Summer's Last Hurrah

A few days before school started we were able to spend one last (beautiful) day together and with our friends the Francoms. We took the Francom's sail boat up onto the St. Lawrence River and sailed across the channel into Canada. It was a gorgeous sail and the kids all took turns not only learning to sail but swimming behind the boat. So fun!

Once we were there we spent the rest of the day at Upper Canada Village which is a complete town restored to the 1800's with workers re-enacting and working the village. (It's actually the place where the church films many of their historic movies now.)
It was such a great day. The kids loved it-we all loved it!
Thanks Jeff and Kelly!

First Day of School

School finally started here and the kids were SHAKING with excitement... up at 6:00 am, dressed by 6:10 and READY for the day. It was a long wait till 8:30.

(Can you tell it was a bit of a rough day for Lincoln. Everybody gone, all day- Mom was not nearly exciting enough, but we'll get through.)

Clayton's off to 2nd grade in Mrs. Livernois.

And Jamison into Kindergarten with Mrs. Varney. Incidentally, he informed me after the 1st day that he was "totally NOT excited about nap time" but he would do it because "Kindergarten was pretty cool."

Summer Whirlwind

We're slowly getting settled back into home after our 5 weeks of travel out west.

It feels GREAT to be home.

Looking back, I'm not sure we could have packed anything else into our visit. And if you looked up "spoiled" in the dictionary right now you would find a cute, shiny picture of my 4 children- smiling with all their might! (We're currently undergoing some serious vacation-detox.) It seems we went from one party to the next, saw all the family and friends we could cram in, and hit a couple of amusement parks just for good measure. It was great - completely exhausting, but absolutely FUN! We're so grateful for the time we had with family and the wonderful memories. Thank you to everyone who fed us, housed us, entertained us, put up with us- we're so thankful and anxious to return the favor (since Potsdam is high on everyone's travel list)...so come visit!

OH! (ha, the reason we went in the first place) AND, Ben's dig went well. He survived the drama of some very interesting students and got a little further along in the research they're working on so I think he's pleased. He also had some good publicity that you can check out at www.ksl.com/?sid=11612499&nid=148 and the www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/50008651-78/iosepa-pykles-desert-lake.html.csp. And we were all super glad NOT to be living in a trailer in Tooele- much better living arrangements this time around.

And because I love lists, I thought I'd record this summer-o-fun with a list of all that we actually did. Brace yourselves- it will make you tired just reading it!

TIME IN UTAH:

4 wheeling, horseback riding, backyard camping and cookouts, fireworks, swimming, swimming, swimming, fishing, movies, "Grandpa basement" movies, baseball games, exploring yummy restaurants (which we have none of in NY), shopping, Opera Festival-wonderful!, Lagoon, Gateway fountains, AMAZING family reunion, ice cream trips, temple trips, zoo, duck feeding, hiking, boating, tubing, sprinklers, seeing our good friends the Knights, cheese factory (ha-only in Logan, Ut), great visit with Grandpa and Grandma Godfrey, SLC Temple Square, SLC cemetary hunting, raceway in Tooele, 24th of July parade, Bingham Copper Mine, Cove Fort, dinosaur museum, Zion National Park, more swimming, and Tarzan at Tuacan- Awesome!!

...tired yet?

TIME IN CALI:

Visit with our good friends from Philly- the Judkins (love their new house), tidepools, San Diego Zoo, beach day, Legoland, sand castle competition (incidentally the kids and their cousins took 1st and 2nd in this competition-they were awesome- who knew!?), Mormon Battalion center, Science and Dinosaur Museums, and Rock Band with the cousins.

Yep, we did it all.

Thanks again! We love you all.

Clayton and Dad campout

Clayton and Ben took a camping trip this past weekend with the Boy Scouts. They had to canoe and kayak into their camping spot, which was "totally awesome" according to Clayton.

They spent the next day canoeing down river about 6 miles and had a wonderful day. It was a great Dad/Clayton weekend.

Jamison PreK graduation

Jamison finished Pre-K this week and they had a fun graduation ceremony. Isn't he just so handsome?!

I don't know if you can be an archeaologist if you can't say "archeaologist" (it's a mouthful-try it!)...but he'd do just about anything to be just like his dad.

Emmys 4th grade graduation

It's been a big week around here- a lot of "lasts".

Last mornings to drag the kids out bed, last days of school (finally), and for Emmy, last days of Elementary school.

In our district the 5th graders go to the middle school so they have a big graduation and moving up ceremony for the 4th graders. I've been dying just a little that my little girl will be starting middle school- but it's been so exciting and fun for her. Following the graduation ceremony all the 4th graders follow their new principal in a procession line down the halls of the elementary school into the middle school for the official "moving up". It was a great thing to watch the excitement on Emmy's face and she looked so grown-up and beautiful. It's moments like these that the growing up seems to have happened overnight.

Congrats Emmalyn-we love you!

Jamison's 5th Birthday

Happy 5th Jamison!

We had a fun day celebrating Jamison. He was most excited about this awesome squirt gun that he wanted SO bad. (I love that this was so entertaining to him.)

What we love about Jamison....

• his absolutely contagious laugh
• his mischievious side (except when we don't)
• he wants to be just like his older brother
• self-appointed body guard and translator for Lincoln
• loves a good book and a belly rub
• meticulous colorer- and when he draws he always has to have complete symmetry (we've got some cool Jamison art)
• his first love is candy, followed closely by his 2nd and 3rd loves-candy, candy, and more candy! (He was totally excited about the candy on his birthday cake- which incidentally was a complete disaster- but he was thrilled cause of the licorice! Whew.)
• there is nothing small, quiet, or timid about Jamison! Cha-Cha-Cha!!