First Day Of School!

This year Austin is a Junior, Aubrey is in eighth grade, and Ian is in fourth grade.  Yes, I have one child in three schools.  Oh, and Don is still the assistant principal at his school.  So, as you can see the first day of school is a very busy and crazy day for us.  We always start off the day with chocolate chip pancakes.  The kids love having this breakfast on the first day of school.  Yes, I even wake up at 5:00 am to make sure Austin has some before he goes to early morning seminary! 

For Aubrey, the most important part of the day is having a good outfit for the 1st day back!  She looked so cute.  Poor Ian, all he wanted was a vintage Captain America shirt.  Let me tell you we looked everywhere.  The reality is, they do not make vintage shirts in Ian's size!  In fact, at one point during our quest, Ian stopped and looked at me and said, "Nobody understands my style!"  Really???  He's nine!  Shirts in his size were not vintage.  So Austin came up with an idea.  We got him a small shirt in young mens.  Then I went home and washed it and put it in the dryer.  It was still a little big, but not bad.  Ian was excited.  He looks pretty good.

They all had a good day.  Well, Austin was frustrated that he didn't get all the classes he wanted.  We are still working on that.  Aurbey was happy, but she doesn't know anyone in her math class.  Of course that is a stress.  You know, the social part of school is so important.  Ian got mad at me today!  I walked him to his dot and he was so mad.  He said he could do it himself.  I wanted to make sure he got there ok.  Then I picked him up at his dot.  Oh, was he mad!!!  He looked at me and rolled his eyes!!!!  He came over to me and said, "What are you doing here?  I can walk to the car myself!"  I just looked at him and said, "Listen kid, humor me! Just go with it!"  So needless to say, I won't be meeting him today after school!  I will just wait in my car!

So I explained the hunt for Ian's shirt!  Well, along with it being the first day of school it was the first day of football practise.  Ian went, and got hit in the face with the ball!!!  The good news is, he caught the ball.  The bad news is, he got a bloody nose and bled all over his new shirt!  Oh well!  So much for that shirt!

Sometimes I Really Like Facebook!

Anybody who knows me, knows that when I title my post that, something good has happened.  While Zachery is on his mission in Russia I am in charge of his facebook account and his blog.  When I go on his facebook account, I see who wants to "friend" him and in his weekly e-mail I ask him what he wants to do about that.  Well, this last week I noticed that two girls from Russia requested him as a "friend".  So, I asked Zach what he wanted me to do.  He said they were girls from the branch and it would be ok to accept them.  Honestly there is nothing on his facebook wall, so his facebook is pretty boring right now.  Don totally freaked out!!!  But like I said, there is nothing on his facebook account.  Well, to my surprise, one of the girls posted pictures on her wall of the missionaries of her branch!  I couldn't tell you how happy I was so see pictures of my son!  These are the first pictures I have seen from Russia.  (Zach is still trying to figure out what is the best way to get the pictures to us.)  He looks so happy!  It was so great to see these.  So, a big thanks to Natasha!!!!  Sometimes, facebook isn't too bad.

I wonder if this girl is a Sister Missionary.  She kind of looks like it.

Zach is in the second row on the left. 

If you want to read more about Zach's mission, just click on his picture on the sidebar.

The Zoo! (Hoogle)

While we had time between the wedding and reception, we braved the heat and humidity and took the kids to the zoo.  Now everyone at the wedding laughed at us.  I guess they didn't think the zoo was a great thing or very fun, but let me tell you, my kids love it!!!!  Sure it's no San Diego Zoo, but it does the job!  Every time we go we are so impressed with the changes that zoo has made.  What I love the most was how the older kids were so cute with Ian.  They were so excited and really got into being at the zoo.  It was so cute.  We gave Ian the map of  the zoo and told him he was in charge.  He led us around and the kids kept on saying how much fun they were having!  It is so nice and I am sure Ian loved it.  Here is the kids.  Notice the critter next to Don.

Don turned around and saw this little dude close to his head!  People around us started laughing!

They had a dinosaur exhibit going on.  There were dinosaurs that squirted  water and ones you could climb on. 

Obviously, the kids loved it!

Oh no!  That T-Rex is going to eat my kids!

Then Austin found the famous water fountain in the Lion's head.  He was so excited.  He made sure I took a picture of Ian getting a drink out of  it!  It's a classic picture!

We had a great day!!!  The Zoo was a ton of fun.  We love it.

Trip To Salt Lake

We wanted to take one more final vacation before school started.  The kids wanted to go to the beach, but my cousin's son was going to be getting married, and I really felt strongly about going to that.  So off we went to Salt Lake City.  Of course, there is always dancing in our car on the way to our destination!  It was a "Matt & Kim" weekend.  I think it was one of them was celebrating their birthday, so Austin felt like it was appropriate to listen to them.  It's fine with me, because I really enjoy "Matt & Kim". 

Once we got there, Austin met up with some friends he met at EFY and they headed off to Lagoon.  It is a local amusement park in Utah.  Don and I took Aubrey and Ian around Salt Lake.  Ian had never been in the Church office building and he wanted to go there.  First we stopped in the Relief Society building because Aubrey wanted to see all of  the Young Women displays.  Ian loved seeing the Primary stuff too. 

Of course, we love all things Russian.

View of the capital building from the top of the Church Office Building.

View of Temple Square

This is a view from the Joseph Smith Building.

Aurbey and Ian.

Then we found out that Brigham Young was buried close by.   We had never been there, so we went to take a look.  It was strange.  It was just in a tiny park on a very crowded street.  Not very fancy, but very nice.

The park was so pretty.  Very quiet in a busy city.

We went  to the This Is The Place Monument.  Ian and Aubrey had never been there either.  "This is the Place stands as a monument to the dedication and sacrifices of the Mormon Pioneers who entered the Salt Lake valley on July 22, 1847."  The story is,  "Brigham Young, who had been seriously ill with Mountain Fever, entered the valley on July 24 with the remaining fifteen wagons. Of this historic occasion, Wilford Woodruff, in whose carriage Brigham Young rode, says: "When we came out of the canyon in full view of the valley, I turned the side of my carriage around, open to the west, and President Young arose from his bed and took a survey of the country. While gazing on the scene he was enwrapped in vision for several minutes. When the vision had passed he said, 'This is the right place, drive on!'""

The next day we went to the wedding in the Bountiful  Utah Temple.  It was a beautiful day!  Just perfect for a wedding.

Here are the guys waiting for the bride and groom to come out.

One of the best parts of  the trip for me was visiting with my wonderful family.  It was so great to see them  Here is the Bride and Groom.  My Uncle and Cousin (Father of the groom) are on the left.  Don't they look amazing!

My cousin and his two sons.  He is a proud Daddy!

After the reception, the kids wanted  to drive around Salt  Lake and see the city at night.  We went to the Capital Building.  I thought no one would be there, but boy, this place was hopping!  Everyone was walking around up there!

Here are some pictures of  the Salt Lake Temple at night.

The kids had a great trip.  We had a ton of fun and visiting with family was the best.  I love seeing my Uncle.

Personal Progress

Aubrey has been working on her Personal Progress. It is a program for the young women in our church.  Elaine S. Dalton stated that, "Personal Progress is not a program that is separate and apart from your life. It is a tool that you can use to draw closer to the Savior, serve others, be anxiously engaged in good works, learn leadership skills, develop relationships with others, and prepare for temple covenants. Personal Progress helps each young woman who participates develop daily righteous routines. When you do small things consistently, they become part of who you are and they change you."  I will explain more about this program later.  Anyway, Aubrey has many goals and projects that she has to work on.  She has been cruising along.  This summer she worked on a power point about individual worth and a cookbook.  Well, since she took all of our family recipes and typed them up for a book, I thought it would be nice for her to do that through Blurb and have it made into a nice book.  It came out wonderful.  It came out so good that  I am  going to have some printed up for the boys.  Austin wants one for college and I am sure Zach will want one too.  It holds all of our favorite recipes.  Yes, even those Ultimate Chocolate Brownies.  Now she only has to finish reading the Book Of Mormon and she gets her medallion.  She is really excited.