So, one of my friends told me that I made a resolution to write once a week for the year and the last post was September so I have 20 more posts for the year :)

She was telling me that she was writing a life history and asked me if I remembered anything from when I was 4 (the age of our girls playing).  I honestly can't remember much.  I lived in the same house for my whole life so my childhood kind of blurred together.  I remember raking leaves, family traditions, going to the creek (although I am sure not when I was 4).

My computer is in desperate need of repair so until then I will wait to post pictures...

Seeing the gardens with Boston

Last week I went to the gardens with my sister and her little boy.  We had a blast, here are some highlights.

Labor Day

Wow, three posts in a row, that must be a record!  This morning we went on a beautiful hike up big cottonwood canyon called donut falls.  It was really easy, but beautiful.  Emma hiked most of it by herself, except when Sarah offered to give her a piggyback ride :) We saw two moose calves in the woods, their antlers were all fuzzy and they were SO cute!  And look, fall is in the air or on the leaves.

Brigham City Temple open house

On Friday we went to Ogden (only about an hour north) but Aaron had a free night stay that was about to expire, so we swam in the pool and ate breakfast the next morning and then headed up to Brigham City (only another half an hour north)


It was really great to see the temple through the eyes of a child.  During the introduction movie Sarah put her head on my shoulder, I think she was just taking it all in.  When we were in the temple a few times Emma looked up and all around and said, "WOW" Becca loved the beauty of it all. David wanted to touch the water to see if it was warm, I told him that they heat it :)

Happy First Day of School!

 Here is Becca!  She is a fourth grader and loving it!  She has a wonderful teacher whom she adores already!  When I was taking her school clothes shopping Sarah picked out this shirt and I thought she would want something a little cuter but when we went to get her shoes at Target I asked if she wanted something else to wear on the first day and she said they were all too fancy for her.  I am rubbing off, even on Becca :)

Sarah is going into 6th grade, one more grade in Elementary school!  She has liked it thus far and her teacher is just her style :)

 David is going into 1st grade and is almost taller than his teacher...he picked out his shirt two weeks before school started and wanted to wear it so badly I let him one day and then the next time Sarah said, "MOM, that is for the first day of school."  okay, okay...

Funny story about David, on the second day of school he came home with a full lunchbox.  Me, David, why didn't you eat your lunch. David, oh, I left it in my backpack but don't worry I got a school lunch and it was free.  Me, it wasn't free, I paid for both lunches, if you have a home lunch you don't BUY a school lunch.

The next week David came home with a full lunchbox and said, I forgot my lunch in my backpack but don't worry mom, I didn't waste my lunch money.  David, what did you do? I just went out to recess.  Me, without lunch, yeah it's okay. Then I told him if that ever happened to go and get his lunch from his classroom!  Needless to say he had a pretty hefty after school snack.

Now Emma is the only one home with me.  She loves playing.  Her first words when she wakes up is mom, play wis me.  I have two scheduled play dates for her a week because she LOVES to play, play, play.  Mostly we play ponies, pet shops and babies.  I try to sneak in a book or two because I can read all day!  She is pretty good about reading but mostly wants to play.

Aloha, today this means goodbye!

Well, Aaron and I had a great time in Hawaii.  Here are some of our highlights, watching the sunset into the ocean, our resort, kayaking through the ocean to an island in the middle of the ocean seeing sea turtles as we went, walking through the jungle, going to the Polynesian cultural center and seeing the temple.  It was lovely!  Every minute!  Now i can't wait to go back!

ALOHA!

I am sitting on my balcony on the 15th floor in the beautiful Ko Olina, Hawaii.  Yesterday was simply divine!  We are staying on the west shore where apparently the locals come and hang out, we drove up the coast yesterday and every beach was empty.  There were rocky shores and beautiful white sand.  The sand here is really deep!  Our resort has a small inlet, private beach and their pools are AMAZING.  I didn't think I would go swimming here at our resort, because i can do that at home, but there are palm trees growing in and around the pool, the pools have waterfalls and coves. I have never been snorkeling before but boy was it amazing.  We went to a place just up from our resort and saw TONS of fish.  We saw some dolphins in the distance jumping and doing all sorts of cool tricks but Aaron didn't really want to swim that far because he didn't know the water conditions.  There were two ladies, locals, that swam over there so I think I will try to talk Aaron into going there Friday morning before we check out so I can swim with the dolphins.  We DID see a few sea turtles.  They were amazing.  We were just swimming along and then I saw one below us. Today we are going to go kayaking so hopefully we will be able to see more animal life.  Last night we saw the most amazing sunset.  Just stunning, like a ball of fire hanging in the sky.  Currently I am watching the sun rise, but there are too many clouds in the sky, the sun it trying to peak out through the clouds.  I will share many pictures when we get home.  Thanks to my wonderful sister who made this trip kid less :)  I love kids and they would love being here, but it is really nice just being with Aaron.  I realized that I hadn't flown in a plane without kids since I have had kids.