New Picture

Here is a more recent photo of our family.

School Daze

We are nearing the end of our second week of the new school year. What a shock to the system. This year Will and John are going to public high school. They have early morning seminary at 6:30 every morning, then 8 classes (4 one day, then the other 4 the next day), followed by marching band in the afternoons until 5:30 on Monday and Wednesday. Will has Tech Crew on Tuesday and Thursday after school, and John has bagpipes Thursday nights. Plus they have scouts on Tuesdays, and Pep Band for the football games on the weekends. They have had hours and hours of homework, which leaves very little time for sleep or fun. Up at 5:00 a.m. and to bed at 11:30 p.m. or later. I am pleased with myself for getting up with them every day to make breakfast and lunch for them.

On the other hand, our homeschool has been relaxing and fabulous. Paul is taking band at the local middle school--45 minutes 3 days a week, 1.5 hours one day a week, and most Fridays off. He is also taking oil painting at an art store once a week. We have had 4 field trips so far (3 museums and a park), made historical tools, done science experiments, read a ton of books, played games, had music lessons, and enjoyed each other immensely. We are studying Ancient Egypt and Archaeology right now, which are both extremely fascinating to me AND to the kids.

One of the highlights of the last two weeks has been watching David learn to walk. He is making the transition from crawling everywhere and pulling himself up to walking in between things that are close together.

I'm so glad I am not in graduate school this year! I had planned to be, but it didn't work out that way. I would have missed so much already!

The shark picture is from the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point, and the other is a model Shaduf which we made (an ancient tool used for irrigation). The kids were testing it out by trying to scoop water out of the ice chest. Yes, they got wet.

Summer has fled

Summer has gone WAY too fast. We've had camps, camping, parades, reunions, outings, projects, field trips, and so much fun. Here are some pictures. They got way out of order when I uploaded them and I don't have time to arrange them better, but here they are! Robert and Jacob rowing a raft at Day Camp, Jared, Paul, Elizabeth, and Sarah riding a funny bike in the Children's Parade, everyone watching the Pleasant Grove Parade waiting to see Will and John in the band, camping, reunions, remodeling the bathroom, scout campouts, more parades, new swingset (it took 3 months to put it together!), Chuck E. Cheese, fishing, and more campouts and parades.