Bear Lake June 2012

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This weekend we took an impromptu trip up to the lake.  Friday morning we packed up, checked the kids out of school and headed up for a super fun weekend.  When we got there friday afternoon it was very windy and we were unable to put the boat in the lake.  The kids had fun just playing on the beach and gave us some time to clean out the boat, since this was the first time we have had it out this year and also some time to relax.  Later in the day Tim and Candice and their family joined us.  After a fun dinner of our usual Friday night home made pizza the lake calmed off and the boat was launch for what we thought would be a quick ski run.  Once we were out there the kids decided that we should try out dad's fathers day gift!!  Carter was the first to break it in, he did an awesome job, which then gave Gage the courage to give it a try as well.  I guess we should mention all the bribes that when into the knee board being used.  Alexa decided to give it a try, once she was out in the water she was not going to do it, but dad had plans of his own.  This reminded me of a trip we took to Disneyland with the kids.  Alexa's first ride on the Tower of Terror she came off the ride in tears, but when asked which ride she wanted to go on next her reply was Tower of Terror.  So I guess all things that start out in tears end up being her favorite thing to do.  By the end of her ride on the knee board you could see that smile on her face!!  Thanks to Uncle Tim for all the help in the water, he could barley stand once in the boat.  By this time the sun was setting and the adults lost out on there time to ski!!  Saturday once the boat was in the water, we gave the knee board a second try and pulled the tub out as it was much to windy to ski, but perfect for tubing.  This weekend was full of firsts for our kids, lots of smiling faces, and some very proud kids and parents.  We are enjoying the use of our boat more as our kids are enjoying doing more on it!!  What a perfect, fast, well needed, short vacation.

Pirates of Grammar Island

Holy cow has my daughter come out of her shell this year.  I feel she teaches me new things everyday.  About a month ago she came home from school and informed us that she had signed up for a part in a play that they will be putting on where she had to sing a solo.  I was a little nervous after that thinking that she was never going to be able to do it.  But did she ever prove me wrong, i was quite impressed!!  They performed this play 4 different times this week and it was fun to have different family members come see her each day.  We hope that you enjoy the clip of her part.

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Spring Dance Recital

I am one proud mom.  This year we switch Alexa to a new Dance Studio, and I feel that she learned so much this year and has made huge progress in her dancing, which makes me happy, because she loves to do it.  She was so nervous for this recital but she did an awesome job.  She got some practice last weekend as she performed her tap dance at the Riverton Arts Festival.

They were following a story book theme for this recital and her Ballet Dance was in the book of Narnia.

Her Tap Dance was in the book of The Great Gatsby.  She was so fun to watch and did a great job.

Her Great Grandma Jones was able to come see her dance, witch made her so excited.  And look what Grandma Great brought her some very pretty flowers.

Preschool Graduation Program

This year in preschool has been so much fun.  I was able to put both of my kids in the same class and be one of the teachers their at the school.  I have had so much fun getting to know all of these cute kids, and I think I may really miss being there with them every week.  Today we had our cute little program as most of these kids will be moving on to kindergarten next year.  I think the boys really enjoyed themselves.

This is Isaac and his best friend Jackson!!  They are going to miss seeing each other, Jackson asked everyday if he could come home with us to play!

This is Isaac!

I'm 5 years old.

Sometimes my family calls me "Ike".

My hair is brown and short.

My eyes are brown, and I can look at stuff.

My favorite color is Black, Red, and Yellow.

I love to write and learn my letters at preschool.

My favorite field trip was the Fire Station, I liked the Fire Trucks.

My favorite food is noodles with chicken in it.

If I could be any animal, it would be a Lion, because they eat people.

When i grow up, I want to be a Dad, because he plays with me.

This is Jeremiah!

I'm 4 years old.

Sometimes my family calls me just Jeremiah.

My hair is soft and brown.

My eyes, they see stuff.

My favorite color is Red.

I love to play with legos at preschool.

My favorite field trip was the Fire Station, I liked seeing the Fire Pole.

My favorite food is Hot Dogs.

If I could be any animal, it would be a Tiger, because they can bite people.

When I grow up, I want to Clean the Stairs.

Jeremiah's Birthday Invitation

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Twinkle Toes Goes to Bryce Canyon

Twinkle Toes Goes to

Bryce Canyon

by Alexa Jones

We went hiking on a trip to Bryce Canyon.  My dad told us that if we wanted to swim in the swimming pool at the hotel we would have to hike first - without complaining.  Guess what - - I hate HIKING!!  I was already complaining in my head before we left but i really like to swim because i am half fishy!

So i decided that i would give hiking a try since my dear old Dad loves it so much.  One day we hiked at Sunrise point and then we hiked at Sunset point.  Finally, we hiked at Queens garden.  It was not as bad as i thought it would be.  I wore my Twinkle toes - no reason to not look cute while i hike.

I really like them but found out that they are not the best for hiking!  They gave me ouchies.  My mom and me both got ouchies.  But we lived to tell the tale of hiking in Bryce Canyon and best of all -- I got to swim, swim, swim!!

Farm Field Trip

Today at Preschool we had the opportunity to take the kids on a field trip to the Farm.  The kids really enjoyed being able to see the animals and pet some of them.

This was the farmer and his son Jakeston.  They were talking to the kids about all the different eggs that they had on their farm.  They get eggs from Chickens, Ducks, & Pigeons.  At the end they showed them a ping pong ball and asked them to guess what kind of egg it was, but they could not fool these smart kids they knew it was a ball!!

The kids were listening so well.

Isaac checking out the chickens, he found an egg in there.  He is so excited to get our chickens, we really can't wait.

Jeremiah looking at the chickens.

The farmer and his goats.  We had to be careful how we pet them because they really like to eat cloths!!

Isaac petting the goat.

 Jeremiah petting both goats.

He decided that the brown one was softer.

The sheep was being stubborn and would not walk out on the leash so the farmer just picked it up and carried it out.  The kids thought this was so funny!

Isaac petting the sheep.  It still has his winter fur, but they were getting ready to shave them.

Isaac petting the sheep.

These were the farmers baby pigeons, that hatched a few day ago.

The kids got to pet them but very softly with one finger.  We learned that there are more then 800 types of pigeons, and that they are very susceptible to diseases in there eyes.  We learned a lot and had fun being able to pet all of the animals.

The Great Shake Out

Today that State of Utah had a state wide Earth Quake drill, we decided that we would participate in this drill as it was a great learning experience for our kids as what they should do in case of an earthquake.  The Great Shake Out was to start at 10:15, so this morning i got up and showered so that i would be ready for the day.  I thought about it all morning thinking i would strategically place me and the boys in a part of the house where we could take cover very fast.  Then as usual the time got away from me and when 10:15 hit i was in the middle of making play dough for school, and the boys had just gotten out of the tub.  I left my play dough and ran and got the kids, we took cover in the bathroom door way where we stayed for a minute, as i talked to them about why we were doing this.  This morning it had been raining all morning, as a ward we were to post our colored flags as the status of how our family faired the earth quake and report to our block captain.  We talked about that we most likely won't have any power and may not be able to drive our car.  So we got our umbrella out and walked up to report to our block captain that we all survived, then pretended to continue to walk to the school to pick up the other kids.  This was a great experience and gave us an opportunity to see how prepared we would be as a family.  I felt like we are fairly prepared, but the one thing that bothered me all day was that i would have no way of knowing if Adam was alright at work, or my family, if we had no phone service.  We have since made arrangements for a contact out of the state that we will most likely be able to get ahold of to give our status to and find out everybody else status.

Bryce Canyon Final Day

Today was the last day of our vacation, but before we made the long drive home we made a few last stops to get some pictures, and let the kids pick out there small souvenirs that they wanted.

Then we set out on one last hike to finish up the trip.  This was a trail that was on the back side of Bryce Canyon on your way into Tropic.  It was the Mossy Cave Trail.

It took us up to this small waterfall, which i believe was the same waterfall that we looked at from the top yesterday.

This was Mossy Cave.  Because it does not get a lot of sun in there, it was still filled with icicles.  It was really cool to look at.  They are formed from water leaking through the rocks, and in the summer because it is so wet it has a lot of moss grow on the rocks.

On the drive out you get to drive through Red Canyon and these cool arches along the way.

We had a great trip, the kids had lots of fun, and we enjoyed being the the outdoors.  But as always it is good to be home and get back into our routines.

Bryce Canyon Day 3

Happy Easter!!

This morning we started off the day looking through our Easter Baskets and having our Easter Egg Hunt in the hotel room.  It was amazing how many places the Easter Bunny found to hide eggs in such a small room!!  I think that being hear and out in nature was a great way to reflect on the life of the Savior and the Sacrifices that he made for each of us.  As we were hiking today we ran across a sing that was posted in one of the resting areas that read "Silence Alone is worthy to be heard."  It was sure easy to reflect on everything as we walked the trails in silence, and listened to all the sounds of mother nature.  It is days like today that i am grateful for my wonderful family!!  We decided that since today was Sunday we would take it easy today and drive to all of the overlooks. 

But first for Grandpa Woolley we decided to do a little Geo Caching!!  This was a fun way to go some places that we would have never gone as it was not up in the park.

This was what we looked out on as we following the trail to our GPS location.

This kids found the box hidden in this tree.  We opened it up to log our information that we were there.  We did not plan ahead so we had nothing to leave in the box, but it was fun to see what other people had left in there.

There was a small bridge by where we had to park the car to go find the Geo Cache so we walked over it to see what was there and it was an awesome waterfall.

On our way out we had to stop and take our picture in the sleigh!!  My kids wondered why Santa left his sleigh here.

The entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park.

Fairyland Point

Inspiration Point

Lunch at the very top of Bryce Canyon!!

Rainbow Point

It made mom very nervous to have the kids stand on the railings!!  But dad thought mom was just a worry wort. 

The start of Bristlecone Loop Trail

This was a fun easy trail to hike, however since we were at the highest elevation here, we had to hike through snow.  It was fun walking through here and smelling all the pine trees.

This was a lookout in the middle of the trail.

Yovimpa Point

Black Birch Point

Ponderosa Canyon

Agua Canyon

Natural Bridge (which is actually an Arch)

Farview Point

Piracy Point

This was the last overlook of the day.  We hit a lot of places and took some small walks, but it was fun to see all the different views of Bryce.

Then we were back to Geo Caching.  This one was a small toy alligator hidden in this log out by a small lake that was by our hotel.  The kids decided they really enjoy Geo Caching, so grandpa when ever you need someone to go with you give us a call!!

This was a Tee Pee that we walked past when we were Geo Caching.  What a busy day we had!!  The kids were worn out by the end of the day, but wanted to go back and watch the new movie that they got for easter.