First day of School

Its that time of the year again, we've just been school shopping, got all of our new supplies and really have gotten sick of staying home all the time.  My kids are really ready to get back to school so they can see their friends everyday and play lots at recess!

In preparation, we went to the zoo, went to 7 peaks a few times made PJ bottoms and well had a busy blast trying to fit everything in the last few days.

 Alyssa has friends that live all around us and so I think that she was the least excited to go back to school.  Its really going to cut into her time she spends each day painting nails, watching TV with friends, practicing flips and just giggling.

Hailey was excited to see her friends again.  She only sees her friend Vivian a few times during the summer and so she was excitied just to get to see the friends again.

Hailey is in 5th grade with Mrs. Bishop as her teacher.

Here my girls go on their way to school. 

Alyssa's 3rd grade classroom door.  Her teacher is going to be Miss Quinn

Abby was the most excited to start Kindergarten!!!  She was so cute and excited to go where she could 'learn' more.  She really thought Lucy was going to be in her class and was a little disappointed to find Lucy went to a different school.  At least she did have a couple kids in her class that she knows.

 Isn't that outfit she picked out for the 1st day of school cute?

Here is her dad walking her to school, she started out in afternoon kindergarten and moved the next day to morning kindergarten with Mrs. Robertson

Here is her desk!



What a Fun Trip to the Zoo

Going to the zoo is always one of my girls favorite activities.  I try to get a annual zoo pass every other year so we can visit lots during the year that we have it.  This year the fun new attraction is the Rocky Shores Exibit.

There they have Sea Lions, Otters, Black Bears, and a Polar Bear. 

 See the Polar bear as her swims around under the water?

Abby and Macey think that everytime they go they should be able to ride the carosel.  This time they both wanted to ride on the Tigers, Abby's favorite animal.

 We tried to get John to come with us and when he did we knew that we would not be able to go to the bird show.  For some reason John is afraid of birds and has some major phobia with them.  If you don't believe me ask his dear friend Dale Keep, he can give you and ear full about John and the chickens in Kauai.

Such a fun birthday cake

My brother-in-law Matt had his birthday yesterday and I really wanted to experiment making a new type of cake. So yesterday morning I started to experiment with a new multi layered Lemon cake. 

First I had to make a whipping cream frosting using whipping cream, vanilla, pwdr sugar and .... knott's unflavored jello.  I guess the jello is suppose to make the whipping cream hold stronger.

The cake was made with just a french vanilla cake mix, cooked in two 9" pans.  I cut them in half after they cooled and then relayered them with lemon pudding in the middle.  After stacking them back together, I placed the cake in the freezer for 20 minutes to cool the cake, making it easier to frost.

It was all frosted with a light coat of whipping cream, then I splashed coconut up the sides of the cake & covered the top with some of the left over lemon pudding.  The last step I used my cake decorating pipes and piped on a border around the corner.

Here is the final product and lets say everyone thought this looked so yummy and when they ate it they felt like it was a keeper.  It was so good!!!

Pioneer Days

This year due to me going to Colorado for the 4th of July I wasn't going to come back for pioneer days.  Hailey and Alyssa really wanted to be there so we decided to leave them when we at the beginning of the month and have my mom bring them back to Utah later in July.  You know me though, knowing that so many of my family was going to be there spending such a fun celebration, I just had to keep thinking of ways that I could get there.   My dear cousin Shelby was going into the MTC the Wednesday before and her parents, my Aunt Myrna and Uncle Dennis agreed to take me back to Colorado with them.  YEAH, I found my way for me, Abby and Macey!

We had so fun and first Sanfords parade, breakfast, races and reunion. 

Sanford even had primary pioneer games for the kids to do before the races.

 We had a Cornum/Miller reunion in Sanford at the park where at least 15-20 famililes came to enjoy a fun dinner together.  Leslie and her kids came in the day before I did (on Tuesday afternoon).  My uncle Tennis and his daughters Myla & Andrea with their children also came to visit from Dallas Texas.  The girls had so much fun with their cousins.  Hailey loved the egg toss though her and Makel didn't do very good

Alyssa really liked the three-legged race where her and Grace (Natalie's daughter) won the race :)

Manassa has a much bigger pioneer days celebration, they have a carnival, rodeo, demolition derby, 5K dances and more.  I loved it as a kid and I still love it, so many people work so hard for it go through.  Yet, when things get bigger other things happen too, and they have lost lots of the true pioneer feel. 

Here is mom and Brooke (and Kamry) having fun watching the parade!

The parade is the best and these kids loved watching the different floats.

Abby really loved the carnival and had so much fun riding all these rides.

  

Hailey and Alyssa had 'all you can ride' passes and really loved Friday afternoon at the carnival.

Vannoy family campout

This past winter I decided that for our family vacation this year we would go stay in a cabin in Colorado. Close enough to spend part of the time with my Vannoy family, but somewhere in the woods to offer diversity for our family vacation.

My mom really liked this idea and went to work looking for a cabin big enough for her entire family, all 22 of us. She did a good job and we got two cabin at the rocky mountain lodge. Everyone made sure this weekend would work and the plans were made.

The cabins were located in a beautiful place, almost up to plateuro, I have no clue how to spell that. We all got there on the 4th but due to fire restrictions all fire works were banned. We did get rain on and off throughout the weekend, which was so needed.

Let's just say the first night, when we had one cabin was fun. Parker was a little grouchy and was on the floor right by my bed. His sleeping bag was the kind that make a cracking noise when they move and he moved. He moved from one end of the room to the other in the night, about 25 feet, so I didn't sleep much with that rustling noise and also his baby brother crying in the night.

It was fun though and I moved rooms the second night and slept wonderfully from then on.

Here are some of the fun things we got to do.

We did a few small hikes, John and the men hiked into bear lake for fishing.

We rode four wheelers a lot, my dad was nice enough to bring all four of his up to the cabins.

We all hiked up to a waterfall

I drove up to the reservoir

We played games

We cooked a lot

And, we just had a wonderful time together as a family.

Thanks mom and dad for turning my little family vacation into a outstanding family reunion!