Friday Field Trip #1

The fun, fabulous, fantastic, Friday field trips have begun!

Last week Bret took the kids hiking up to Stewart Falls.

Makes me want to burst out into song..."the hills are alive, with the sound of music!"

Bret told the kids he would pay them one dollar if they put their heads under the ice cold falls...here's McKenna gathering up courage and Abby walking away...

closer...closer...closer...

And she did it!

Nothing like a great Utah hike!

Lost

I haven't seen my girls for days.

They somehow reappear when they are hungry or it's time to go swimming.

But other then that they have been getting lost...

Escaping to new lands and new places with new friends...

It makes my heart do a little shout for joy when I find them like this! Books have always played such a major and important part of my life, and I am SO very happy to see my girls get swallowed up in reading.

Abby is on book four for the summer, and McKenna is on book number 8!

I myself have been captured by the Josephine Bonaparte Trilogy by Sandra Gulland (thanks Mer!) Historical Fiction is my absolute favorite and these books are going on my all time favorite list!

One of the many reasons I LOVE summertime!

Abby's First Swim Meet

One of the things Abby has been looking forward to most this summer was being on a swim team here in Provo. After two days being here and one practice, she had her first meet.

She has never been on a swim team before, and in her words she was "freaking out." She didn't know what to expect and hadn't even had a real practice yet.

But she was AWESOME!!

She swam the backstroke and took second place:

She swam the breaststroke and not only took first place but received an "A Time" which I was told that if she was on a year round competitive team would have qualified her for state!

And she swam in a freestyle relay, her team taking first place:

Just look at that long body (those other girls she's standing by are 8 years old too!)

WAY TO GO ABBY!

She was so proud of herself. I was so proud of her and happy for her. She loved the fact that we were there cheering her on. It was so great for her to have such a sense of accomplishment. Driving back home afterwards she said, "I finally have a sport!"

Road Trip!

Well, we've made it. We survived the four day road trip. And I have to say, survived well. Gavin definitely had moments, but for being two, not liking movies, not truly understanding what the destination had in store for us, and being strapped down for four days, he did remarkably well.

It was actually really kind of fun. Each day held a different adventure for us. New sites to see, new places to explore.

Day One: Kirtland Ohio/South Bend Indiana

Our first stop was the Johnson Family Farm.

The kids standing on the steps where the Prophet Joseph Smith was dragged out of the house and tarred and feathered in the middle of the night

We then went to the Kirtland Temple.

After Kirtland we drove to South Bend, checked in to our hotel and spent a couple hours at a park.

Day Two: Chicago/Madison, Wisconsin

After dropping Sadie off at a dogie day care, we headed over to the Willis Tower (formally known as Sears Tower)

I want to remember playing hop scotch and freeze tag on the sky deck patio while waiting for it to open...definitely a great family memory

We were warned before we went up that there was zero visibility...

But standing on a glass surface in the middle of clouds is still scary!

(Abby and I would carefully step out if we could still hold on to the wall)

We went down and walked across the street to grab breakfast only to come out five minutes later to look up and see the observation decks...the clouds had dispersed. Thanks to Bret who was willing to ask if they would let us back up, we got Sears Tower round two!

We then tried to go to the Shed Aquarium, but there was a three hour line just to get in. We went over to the Field Museum, but when we saw how much it would cost for our family to go we held a family meeting and decided to drive three hours to our hotel, get there early and do something fun. So in Madison, Wisconsin we went to the mall and had a scavenger hunt for: a shirt with a cartoon on it, a tennis racket, a man with red hair, a hot dog and pink tennis shoes. It was so fun!

Day Three: Mount Rushmore

We got to Mount Rushmore in time to enjoy the twilight hours and the 9:00 lighting patriotic service. It was great and Bret and I just kept saying to each other, "we're at Mount Rushmore with our kids!"

Day Four: Grandma and Grandpa's House!

We've been having so much fun I haven't even been taking pictures!

Over The River And Through The Woods...

...to Grandmothers house we go!

(wish us luck....I'm a little worried about the getting there part...or should I say...Gavin getting there)

First Grade---McKenna

McKenna had such a GREAT year! Her teacher Mr. Squires was truly an answer to our prayers. She blossomed socially and was every one's friend. One little girl told her once that she was so lucky because everybody liked her. Boys had crushes on her and even though she only liked them as friends, it did make her feel pretty darn special. But most of all McKenna excelled in all areas of school; advancing in word study groups, reading groups and doing extremely well with math.

First day of school

Last Day of School

McKenna had a terrible kindergarten experience. Her teacher was a yeller and McKenna does not do well in that environment. I was astonished to see how much it affected her learning and growth. As much as we tried to work with her at home I am a firm believer in the effect and influence of a positive or negative classroom/teacher. After all, these teachers are with my children more hours during the day then I am.

Her having Mr. Squires; quiet, calm, gentle and loving Mr. Squires, made all the difference in her life. She grew by leaps and bounds this year. I am just tickled pink with her progress. One thing I always want to remember is that they raced each other every Friday at recess. And every Friday McKenna beat him.

On her report card he wrote this:

McKenna has grown into a great reader this year. She knows and does all the strategies that a good reader uses while reading. McKenna has become an amazing writer. She has created multiple books and writes at any free moment she can find. We have all enjoyed hearing her stories and seeing her great pictures. McKenna loves math too. She enjoyed the challenges we gave and would love to be the fastest at getting her math work done. She would always push herself into being better each day. McKenna was a dear friend to her classmates and would contribute to our class discussions each day. It has been a pleasure having McKenna in my class this year.

This will be one teacher I will always remember for making such a difference in the life of my child.

Third Grade---Abigail

Abby had a wonderful experience in third grade. She was blessed with a kind, loving teacher who loved to be their "other mother."

First day of school

Last day of school

Abby had some real struggles at the beginning of the year with our move here. I am grateful that Ms. Carew looked out for her, arranged seating charts to help her meet some nice girls and generally take her under her wing. While it started our a little hard, it sure ended great. Abby made some great friends.

She experienced her first standardized testing: SOL's is what they call them here. And while it caused some anxiety and nerves she did great! We'll get scores back in the summer sometime but she was getting 98% or 100% on all her practice tests.

I admire Abby's dedication and hard work. She always does her homework first thing when she gets home without being asked. She always strives to do her best and I can always count on her to be responsible.

Last Day of School!

The last day of schools was filled with mixed emotion, excitement on my part and heart ache for the girls. I picked up Abby after school at the bus stop to find her and her two friends sobbing. McKenna saw what was going on and joined in herself. They were sad to say goodbye to their teacher, Ms. Carew. They were crying so hard they were taking big gulps of breath between words. I wish I could have gotten it on film. It was sad, dramatic and humorous all at the same time. They continued crying their eyes out all the way home to our house. Knowing something needed to be done to change those frowns around I hosted a Taylor Swift dance party in our kitchen! :) It worked! I had those girls laughing, dancing, and singing their hearts out in no time! I'm sure they thought I was the craziest mom ever...but it was really fun.

We have two traditions for the last day of school:

1: Strawberry Pie for breakfast

This one started completely by accident tree years ago, but we've kept it going and the kids love it. Something fun, different, special, and definitely yummy!

Tradition 2: last day of school root beer float party

The girls each invited three friends: Evelyn, Ellie, Mae, Abby, Amy, Kate, McKenna and Ashley

We danced, sang, ate some root beer floats and headed to our neighborhood pool for some swimming.

"You belong with me!"

The big second grade girls!

Watch out forth grade...here we come!

It was the perfect way to welcome in summer.

Peach Picking

Well, we did it. We squeezed in peach picking this week. Actually we headed to the orchard Monday late afternoon for family home evening. Man was it ever a beautiful day. Mid 70's, no humidity and we were the only ones there! LOVED it.

(Love the sweet peachy goodness all over his chin!)

The best part for the kids was eating them right in the field. A lot of peaches were right at Gavin's height, so he would pick one, take a couple bites and move on to the next one.

Really loved stepping back and watching my girls pull their brothers in the wagon. These ones of Abby and Gavin I love in particular.

All those peaches made for one delicious peach crisp...but my kids didn't like it. They don't appreciate what they were missing. Of course we had to get the peach cider donuts and peach slushy! Can't wait till apple season!