Grand Canyon.

I went to the grand canyon this last weekend with Sarah. We hiked from the top to the bottom to the top. It was almost 18 miles. It was crazy hard but beautiful. I had a lot of time to think. Our life is kind of like the grand canyon it is crazy hard but beautiful.  Some parts were just breath taking and others were meh. Just like life. The last mile and a half was probably the hardest. Sarah was really struggling. She is not a huge hiker but came anyway. That last mile and a half I said come on you can do it. She said, I haven't lost the motivation thisnis just as fast as I can go. I thought sometimes we just have to slow down and take it all in but in the end we will make it. You just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other.  The photos are in reverse order. From the end to the beginning. We literally hiked from dawn to dusk. I am so glad Sarah came with me. She is such a great girl doing amazing things!

The story was too cute not to record. Last night David thought of all the jobs he could do that didn't involve typing. He said he could be a trampoline tester. I asked him where he was going to live because trampoline testers don't make that much money. He said he was going to live on the trampoline. I said what are you going to eat? Emma said don't worry David I'll be a baker and I'll bring you food everyday. Haha

Disneyland photos

What an eventful summer Part 1

If anyone could have a perfect summer I would say we are having one (don't worry, the kids still fight and complain about chores)

First week of summer, DISNEYLAND!

Oh my goodness I loved Disneyland so much!  We had an absolute blast!  Emma discovered that she does not like fast rides, but all the other kids discovered they do!  

Brag fest

Well there are a few things this week that I just had to brag about :). 

Becca and her team won the school battle of he books!  It was some serious tough competition. The final four teams knew all the questions and it was crazy close. 

Aren't they adorable!  

This week was Emma's birthday and we made her an adorable cake. 

Sarah was student of the week at the jr high (we are talking out of 1200 students!!)

This week we were also talking about all the things Emma did when she was 5. She learned to read, write, ride a bike, tie her shoe.  She is getting so big!

(Months later...)

David won the pinewood derby!

Ogden temple open house

Last night the kids and I had the opportunity to go to the ogden temple open house. It was beautiful. I think Becca was most impressed. Sarah and I had already gone with the young women, but it was nice to go again. We did have to wait in line forever. After the open house we went to chuck o rama. It was almost 8 so we were starving. After the lady rang us up it was 47$ and David said 47 bucks this place is expensive. Yes David that is why we only eat out on very special occasions. It was still a lovely night. Even with all the waiting and eating late.

first day of school.

The kids started school last week. They all love their teachers. Sarah loves jr high. She likes having so many different teachers and classes.  Becca loves 6 th grade. She does have a little struggle not melting down when she doesn't understand something. Mostly math. We talked about what she could do instead of cry. David loves 3rd grade. Emma is trying to love kindergarten. 

Emma had to wait a week after the other kids started to go to school. The first day she was excited and enthusiastic.  We went to the gardens with my sister right after school and on the way home Emma fell asleep.  The second day she came and hugged me and told me how much she loved me. She went to a friends house after school and when she came home she crashed taking another nap. The third day she came home and we went to the park for a picnic. Once again a nap. That night she woke up at 3pm saying she had a headache. The next morning she didn't want to go to school, but I told her she had to be throwing up or have a fever to miss school...it was hard because she looked so miserable. She went to school. When she came home she burst into tears and said it was just too long to be at school and missed me so so much. Talk about heartbreak!  Fortunately we have a long weekend. We will try to get her to bed earlier hopefully that will help. We talked about different things she could do at school if she missed me.  Sing a song in her head, say a prayer, take deep breathes. 

 It was quite weird these last few days having a little time without children. Nice, but weird. In 13 years all my children will be 18 or older. That is CRAZY!  It seems like just yesterday that Sarah was born and now she is 13 almost 14. The next 13 years I am sure will fly by. This year I am going to help a lot in the kids classes and at the school. 

Zions with cousins

On the 5th we met up with Aaron's sister and her family. It also happened to be her birthday that day. We explored the frog ponds and saw tons of  tadpoles and cute frogs. The kids jumped off a little cliff  into the water. Aaron and I didn't put our swimming clothes on so we didn't jump in, but when we were leaving we regretted not because it was so hot there!  It was fun seeing the kids have so much fun with their cousins. That night the adults went out to dinner while the kids ate pizza and hung out at Megan's house.

                                                

Bryce Canyon

Last weekend we had the wonderful opportunity to go to Bryce Canyon and zions national park. Wow!  Heavenly Father sure outdid himself!  Thursday night we waited for Aaron to get home from work so we didn't leave here until around 7. It takes a good 3.5 hours to drive thee so we knew we were going to get in late. It was Aaron's birthday so we watched Star Wars. For Father's Day we got Lego Star Wars wii game that they have been obsessed with so we thought we would capitalize the driving time and watch the original Star Wars trilogy. The kids loved it. Especially David. Becca hasn't played the game much so it was all new to her and she was into it as well. We got to our campsite really late, but the kids were troupers and we pitched our tent and went to bed. The next morning after breakfast we went to explore Bryce Canyon. We went to hike Navajo loop. Beautiful!!

Then we drove up the road and explored all the scenic pullouts. That night we didn't see any fireworks, but we were exhausted from the night before. We were in bed by 9:30. The next day I woke up early and went to sunrise trail, but it was too cloudy to see the sunrise.