Independence Day

What better way to celebrate Independence Day then to buy red, white and blue outfits for your kids, make them wear them and then take endless pictures of them being all patriotic? That is what every one does, RIGHT? Well that is what I do, and I love every minute of it, well not when Dennis thinks it is dumb!! After visiting with family on the 4th in Utah, we decided to come back home over the mountains in the Uintas. These are the mountains that I grew up by, and I love the how familiar they are to me. I love provo river falls, and we broke up the trip home by getting out and walking around this area.



Ryan suggested on the way out of the mountains that we should stop and buy fireworks so we could set them off when we got back to Green River, so we decided to do just that, since we were going to be going through Evanston, WY and we all know they have great fireworks. Dennis said we were only going to get a few, and after $70, I thought we got more then jsut "a few', but the seller told us that was nothing compared to what others were buying. So we brought the fireworks home and went up on the desert hills and watched the town fireworks and set our own off. Ryan, and Julia AND Dennis had a blast, but Sawyer was not a fan. For as brave as he normally is I was shocked that he wanted nothing to do with any fireworks, even the sparklers. In fact he would scream and cry if you ask him if he wanted to participate. From the picture you can tell how much fun he had, all he did all night was pull his hood over his face and ask if we could go home. Ryan was super brave and would even hold the roman candles while they were shooting out their stuff.

Our FAVORITE hotel

We love to go to Little America in Salt Lake City, Ut. We love the pool, we love the food, we love the cleanliness, in fact Little America should give us a frequent stayer card. We went to Utah for the 4th of July weekend. We went to Lagoon on the 3rd, and then stayed at Little America that night, went swimming, got up and had the best breakfast buffet ever,(even ask our kids, they ask for it all the time) and then visited with my Bird grandparents and Aunt Jen's family on the 4th. This is a picture of the kids in Little america right out side the famous buffet area!! you know you want to go to Little America now and eat the breakfast buffet!!:)

Flaming Gorge Days

Every year Green River has a town fair called Flaming Gorge Days. We like to go and check it out, there is always fun blow up toys for the kids, and it is free, so that is always a bonus. I ran the 5k again this year. Since Ryan beat me by 9 minutes earlier, I have spent more time training and I improved my time, not by 9 minutes, but I will get there. Julia and Sawyer had a lot of fun playing on these bounce things, and Dennis and I enjoyed relaxing and chit chatting with our fellow townsfolk.

Bull Ride

We went to flamig gorge days and Sawyer saw this mechanical bull and wanted to ride it sooooo bad, we told him he couldn't because it was $10 and that was to much. He was bummed and kept asking, but we kept telling him it was $10 and to much. Well we came back the next day and he had some money that his Grandpa had given him, we had forgot all about the bull, but as soon as we got to the fair area, Sawyer pulled Dennis over to the bull and told him I have $10. We told him that would take all his money and he could not buy anything else, but he still wanted to do it, so we let him. He had a lot of fun. The rest of the day everytime he asked for soemthing I told him that he used his money on the bull and he was fine with that. I love this face, he is enjoying himslef so much, but is acting cool at the same time.

Cooks

Julia is always begging to cook something. I am not a cook. Here is a funny story about Julia. One day I was teaching her primary class and they were drawing pictures of service that they could do for others. Julia was not drawing anything, so I asked the girl sitting next to me what she was drawing, she said "I am drawing my mom and I making cookies to take to our neighbors.' Julia started drawing right away and her picture was looking alot like the little girl's picture. SO I asked Julia what she was drawing and she said, "This is a picture of my mom and I going to the store to buy cookies to take to our neighbors!" So it is a known fact that I do not bake, but Julia had some cookies at a friends house she loved, so I got the recipe and let Julia and her friend Emmie make them. You would have thought that Julia was the happiest girl ever. To say the least she had a lot of fun. Maybe we might start baking more often?

Library programs

Our town library is really good. Each summer they put on a summer reading program. So instead of just reading and getting awards, they have programs for the kids each week. This year the theme was something like, express yourself, so all the programs were geared around the fine arts. Some weeks the programs were good, and other weeks, not so grand, but this week was a lot of fun. The kids got to play musical instruments and listen to the professionals. You will notice that there are no pictures of Ryan, he was off in CA having fun with his cousin, will blog more on that later.

blog overload

Well after a couple of months or more, I finally decided to update my blog. I did not get everything done tonight to completely catch up but I will work on it this week, because Dennis is out of town, so i will be staying up late and getting up late in the morning. Have fun reading and check back frequently during the next week as my goal is to catch up!!

Chalk it up

Each year our rec-center has an event called chalk it up. The kids get chalk and draw on the side walk and can win awards. This year it was sooooo cold, but the kids still wanted to do it. Sawyer was not old enough to participate, but had a lot of fun with the rec-center mascot, seemore the eagle. He would not leave him. It was funny. Julia drew a rainbow scene. Ryan started drawing a design and then got frusrated and colored the whole thing in orange and turned it into a camel. Julia won the most creative in her age catagory. Ryan got a great participant award. He was not as happy as Julia, but it is good not to win everything. Julia was just glad to leave because it was sooo cold.

Awards

The last day of school the kids had an awards assembly and both recieved an award. The awards they recieved highlight their own personalities and I was proud of both of them. Ryan recieved an award for his excellence in reading, getting the highest reading points in his class and high in 2nd grade. Julia recieved an award for being nice. There were only about 4 people in kindergarten that got this award and she did. Both kids did really well this year in school and both love going to school and are excited for school to start again.

Field Day

I love to the go help with field day at school with the kids. I love watching them interact with their friends and see them have fun. I always help with the jump rope station because it is right by the playground and Sawyer can play there. Also all kids love to jump rope, so they are always having fun. Also it make me appreciate all the hard work that teachers do with my kids.

My Sweet Baby

I think that kids are so beautiful when they ae sleeping. I know that Sawyer is not a baby any more, he tells me all the time "I'm a big boy", but he is still my baby. I wish that kids never grew up, even though I love the fun things that my kids do as they grow up. but I sure love my baby!!!!

Longacre cousins

Our kids love to hang out with their cousins. The Longacres have the best match for our kids, there is a cousin the same age for each of them. They play so good together and love being together. The Longacres just got a pool and the kids had so much fun in it. We love spending time with them.

The Jungle room

We went out to Idaho falls to visit with Dennis's sister Rose and her family. We love to go to hotels as a family so got a room at the america inn. Dennis thought that it would be a fun idea to get a theme room, I am not a big fan, think that it is a little cheesy, but I am a believer now, because the kids loved the jungle room. They thought it was the coolest thing ever, I think that they made me take about 20 pictures of them all over the room. Here is a tiny sample of the pictures. We might get another themed room in the future. Any suggestions?

Family 5k

As a family we entered our first 5K. Ryan and I ran it and Dennis walked with Julia and Sawyer. The plan was to stay with Ryan, help him finish, because I have ran these before and he is only 8, but the plan did not work. Ryan started off so fast, I could not keep up with him, so I finally told him to go ahead and stop waiting for me. He beat me by 9 minutes, that is a very big gap in a 5k. He finished fourth in his age group which was 12 and younger. He loved it and wants to do it again. I will have to work out more to keep up with him in the future. It was a fun time and we plan on doing more together.