Goodbye Summer!!

We are sad to see the summer go, but everyone is excited for school to start again. We have tried to keep ourselves busy. I wanted the kids to have a fun activity once a week. I would say we hit our goal almost every week.

We spent time at the park having a water balloon fight and enjoying the slip and slide. On the days we didn't do water activities the kids would just have fun sliding and doing whatever.

We were able to go to the movies. Thank goodness for the dollar movies. The older kids liked Chronicles of Narnia, the younger Horton Hears a Who. Popcorn was a highlight for all. I'm glad re-fills were only 50 cents.

We went bowling and had a blast. The kids really had fun. It was crazy! I was surprised how far they could hold the ball and roll it, even Becca. Ryan didn't even use the bumpers. I was truly amazed at the strength of those wood floors. I believe they are probably indestructible.

There are a couple of museums we hit as well. One was the Utah Museum of Natural History. The kids love it there. They like the biology exhibit where all the "stuffed" animals are. I do admit it s one of my favorites too. They always enjoy the dinosaur exhibits as well. It's always fun to pretend to be a paleontologist. We went to the Church History Museum today. It is the only outing I remembered a camera! We all loved it there. It was awesome. We were glad Dustin got to join us for this one. He works across the street, so he took his lunch break early!The kids were able to pretend to speak at the pulpit, dress up for the nativity, and be part of Lehi's dream. Check out the pictures. One of our favorites were the the death masks of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. We ran out of time to go to Temple Square. We'll save it for another day.

When we stayed home, we filled the day with reading, coloring, games, having friends over, running in the sprinkler, and the kids favorite, TV. I know it is terrible. We got cable and I have to pry them away from it. I can't stand that aspect of it. I have tried to keep them doing school work, it didn't go as well as I would have liked. They seem to remember quite a bit though.

We look forward to a new school year. They will all be at the same school this year. It will be nice. I'm glad we were able to have a fun summer.

In front of John the Baptism as Grace put it. He was conferring the Aaronic Priesthood.

A replica of the 4th Ward meeting house in Salt Lake City.

All pressing forward holding to the Iron Rod. Well Kate decided to hop on later. She was a little too busy.

Watching General Conference

Ryan speaking at the pulpit. I'll save you from having to view 4 more. You get the picture. It is a replica of the one in the Tabernacle. We also got pictures at the one in The Conference Center.

Joseph and Hyrum's death masks. It was really humbling to see these. I guess they used to take plaster molds of the faces of those who have died, so they can remember what they looked like. The Prophet's is on the left. If you look close you can see where Hyrum was shot in the face to the left side of his nose. It is all bumpy and misshaped.

Family pic in front of Moroni. He was taken off a church building.