1st Day of School!!!

The first day of school was a long awaited event for both Brayden and Tavita.
Much to Brayden's chagrin Tavita got to start school 1 1/2 weeks ahead of him (for some reason Kindergarten starts later then the rest of the schools here). Tavita was excited to go to the school "where you get a blanket and have a castle party." It's the same preschool Brayden went to 2 years ago (My Smartworld). It's a great school, very interactive, lots of arts and crafts, music, and incredible teachers; but I didn't want to go back since it was in Lindon (15 minute drive). I know it sounds whiny but when you pass at least 4 other preschools and are tracking through snow it's not fun.
Anyway, after enduring an entire year of listening to Brayden say how much he missed his old preschool and Tavita say how much he wanted to go to Brayden's old school we caved. Actually it was after our good friends/neighbors said they wanted to send their daughter so carpooling came into play which meant only driving half the time.
It has worked out really well and Tavita enjoys school. He loves all the different crafts they do and is always walking around the house singing songs he's learned.
Here's a rundown of how a day goes when Tavita gets home.
M: How was your day?
T: Good
M: What did you do/learn?
T: Played on the playground and I don't know.
(after about 1 1/2 months of this response and me going through his backpack to try and figure it out it has become this )
T: Why don't you look in my backpack and find out!
M: Oh, it looks like you learned about the letter S. What sound does the letter S make?
T: I have NOOOOO idea
M (in my head): Wow, that's $135 well spent!
He is starting to recognize his numbers and letters and is always trying to sound words out to read so I know it's sticking, he apparently just doesn't want to show it.
His coloring has gotten very good and he talks constantly about all his friends he's made. His best friend at school is Aiden.
I was actually on bedrest for Tavita's first day of school so I didn't get any pictures. Here are some I snapped the following week.
2 uncooperative preschoolers and 1 very hopeful little girl (she was quite upset when I didn't let her stay with Tavita and Emma)

Tavita and his teacher Ms. Diana

Brayden was sooooo excited to start kindergarten, ride the bus and go to school with the "big kids". For the 1 1/2 weeks Tavita and his friends that are in 1st/2nd grade went to school, Brayden was going through sheer torture.
The night before his 1st day of school he laid out his clothes, filled his water bottle, packed a snack and made sure he had everything packed and ready to go for the next day.
That morning he was up and trying to head out the door at 6:30 am. Problem is his bus doesn't come until 8:08 and he only has about 100 yards to trek to get there. Finally at 7:55 I broke down to his begging and we departed for his day. Tavita hoped on his bike, Kalei was in the stroller and we started at a nice leisurely walk that lasted to the end of our driveway. He caught a glimpse of his friend Jeremy who was just as excited to start kindergarten. So our walk turned into this:

The Parent Paparazzi was out in full force that morning to snatch some pics of all this:

Here is Brayden with his 2 best buddies. Carson (the big 1st grader) was more then happy to show Brayden and Jeremy the ropes.

Here's my baby getting on the bus (I may or may not be one of those mom's that cry as their kids go off to school)

After he got on the bus, the kids and I quickly loaded into the van and followed the bus so we could see Brayden at school (I had just wanted to drive him for his first day but he was adament he be allowed to ride the bus)
Here's our big boy ready to step foot into a real classroom for the first time.

Brayden and his incredible teacher Ms. Francis (The 1st day of school happened to be yellow day, Brayden was totally prepared and didn't even know it!)

Our neighborhood had a HUGE group head of to kindergarten this year so we had to get a picture of all of them when they got off the bus (3 of them escaped home before we got the picture). It's so fun to watch this swarm of little people pile off the bus.

The kids' trek home went much like their trek to the bus stop.

Two happy boys, feeling very grown up after their first day!

Brayden has done very well in kindergarten so far. I had a hard time at first when the work he was doing was more simplistic then the work Tavita was bringing home (they spent the 2 weeks of school learning colors, Kalei could've kept up) but it seems like their slowly becoming more academic. He has started learning more sight words and his cutting skills have really improved.
I recently went to parent-teacher conference and his teacher had nothing but good to say about him. He's excelling in all aspects of school and his the "leader" in the class.
He has already gone through 2 girlfriends, whom he proudly admits to holding hands with but knows better then try to kiss them because "their daddy's will come after me." (His daddy is passing wisdom on to him)
If you ask him what he likes best about school he'll proudly say "Riding the bus and recess"
What can I say, we have 2 academically focused boys!

Tavita and Kalei's Big Adventure

This summer Tavita and Kalei went out on their own. They up and left us for a couple days and took a trip to Idaho. Ok, they weren't completely alone, Grandma and Grandpa took them up to go visit Auntie Janessa and Uncle Ben (Brayden chose to stay back for a birthday party). They may have only gone as far as Idaho but you woulda thought it was an adventure of a lifetime. They had a blast. I love looking at the pictures of the trip because they look like they were best friends through it all. While their relationship is improving, this summer, they couldn't stand to be within 20 feet of each other.
One would imagine Idaho to be nothing but a vast expanse of potato fields. If that is what you are imagining right now, you are absolutely RIGHT! However, they did find a few spots amongst the fields to have some fun.
Getting ready to go for a swim

Hanging out on the tractors. The majority of the pics that came back were of these two cuties and every kind of tractor you can imagine. I'll only present two of them at this time. They happen to be the same kind of tractor but trust me, there were A LOT!


Chowin some cotton candy

Playing with the cows

Jumping with Uncle Ben (I still love my kids wound up with an Uncle Ben, such a classic Uncle name)

Riding the carousel

Here are a few other random pictures I snagged.
Hanging out in their little fort they built

3 little monkeys jumping on a bed

I don't know if I mentioned this story before but its a classic. It's old, but had to be recorded. This past spring, my mom came in for a visit. We picked her up and stopped to play a little laser tag on the way home (a favorite past time for the boys).
My mom sat out with Kalei and I took the boys in. The guy (I'll be generous and put him at 22-23) running the show was proudly showing off how they added a smoke machine on your way in to make it seem more like a subway (The laser tag is supposed to take place on the streets of New York). We were about 2 min into the game when the fire alarm started going off. I gathered the boys and headed for the exit. We walked into a room FILLED with smoke and the poor employee running around yelling "It won't turn off, it won't turn off."
Apparently in the meantime, my mom and Kalei were downstairs when the alarm went off and a guy came running out of the kitchen yelling, "FIRE!!! Everyone out, everyone out." My mom and others who had family in playing Laser Tag were a bit worried since we hadn't come out and the rest of the building had been evacuated. It just took us a little longer because we couldn't see 6 inches in front of us while we were trying to get out.
We got outside and the parking lot started filling with fire trucks and police cars. they all went in, in full gear. It was a great show for the kids, way better than any game of laser tag. These nice men were kind enough to pose with the kids.

Needless to say, the next time we went back there was no more smoke machine.

Brian McKnight

Anyone that knows my hubby knows him to be a quiet, reserved, slow to excite kind of guy. He may appear that what but for the most part he's not. There are a few things that perk him and turn him giddy. One of those things is this man here:

That's right. Junior LOVES Brian McKnight. I was so excited when I saw that he was coming here to Utah. Father's Day present in the bag! There is a city-owned venue nearby that brings in some pretty big names and their tickets are DIRT cheap. It's a low-key outdoor amphitheater where everyone just throws down a blanket and enjoys the show. It's always such a fun experience, one of the many things I'm going to miss about this place.
Alright cast your vote, who makes a cuter couple?


He is definitely a very talented musician

One lucky girl from the audience got to have him sing to her.

Overall fun show, always enjoy a night out with my hubby!

Our Soccer Star

This past summer/fall Tavita tried his hand at soccer (Brayden wanted in on the action too but my half-dead pregnant brain spaced sign-ups and his age group was filled up). I LOVE watching kids play sports of any kind. His game was non-stop entertainment. There were no real rules, no goalie, no positions, no refs (the coaches just ran down the field with the team). The had no real idea of a field, when it was kicked out of bounds, they didn't care they just kept going until the coaches finally caught up with them and turned them around.
There was never any offical score kept but Tavita did manage to score 2 goals throughout the 7-game season. Not too shabby. He scored the one and only goal the first game and then scored another toward the end of the season. He was so fun to watch. One week, he kept the furious, focused game-face on through the entire game. After his first game I was commenting on how "focused" he looked out on the field to Junior. He interrupted with, "Mom, I wasn't whatever you said I was. I was MAD!!! The other team kept taking the ball and I wanted it back." The best part was after a serious game like that he'd spend the next game wandering the field as if he couldn't care less what was going on. In all he loved the whole experience and continually talks about how excited he is to start playing again.
Warming up before the game

Getting some instructions from the coach

Charging after the ball

Breaking away to score his first goal

Bridal Veil Falls

While Junior's family was here we took a quick hike to Bridal Veil Falls. This "hike" is great because it's paved, short, and has a beautiful ending.
Checking out the beautiful Provo River

The famous Bridal Viel Falls (at least their famous here in Provo :-)!!!)

Even though it was the middle of August, the water was FREEEEEEEZING! Bowzer was the only one brave enough to take a full plunge.

The boys dipped their feet a bit but spent most of their time exploring.

This crazy-haired girl thought she'd join in on the action, she didn't get too far in though.

At the end of it, we had 3 shirtless, happy kiddos.

We then enjoyed a nice relaxing picnic. A day in the mountains wouldn't be complete for our family unless everyone is head to toe in dirt!

2nd annual Mirror Lake Campout

The second week of August we headed up to the beautiful Unitahs for our 2nd annual campout to Mirror Lake. The kids LOVED our trip last year and regularly asked throughout the year when we'd return. At last their dreams were fulfilled.
We spent a few days gathering all our gear, prepping meals and packing the car and we were off! 4 days, 3 nights no running water, electricity, phone reception etc! We coerced Rodney and Fou (Junior's siblings_ into coming with us they were true tropper. So why on earth would we leave the comforts of home to go and freeze our keesters of sleeping on the hard ground? Well let me tell you...
For starters, we may or may not have forgotton to tell Rodney that while the valley was nice and hot, the mountains would be FREEZING! Poor guy brought NO warm clothes. Fou was kind enough to lend him her hoodie.
This image alone made the trip worth it.

The effort it took to get the hoodie back off made it all that much more worth it.

We get to get in touch with our pioneer roots by doing things like making our own butter.

The kids loved spending hours in their favorite spot gathering twigs, flowers, dirt etc then using the stump behind them to pound out "potions"

We enjoy a series of jousting matches

Take some night hikes exploring around the lake

One thing the kids look forward to most about the campout is being able to eat things like donuts and hot chocoalte for breakfast! We have almost the exact same picture of Kalei from last year.

We make sure to get in some quality fishing time, even if we have yet to catch anything. For some reasons the fish don't bite when there's a bunch of yelling, running around, and rocks being thrown in the water.

Trips out in the boat is always a favorite pastime. Bowzer loves swiming alongside!

A good bug hunt beats out a video game anyday!

There are no distractions around so hours are spent just running around being kids.

Trips to the lake are always fun, the walk to get there is even more fun!

One time Tavita and I were taking a walk and we discovered the "quicksand" It seems that the water table was a little high on the trail around the lake and this particular area the ground was solid but mushy because of the water underneath. Tavita had to run back and get everyone else. Many trips were taken to the quicksand to poke around at it.

Time is taken to discuss the deeper things in life.

We get to eat yummy treats like dutch oven peach cobbler with homemade ice cream. Uncle Rodney enjoyed tormenting the kids while making the ice cream.

It's sooo nice to take a break from everyday life and spent hours enjoying the scenery

We get to sport cool styles, we may be dirty but we look good!

Exploring the area around them is a favorite for the kids.

You are surrounded by breathtaking beauty (some of it was all ready there, we added the brown-eyed beauty to make it even better!)

Nothing gets better then ending a day covered head to toe with dirt, sitting by a campfire, sipping hot chocolate.

At the end of the 4 days you are utterly exhausted ready to sleep for the next week.

While waiting for our tent to dry out before packing up to head home, sleep is just what we did! (we were lucky to avoid any rain until the last night. MUCH better then the multiple times a day hail storms we enjoyed last year!)