Scott's Hiking

Scott was able to go with the young men (14 years & up) to hike Mt. Whitney. Unfortunately, he was unable to make it up all the way, but I think he really enjoyed just being able to hike and camp again. We have been living in the South with no mountains and having babies for the past 12 years, so we have only been able to do a small amount of hiking/camping since college.

I think half of the fun for him was researching all the gear he needed to get in order to make backpacking possible. Here he is with all of his gear.

Utah

We came back to Utah for a few days and were able to. . .

. . . play Legos, . . .

. . . feed the ducks at BYU, . . .

. . . play hide-and-go-seek, . . .

. . . hide from energetic Mocha (Marissa & Chandler's dog) in the tree house, . . .

. . . and just have some crazy fun with cousins!

We were only missing baby Sofie from this picture.

Timothy, Peter, Audrey, Reuben, Charlotte, Adeline, Isabelle, Evalyn, Rigby

Silly Picture

(except Isabelle & Rigby, they were really upset with Peter this day)

Idaho & Bear World

We were able to go up to my Grandma Farrow's house in Idaho for a long weekend. We were able to celebrate my birthday . . .

. . . sleep (at least the ones that didn't have to share a bed with a wiggly 2-year old that kept ramming his feet and head into my body all night) . . .

. . . and help my grandma sort through some things in her basement.

I was able to re-purpose an old skirt that my grandma used to wear on trips years ago.

Bear World

We were also able to go to Bear World which is near Rigby, Idaho. It was a lot of fun to see so many bears up close. We couldn't roll down the window or stop, but we were able to take pictures through the window and drive very slowly.

We were also able to see a white elk (never seen one of those before).

Some people paid extra to feed the bears from this truck. For about $100 more a person, you could also feed a baby bear milk from a bottle.

There was a petting zoo with some rather obese goats. There were also pigs, chickens, deer and several more animals that we could pet.

The kids also loved the little carnival rides they had. Oh Peter, just smile and cooperate my boy!

A wet floor warning cone shaped as a banana, ha! It looks like Tim wants to eat it in this picture.

Loveland Living Aquarium & Penguin Encounter

Loveland Living Aquarium

The kids and I posing inside the replica of a megalodon jaw (thought to be one of the largest sharks ever at 59ft long, ah!).

I love it when they all cooperate for a picture (mostly).

Peter rarely allows pictures these day, so I was happy to oblige him when he asked me to take this picture.

Penguin Encounter
A few months ago I was reading a news article about penguins and they quoted someone from the Loveland Living Aquarium in Draper, Utah. They happened to mention guests being able to pay an extra fee to help feed the penguins once a day. Since this aquarium is only 20 minutes from my parents house and Peter adores penguins, I decided it was a must do for our summer list. Tim was too young but all the other kids were able to participate. They all LOVED it, except Reuben; he was terrified of the penguins and would not sit on his bum the entire time. I ended up feeding all his fish to the penguins while he touched my arm, ha! I felt like this was very much worth the extra money.

They sprayed white poop all over the place, yuck!

I love this picture of Peter. His face shows pure joy and adoration for the experience. He gave me a couple hugs afterwards and couldn't stop saying, "thank you so much!"

Here is my dad feeding a penguin.

 

A fight between Pebbles and Rico-just like my kids.

Swimming the Summer Away

Swim Team

Adeline got some serious racoon eye tanning this summer, ha!

Rigby

 Peter

Swim meets end up being 3-4 hours, so to keep everybody's sanity, I plug the kids into electronics. I love this pose from Tim in his little camp chair. This is the life!

Free Pool Time

The kids wanted to come back to the pool while the slides were open, so we spent a few hours there one afternoon. I was trying my best to keep an eye on all the kids, but I hadn't seen Reuben for a while and was a getting a little worried. There were probably 15 lifeguards, so I was more worried that he tried to go back to the car and got lost rather than drowning. I almost missed him when I glanced back at our stuff because he was snugly wrapped up in his towel and Adeline was blocking my view of him.The poor boy has no meat on his bones, so he gets cold easily and quickly; I guess he was tired too!

School Work: 2018-2019

Here are some of the kids school work and some other projects that they were really proud of this past school year.

Peter

 

This drawing and self description are so Peter, ha! (it says, "I am technical, logical, skilled, see if worth it, I am Peter")

Rigby

This is a water rocket that Rigby made out of a soda bottle at school. I got to see him set it off during a Parent-Student night. 

Rigby loves to draw and doodle if he has extra time at school. These were some of my favorite pictures that he drew.

 Rigby made this at home out of recycled materials for Cubscouts. He called it an "Ultrasaurus."

Adeline 

Adeline totally deserved this award. She is a VERY hard worker!

Reuben

This is a picture of a heart and then the our Nintendo Switch on the bottom right corner. Reuben drew this at church.