Last Summer Day

We met my friend Melissa and her daughter Maya to the Dinosaur Museum and the Farm Country the day before school started!

Maya, Josh, and Sam have always seemed to get along very well!

The wagon ride at the farm was one of our highlights!

I had to put Maurie in the blog too since she is usually stuck behind the camera with me!

It was fun to go and spend more time with Mel again! Thanks for the fun idea!

Sam's First Cub Soccer Game

We decided to let Sam play soccer with a bunch of our neighbors' kids in the Springville City Cub League.

This is Sam getting ready to kick-off!

This is one of the many repeated reactions that Sam had during the game when things didn't go his way (i.e. "I didn't score a goal," "I couldn't kick the ball," etc... ).

Josh found some friends to run around with during half-time!

Sam's First Day of Kindergarten

The big day finally arrived! Sam was very excited to go to the "big" school this year.

My "little trouble maker" is not so little anymore!



"Hmmmm, I wonder what I will learn this year?"
Play dough kept Sam occupied as I dropped him off! I don't think he even noticed that I was leaving!! Later that night Sam told me that he was brave while he was at school. I asked him why and he said that there was a time that he "really needed me" and I wasn't there, but he didn't cry!

Sam's good friend Micah that lives next door took most of Sam's worries away as they ran off to school and into the classroom. It is fun to have some friends that Sam is already familiar with in his class, and also great to have a walking buddy.

My favorite thing that Sam told be about his first day of school was while we were walking home he quickly turned to me with a perplexed look and said "Mom, Mrs. Morgan (his teacher) didn't teach me how to read today!" I told him that it takes more than one day of school to learn how to read, but I think he was a little disappointed!! All in all, he is very excited to go back tomorrow!

2008 Garden

Sam and Josh have been faithful little helpers this year in our garden! They have enjoyed weeding, watering, and picking the veggies! This year we have focused on mainly corn and tomatoes. We had to take this picture to show Sam just how big the corn was in comparison.

Our New Piano!!

I never thought the time would come that I actually would want to sit down and play the piano voluntarily! I actually am really excited to have found such a good deal on a piano (from our neighbor who is moving). I have already been playing all sorts and the kids are even enjoying it!

Sam and Josh have had a great time making up songs and listening to some of their favorites!

Getting Big!!

Maurie (7 months) has been getting more and more fun as she gets bigger! She is definitely a social bug as she hates to be left behind! Maurie has collected many new nicknames the past few weeks, our favorite of which is probably "snickerdoodle, chocolate chip cookie pants!" I have no idea how that one came to be other than Ted and Sam enjoy putting long combinations together! Some others include "doo," "doodle bug," and "baby girl."

Our Trip to Denver, Colorado

Who would ever put such beautiful children in jail?

Ted and I were able to take our kids to Denver, Colorado at the beginning of August. Ted had some work there and we followed along. We let the boys pick out our adventures each day and so that mostly involved trains! The picture above was taken in "Tiny Town." This place was filled with miniature houses of all kinds, including a jail!

Tiny Town also had a miniature coal locomotive that we all were able to ride on!

Our boys loved the ride and could have gone all day over and over! We ended our day at Tiny Town by watching the conductor switch out trains and put the black locomotive on the round-about turn table and put the engine in the miniature shed! It was a blast for the kids!

We also went to a train museum in Golden, Colorado (just outside of Denver) close to our hotel.

Our trip was great, but Josh ended up getting sick with a variety of issues and we were out of commision for the next two weeks! Thus no blog entries until now!