It's a Zoo out there!

While up North, we took the opportunity

to go to the zoo!

We saw LOTS of animals!

This white alligator was about the
coolest thing I saw all day.
P.S. It is NOT an albino! Crazy, huh?

We got real close to the leopard,

Hung out with the giraffes,
Rode the elephant,
Pet the tigers,

Fed the snakes,
Met the turtle,
And rode the caterpillar.

We also measured Robyn.

She's still got a little growing to do.

It was a full day. And Mike pulled the wagon almost the whole time, carrying one child or another.
And, most importantly, we rode the train. Next time I will do this FIRST, since my boys had a very hard time enjoying any of the animals because all they wanted to do was
RIDE THE TRAIN!!!

Notice how red Jennie's cheeks are? The poor girl had a fever the whole weekend, and didn't have much fun. Turns out she had an ear infection and also that she is allergic to ibuprofen. Crazy, huh?

Also on this trip, I got to see Sara, an old high school chum whom I have not seen in about ten years. Her little girl is about a month older than Lydia, and it was lots of fun to see her.

Thanks everybody for a great time!

Katie's Home!

OK, so I realize this has already been posted on everyone's blog but mine, but just in case there's someone out there who doesn't know yet....

Katie's Home!!!

Sister Forsythe has triumphantly returned from her mission to the Czech Republic. Hooray!

We went to the airport to meet her, and crazy enough, her flight was actually mostly on time! None of this hanging out at the airport for hours and hours. It was great!
And, of course, we took lots of pictures of this great moment. Here are a few:

Katie with her siblings.
If you look hard, you can see an imaginary Lisa in the picture. And then this would be a picture of all my siblings and me!
Or, if you want to look at it that way, all of Katie's siblings and her!

Katie with her nieces and nephews.

And... Katie with her parents... and Lydia

Welcome home, Katie!

Robyn's Birthday

Robyn turned TEN last Tuesday! Holy Smokes, I feel old!
All she wanted for her birthday was clothes, so she and I went shopping the morning of her birthday and spent way more than planned. But, hey, we came home with some really cute clothes! She had a few friends over that afternoon, and she was a very good sport about the trick candles. :)

Sunday

I have been trying very hard to save gas lately, and so we have been doing a lot of walking. I was very proud of us one Sunday for walking to church and still being mostly on time. On the way home the little girls fell asleep, and it was just so cute.

That same Sunday an amazing thing happened. I have known Jef for more than eleven years, and this was the first time I had ever seen him wear a short-sleeved shirt to church. It was really weird. So weird that I took his picture after church. Of course, I couldn't get to the camera before the tie came off. I'm not that fast.

Carnival

The Carnival likes to show up around here on the last day of school every year. I try to avoid that end of town, but after Ben's friend invited him, then the rest of the kids just had to go too. We had lots of fun, even though it started pouring rain as soon as we got there. The kids didn't seem to mind at all.

Fathers & Sons Campout

Our ward has a Fathers & Sons campout every year which is looked forward to with much anticipation all year long. I always imagined them hiking, sitting around the campfire, throwing rocks... You know, camping stuff.
Well it turns out that the big event this year was racing tin cans down the stream. The boys kept at it all afternoon until it was too dark to see and got up and did it some more in the morning.
It isn't quite what I imagined father-son bonding time to be, but since I'm not a boy, then I guess I just don't know.


But I guess that any activity which involves getting completely filthy before coming home is considered time well spent.

Potty Stop

They put in this great bike path next to a new road they built, and it is fabulous for taking walks with the kids. One day the boys were riding their bikes, and I was walking along with the stroller, when Ben announced that he had to go.
Now.
So I pointed to a nearby ditch and suggested he take his potty stop there. Cannon thought that was the coolest thing ever and decided he had to go, too.

Well, on we went and I thought the event was over.
Not so.
It has now become a regular ritual to stop at that ditch every time we pass it. If I object and voice my doubts about their urgent need, I am treated to a hopping, crouching, knee-crossing demonstration of just how important it is to stop at that ditch.
Every time.

Rendezvous

For their end-of-the-year program, the fourth graders had a little program about the state of Utah. They dressed like someone from Utah's history and presented songs and dancing. They did a very good job. This is a video of them singing the Utah State Song. It's a little long, but to pass the time you can always sing along. Since I'm sure all of us know every word of our state song.




After the program they went to the park for a Rendezvous. They played stick ball, had face painting,
rode in a covered wagon, learned about Indian stuff, and made a possibles bag. (You know, like the mountain men.)

Mothers Day

I don't know about anyone else, but I had a GREAT Mothers Day.

All my Primary kids gave me flowers. :)
k

County Reports

It was County Report time for fourth graders this last week. They had a little "County Fair" where the parents could come and see all the displays. Robyn had Salt Lake County, and did a great job! She picked out, glued on, and drew everything you see here. She's amazing.

Wil also had a county report, but he wasn't really into it.

His board, however, was the cutest one there! ;)

Story-Telling Festival

Well, my term as PTO President is pretty much over. Wahoo! Now I just have to organize all my junk and pass it on. It was a lot of work, but I'm leaving it better than I found it, and we did add one very cool event this year. This last week, we had the first annual Story Telling Festival. And it was just so cool. The Old West and Fairy Tale booths were our favorites, as you can tell from the pictures.

First we met a couple of princesses....


And various other royalty...

(darn sun)

Danced the Maypole...


Then we headed West and ran into some cowboys (and cowgirls)...

Even saw a few Indians!

(Jennie was so cute! They had some Native American dancers there, and once her headband was on, she just joined in!)

But what happens when Fairy Tales meet Old West?

And (almost forgot) we listened to a few stories.

The funny thing is that I took several pictures,
but they all look like this.
You'd never guess they actually like to listen to stories.

Scout Extravaganza

Having entered the wonderful world of Cub Scouts, we attended our first Scout-o-Rama a couple of weeks ago. Here are some pictures of my girls crossing the rope bridge. Where are the pictures of my scout, you ask? Well, see, the problem is that I never saw him. I caught a glimpse of him in the Parade of Flags, and I'd run into him every once in a while popping corn over a fire, or throwing airplanes, but he had no interest in going around to the booths with his mom. So I'm sure he had fun, but there are no pictures to offer as proof.