End of Summer?

Despite the continuing heat summer vacation is almost over, for our family anyways. Being on a year-round school schedule has it's benefits but also it's annoyances of course. I'm still not sure which are which. Andrew and Isaac will start school here soon but then have a couple weeks off at the end of August. It's not like we were going to be doing much in August though. We had to get get all of our trips in as with KC's newish job, August is a really busy month and he can't really take time off. The baby "should" be coming just a couple weeks after things slow down again for him at work. Perfect timing. I think there was some divine intervention in that. Also now that I'm towards the endish of my pregnancy I don't know if I want to be too out and about anyways.

So I wanted to share some memories we have made so far this spring/summer in all of our comings and goings. Get ready for a picture dump.

First, birthdays... I've been a bad blogger and neglected to share the boys birthdays back when they happened in late winter and spring.  Starting in February through June we have 1 birthday from our family a month. It keeps us drowning in cake. A good thing I suppose. Will's cute cake was made by Grandma, the one I made at home wasn't even a cake.. just cupcakes, we LOVE Grandma! Andrew had a party with family this year and Isaac got to have his first big friend party.

In May we did a little vacation in Southern Utah with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandpa took us flying and shooting. We went to Zion's National Park and went hiking too. The weather was perfect.

Grandpa has a nice collection of fun old-timey shooters. KC really enjoyed being able to shoot these.

Compliments of the shotgun.

On Memorial Day weekend Grandma and Grandpa came to visit us. We took the opportunity to visit the zoo while the weather was still nice. The boys were really excited about the bird show.. at least Andrew and Isaac were. William only stopped covering his eyes after being there for 15 minutes. (Some birds were really loud)

In June KC participated in the local triathlon, Andrew played soccer (no pics, all I have are videos and you don't want to see those), we did some local sightseeing, and we went up to Snowbird for a few days with KC's Grandma. This year was the first time we could go sledding and then go swimming on the same day. This was the last weekend in June! The ski resort was open through the 4th this year. Crazy. Also

Notice the big pile of snow still melting in the swimming pool area. (upper left of photo)

Finally the 4th of July weekend came and we got to go camping with Grandma and Grandpa and cousins. Our campsite had a fun rope swing on which we tied a stick for the kids to sit. That was the main entertainment along with the 4-wheeler. We went to the Fillmore parade and enjoyed those festivities along with their cool fireworks show. We also got to spend time with extended family where they had a huge slip 'n slide set up.

 We were driving VERY slow, otherwise there would have been helmets and less kids.

 William didn't appreciate the sirens from the fire trucks very much.

What a difference a few months make.

After months of work we finally put grass in this last week. It is such a stark transformation. We didn't just go from dirt to grass, we went from sloping rocky expanse, (seriously one guy who did our cement commented repeatedly that they should have put a gravel pit here and sold all this rock, cha-ching)
to dirt with about 6 truckloads of dirt,
add some cement, a garden, trees, and plants
Finally there's grass. Such a difference.
The last step is to add a pathway and a planting area along the left border and put plants and rock/bark in the rest of the areas. (This is a photoshop mock up of what it might look like, yay photoshop.)

Make It Stop!

I can barely pull out of my ice covered driveway into our narrowly plowed snow-packed alley already. Right now the snow is coming down sideways and it's currently 25 degrees. The ground has been covered in snow for only a couple of weeks, but I am already sick of it. Maybe if it were warmer I'd tolerate it. I know it could be worse. My little brother is on a Mission in Spokane, WA where they have had at least 5 feet, that's 60 inches, of snow in the last few weeks and are expecting more.

It's not all bad. We have had fun in the snow with the boys. We went sledding a few weeks ago, they loved that. I have found that Isaac would stay outside in the snow all day if I let him. Andrew only lasts until his wrists get cold or the snow gets down his neck. Once I can get on the other computer and download pictures I will add them.

It is also nice to know that lots of snow is falling on the mountains. Here in the desert we really need that snow from the mountains. Still I can't help but wish for at least 50 degree days. Here's to another 2-3 months of white stuff and cold.

Giant Block Letters or Typography for Kids

When our little family is on the road, we are always on the lookout for an exciting GIANT block letter inconspicuously painted on a mountainside. Ever since Andrew learned his letters at 2 years old it has been exciting to spot these letters. First it was the "Y". That is probably the easiest letter to find in Utah Valley. Last year he found the "P".



And then on a trip to the Salt Lake valley we noticed the harder to find "G". Last year he talked often of wanted to touch the "P". He would mention this to pretty much everyone and I had to qualify that it was the letter P not any other kind of P. Anyway on July 4th, 2007 Casey took Andrew and they found a trail that led to the P. So now it was, "I touched the P". I still had to do some qualifying for that one.Andrew at the P.

This last June we took both boys out to Provo and we hiked up to the Y. It was a much more difficult hike than it was to the P. I used the monkey backpack for Isaac so he didn't wander off a cliff, but I ended up carrying him on my back most of the way anyways. Andrew was very exciting about being able to touch the Y. His only comment afterwards was that it was cold.

Andrew at the Y.

We drove past the G the other day and he seriously asked if we could stop and hike to it. So now I think we have a tradition here. We drove past Nephi recently and there is a J there on the mountain. Why a J for Nephi? Does that make sense to anyone else? So now Andrew wants to hike to the J. He told his Grandma all about this recently and she suggested we visit the giant H that is near her house. How many more giant block letters can there be in Utah?

Cold Spring

Spring here in Utah has been quite abnormal. The last month or so has frustrating, especially with two young boys who want to play outside. It has been going like this, 2 days or so of beautiful weather, but maybe a bit windy. Then a warm turning cold really windy day, when the cold front comes though. The next day is cold. The day after that is also cold. Third day is a bit warmer but still chilly then we finally have a beautiful day. The day after is almost summer like weather, then the cycle starts again. We might finally be getting out of this cycle now that it is May.

Because of the periodic warmer weather we turned our automatic sprinklers on last week. The first day they went on at 6 am I found this a few hours later. It was very pretty in the morning light.
The sprinklers sprayed the bottom of the tree and since it was a very cold morning we had a tree full of icicles. Sadly the cherry blossoms had just come out so there may not be any cherries growing at the bottom of this tree, but the other blossoms seem to still be fine.