Ballet West

My Emily just got a chance to dance on stage.  She is in Ballet West Academy which is affiliated with the company.  Every fall the company does this huge fundraiser and the academy gets to do one of the peices.  This year Emily was old enough to participate since she meets the insurance requirements.  Unfortunately, all the dances and costumes are copyrighted so I couldn't take pictures of the event itself.  However, I did take a picture of my girl on her big night.

There was a gourmet dessert buffet in the
lobby of the Capitol Theater after the show.

Beauty Ballerina

James and I took her out for Chinese afterward.

So Hip

Rachel has taken to wearing William's baseball caps backwards.  It is pretty funny because no one in our house really wears them at all and she insists that this is the correct way.

Veterans Day

On Veterans Day a couple of the young men from our ward stopped by to salute my wonderful husband and veteran.  They delivered this gift and it just touched my heart.

It says: Thank you for letting your light shine for our country. 

Such a Boy

William cracks me up!  One day his pants kept falling down and finally I just said to him, "Empty your pockets, boy!"  Handful after handful of rocks, peices of plastic, string, elastics, marbles and so on came out of those pockets.  He is such a boy!

 

Halloween!

Cowgirl Emily

Egyptian Princess Esther

(she made a point of saying she is NOT Cleopatra!)

Skeleton William

Pumpkin Rachel

(She didn't take a nap that afternoon and was a terrible crab.  Only the lollipop made her happy.)

Trick-or-treat is so much fun.  We were rained out pretty early but what a delight it is to dress up each year and have such a time!!

Work Party

James' work is so cool.  They are a great company to work for and are very family friendly.  This year they hosted a trick-or-treat where the employees' children went from door to door collecting goodies and then ended in the event room where there were tons of games with cool prizes.

It was very fun because they really went all out with decorations and those volunteering even dressed in costume.

One of the "games" in the event room was a spot to listen to Halloween stories.  They were worried no one would sit there.  They needn't have feared....my children hogged all the seats for a half hour demanding "Now that one!" until they had been through each one and I insisted it was time for games so other people could participate.  It was funny but oh so gratifying to know they have a true love of reading.

Ring the witch hat.

Go Fish

We were there for two hours even though poor James was scheduled to work during the party and couldn't even come down to join us.

Student of the Week

Esther was able to tell her class all about Esther.  Her poster has a picture of all of the things that make up who she is, then each is labeled with a title.  It lists Student, Gymnast, Sister, Naturalist, Girl Scout, Adventuress, and Patissier.  That last was Esther's favorite.  It is a chef who specialized in desserts.  My girl is already 7 years old!

Esther wanted a princess party for her birthday so we had a huge celebration at the church gym.  We started out making beaded crowns and each of the girls got a glamour make-over.  Then there was a surprise visit from......

Cinderella!!!

She came in and read her story to all the little girls.

After the story she sang songs from each of the Disney princesses.

Then she took some time to have a picture with every girl at the party.  The girls were in heaven!  Cinderella was so sweet and even sany Happy Birthday to Esther before she left.

Sabrina and I collaborated on this cake.  We took HOURS to get it done but it does look good if I do say so myself.

Esther has the sweetest friends and I am so pleased to see her happy.

Daddy Projects

The children got these craft projects from the Home Depot and were so excited to complete them with their dad.  Emily and William both made a helicopter and Esther has a little planter.



William was pretty good with a hammer for such a little guy.



               Esther hasn't decided what flower to put in her pot yet but she was                         terribly pleased with her results.

Emily is a very meticulous worker.



St. George and Kolob

The day after our Grand Canyon tour we headed back up to Utah.  We stopped for most of the day in St. George where James spent the bulk of his mission.  There we visited James' mission memories and made a few tourist stops.  This is the Jacob Hamblin home.  He lived here with his two wives and about 17 children.  Or rather, they lived here while he traveled.  This man is in the cowboy hall of fame for having logged the most hours in the saddle.  Still hasn't been topped!

St. George temple.  It is startling in its whiteness.  There is a cool story that goes with the steeple tower too.  Brigham Young did not like the original short tower that was about half the height of the current one.  The city decided to dedicate it with the short tower anyway and shortly after, Brigham Young died.  Exactly one year after Brother Brigham's visit to dedicate the temple lightning struck the tower and completely destroyed it.  There was no other damage done to the entire building.  The saints took it as a messeage from Brigham Young himself and rebuilt the new taller tower.  Pretty funny, huh?  Also, the temple is built of red brick and covered with a glittering white plaster.  The pictures of it being built are strange when you see what actually stands before you.  Oh yes, another interesting factoid:  this is the first temple finished and dedicated after the saints migrated to Utah.



As evening set in we headed north and ended our trip with a stop in Kolob Canyon.  We wanted to get there around sunset to see the red rock in its truest beauty.  Below are some of the pictures we took as we made stops.



My children became obsessed with the binoculars on this trip.  Unfortunately we had only one pair and it could have become ugly but my sweeties were pretty good at sharing.

This is Emily.  She was mesmerized by the cliffs.

I really want to hike down to visit this cave.  I looks perfect and maybe next year I'll head down to it.  Too close to sunset this year.

It was a wonderful fall trip.  I am a little sad that it will be months before we can have another like it.

The Grand Canyon



Next stop:  The Grand Canyon!  Though James is a world traveler he has never been to the Grand Canyon so we wanted to take this opportunity.  Instead of traveling an extra 3-4 hours to the popular south rim we journeyed to the north rim and

                                               had a wonderful time!                                                                       

Here are my beauties in Arizona.

Stunning views!

Some of the trails were terrifying.  Not for me, but James was constantly worried the kids would hurl themselves over the edge to their deaths.  They were a little too rowdy even for my taste, particularly considering there were no rails on this hike path.

Playing around with odd shapes I found in my camera lense.

There were a few cool almost caves on our path.  Luckily it was too shallow for them to actually hide from me. 

My girls.  I love how they are friends.

Esther has turned into such a ham!  Well, I shouldn't say "turned" she always was.

Here is Esther's dolphin peak.  We studied it for a while to see what James was pointing out but she finally got it.  See the tail fin and the snout?

This walkway actually had a rail so that we could walk out on the rock outcropping.  So cool!!

Here is a better idea of what that outcropping looked like.  It also gives an idea of how terrifying it was to have the kids walk without the rail on some of the other trails.

One of my favorite pictures from our trip.  The canyon was gorgeous!

Ducklings following their daddy.

When we finished sightseeing we joined with the park ranger for a talk on the American Condor.  It was actually very interesting.  William helped with the props.

William has no fear of crowds.  He thrives on it and had a great time with the condor.

View from the lodge terrace just before sunset.  It truly was an amazing sight.