Catching Up

We have a new working computer. Yay! So now I can catch up.

Labor Day

Labor Day we went to my parents and helped out with some yardwork and played with cousins. Jorgen and Abby were playing hide and seek:



I think we are playing "Alligator Alligator" here:

Bowling:

Bethany and Lance were too cool to bowl I guess:

Abby and Debbie. They look like they belong to each other, don't you think?

Jorgen took one of Grandma's trains outside and was chugging it all over the yard.

The grapes were almost ready. We were back there just yesterday and they are now all the way ripe and so fragrant.

Javier and Dan pruning some trees:

Digging potatoes:

Eating a picnic:

I don't remember what happened, but Bethany was hurt somehow and being consoled.

My sister Ann suggested we do a little "Show and Tell" with the kids. They thought it was great. Lance showed us a nest he made out of clay.

Andrew showed his Junior Ranger badge from Antelope Island.

Bethany showed pictures she drew of the things we saw at Antelope Island, the bison and the balloons and the kites.

Abby showed us a Curious George book, but she just jabbered on and on about her friends and her preschool and her cousins. It was very cute. I think she liked the spotlight.

Jorgen found this Toys R Us ad in the paper and it had a page full of Thomas trains. He took that paper with him everywhere for several days, until it got lost. That was his show and tell.

I think Abby had the camera at this point. Here is Nicole (or her hands anyway) showing us an octopus she made at daycare.

There's her face! Again, I didn't take this picture, one of the kids did.

Grandma showed us her garden:

The kids thought the fan was great fun, especially if you say funny words into the fan, they sound even funnier.

Grocery Shopping

Jorgen loves the car carts. I hate them - they are hard to turn and the kid can reach all his favorite foods. But it does keep him entertained. This particular day he wanted the huge bag of Smarties, a bag of Cheetos, and a box of Rice Krispie Treats with him in the cab. I thought it was so funny at the time.

Peach Days

Dan is from Brigham City, where they have Peach Days every September. It was an eventful day, complete with a vomiting child in the car (Jorgen). About when we got to Willard he started crying that his tummy hurt. In a few minutes he was throwing up his breakfast all over his jacket, pants, car seat, etc. It was lovely, let me tell you. We were almost there, so we decided to go anyway and see how he was feeling later. He did cheer up after awhile and seemed to be feeling better, I don't know what it was. We had to wash the car seat cover when we got home cause it stunk so bad.

It was quite cold that morning, so we huddled up in blankets. Dan's parents saved us a prime spot, right in front of the Tabernacle on Main Street.

Dan's dad, two of his aunts and an uncle all ran in the road race before the parade. His dad won his age division. Way to go Grandpa Nay!

Here is most of the gang - Grandpa Nay, Grandma Nay, Great-Grandpa Nay, Great-Grandma Nay, Bethany, Andrew, Paula, Dominic, Damon, Dan, and Jorgen (who was still feeling sick can you tell?)

For my Syracuse friends, there's President Rhodes on our stake float:

Jorgen appears to be feeling better:

Choral Collection

Bethany joined a singing group and they had a little performance at the Clearfiled Ampitheater. It was pretty cute. She loves singing and has a pretty good voice too.

Soccer

Andrew has been plugging away at soccer this fall. He has a really good team, I think they have won every game so far. I wish I could say Andrew contributes to his team....but we are still working on just going to the ball, not stopping to dig in the dirt, etc. So far no tears this year, so that's an improvement.

Homework

Bethany has a list of homework activities where she is supposed to choose one different activity each week. One activity was to follow a recipe and make something. So I found her a fairly easy recipe for some Corn Flake clusters. She did it pretty much by herself and they turned out really yummy. Peanut butter, chocolate chips, and Corn Flakes. Easy.

Can't Live With Them, Can't Live Without Them

Computers, that is. Our new computer has decided to die. It is not booting up properly. Dan thinks it's a bad hard drive. Luckily, we had warning signs and did backups of all our photos and documents on the computer downstairs (that Dan runs his home theater with). Upstairs we have the new, dead computer, and the old bare-bones computer that the kids play games on. So the pictures that I would like to add to my blog are not available at the moment. You will just have to imagine all the fun we had at Grandma Baker's house on Labor Day, and the great time we had at Peach Days and Grandma Nay's house this past weekend. Some days I feel like kicking the computer out the window, but that probably wouldn't solve anything. Although it might make me feel better.

Workin' Hard on Labor Day

Dan decided to clean the carpets on Labor Day morning. So he moved the couches to the front room. I was vacuuming out all the junk under the cushions and Jorgen decided to help. He actually did a pretty good job.

Antelope Island

Andrew asks lots of questions. One frequent question lately has been: "What is Antelope Island? When can we go there? Is it really an island?" And so on. We drive on Antelope Drive quite a lot, for heaven's sake, why haven't we bothered to go to Antelope Island? Sheesh. We haven't gone, and yet we live just a short drive from the causeway. My excuse is usually that it is hot and there is nothing much to do there, plus it stinks. If you know Andrew, you know he doesn't really care much for bad odors.

But lucky for us (!) there is this Hot-Air Balloon festival held there every year (well, for the last 3 years I think). So, on Sept.4th we decided to go. Obviously we were novices, because we didn't really get there early enough to see many balloons. You have to get there at dawn, we made it by about 9:30. We saw one balloon that had come down in the road, and two others when we got to the main area. The Remax balloon was offering free rides, so we stood in line. Dan saved us a spot in line and the kids went over to the kites to try them out. That was kind of fun.

Then they told us they were running out of fuel and it was too windy, so no more rides. That was a bummer. But then they asked Dan to help them bring the balloon down (um, because they needed some weight - their words not mine!) That was pretty enthralling for the kids to watch.

The guy pulling the rope (see below) was pulling with ALL his might. Those balloons are quite heavy, apparently.

They had a few things for the kids to do, like this turtle train, and a bouncy house area. It was really starting to get hot by this time.

I think this lady called herself the Kite Fairy:

The kites flying in formation were pretty cool, but hard to get a picture of.

This is leaving the Balloon Festival:

At the Visitor's Center:

In the eaves of the Visitor's Center we saw several swallow nests with baby birds. The momma birds were bringing them dragonflies and other big ugly bugs to eat. Num num.

Andrew pointing to where we are on the map. Except he blinked.

The "Please Touch" table:

Jorgen got a kick out of this mini-bison. Oddly enough, we saw plenty of bison but I just didn't take any pictures of them. Not sure why. So here's a replica.

Brine shrimp:

At the Fielding Garr Ranch:

Roping cattle:

Making yarn:

Look, a Junior Ranger:

It seems like the last time I went to Antelope Island (a loooong time ago) you could walk out to the shore on boardwalks. I guess they are gone now because we couldn't find them anywhere. They just had some dead-end trails.