Miscellaneous

I know you never thought I would say this, but summer really is flying by.  Now that the girls are getting older and I don't have a baby, I am actually enjoying summer break. 

Every morning before the kids are allowed to play with friends, they have to do some math worksheets, practice the piano, read for 20 minutes, and do some chores.  The nice part of that is my spring cleaning is finally getting done, and the girls are excelling in their piano practicing because they have nothing better to do!  Love it!

We have been busy with various activities this past week though after their morning routine that I thought I'd share with you. 

We heard about a special tour of an eagles nest with baby eaglets through Utah State's Division of Wildlife.  We made reservations with the group, and headed out there one evening.  This picture was taken through the telescope, so it's really grainy, and the eagles are just sitting there, but while we watched, the babies were attempting to fly.

 We also went up to Grandma Lynn's house and enjoyed lunch out with her, swimming in her hot tub, and my absolute favorite activity, picking raspberries from her garden.  Now that is what I call a little bit of heaven.  My girls were getting ridiculously frustrated with me because while they were picking their berries and putting them into buckets, I was bypassing the bucket completely and putting them straight where it counts.  Yum.

On Sunday, we went to visit Grandma Barker.  I love, love, love visiting with grandparents. 

On a side note, you might notice in the above picture how much shorter Megan's hair is when compared to the other pictures.  Megan cut her hair...grrr.

Considering the fact that I paid for a $12 haircut for her 3 weeks ago, I was not a happy camper to take her back in for another haircut in the same month, only this time, with her hair quite a bit shorter.  It had finally gotten down to her shoulders after Natalie butchered it awhile back.

At least she looks cute and sassy :)  On the plus side, it is easy to comb each morning.  I may get hooked and keep it short. 

Things that make my heart happy

I may just survive this summer after all, especially when my kids do things like this:

 Kimberly and Alicia's best friends are both out of town, so they've had to get creative with things to keep them occupied.

I had just finished up an interview on Friday morning to find both sets of girls playing games - and there was no fighting! (that is, until 60 minutes later, but 60 minutes I do believe is a record for them while playing games!)

 It definitely made my heart happy seeing them getting along and enjoying time with each other.  

Another thing that makes my heart happy:

 

We celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary this week, so John brought me in a vase full of these beauties from the rose garden he so carefully cultivates.  

They even smell good too.

Ready, Set, ...Summer!!

We had a few graduations this month:  

Natalie graduated from preschool and can't wait to start Kindergarten.

 Kimberly graduated from 6th grade and will start junior high in the fall...Can You Believe it?!?  I hardly can!!

So with graduation, comes summer of course.  Our first week off school was a roaring success.  We have been on some bike rides and been on a few outings, one of which was the Tracy Aviary:

Kimberly also started violin lessons so she can be in the orchestra at the school this fall, something she has been begging to do for some time now.  We tried to stall her in hopes she would choose a band instrument - you know, coming from two band geeks, you'd think she'd get excited about that too after all of our grandiose pep talks.  It was not to be as she has been dead-set on playing the violin.  Yes, we're excited for her.  Even more excited for those screeching beautiful orchestra concerts.

That's it for now.

Stay tuned for more summer time fun.

Arches, Canyons, and Goblins

 Canyonlands National Park

We decided to go on a road trip for Memorial Day weekend, so after the air show, we skedaddled our way out of town down to Moab.  Wow.  I just blew up the above picture and realized in a rare occurrence, we are all smiling and looking at the camera!  For six people, this is a feat and a half.

Another thing we discovered on this trip is how lovely it is to travel without diapers now that our last one is potty trained and no more bulky porta-crib either with Megan now sleeping in a bed.  It is truly a joyous thing to be moving onto this next stage in life.  Several times we noticed how our clan was more manageable and enjoyable on this trip without a baby in tow and the girls getting older and better-behaved in public places.  (you notice I didn't say always well-behaved)

We fell in love with Arches, and hiked throughout the national park most of the day.  The three older girls even received Junior Ranger badges after completing various tasks and answering the ranger's probing questions.  

 John and the older girls were more adventurous than Megan and I, climbing up to high perches and making my mommy meter/freakout mode go into overdrive. 

While they climbed, Megan and I enjoyed some quality togetherness time.

Er, I enjoyed.  She begged to join her siblings.  

 The double arches were really cool, to say the least.  

 Sadly, we didn't get to hike up to the actual delicate arch.  It is a rather strenuous hike we didn't think our two and four-year-old could muster up, so we settled for the drive up, park, and take a picture with a really long zoom spot. 

 We got to see this really cool football-long arch that is slowly loosing pieces. 

 

 ...and yet another arch, this time in Canyonlands, where the girls also completed another Junior Ranger program.

 We took our bikes down and enjoyed several bike rides, including this trail that took us to the local park featuring a smorgasboard of musical toys.  

 And lastly, we traveled over to Goblin Valley, which we learned is REALLY out in the middle of nowhere, but VERY cool and well worth the time, even if we did miss the little brown turn-off sign without realizing it until 20 miles later.  

 All in all, a fun trip indeed.

Oops. Forgot the earplugs.

 We went to the air show up at Hill Air Force Base on Saturday, and being the great mother I am,  forgot to grab earplugs for all of us.  Let it be known that the jets up close are really amazingly loud.

So, here is the picture I was trying to get when a couple jets overhead so rudely interrupted our photo session.     

 We checked out a bunch of airplanes until the Thunderbird show began. 

 Yup, I did just take a fascinating picture of the planes all lined up.  What you can't tell from this picture is that they are announcing all of the pilots standing next to each plane, and then the planes as they roar to life.  Again, very loud, and another awesome mommy moment for not remembering to grab those helpful earplugs. 

 Given that John works on base now, he was asked (or perhaps John requested - or perhaps both) to do a booth featuring his falcon.  It was a huge hit amongst the crowd.  

During the air show, he brought the bird with him just sitting on his arm.  It was pretty funny watching the reactions of people as they would walk by and then suddenly realize they were standing face to beak with a real-life bird of prey.  

Pictures just really do not do these guys justice.  

Let it be known that all of the times we've seen them perform from our house thinking it was a cool show does NOT - and I really mean does not compare to actually seeing them up close as they fly directly overhead with amazing fierceness and yes, incredible amounts of loudness.

Eclipse

 As most of you all probably did Sunday evening, we checked out the solar eclipse. We were a little too late buying the special viewing glasses from the planetarium (sold out), so we went up to Weber State's planetarium to see it through their telescope. 

 

Okay, so this wasn't exactly what we saw, as this is one of my friend's pictures who took it down in Cedar City, where you got a better view of the whole eclipse, but we had just as much fun.  

 

 We had to wait in a bit of a line, but it was worth it.  Besides, several people let us borrow their viewing glasses while we waited for the telescope.  

I just had to share this picture when I saw someone post it today.

This is why I live in Utah, not Seattle :)

  

I'm a Big Kid Now

Our youngest has finally mastered the potty.  We are finally diaper free - forever!!!  

~~~~Happy Dance~~~~