First Day of School Pictures!

It's that time again...The First Day of School. I had four VERY excited kids & one little lady that I think enjoyed having her mama to herself for a couple of hours!! I love that we have a fantastic summer, but by the time the end of August comes around, we are all ready to head back to school, too!!

It's occasions like this, that I realize how quickly my kids are growing up, especially when I compare to last year (which I still vividly remember). But, there's no stopping that...so I just gotta enjoy it!!

Abbie (11 yrs. old), first day of 6th grade (aka: middle school):

And, I couldn't resist taking this picture from our front yard...that is seriously how close the bus stop is...love it!

Annie (9 yrs. old), first day of 4th grade:
Parker (6 yrs. old), first day of 1st grade:

And, Connor (4 yrs. old), first day of Preschool (2nd year):

Of course, couldn't resist including a picture of this cute girl!! This picture was taken last week, while we were at a park with one of those dome jungle gyms. Allie, seriously, has no fear & climbed to the top all by herself. (I took this picture, while I was standing straight up and pointing the camera up at her!)

Anyway....here's to another fantastic school year!!! I know all four of them will have a fun year with lots of learning!!!

St. George Vacation - St. George LDS Temple

On our final day in St. George, we took the kids to see the LDS Temple. We took time to go through the visitors center, watch a short film about the divine & eternal nature of families (it was a tear-jerker!) and walk around the outside of the temple! It was a fantastic morning!

Couldn't pass up a quiet moment of the kids sitting in front of the Christus....

This is my favorite picture of the day (and one of the rare family photos we were able to catch during the entire trip!)....nothing says Forever Family like getting a picture in front of the temple!!


And a few shots of just the temple that I snapped as we were leaving...the last one is my favorite (I love the brilliant white of the temple against the blue, blue sky)!

Don't pass up to visit this amazing site when you're in St. George!! It's beautiful!!

St. George Vacation - Snow Canyon

Another day of our vacation, we made plans to go hiking in Snow's Canyon. We had to start early (well..."vacation" early) and take lots of water and Gatorade (along with a few snacks!). I LOVE that Snow's Canyon has a good range of easy trails for our little ones or longer, more difficult trails, if that is what you want. Anyway, we got in two short "hikes" and then I took Abbie, Annie, Parker, and Connor on a little bit longer hike while Matt stayed with a napping Allie. Apparently, I took a lot of pictures this day....so I'll just let the pictures do the talking! ;)

Another thumbs-up activity to do when you visit St. George! (On a funny note, when we stopped at my parents house on our drive back to Boise, we discovered that my Dad, 4 brothers & nephew were hiking in the next canyon over at the exact day & time that we were at Snow's Canyon...what a small world!)

St. George Vacation - Dinosaur Museum

One of the mornings, we got up and went to see the dinosaur museum. The boys were beyond excited to see "real dinosaur tracks"! Abbie & Annie patiently went along, and luckily they had origami there to divert their attention, even though I didn't get any pictures of that...LOL!

Here are the boys, getting a look at the rocks that some of the prints were found (you can see their origami swans sitting on the ground next to them, if you look closely).

They especially liked the little displays that they could actually touch!

Here we are learning about the path that the dinosaurs tread....the museum is built around the actual property that the tracks were found. The volunteers were SO nice and took time to answer any questions we had!
So, if you have boys & happen to be in St. George...stop by the Dinosaur Discover at Johnson Farm!

St. George Vacation - Historic Downtown Tour

We just got back from a fantastic family vacation!! This year we decided to spend the week in St. George, Utah. One of the days we took a tour of historic downtown. They had live actors do presentations about major events that helped establish St. George. We started off hearing from Jacob Hamblin, who was one of the first pioneers to go to St. George, and also had a wonderful relationship with the Native Americans and was known as always being honest in his dealings.

Next we visited the Opera House (where we were greeted by Orson Pratt) which was a gathering place for entertainment & social events!

After stopping at the Tabernacle and also the Washington County Courthouse, we visited Brigham Young's winter home. Here's one of the only shots we got of all the kids together that day...

And, here's Brigham Young. Not only was he a great actor, but was so friendly as well. You could tell he really enjoyed being a part of the tour!

What a great way to spend one of our mornings! We got some history in, we learned more about our Church, what the pioneers went through living in such a hot climate, and we had a lot of fun!