Heritage Park (This is the Place)

Here are the fun pictures from Heritage Park. This was Alex's favorite thing of the week. He even wanted me to buy him pioneer clothes - funny kid. I asked him when he would wear pioneer clothes and he said he could wear them for Halloween and the long sleeves would be good for keeping the sun off his arms. Ah, because we for sure don't have long sleeve shirts at home, we would need to buy pioneer clothes in order to get a long sleeve shirt and long pants. Great stuff I tell ya. Anyway, he enjoyed washing the rags in the tub and even went back into the iron worker area to ask how long it would take for him to learn that skill. It makes me realize how much I don't know about my children. I had no idea that all that would facinate Alex so much. It's nice for me to see what excites my children so I can foster some of that facination. We all had fun here but we got hot and tired and towards the end of the day splurged on ice cream which you can see Zachary chowing down on in the first picture.

Golfing with Grandaddy

In our family the grandkids get to golf with Grandaddy after they turn eight years old. This year the boys didn't do a full round, however, they got to hit balls at the range and then practice their putting. They had a great time and I got to read my book while they practiced their swings. I also took a few swings myself. After missing the ball four or so times, I finally hit it pretty decently. I wasn't too disappointed with my efforts. Anyway, enjoy these fun pictures...there will be more Grammie's week pictures to come.

more and more fun

OK - so I told you about Monday and now you're going to get an abbrevbiated version of Tuesday, Wednesday, and today. Tuesday was spent golfing with the older grandchildren (8 and up) and then off to Thanksgiving Point. We went to the gardens and saw the largest man-made waterfall in the Western Hemisphere. It was really cool looking and I'll have to share the cute picture I took of my boys in front of it. Then we came home to more swimming. Wednesday was up early and off to BYU where we went to the Bookstore, to see Grandaddy in his office, and to lunch at the Cougar-Eat. Afterwards we hurried to my aunt's house for a baby shower for my cousin. She is having a girl after three boys and so we got her some frilly stuff to celebrate. Joy and my sister in law Jackie also made some awesome bows to match all the fun outfits. The grandkids all got to swim in Aunt Kathy's pool (way fun) and then we came back to Grammie and Grandaddy's house to swim some more. My kids are LOVING having such easy access to a pool all the time. Which brings us to today. This morning we slept in a little, made hand print aprons for Grammie and Grandaddy and a shirt for Ben and then headed off to This is the Place Park. My boys absolutely LOVED Heritage Park (with This is the Place monument). Oh my goodness, I think Alex would have been fine to have been left there. He said if we lived here he would volunteer there - he just loved doing everything. Johnathan and Zachary loved it too but Alex couldn't get enough. When we left there, we surprised our friend, Heidi, at her work (the physics dept. of the University of Utah). Then we came home for hamburgers, hot dogs, and more swimming. Tonight we are again watching the olympics. We have watched so much Olympic coverage - we have been able to see all the highlights so far - SO fun!! Enjoy the pictures!!

some pictures from monday

Warning...

...below post was written for children. I wrote the post below originally for the book I am creating for Grammie's week. It doesn't really matter - but I wanted you to know.

Monday of Grammie's Week

Don't worry - pictures will come!!!


Grammie's week started out with a bang first thing Monday morning. Jackie started us out with one fun game and one fun craft. All the kids were so excited to cut a penny from flour and then from sand. Also she had little plastic beads for the grandkids to make designs with and then we ironed them together to make a picture. Elise made a very impressive fish.

After the crew got ready for the day we journeyed to Boondocks to continue the fun. At Boondocks the kids enjoyed water bumper boats, go-karts, mini-golf, kiddie cove, arcade games, and a yummy lunch of pizza and bread sticks. Alex was especially excited that he was tall enough to ride the big go karts all by himself. A few times he rode them by himself and a few times he took smaller kids with him. The other boys, including Johnathan, Kenneth, Nathan and Benjamin enjoyed riding the smaller go karts by themselves also.

When we came home from our fun time at Boondocks Alex, Johnathan, Kenneth, Nathan and Joy were able to go boating on Utah Lake for a little bit while all the little kids plus Ben went swimming in Grandaddy and Grammie's pool. Actually, mostly they played in the warmer hot tub but there was some swimming in the bigger pool.

Coming in from the pool and the lake there were fractured tacos to enjoy. Following a yummy dinner we gathered for Family Home Evening. Grandaddy and Grammie were in charge and told all the grandkids stories about their lives when they were growing up. Grammie talked about having one older brother and one older sister, also two younger brothers and one younger sister. She told them how she grew up next to the beach and loved the water and the green of California. Grammie told the children a little about her mama, Grandma Noble and how wonderful a singer Grandaddy Noble was. Grandaddy then talked about how he used to swim and jump on the trampoline when he was little just like his grandkids. It was also mentioned that Grammie and Grandaddy grew up about five miles from each other.

After the Family Home Evening Grammie and Grandaddy gave all the grandchildren books of their very own. The next few minutes were spent reading our books.

Ice cream was the final treat of the night before everyone went to bed. We can't wait for tomorrow.

Welcome to Preschool

I finished my preschool room a couple days ago and wanted to share with you all of my hard work. My boys are forbidden to go into this room until after preschool starts. :0)

The fun continued...

During the reunion we went to the beach. We had such a great time. We all love the beach. While we were there my sister-in-law, Augusta and her husband, Jeff made the most killer sand castle. (see picture below) They had a lot of help but they were the master builders and really guided the others with the design. Anyway, here are some of the favorite pictures from the trip to the beach.


This first picture is of my brother-in-law, Floyd's sailboat...isn't it a beauty??!!
This is the picture of the most awesome sand castle. The detail is so incredible and they did it all with a couple of plastic cups and a plastic knife. Martin (Darrel's brother) made the lobster on the front. Augusta is responsible for most of the cool stairways and Jeff (her husband) worked mainly on the left side with the cool windows, arches, etc. This was so cool that other people on the beach were coming over and taking pictures of it while they were creating.

Alex is playing with James in this picture. He is growing up so fast and is so good about playing with the younger kids. He is such a good kid.

This is just a picture of a seagull that I took that I thought was cool. I was walking along the beach back to where we were sitting and a spotted this seagull flying really close to the surf so I picked up my camera and snapped a quick picture. It wasn't until I got home and looked at them more closely that saw what a cool picture it turned out to be. I would have like it to be more tack sharp - but what can you do?

This is Johnathan hanging out in the surf. I swear this kid could have been born in the ocean. He just loves the water and loves boogie boarding. He is such a fun kid and it was so fun to see him so happy.

OK - this is just a picture of a cool boat. We're not related to it or anything...I just thought it was cool.

Zachary also just adores the water. We had to call him back from the surf multiple times because he got to far in and doesn't understand the dangers of the ocean. He thinks he is water safe but he really is not. He had such a blast running from the waves, helping to build the sand castle, and playing with all his cousins.

And that was our fun day on the beach. I took SO many pictures but it's late so I just picked a few to share. The reunion was AWESOME and I'm so glad I married into such a cool family.