Esther's First Day of Preschool

Esther's first day was on Sept. 2. She is going to the Giving Tree Preschool with her favorite person in the world - Miss Jill. My other kids started school on Aug. 12 so Esther asked everyday when it was her turn to go to school. She loves school. I was so sad taking her and she jumped out of the suburban and said, "Mom, you can cry now." Which is what I did. She is at school 4 hours a day on Mon, Wed, and Friday. I am still adjusting to being by myself. I help out at school every Monday in Ezra and Jonah's classes for 4 hours. The second day she was at school I came home and called about 5 friends. It is too quiet in my house! Really why do children have to grow up?

Goodbye Yankee Stadium

Did anyone watch the Yankees game Sunday night? It is the last game to be played in the stadium. We watched the pregame ceremony where they brought out all the living great Yankees. I was in tears. Yogi Berra had great spots saying goodbye to the stadium but not the memories. Babe Ruth's 97 year old daughter threw out the ceremonial first pitch. I can't imagine being from the Bronx and growing up with the Yankees and then seeing the last game. All of our kids watched the game. It was our family night activity from 4-9 pm. We did put Ezra and Esther to bed at 8. At the beginning Hannah asked, "Mom, why are you crying?" and couldn't understand. I said this is a historical national landmark that will be destroyed. Then as we watched more of the historical reels, Hannah got tears in her eyes. Thankfully the Yankees won, which has been rare this season. We are praying the Red Sox lose 6 straight for the Wild Card but that is a very long shot. It was great for us to be together supporting our Yankees. Leo was probably watching in New York with tears in his eyes. What good family bonding time. We will look forward to the next year at the new stadium.

First Day of School!

Our first day of school was Aug. 12. I think it gets earlier every year. Hannah started 7th grade with great confidence since this is her second year at the middle school. She is taking Spanish and Scott loves helping her with her homework. She tried out for the 7th grade volleyball team. After 3 weeks of practices without cutting the 35 girls that were trying out we found out this Thurs. that she made the team. Hurray! If anyone misses the reservation come to one of Hannah's games in - Tuba, Kayenta, Shonto or Navajo Mountain. Hannah is excited to try a new sport. The first week of August Hannah went with some friends from Page to a BYU volleyball camp and loved the sport and the campus. We missed her way more than she missed us.

Noah is ruling Lake View as a 5th grader. He has a teacher that likes science and Noah is happy. Noah was telling me how well organized Mr.Oman is and how the class is never messy. Noah appreciates order and cleanliness just like his dad. Noah is looking forward to football season and has been golfing after school a few times.

Jonah is in 3rd grade and is having tons of homework. At our school it's like they save all the homework for this age. Hannah and Noah both went through it in 3rd also. He has been so great about coming home and doing his homework which lasts at least 45 minutes while Ezra's homework takes 2 minutes and Noah's teacher lets him do it in class. I am not a fan of homework just to take up time. Jonah's lunch overlaps with Noah's for 15 minutes and they always play football together.

Ezra is in 1st grade this year and is adjusting to not having as much play time. He came home from school the first week and said, "Mom, all we do in school is work!" He likes to play and run around as soon as he walks in the door. I am helping out in Ezra's and Jonah's classes every Monday. Ezra's teacher lives around the corner from us and we went to visit her last week. She has a garden and loves to show it off.

Esther started preschool on September 3 and I will have a separate post with her pictures on it.

I am still getting used to everyone gone. It is way too quiet at my house. I really like the summer when we are all together. Now I have no excuse in keeping our house spotless.

Every year on the first day of school I take pictures of the kids in fron of the house and a picture of them with their lunch box. It is neat to see them grow each year.

Trip to the Grand Canyon

At the end of July we went to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I have never been. I thought it was more beautiful than the South Rim. It was incredible. Both rims are about the same distance from Page. We had a blast. We stayed in a cabin right in the park. We hiked all the trails around the North Rim. We saw several deer. The weather was perfect and at night it cooled off. This is my idea of camping! We ate dinner at the fancy restaurant and Hannah, Noah, and Jonah had their own table. Hannah and Esther found the biggest dandelions we had ever seen. We stopped in Kanab on the way up and went to their new water park and cooled off. If any family or friends wants to visit the Grand Canyon we would love to have you stay with us!

Trip to Draper

Scott's mom was so kind to watch our kids while we went to Disney World. We stayed and visited family for a few days when we returned from Florida. It is so much fun seeing our kids play with their cousins. We really miss not being close to everyone up north. Esther has four girl cousins that are all close in age and she was in heaven playing with the girls. We also got to see Sam & Stephanie's new little girl, Edna, who was born the day before we went home. We are always sad when we leave Utah because we love being around family. Grandma took Esther to Build a Bear for her 4th birthday. Esther picked out a monkey and named it Sally.

Walt Disney World!

We took Jonah to Walt Disney World for his 8 year old vacation by himself. Noah had gone to Maui and Hannah to Banff, Canada. We had a great time and loved spending time with Jonah. We stayed at the Yacht Club which is on the Boardwalk and we could walk to Epcot. Jonah and I liked the Dinosaur ride at the Animal Kingdom the best while Scott's favorite was the RocknRoller Coaster in HollyWood Studios. It was miserably humid and hot! I have never been that sweaty in my life. My cousin Becky is an actress that works in the Magic Kingdom at the Monster Inc. laugh floor. It was a blast going to her show. It is an interactive improv comedy that is hard to explain if you haven't seen it. Everyone should go a couple of times. We loved our hotel pool that had a huge water slide and sand on the bottom that was the biggest pool we have ever seen.