Monday, July 21, 2008
Splash Mountain
Unfortunately it's really hard to tell on this scanned image, but this picture was one of the best I have seen on this ride. Click on the pictures to see them bigger. Nathan's face tells it all. He is sitting to my left and I have my arm around him. He looks like he is about to meet his fate! Athena and Samantha are in front of us.
The Trip is Over
Well, we made it home from our 11-day journey. :) We had so much fun the kids didn't want to come home! I have a lot or pictures to post in the next week or so. Thankfully everything turned out to be really good on our trip and we didn't have any major problems. Even though it's a bummer to not be on the trip anymore, it's nice to be home again. Our neighbor watered our garden for us, so we have lots of nice plants in the backyard.
Last night when I was unpacking our stuff, I was in Nathan's room putting his clothes away. I kept hearing a bird chirping over and over and over. I asked Samantha if there was a toy making a bird noise and she said no. I went and opened his blinds to look into the window well and I couldn't see anything outside. It was very puzzling to me. Finally I went outside and walked around to where his window is. I heard the bird chirping again. I looked all around the A/C unit and in the bush by his window. Still nothing. Then I looked down inside his window well, and I finally focused in on the bird. There was a bird stuck in his window well! His window well is covered by a grate, so I figured the bird probably fell in and couldn't fly out.
I had Jeremy come and look. He opened the grate and put a shovel down in the window well. After much maneuvering he managed to get the weak little bird onto the shovel. It was so weak it could hardly move. The bird is one of the baby robins from the nest in our tree. It still can't fly and must have hopped over there and fell in. We have no idea how long it was there and don't know if it will live. It wouldn't eat anything - Jeremy even went and found it a worm. Darn it! We saw the one of the other birds in our backyard. It could fly enough to get to the top of the fence and sit on it, but that's about it. The nest was empty when we got home and we figured all the little birds had flown away, but they are still hanging around. I wonder where the mother is.
So, compared to our trip, and then our bird incident, today is quite uneventful. Maybe I'll go to Walmart to get some milk and fruit so we have something fresh in the house. WOO HOO! Now I have a PLAN! LOL.
Last night when I was unpacking our stuff, I was in Nathan's room putting his clothes away. I kept hearing a bird chirping over and over and over. I asked Samantha if there was a toy making a bird noise and she said no. I went and opened his blinds to look into the window well and I couldn't see anything outside. It was very puzzling to me. Finally I went outside and walked around to where his window is. I heard the bird chirping again. I looked all around the A/C unit and in the bush by his window. Still nothing. Then I looked down inside his window well, and I finally focused in on the bird. There was a bird stuck in his window well! His window well is covered by a grate, so I figured the bird probably fell in and couldn't fly out.
I had Jeremy come and look. He opened the grate and put a shovel down in the window well. After much maneuvering he managed to get the weak little bird onto the shovel. It was so weak it could hardly move. The bird is one of the baby robins from the nest in our tree. It still can't fly and must have hopped over there and fell in. We have no idea how long it was there and don't know if it will live. It wouldn't eat anything - Jeremy even went and found it a worm. Darn it! We saw the one of the other birds in our backyard. It could fly enough to get to the top of the fence and sit on it, but that's about it. The nest was empty when we got home and we figured all the little birds had flown away, but they are still hanging around. I wonder where the mother is.
So, compared to our trip, and then our bird incident, today is quite uneventful. Maybe I'll go to Walmart to get some milk and fruit so we have something fresh in the house. WOO HOO! Now I have a PLAN! LOL.
Monday, July 7, 2008
How We Spent Our 4th of July
The night before the 4th of July, Jeremy has made it his own little tradition to sleep out on the parade route to save a family spot for the parade. This year he had Athena and Samantha sleep over with him. It was their second year to sleep out. They had a lot of fun and spent a lot of the evening playing their Nintendo DS. In the morning I brought Alexandra and Nathan to the parade.
We started out the morning by enjoying a bit of breakfast - chocolate milk and granola bars.
Then we just sat around and waited for people to arrive to the spot to watch the parade.
Athena and Samantha are also enjoying the wait and hoping their cousins arrive soon.
Samantha REALLY enjoyed her breakfast. :)
After watching the parade, we loaded up everything into the car and drove to a little set-up that is up every 4th of July. It's a colonial village and it has all kinds of really neat things to do and look at. Athena and Samantha have been asking us to go somewhere that they can learn more about the pioneers, so we spent a couple of hours here looking around. They had a lifesize model of the Mayflower. Here are the girls standing at the wheel of the Mayflower.
We then sat down for a presentation on some of the first settlers of America. We were right on the front row and the lady who was presenting picked all 3 kids to come up and help out! The thing that surprised me here is how good Nathan was in front of all those people! No fidgeting or anything.
All the kids had a chance to try on the old-fashioned armor that the pilgrims used to wear. The lady in the picture is helping to hold up the sword because it was too heavy for the kids to hold.
Nathan told us that the armor is very heavy. He wouldn't smile with it on. He just sat there with a funny look on his face.
Athena is the only one of our kids who was strong enough to hold the sword on her own.
Nathan really loved playing this game. It was a little marble game that the pilgrims used to play where they try to roll a marble into a slot in the board. We had to pry him away from it when it was time to move on. It made me wonder why we spend so much money on toys for him when it's the simple things that bring such pleasure!
Athena and Samantha really loved looking at the people who were dressed up in the village. A few times they stopped individual ladies to tell them they looked beautiful. These are the lucky ones who got to be in our picture.
Jeremy and I enjoyed walking through a display of original documents with several signatures of historical people from the U.S. In the collection was an original Book of Mormon, a signature from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and several other signatures that I can't remember right now, but it was really neat to see. As we were browsing, we had to all of a sudden leave in a hurry because Nathan and Samantha started pushing each other and fighting and they almost knocked over a framed letter from George Washington. Darn kids.
After leaving the gallery we walked through the craft show. It was very hot and way too busy so we left and bought the kids slurpees at 7-eleven. That sure raised their spirits. We tried the craft show once more after everyone had had a cold drink, but it was still too hot, so we went home to take a break and let everyone rest for a while.
We started out the morning by enjoying a bit of breakfast - chocolate milk and granola bars.
Then we just sat around and waited for people to arrive to the spot to watch the parade.
Athena and Samantha are also enjoying the wait and hoping their cousins arrive soon.
Samantha REALLY enjoyed her breakfast. :)
After watching the parade, we loaded up everything into the car and drove to a little set-up that is up every 4th of July. It's a colonial village and it has all kinds of really neat things to do and look at. Athena and Samantha have been asking us to go somewhere that they can learn more about the pioneers, so we spent a couple of hours here looking around. They had a lifesize model of the Mayflower. Here are the girls standing at the wheel of the Mayflower.
We then sat down for a presentation on some of the first settlers of America. We were right on the front row and the lady who was presenting picked all 3 kids to come up and help out! The thing that surprised me here is how good Nathan was in front of all those people! No fidgeting or anything.
All the kids had a chance to try on the old-fashioned armor that the pilgrims used to wear. The lady in the picture is helping to hold up the sword because it was too heavy for the kids to hold.
Nathan told us that the armor is very heavy. He wouldn't smile with it on. He just sat there with a funny look on his face.
Athena is the only one of our kids who was strong enough to hold the sword on her own.
Nathan really loved playing this game. It was a little marble game that the pilgrims used to play where they try to roll a marble into a slot in the board. We had to pry him away from it when it was time to move on. It made me wonder why we spend so much money on toys for him when it's the simple things that bring such pleasure!
Athena and Samantha really loved looking at the people who were dressed up in the village. A few times they stopped individual ladies to tell them they looked beautiful. These are the lucky ones who got to be in our picture.
Jeremy and I enjoyed walking through a display of original documents with several signatures of historical people from the U.S. In the collection was an original Book of Mormon, a signature from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and several other signatures that I can't remember right now, but it was really neat to see. As we were browsing, we had to all of a sudden leave in a hurry because Nathan and Samantha started pushing each other and fighting and they almost knocked over a framed letter from George Washington. Darn kids.
After leaving the gallery we walked through the craft show. It was very hot and way too busy so we left and bought the kids slurpees at 7-eleven. That sure raised their spirits. We tried the craft show once more after everyone had had a cold drink, but it was still too hot, so we went home to take a break and let everyone rest for a while.
Throughout this past year, Jeremy's mom gave everyone a Stadium of Fire ticket for their birthday. This is the first year we have gone into the stadium to see the show and watch the fireworks. We wanted all the kids to be well rested, so we went home and took naps. We then left our house at about 4pm and headed over to Mama and Daddy's house. Mama agreed to watch Alexandra for us because I didn't think Alexandra would enjoy the fireworks and it would be miserable for us to have here there in such a hot, tight space. It worked out very well. After dropping her off we headed back to Provo. We stopped on the way to get KFC for our picnic.
We parked, had a picnic in the shade, and headed towards the stadium. Before going in, the kids enjoyed a little bit of time playing on the grass. Nathan likes to play dead. I told him not to smile dead, so he did smile.
Beautiful pose, Athena and Samantha. Typical Nathan.
Here is the group of us at Stadium of Fire. There were 24 of us there and we all wore matching shirts, thanks to Grandma.
Just our little family.
Another highlight for us - we have always watched the sky-divers from our spot on the outside of the stadium, but we never get to see them land. It was really neat to watch the divers this year jump out of the plane, then swirl around the stadium, and finally come in for a landing on the grass in the middle of the field.
Here is our view of the field from where we were sitting.
Nathan kept covering his ears during the program. It was in anticipation of the fireworks. I kept telling him that it wasn't loud yet, so he would then uncover his ears.
The entertainment for Stadium of Fire was the Blue Man Group and Miley Cyrus. We all really liked the Blue Man Group, and none of us really cared for Miley Cyrus. Even the girls preferred the Blue Man Group and Athena asked us, "Is there a concert that has ONLY the Blue Man Group?" Right on, Athena - that's what I'm thinking. They were really fun to watch, quite entertaining. I don't understand what all the hype is about Miley Cyrus, I thought her act was horrible.
Here is the group of us at Stadium of Fire. There were 24 of us there and we all wore matching shirts, thanks to Grandma.
Just our little family.
Another highlight for us - we have always watched the sky-divers from our spot on the outside of the stadium, but we never get to see them land. It was really neat to watch the divers this year jump out of the plane, then swirl around the stadium, and finally come in for a landing on the grass in the middle of the field.
Here is our view of the field from where we were sitting.
Nathan kept covering his ears during the program. It was in anticipation of the fireworks. I kept telling him that it wasn't loud yet, so he would then uncover his ears.
He also really liked wearing the 3D glasses that were handed out. They made the fireworks look REALLY COOL. Actually, I liked watching the fireworks better without them.
The entertainment for Stadium of Fire was the Blue Man Group and Miley Cyrus. We all really liked the Blue Man Group, and none of us really cared for Miley Cyrus. Even the girls preferred the Blue Man Group and Athena asked us, "Is there a concert that has ONLY the Blue Man Group?" Right on, Athena - that's what I'm thinking. They were really fun to watch, quite entertaining. I don't understand what all the hype is about Miley Cyrus, I thought her act was horrible.
Overall, we had a very successful and fun 4th of July. I especially enjoyed learning more about the pilgrims and celebrating the freedoms we enjoy. I'm so grateful to live in this country and for the blessings I enjoy by living here.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Hiking to the Grotto and Nebo Loop
Last Saturday Jeremy and I took the kids up Payson Canyon to hike to the Grotto. I've been wanting to take them up there for quite some time, so we packed a few things and headed up. The hike is really pretty. It goes up through a narrow part of the canyon and has a river coming down through it.
There are several bridges you have to cross because the trail goes from one side of the river to the other. This is the first one we came to. The kids were all really nervous on this first one, but then they got the hang of it and were speeding across. Here is Jeremy helping Nathan on his first crossing.
Now Athena and Samantha's turn!
After cooling off our feet and getting a good look at the waterfall, we headed back down the trail. I thought the hike would take about 45 minutes, but it actually was about 45 minutes for the whole trip up and back! When we got to the bottom of the trail we saw a deer in the trees about 30 feet from the trail. That was fun to watch. :)
We expected the grotto trip would last longer than it did. We weren't quite ready to go home yet, so we decided to take a trip around the Nebo Loop. It is quite a beautiful scenic drive. This picture is from the top of the Nebo Loop looking south. I love how it seems like the mountains just go forever. It's very pretty.
The kids are out enjoying a chance to stretch their legs before we tell them to get in so we can keep driving.
This view is from the top facing North. There is a lot of haze in the air and it's hard to see, but down at the bottom of the mountains is Utah Valley and Utah Lake.
Before heading down towards Nephi Canyon, we saw a sign for something called Hell's Kitchen. Since we were there for the scenery, we decided to stop and have a look. There was a short, paved trail that led us to this. No, not led us to Nathan - it led us to the mountainside behind Nathan. It's an amazing mini-Zion. I had no idea we had this kind of beauty so close! There are lots of red rock pillars all the way down this small canyon.
After looking at Hell's Kitchen, the loop took us down to Nephi Canyon. We took that to I-15 and went back home again on the freeway. All the kids actually did really well on our outing and we had a lot of fun sharing another part of our beautiful world with the kids.
There are several bridges you have to cross because the trail goes from one side of the river to the other. This is the first one we came to. The kids were all really nervous on this first one, but then they got the hang of it and were speeding across. Here is Jeremy helping Nathan on his first crossing.
Now Athena and Samantha's turn!
Ahhhh, the prize. This is what we hiked up to see. A really pretty waterfall that falls down into this little opening and forms a pool in the rocks. The water is really cold, but the temperature in the air is nice and cool.
We stayed around the waterfall for about 10-15 minutes and let everyone have a good look around. The girls waded in the water and Nathan found rocks to throw in.
Jeremy and Athena went to explore this little cave.
After cooling off our feet and getting a good look at the waterfall, we headed back down the trail. I thought the hike would take about 45 minutes, but it actually was about 45 minutes for the whole trip up and back! When we got to the bottom of the trail we saw a deer in the trees about 30 feet from the trail. That was fun to watch. :)
We expected the grotto trip would last longer than it did. We weren't quite ready to go home yet, so we decided to take a trip around the Nebo Loop. It is quite a beautiful scenic drive. This picture is from the top of the Nebo Loop looking south. I love how it seems like the mountains just go forever. It's very pretty.
The kids are out enjoying a chance to stretch their legs before we tell them to get in so we can keep driving.
This view is from the top facing North. There is a lot of haze in the air and it's hard to see, but down at the bottom of the mountains is Utah Valley and Utah Lake.
Before heading down towards Nephi Canyon, we saw a sign for something called Hell's Kitchen. Since we were there for the scenery, we decided to stop and have a look. There was a short, paved trail that led us to this. No, not led us to Nathan - it led us to the mountainside behind Nathan. It's an amazing mini-Zion. I had no idea we had this kind of beauty so close! There are lots of red rock pillars all the way down this small canyon.
After looking at Hell's Kitchen, the loop took us down to Nephi Canyon. We took that to I-15 and went back home again on the freeway. All the kids actually did really well on our outing and we had a lot of fun sharing another part of our beautiful world with the kids.
Bird Update
Unfortunately our hummingbirds didn't make it. The mother abandoned the nest a week ago so yesterday Jeremy took down the Christmas lights and removed the nest with the 2 little eggs still in it. A funny sidenote - as Jeremy was taking down the lights, our neighbor across the street yelled over, "What's the point? You're gonna have to put them back up in 3 months!"
To our happy surprise, the robin's eggs DID hatch and it was sooner than expected. :) We have been keeping watch on our baby birds in the nest. Jeremy found the baby birds within a day of them hatching because he checks them often. The kids have had a lot of fun looking at the birds. I'm glad we could see them before our trip.
Alexandra Walks!
Alexandra is finally walking and working on being more consistent at it. She is starting to enjoy the joys of carrying something in her hand and getting from one place to the other at the same time - as opposed to crawling and having a hard time toting her toys. She is a very busy girl and this will just add another dimension of busy-ness. Here are a couple of videos I took today of her walking to me.
Last night Nathan was in the bath. I left to go look for something and I heard Nathan making a bunch of noise. Then I heard him say, "Baby is in the tub!" I ran into the bathroom to find Alexandra sitting there, happy as can be, playing in the tub in her dress. She didn't seem to care at all that she was fully dressed and sopping wet. When I pulled her out she had a huge screaming fit!
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