Visiting the Hathornes

The next stop on our journey through the the Northwest was to South Jordan, Utah to stay with our dear friends, the Hathornes. They were our neighbors here in AZ until they couldn't stand it any longer and had to move back to UT. We made it through some hard years in AZ and shared much of our miseries together, thereby making it much more bearable and even fun. We shared many a piece meal together and lasting friendships were formed. Our little girls grew up together and we have missed having them nearby. Siena keeps asking if we can move to UT and be their neighbors again.
Sarah is a great hostess and took such good care of us. She's such a hard worker and busy mom and a great example. All that and she is so talented.

They live within a short walk of the Ochre Mountain temple.We got to meet their darling Quincy. What a cutie pie!We visited the Natural History museum at the U of U.This dino would talk to you if you put money in his mouth.We went shopping in the rain. The weather was so nice and cool.

Chuck E. Cheese was a fun diversion for the kids. It's amazing how fast they can make it through game tokens.

Zion National Park

This summer the kids and I took a road trip from AZ to Utah, Idaho, and Washington. We drove 7 hours to Zion National Park and took a few hikes there before we stopped for the night in Cedar City. Zion's was beautiful, but quite hot. The hikes we went on were considered "accessible", but were very difficult. At one point I was pushing Lily up a very steep hill, Siena was pushing me, and Spencer was pushing her. By the time we reached the top I was sweating profusely had to take a few minutes just to catch my breath. It's a good thing that I have been working out or I never would have made it up. Going back down was scary too because I had to pull back on Lily's wheelchair. It was almost as much work as going up.

I really enjoyed the bus shuttle system they have going through the park. It gave me time to relax and look at the scenery and it cut down on traffic. They also gave commentary about the park while going from one stop to the next. On our hikes we had a deer walk right by us, we saw lots of wild turkeys and lizards, and heard the amazingly loud music of some frogs. It was worth the extra hour off the freeway to have experienced Zion.

On the way past Provo, I detoured through BYU. I drove past where Deseret Towers used to be, but have been razed to make way for newer buildings. I also swung by all the places where Paul and I lived and we ate lunch at the Brick Oven where Paul and I first met while on a triple date. That's why I always recommend group dating. You never know who you will meet while you are out with someone else!

Major Crossroads

This week we've had one of the biggest crossroads moments that we've had in quite sometime. Siena started High School and Spencer started Kindergarten. Lily continues to excel and is in her second year of Middle School, yet she is only in the 5th grade;) It was a very emotional day. I went from excitement to depression, squeals to tears, confident to worrisome, all that and back again. And I wasn't even the one going to school!


Siena also started early morning seminary. With that, school, and band practice is she already one tired girl. When I dropped her off on the first day it was so cool to see the older students out there cheering on the Freshmen and making a tunnel for them to go through.

Lily was excited to get back to school. She loves keeping busy and she loves riding the bus. I'm sure 5th grade will be a great year.

Spencer has been looking forward to riding the bus his whole life. He has always watched Lily get on and off the bus every school day, so he was convinced that he wanted to ride the bus as soon as he got the chance. Everyone was surprised that I would let my Kindergartner ride on the first day of school instead of taking him, but he was so excited. We had gone to the school twice to show him around and to meet his teacher, so I figured he would be fine. You should have seen his smile. I hope I can remember that the rest of my life. When he got home he was so excited to tell me about his day. Everything was so great. It wasn't until that night that he told me he cried when he got to school because he couldn't find his teacher and he didn't know where to go. It made my heart hurt, but it didn't seem to faze him. He was ready to go the next day and said it went really well. Oh, I was impressed when he came home from school the first day and could spell RED. Way to go, Spencer!

Sick of my blog

I was tired of the look of my blog, so I picked another template that Blogger offers since I have no idea how to do anything else. It's fine, but not cool or cute. I like the green and the tree branch in the background so that's why I picked it. I got rid of the music, and yet I still hear it as I'm typing this. Do you still hear it, too, as you read?
Anyway, I'm hungry, so I'm not going to blog anymore, but I will soon because I have pictures of my cute kids to post.

Brace Face

Siena got braces today. It should be an interesting two years considering all the things they told her not to eat.

Preschool Fun

Spencer had a special visit from his preschool friend. His name is Freddy the Frog and he got to spend the weekend with us. They had lots of fun. They rode in the car, went grocery shopping, played the PS3, watched movies, and had a sleepover.

His preschool class also went on a fieldtrip to the AZ Puppet Theater. We saw Cinderella and got a special behind the scenes tour of how it all works. It was quite fun!

Girls night out

For Christmas "we" gave "me" tickets to see the "Mary Poppins" Broadway touring show at the Gammage. It was Super! -califragilisticexpialidocious! Siena and I had a marvelous time even though someone almost ran us off the road on the way there, our dinner was only edible, we had to run to get to the show on time, and it took us about an hour to get out of the parking garage after the show.