Back to school!

The boys went back to school almost two months ago, but better to post pictures late than never, right?

We had our traditional back to school dinners for them.  This was Scotty's and he wanted to do a restaurant dinner with a menu and he wanted to be the waiter.  It was fun.

Very excited to go to 2nd grade!!!  His teacher's name is Ms Vanweerd- a fun name for a teacher!! 

Scotty got a new pair of glasses this year.  He is such a handsome boy!

They have stars on the sides and he loves them.  He had a great first day and has continued to do well.

Grant's back to school dinner was fun.  He wanted to have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches cut into puzzle shapes!  Not an everyday dinner but perfect for our awesome Grant.

He had his Daddy help him draw some Mario scenes on the table covering.  He LOVES Mario!

This is what Grant's first day of preschool looked like- lying on the couch sick.  Poor guy!!  He was so disappointed to have to miss his first day.

Luckily he was feeling better by the 2nd day.  It was white day and he was excited he had his white church shirt to wear.  He had a great day at New Beginnings Preschool and was very happy to see his little best friend from last year's class again this year.

These two are best buddies!  And soooo cute!!

Collin and I continued tradition of going to the "donut store" after we dropped Grant off.  

I can't believe how big my boys are getting!  

I love them so much!!!

Camping

After we left Arizona we went camping for a few days.  We had originally planned to camp at the Grand Canyon, but when the weather forecast was predicting low temps in the 20's we decided it might not be such a good idea.  So, we drove and drove and drove and ended up in Kanab, Ut.  We ate dinner and talked to some people who gave us directions to some campsites just outside of town.  We drove and drove and couldn't find those ones, so we drove to a state park hoping we could find a campsite there.  I'm a worry wart and like to have things planned out, so driving around aimlessly was not fun!!  But we found a campsite, set up the tent while the kids explored and then went to bed.  

It wasn't in the 20's, but it was cold during the night.  Well, I was the only one that was cold because I wasn't sleeping.  I had borrowed a huge air mattress from my in laws and the air in it was freezing. So I spent most of the night awake, miserable and shivering.  I'm pretty sure I told Miles I hated him in the morning!  Luckily everyone else slept fine and the boys had a great time in the morning finding fire wood.  They were very proud of the big pile they were able to gather before we left.

We hit the road early and drove to St George.  We had made reservations for a campsite in Snow Canyon.  We love Snow Canyon!  The campsite was beautiful and we were surrounded by gorgeous red rocks.  This picture doesn't do it justice.

The boys loved this campsite.  They spent their days climbing and exploring and playing in the sand.  

The picture above is during the day and the picture below is at night on the same rock.

We went for a hike on one of the trails and the boys had a lot of fun finding different plants to earn their Jr Ranger badge.

They again loved playing with the trucks in the sand.

We had to have some wrestling sessions in the tent!  I slept soooo much better here!  I put a blanket underneath my sleeping bag and that helped, not to mention it was much warmer in Snow Canyon.  It was a bit hot for our liking during the day, but I was very happy at night!

Before we left we hiked on the petrified sand dunes.  We love climbing and exploring there.  

We didn't want to leave St George and I vote that we do all of our camping there!

On the road again!

The boys did really, really well for the long drive to Mesa.  I was worried about it- especially for Collin who is not a good traveller!  But he did pretty well with only a few episodes of screaming.  I packed enough stuff to give them something new to do about every hour.  We ended up not using all of it because they were happy most of the time!

They watched some movies....

....played with sticker books....

....ate snacks and blankets....

....colored....

....and acted silly and goofy!!!

And there were many diaper changes in the car.  I don't know why but we had a hard time finding diaper changing stations on this trip.  So, changes in the car were done and it was annoying!  But overall, the long drive went way, way better than we were expecting.  Yay!!

A day in St George

To break up the 11 hour drive to Mesa we stayed overnight in St George.  We were planning to go to the sand dunes, but it was just breezy enough that we knew we would be miserable.  So we went to this awesome park that has a fun water place for the kids to play.  The boys LOVED this place.

It has a big area with lots of huge rocks to climb on with really shallow water.

Then it all narrows down to a cool river.

The ice cream truck came by and was the only thing that could have diverted their attention!

They all loved climbing up and down the waterfall stairs, especially Collin.

They definitely want to go back there!

After that we went back to the hotel and swam in the pool.  Then we had dinner in the hotel room, watched Spongebob and went to bed!

Yummy (free!) breakfast at the hotel and then it was on the road again!

Arizona!!

We were able to go to Arizona at the end of May to visit my sister, Aimee, and her family.  It was so much fun.  The boys think it's the best vacation we've ever had!

Here is my beautiful niece Kaisha.  She graduated from high school and I was able to attend her graduation.  She is such an awesome, fun girl and we're so proud of her!!

We did lots of hanging out together.  Since Aimee's fam has lived away all my boy's lives they don't see them very much and had to get reacquainted!  Collin's favorite member of the family is Lexi- the family's Pug!!  He loved her and was always wanting to "pat" her.

Grant and Kennedi did some drawing together.  Grant drew this awesome Mario and Kenners drew an amazing Angry Bird that is now hanging up in Scotty's room.

Kerianne and I decided to relive old times and do crazy car ride!  It was much easier to do when she was younger....and less awkward!!  But it was hilarious!!

We went swimming a couple of times.  We went one evening to Aimee's time share.

Another day we went to my parent's hotel pool.  And we went once to our condo pool.  The boys loved being able to do so much swimming!

There are a couple of really fun playgrounds just down the road from Aimee's house.  The boys loved them and now we all think Tooele's playgrounds stink!!!

This little motorcycle thing was a big hit!

Even the big kids love these things!

Keri, Grant and Collin watching some kite fliers.

The boys loved Kam's chalkboard wall and Kam was very nice to let them draw all over it.

They slept well every night!

We sure love the Yorks!!  We wish we could see them more often, but we're so grateful for how much fun we have with them when we do get together.