Neighborhood Block Party Blog

Quick note to all my neighbors who may read my blog ...

We have a blog for the neighborhood block party. Please become a follower and check it for updates. I can't do the party without the help of others in the neighborhood. Please read the blog for more details. Please feel free to email the blog address to as many neighbors as you know. Flyers will go out soon, but we want to get the word out as early as possible so everyone can save the date!

www.utahhighlands.blogspot.com

THANKS!

You're invited

Open invite ... anyone who wants to stop by to visit and celebrate Steve's bday. :)

You can also RSVP here on my blog.

Happy Birthday Steve

Yesterday was Steve's birthday! I didn't get a chance to post before his birthday because we were flying to Florida! :) And I don't have access to all my pictures to do my normal birthday style posts, but I still wanted to let him know I love him and wish him an amazing year!

I will post more later!

But I do want to invite everyone to our house WEDNESDAY night for cake and ice cream! Stop by and wish Steve a happy birthday on Wednesday evening between 6:30 and 8:30.