School's Out!!
Everyone is excited to be out of school for the summer. We like the relaxed schedule.

Cherilyn finished eighth grade. She enjoyed her orchestra and choir concerts at the end of the year. So much that we changed her ninth grade schedule so she can have orchestra, choir and seminary. She will have to take two required classes later. She received an award for turning in every orchestra practice chart and one for having a GPA over 3.75.

Allison graduated from sixth grade and will be at the junior high next year. She recieved an award for exercising at least 20 minutes 20 days a month. She did Wii Fit or the treadmill for her exercise. She just got her flute (for band next year) and was eager to learn so she has started flute lessons. She practices the flute and piano each day.

Erica finished 3rd grade. She typed up her Things to Do list the first day off. That way when she doesn't know what to do she can check her list for ideas. She wants to go camping this summer and go to Grandma's house.

Ethan graduated from kindergarten. He did a program on the last day of school, singing songs and he even had a speaking part. Here is Ethan in a cap and gown holding his graduation certificate.

Just Kids

We went to How to Train a Dragon in 3-D yesterday. Thankfully Rochelle watched Joshua for us so we could all see it. Joshua doesn't like movies yet. As we were putting on the glasses I said that Eli's head was too small. The glasses kept sliding off. Ethan said "I think I must look like Mr. Potato Head with these glasses on." They did manage to keep their glasses on most of the time. We all liked the show.

Joshua likes to answer "me" whenever he can. It must have started with "Who wants some ice cream?" Now he says it anytime there is an appropriate question. "Who spilled water on the floor?" "Me!" Yes, he is often right.
Some of our other favorite words of Joshua's are: don't (he rarely says no, just don't), noisy, Move!, backwards, counter, reach, gross, rock (meaning ice) and the kids names (Lele, alson, caca, than, and li).

Spring Break

The first day of spring break we went to the Bean Museum. The boys had never been. We printed a scavenger hunt before we went. The boys enjoyed finding the animals from the pictures. Eli's favorite animal was the big brown bear. Ethan liked all of them. We were able to see a live animal show. It was entertaining. Afterwards we all touched the turtle, snake and lizard. After eating lunch at Wendy's we drove home in a sporatic snowstorm, our second one in April.

On Wednesday we decided to get away from the snow and cold and headed for Mesquite. On the way down we went to Zion National Park. We saw a squirrel and several tiny waterfalls as we hiked.
Joshua liked climbing on this big rock.

We hiked to lower Emerald pool. This was the waterfall going into the pool. It was a little cold that day so the kids didn't like being by the waterfall.

On Thursday we played at the park, played games at Grandma's house, went in the hot tub and got ice cream cones.

Friday we went to the Clark County Fair. We saw many farm animals -- including piglets, small goats that they pet, ducks and chickens with crazy feathers, guinea pigs, and a turkey. The local zoo brought in a camel, an armadillo, a South American racoon and even a capuchin monkey. Ethan's favorite animal of the day was the monkey.

We also went to two shows -- a frisbee dog show and a lumberjack show. They were both good.

After that we were too hot so we went back to Grandma's and cooled off. Charles, Cherilyn and Allison went to the movie. Grandma took the rest of us to the Casablanca pool. All the kids went down the waterslide, Eli and Joshua with Mom.

Saturday morning before we headed home the boys, Erica, Grandma and I went for a walk. The purpose was to walk the dog, but also to find golf balls. (Grandpa and Grandma live by a golf course. Grandpa's record number of finds in a day is six.) Ethan and Eli each found one and Joshua found some trucks in the dirt. Grandma, Ethan and Eli went past the house for a longer walk. They were very glad to announce upon their return that they had beat Grandpa, finding seven golf balls.

When Joshua started breaking down on the drive home we stopped at Cove Fort. It was a wonderful diversion. We were all glad we stopped.

I am going to attempt to blog again. I like it, but it too often falls off my to-do list.

Thanksgiving was great. We went to Arizona and stayed at my brother's house. We also visited our good friends, the Niu's. It was warm there and we all had a good time with family. We drove it all in one day and it was not the torture that I anticipated. Though I packed and planned many activities, we got through it with a portable DVD player and snacks.
Christmas time was busy with many fun activities. We spent Christmas at home.

The next notable thing (that I remember) was Ethan lost his first tooth on March 2nd. It had been loose for a couple days. He was at a friend's house and it came out. Ten days later he lost his second tooth at school. He had an adorable grin for a couple of weeks (which was never photographed very well). Now he has two new teeth coming in.

Charles and I went to Hawaii in March. We stayed for ten days. It was very nice to get away and to enjoy the beach and nice (for the most part) weather in Hawaii. We hiked, saw waterfalls, kayaked, went to the Polynseian Cultural Center, saw the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, ate good food and spent time at the beach -- reading, swimming and snorkeling. The children enjoyed having both sets of grandparents and their cousin Rochelle watch them while we were gone.

We visited the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, Utah. One of the favorites was the sting rays which Allison and Eli touched. They also liked the sharks.

Halloween/Allison's birthday
Allison's costume was well liked. She enjoyed having something different -- half-asleep, half-awake.

Erica, the fairy princess.

Our pirate boys.

Allison waiting for presents.

Fall pictures

Ethan's birthday cookie cake.

Charles took the boys fishing and Ethan caught this fish. Eli almost had one, but it was "the little fish that got away." Ethan even ate some of it for dinner and liked it.

Fall Break
For the kid's fall break we went to Capitol Reef and Bryce Canyon National Parks. On Thursday we went to Capitol Reef with Sam and his family. We had a picnic, saw deer, went on a hike, climbed a rock wall. All the adults had a good scare at the end when Eli walked around the fencing to throw rocks off a very high cliff. That night we stayed at a hotel. Curtis, Marianne, Megan, Kyle and Adam met us at the hotel. The next day we went on to Bryce Canyon. We got some cool pictures. Here is the only one with the whole family. We went on one long hike. It was cool, but we wondered if we would make it back out of the canyon for awhile. We enjoyed seeing more of Utah and spending time together.

A great fall picture at Capitol Reef.

We hiked to Hickman bridge, shown below.

Here are all the cousins after climbing up a rock wall.

Allison and Erica enjoyed posing by this cool tree.