Elementary School Carnival 2008

Do you remember being in Elementary school and LOVING the school carnival? I know that I sure do!

Anyway, I don't really feel that way anymore! (Do any of you moms out there?) Now that love for the carnival has passed on to Ethan. He looked forward to this thing all week! We had to be there right on time for it to start because his teacher was the first one in the dunk tank.

Of course he wouldn't use any of his punches to buy balls to try and dunk her himself . . . nooo, he just wanted to watch FOREVER! It would have been totally OK for me to stand there and watch all day long, but Mason HATED the school carnival this year. He screamed from the second we entered into the crowd. If you look closely you can see what a good sport his teacher really is. She wore a bikini over her shorts and shirt. Ethan thought it was hilarious when someone would hit the target and she would go down. It was pretty funny!

After a few games and a lot of wandering around watching we went over to the train rides. I decided to send Mase with Ethan so that he could do something besides the fishing pond thing. That wasn't really the brightest idea of the day. He screamed a lot from what I hear. Ethan was so adorable with him and calmed him down and sang to him the entire ride.

After the train, Spen got there and he and Ethan did the carnival boys style while I took Mase home to play. I hope that Ethan has as good of memories of the carnival days as I do, and I feel bad that my parents had to endure that for soo long! Thank you mom and dad...

FHE

Last night we had such a fun Family Night.

We had some things to do in Salt Lake, so we decided to spend some time with the kids at Temple Square.

I have never really spent a lot of time there in the warmer months! We go every year to see the lights and walk around, but it's always so crowded and freezing that we don't usually just enjoy time there.

It was such a perfect evening. It wasn't hot or too sunny. The temple was gorgeous. Ethan was fascinated learning about the construction and the huge stones they brought down.

Mason was so happy to be outside walking around. He would giggle and scream his 'happy screams' as we walked. He did not, however, like it when we would stop for any amount of time!

Ethan absolutely loves this sort of thing. He didn't want to leave. He could have spent hours wandering around the plaza.

He was fascinated with all of the water fountains and features. Of course he had to touch all of them! (He nearly fell in a few times!)

We did something that I have never done before, we toured the Beehive house.

It was pretty cool. The Sister Missionaries that presented the tour did a very good job. Spen and I couldn't figure what it is about him, but Ethan absolutely loves guided tours! It was such a great night together. Definitely a night I'll remember forever...

Our Family Garden

We were so excited this year to plant our very first real family garden! Spen and Ethan made the grow boxes and we planted all of our seeds when there was still snow on the ground. It was so incredible to watch our little plants grow. I have to admit for all of us, it's become sort of an obsession! We are ALWAYS walking over to see how the garden is doing. We got a bunch of stuff, but I think mostly we learned more about what to expect with our yard and we will be more prepared next year. There aren't many experiences quite like eating dinner from your own garden grown from your own seeds! Most of our flowers came from seed too. Ethan helped me plant all of them. We have had such a good time with it. It's a great way to encourage vegetable eating around here too!

Matching yet again!

This must be the new thing at our house. It seems to be happening every night lately!

Matchy Matchy~!

Tonight as I was getting Mason ready for bed Ethan helped! He insisted that they have matching PJ's! Thanks to the Grandma Reg (my mom) they could! At least they match each other, right?

Saturday hike!

Last Saturday Spen decided that it was finally cool enough for us to hike to the Timpanogus caves.

We knew that we couldn't push Mase up the trail because of the rule of no strollers or wheelchairs, so Spencer happily carried Mase up on his back!

If you haven't hiked this trail before, it is a 1.5 mile paved trail that climbs 1100 feet in elevation. It's not bad, but it's sure not easy. Actually, it is pretty tough! Ethan had some rough patches and I kind of had to pull him along for parts of it, but he made it! Every step of the way!! :)

It was a gorgeous hike. If you've never done it, it should be on your list of something to do in the summers. Ethan sure liked the tunnels along the trail.


Mason only complained when we would stop for a break. He did not like to stop! He would pout and cry until we started up again. He was having such a good time riding on his dad's back! The only problem was that to go through the caves we couldn't bring the backpack, we had to carry him. He's heavy. He wanted me to hold him for most of the cave tour, but once there were wet stairs and I was too unsure he went back to his dad.

Ethan brought his walking stick that he and Spen made from one of our tree limbs. I did not like hiking with him hiking with a hiking stick!!! We had to leave it in a hiding place along the trail and pick it up on our way back down. It was driving me crazy being tripped and hit and having Ethan fall to his face! I always thought that walking sticks were supposed to be helpful for a hike. Not this one so much!~

Every corner you turned you got an even prettier view to enjoy. I kept making us stop to take pictures.

For those of you who don't know this about Ethan -- he LOVES rocks. He always has. He is an avid rock collector. We keep a marker in our car so that we can write on the rocks that he finds so he doesn't forget where he found it. We have rocks from Best Buy, from Taco Bell, from the Dr.'s office parking lot, places like that. He also has rocks from pretty cool spots like hikes at Lake Powell, or Florida, or California. He always is picking up rocks and putting them in his pockets. This hike was no different! We tried to convince him to not bring his own backpack, but he REALLY wanted to. When we got back to the car we discovered why. It was SO heavy with all of the rocks he had picked up along the way! I felt so bad that he had hauled that heavy pack up and down the mountain! Of course he had to have his picture taken by 'Rock Mountain!'

Here is our picture proof that all of us made it to the top! It was a really nice day. We are already planning on going again next year! We hope that Mase still fits in the backpack for at least one more trip up!

California Summer Vacation 2008

We always seem to make it to California once or twice a year for something or other! This time we actually went out for a friend's wedding. It worked out perfectly to make it into a family trip though. Ethan has been working all Spring and Summer collecting aluminum and steel cans to recycle to earn his own money. He has been saving to buy himself a ticket to Disneyland! I know what you're thinking . . . that is a ton of cans! The only response I can come up with to that is, yes that is a ton of cans!! He has all of our neighbors saving for him and he goes door to door around the neighborhood 'can hunting!' He also has all of Spencer's office saving for him.

We started at my brother's house to visit him and his adorable 2 girls, Violet and Marley. They were so much fun. It was hard to spend so little time with them. We then left to visit Spencer's sister and husband, and their 2 darling little girls, Cora and Ellie. Again, not enough time in the trip to stay nearly long enough!

We met Spencer's best friend growing up and his family after that. We spent two very hot days in Disneyland and California Adventure. Mason makes the lines tolerable with the wheelchair and all. He LOVED the Thunder mountain Railroad train ride. Ethan's favorite was of course, Space Mountain. Ethan did the Tower of Terror ride 6 times. I was surprised he like that one so much! It was a very fun time. Disneyland is definitely a favorite place of Ethan's! Our friends stayed at the big Grand California Hotel that is amazing. We did get to spend some time at the pool there. It is hands down the best hotel pool we have ever been to!

The wedding part of the trip was great. It was neat to get to go to the Los Angeles temple for that. They were adorable. By the end of the reception Ethan was so covered in chocolate that I had older ladies giving me laundry tips for his shirt and local cleaners' names for the tie! He had a great time!

I am so thankful that we can do trips like this so frequently! They make such great memories for us to have as a family! Spencer is just hoping that our next trip doesn't bring us back to Disneyland! He is more than ready for a bit of variety!!