Prophet People Puzzle

Aspen has been working on "People Puzzles" lately. Here is her latest!
To print or download this, click here to download.

Grandpa, Liz and E

This weekend we Grandpa Bob, Liz and E came down to spend the weekend with us! How awesome the we can do that!

We started off Friday by meeting them in Moab to swim. Saturday we headed to natural bridges national monument. It's about an hour away. Cedar went on his end of the year field trip there with the 4th grade. He came back telling us about this awesome hike that he wanted to do again with us. 

I looked it up and it was .75 miles each way. When we stopped at the visitor center the ranger said that a lot of people took kids on the Kachina bridge hike and that my dad could do it if he took it slowly. So off we went. 

Usually when you hike you go up first. That way when you turn back you've got the easy part left. But when you hike into a canyon from the top you go down first and in the back of your mind you're thinking about the trip back up. There were a lot of steps going down and I worried about my dad being able to make it, but he said he was doing fine so on we went!

I'll have to find a picture of the bridge on the other camera, I didn't get one on my phone, but it was an amazing bridge. A little to the side of the bridge there are some ruins that you could see up close. 

After having our snacks and playing we headed back to the top. The ranger was right, the kids scrambled up like mountain goats, Liz carried E and Grandpa Bob took it slow and steady and he made it to the top. (Although he did resolve to be in better shape next time. See the previous post!)

Laurel did really well too. I was worried since her last hike when grandma and grandpa English were here wasn't so fun for her. 

All in all, the verdict is that we love the hiking here, but we haven't been here long enough to know what we are getting into when we set off. So beware, I might take you straight down a cliff!

I do need to give a big thank you to Allison for giving us their old baby back pack. It sure makes hiking with the little ones much better when we have 2 back packs!

When we got back grandpa Bob took Olive fishing and she caught Sundays lunch. She has wanted to go so bad. She called him up last week and asked if he would take her. 

It was a great weekend! Who's up for our next adventure?

Grandpa B. Weight Loss Incentive Program

• 10 lbs. lost - Daughters will clean house
• 20 lbs. lost - 30-day supply of health meals
• 30 lbs. lost - Incentive to be determined by his sons
• Target weight - Family reunion at Lava Hot Springs!

Time limit: before Aspen goes to Prom.

End of the year awards

Olive and Cedar had their awards ceremony today. Again they cleaned up! This picture is for the field day hand writing contest. Olive came on 2nd in her grade and Cedar 1st. This was a new field day event for us, but they did great! The funniest award they got was for perfect attendance the whole 5 weeks they attended this year. If they always did it in 5 week time frames we would get a lot more awards! (They obviously didn't check with our Tennessee schools!) 

Olive and Cedar are such great students! I'm super proud of them!

Aspen pretty much cleans up in the awards category wherever she is. Yea Aspen!

Firsts

Today was Aspen, Cedar and Olive's first day on their new swim team. They are joining the Moab team this year. We are actually hoping to get a team started down here next year, but that will be it's own story! They enjoyed it and are excited to keep it up. We will only go to moab once a week and they will work out here the rest of the time. They missed the first meet last week, but are excited for Saturdays meet in Price. 

Another first... Linden pooped in the potty. I'm not in any hurry to potty train, but he hasn't gone all day and he started to get "the face" in the tub. Since I'm not all that excited about sanitizing the tub at 8:30 at night, I promptly bribed him and told him if he pooped in the potty I would give him a candy. Since it was the first time he's ever sat in the potty, I think the bribe thing worked out pretty well! I wonder if he'll say anything tomorrow. 

Linden the laugher!

Soon he will realize that he is a 'tee'!

This is what linden did when I told him to say "Happy Mothers Day" there are lots of other cute things he says and does, which I will try to capture on video to show you. There is only one thing I can't get again. That would be when he was playing with champ, my grandparents' dog, who had a stick in his mouth. We were laughing at champ, so linden goes and finds a stick and of course puts it in his mouth! Such a silly boy.

He also says caterpillar In that cute toddler voice!

And linden was playing in the pillows ( a favorite activity) and out of the blue, he said, "I love this!" He is just so funny!

Friday with five


Today's field trip was to the dinosaur museum in Blanding. It was actually a really great museum. I wasn't expecting much so I was easy to impress, but the kids enjoyed it and we all learned something new. One new item for your gee wiz file, many Dino's might have actually been feathered and flightless. One example that was surprising to me was T-Rex. Another is that brontosaurus used to roam my back yard. A hip bone was found in Blanding from one of these giants. Who knew?!

Linden loves his sister, though I think he's anxious for her to get a little bigger so she can run around with him. Until then, he gets her toys and joins her for some tummy time!

Olive jumped 6 feet in the long jump today at field day. We missed Aspen and Cedar's because of naps, but I'm sure they did great! Aspen was excited to compete in penmanship and the spelling bee while cedar is doing everything but readers theater.

A Tribute to Mothers

Mother's Day is coming up this weekend! Below is a touching tribute by a living Apostle to all the mothers out there.

The 4th grade sponsored a 5k and 1 mile fun run. The trained for it and got prizes for participating. Laurel and I were the only ones from our family not to run because someone has to take the pictures! Everyone did great and had lots of fun!

Jonathon and Olive finishing.

Aspen and Linden finished while my back was turned.

Cedar finishing the 1 mile fun run.

Goodness, a lot of things have happened, but my dad wants me to blog about our new Monopoly rules (which are awesome).

Well, We are still working out the kinks so they are kind of vague but its OK. First of all, it sometimes works really well when you are on teams. Mostly because you feel really bad when you have to charge your guest 2000 dollars and then win (at least I do), so you can team up against them. Usually it works best with 2 teams of 2.

Also, make up your own Chance and Community Chest cards, because some of them are really lame. Do things like Get A Free House or something.

Next, do the railroad rule. If the railroad is unowned, you can buy it or go to any other railroad oon the board for free, If it is owned, then pay the owner then go. You do not pass go while on a railroad!

We also play with two dice AND make up special "Supa-Powas". Once you get a monopoly, you can pick one. It can be something like Every Time You Pass Go Get 500 Dollars or Go Either +1 or -1 space Not Optional.

We also do a thing that once you are bankrupt, you keep playing. Like if I got bankrupt then I would keep going same as always EXCEPT: I cannot win no matter what And I do not have to pay rent! Although, with your PASS GO money you can buy properties and CHARGE rent, therefore ending the game quickly.

Oh yeah, and if you land exactly on GO you get 400 dollars.

Well, chime in and tell us all of your ideas! Also tell me what you think isn't the best.
                                                                  Aspen

I want to get more pictures on here from Laurels first hike ever. But until then we had a ton if fun hiking to delicate arch in Arches National Park. Laurel did awesome in the back pack and Linden walked a bit and Jonathon was super dad and carried him the rest if the way. Cedar and Olive proved to be part mountain goat and I'm betting Aspen enjoyed herself. She said she liked everything except the walking up and walking down. All in all we had a good time playing in our new back yard!

Friday with five!

We decided to go exploring since the kids get out at 1:00 in Fridays. Today's destination was newspaper rock. It's about 35 min from our house. We found an awesome little alcove 20 yards away and the big kids chase lizards on top of the slick rock. Next week we are excited to explore with Grandma and Grandpa English!