1st day of 2nd grade

Clara started second grade on Wednesday. She was a little worried because she did not get the teacher that her best friend got. Apparently she has the fun teacher. Clara has Miss Giles who is rumored to be not as fun. I'm okay with that. But I did get a lecture at back to school night about hand sanitizing and how the kids have to use it after recess and wipe down their desks at the end of the day. A little OCD? Maybe. But if they have the not sick class, fine by me. Clara has confessed after two days of school that Miss Giles is in fact fun. So that's good. And she's been meeting her best friend Alyssa for recess and lunch so no trauma there.
Clara in her back to school outfit, her favorite skirt made by Grandma Christine. And her new haircut and lunchbox. She chose to cut her hair short the day before school.

In front of her class. The second grade meets in the out buildings.

Clara and her friend Sierra. They were in the same class last year and again this year. They look like twins with the same hair.

Hiking Timp

Yesterday a group of us from BYU hiked to the top of Mount Timpanogas to do some filming for Homecoming Spectacular this year. It is a hard hike. We started at 6 in the morning and got to the summit about 11:30. Then we filmed for 3.5 hours and then hiked back down. We got back to the parking lot at 8:30 p.m. Long day. Today my knees hurt and my toes (dang that big, fat big toe) but other than that I feel pretty good. It was a great experience and I'm glad that I did it.

Me at the site where we were filming, just below the summit.


At the summit, almost 12,000 feet. The ledge at the top is about 6' wide.


A family of mountain goats were right next to us. This one had her baby. Just passed the saddle a little less than a mile from the summit.


The helicopter shooting. The camera is mounted on the front.



The actor playing Eugene Roberts, who we are honoring this year in Homecoming. He was the faculty member who started the annual Timp Hike for BYU.






From the summit. Basically I could take both these pictures from one spot. Above, looking down on Utah lake and Utah County. Below looking back down the other side at Emerald Lake. The snow running down into it is the glacier.

Where has the summer gone? aka The longest post ever. aka Picture overload

Sorry if some of you get this twice. Apparently if you push the enter key after typing your title, it publishes the post. Who knew?

Anyway, we've had the busiest of Julys. And it's not over yet. It started with us waking up really early on July 2nd to go see the balloon launch. Provo does this every year but we've never gone. You have to wake the kids up at 6:00 to be down to the field by 6:30. We obviously went on the wrong day because they didn't launch the balloons because it was too "windy". It wasn't blowing at all on the ground. But I guess there were some ominous looking clouds in the distance that were blowing our way so they couldn't launch. But the kids had fun watching the balloons blow up.
Notice how tired Collin looks.


Ezra and Clara.

The whole gang.


Mark's brother John and Ema were in town for a couple of weeks. It's always fun having them here and we pack the time with fun outings. This year we went to This is the Place monument. It was a fun place with lots of pioneer activities, but it rained so hard while we were there. We were all sopping.

Collin getting a "shave". This is right before he had a meltdown because the guy touched him.

Clara was hesitant at first but after everybody else did it, of course she had to try.


Collin on the train. Notice the lovely smile. This is how he smiles these days, usually in the middle of saying cheese. But it doesn't turn into a smile, he just keeps the grimace.


We also went to the 4th parade. Always a good time.

Mark holding Collin and our newest nephew Elias.




We also went to the Oquirrh Mountain temple open house while John and Ema were here. It is very pretty but took us a while to get through because it was so busy. We took Mark's mom and 92 year old grandpa. Collin loves him. We pushed Grandpa Young in the wheelchair because it would be too long for him to walk. Collin walked next to him a lot of the time and would reach over and hold his hand. Then he'd go look at something and come back: "Bumpa, hand" he'd demand. It was so cute.

The grandkids and Maralee and Grandpa Young. Notice Collin is not in the picture. He is off to the side having a meltdown. It was a long day.


I told you this was long. We also made a trip to my parents in Idaho Falls. We always enjoy visiting there and as always enjoyed a trip to the Tautphus Park zoo and playland. Collin and Clara love spending time with grandparents. Clara didn't want to leave.

Collin and Grandpa Jon in the petting zoo.

Clara and Anna pretending to be birds in the bird nest.






We've also been enjoying our garden. Some things are doing well and others are not. Our beans are ones that are doing well. At the nursery this year I just grabbed a packet of green beans. The beans looked nice and green on the front but when I got them home to plant them, I noticed that they were called Purple Queens. They grow in purple and then turn to green when you cook them. It's like magic. Clara thinks they are neat.

This is what they look like when you pick them. They are this dark purple color. And they turn into this:




Over the last several years, I have enjoyed getting together with my old roommates from BYU, Becky, Kristie, and Karen, for a fun game of cards. We all lived in or around SLC so we'd get together every other month or so, but then Becky moved to Boise. So we all took a trip up to see her for a weekend. Kristie brought all 5 of her kids, and Becky has 4, and I brought Clara. It was a crazy weekend with lots of swimming and card playing. Of course my camera died after only a few pictures so I'll post more when I get them from others. Suprisingly it was farely low key for having 10 kids in the house.

7 of the 10. Curtis, Spencer, Savannah, Clara, Sarah, Sarah, and Katherine.

And finally, today we celebrated pioneer day but going to the pioneer festivities here in Provo.

The day wouldn't be complete without face painting and rock suckers.

Thanks to my parents for providing Clara's pioneer outfit. This is the only skirt they had left. We used to have tons of pioneer dress up clothes. Clara was very disappointed that they didn't keep the aprons and dresses. We also used to have a covered wagon topper that would go on a wagon and we could put our dolls in and parade them around. She was extremely disappointed when she found out they didn't have that either.

Clara is 7!

Clara didn't just have a birthday, she had a birthday weekend. It started on Saturday with a small party with my parents and sisters families. Then another party with Mark's family on Sunday. And then a friend party today, her actual birthday. At the family parties, we just opened presents and had cake. I made her a carousel cake, as she requested. It actually wasn't that hard. Then we took her and her friends to a salon school here in Provo where they had their hair and nails done. As crazy as it was with 8 girls, it was a pretty easy party to plan. I didn't have to plan any games or have fancy treats. We just opened presents and then went to the salon and went to get ice cream when we were done.
I can't believe Clara is already 7. 7 going on 17 for sure. She's finally coming out of the princess phase and moving onto new things. As glad as I am to be out of that phase, it's a little sad that she's no longer a little girl. I can already see the tween years coming on. Complete with the rolling of the eyes. But she is a sweet girl and her favorite thing to do is to make Collin laugh. Happy Birthday Clara.



Clara opening presents.


The carousel cake.
Opening presents with her friends.
Alyssa getting her hair done.
Clara wanted a bun.

Getting nails done. Everybody wanted the sparkly glitter on top of their color. They only had one bottle so the ladies kept having to pass it around. I don't think it's the hot commodity among the older crowd but it sure was a hit for the girls.


Katelyn and her french braids.
Madeline and Libby and nails.

All 8 girls with hair and nails done. Libby, Aliesha, Austy, Madeline, Clara, Alyssa, Savannah, and Katelyn.

It was bound to happen

At some point we knew that Collin would become the subject of Clara's dress up games. He thought it was pretty fun and even did some ballet twirls for us. He was really getting into it. Notice the bow in his hair, too. Ah, the joys of having a big sister.

The Giver

I just designed the lights for "The Giver" at BYU. It's been probably 5 years since I've done a design by myself. I assist my boss on every show he does but haven't designed since before we moved to Vegas. It's been fun working on the show. Go see it if you get a chance.

Independent

Don't you love 2 year olds and how independent they want to be. Collin is now wanting to do everything by himself. And he always wants to be a helper. Today he insisted on helping carry in the grocery's and happily chanted "helper" the whole time. It's cute but frustrating at the same time. He's big enough to ask for help but then refuses the help when you offer it. Here was a typical conversation we had today.

I opened up the fridge and he saw the cheese sticks and asked for one. "Do you want a cheese stick?" I asked. And went to reach for one. "No" he responded, furiously shaking his head. So I shut the fridge. "Cheese stick" he asked again and we repeated the above conversation. We did this about 4 times. Finally I lifted him up so he could get the cheese stick out himself. He seemed satisfied with that and proceeded to try and open the cheese stick. Obviously he couldn't do it so he said "help you". So I went to try and take it from him to open it and he held it behind his back and screamed no. We repeated this scenario about 4 times as well. So I stop trying to help. By this point he's on the floor crying "open it" over and over again but won't let me help him. I finally just loaded him into the car to go to the store and while I was buckling him in I sneakily opened the cheese stick just enough to start it so he could finish it off and feel like he had done it himself. Well, that didn't fly. He screamed the whole way to Walmart. How dare I even attempt to open the cheese stick. Finally I just finished peeling the cheese stick open, which prompted more screams. I set it on the seat next to him in the cart and told him he could eat it when he wanted. He's still crying "no, open it" over and over again. I do my best to ignore the crying and start my shopping. At some point I guess he decided he was hungry enough because he eventually calmed down and ate it and returned to his normal happy self. Why the drama? I don't remember Clara being this obnoxious about doing things herself. Maybe she was and I've just blocked it.