First Day of School

Another school year has begun!  Ethan is starting 2nd grade and has been nervous about starting school this year. He was so worried that he would get a mean teacher or get in trouble, which is silly because he's never been in trouble at school before! Porter on the other hand was excited for his first day of first grade.

Porter settled in at his desk fine. I think he was more bothered that I was trying to take his picture.

Once Ethan got to his classroom and saw some familiar faces from last year he seemed to feel better. We thought this was his desk, but after taking his picture realized it said "Ethan G."  Oh well.

They both had a good day, and we celebrated with our annual first day of school ice cream.

Celebrating Gavin

My Brother Bryan and sister-in-law Reanna are expecting their first baby. We are all so excited! Reanna's mom and I are in the same ward, so we teamed up to throw her a shower. Rob volunteered me to make her cake. I think he figured that I'd been making cakes for the boys birthdays for so long that this wouldn't be a big deal. I've always loved making fun cakes for the boys birthdays, but it's pretty easy to impress a 6 year old! Making a nice cake for adults was a little scary. I challenged myself a bit and tried using fondant for the first time. There was a LOT of trial and error, but I think it turned out pretty cute. And it was all worth it for my new nephew!

We can't wait to meet the little guy!

Utah Trip, Days 6&7

Friday we drove to St George. We stopped at Zion National Park on the way. I love this place, it is so beautiful! We decided on the emerald pools hike.

The boys loved every minute of it! They wanted to stop at every big rock they found to climb on.

They also had to stop at these holes in the rocks. They said that they looked like giant ears. :)

When we got to the lower pools, we all wanted to get under the falling water to cool off.

The hike to the lower pool was pretty easy. The rest of the way to the middle and upper pool, was pretty rough. We were pretty proud of ourselves for making it to the top with all our little ones. 

Ethan and Porter liked throwing big rocks in the water for a big splash.

The way back down was so much easier!

While we were waiting for the tram to pick us up. It started raining lightly and we heard a ton of thunder. We hopped on the tram and settle in for the ride out of the park. 

The warning sign on the tram in front of us became very appropriate...

Because it started POURING! It was pretty crazy. I was so glad we were on the tram on not still on the trail. It could have been very scary! But since we were on the tram, it was pretty neat to see all the waterfalls that had formed that weren't there when we drove in.

The tram dropped us off and it was still pouring rain. We waited under a covered area for a while waiting for it to let up, but we decided to just make a run for it. So we ran all the way to the parking lot. There was another covered area that we waited under while Rob and Ethan ran to get the car for us. We were pretty soaked by then.

It was actually pretty fun. While we were running through the rain I heard one of the boys shout,

"BEST DAY EVER!!!"

As we drove in to St. George the sky was gorgeous. The sunshine kept sneaking in through the clouds. Porter said, "It looks like angels are coming down!" I love that kid.

We stayed at my grandma's house that night. It was so nice to visit with her. Rob took Ethan and Porter tubing down the Virgin River Saturday morning, so my cousin Laurel brought her two boys (who are the same age as my two youngest) over for a play date. While Grandma, Laurel, and I got to visit, Lincoln and Madden made fast friends. 

They were pretty cute together.

Once the big boys were back, we packed up our stuff and headed home. It was a great trip!

Utah Trip, Day 5

Thursday we went to Heritage Park. It's a fun place that has an entire western town set up. You can roam around the town and see what it was like when Utah was settled. Everyone that works there is in period clothing and they have activities you can do and you can visit different shops where they have real working blacksmiths and printing presses and things like that. 

The boys liked the petting zoo. First Porter got to see what it was like to milk a (fake) cow...

...while Ethan just wanted to pick it's nose. (Why are boys fascinated with nose picking?!)

Then they got to ride horses for the first time, which they loved.

Then we got to pet all the animals. They had goats, pigs, sheep,chickens, and even big turkeys roaming around.

At one point the sheep found the newspaper we had gotten at the printing press in the stroller and started helping themselves to it. That was pretty funny... 

...until they started trying to eat everything else in the stroller! 

  Then they started biting at the straps on the stroller, and that's when I lost it a bit! Bryson was still strapped in and I was worried they were going to bite him, trying to get the straps. So, while I am frantically trying to get them away Rob and the boys are laughing hysterically at me! After we finally got them away, the boys declared that that incident was the best part of the trip. Silly boys!

We took the boys to the school house for a lesson. 

The teacher even showed them how the kids were disciplined back then. Ethan had to hold some books lifted behind his back. He said it was really hard. 

It was really hot that day so we got the boys some cold treats. The boys chose some slushies... 

...while Rob and I went for the ice cream. They had a "play-doh" flavor, that I had to try. It was a fruity ice cream, but they named it that for the way it looks.The boys thought I was crazy for getting it!

But at least I didn't have to share! :)

Bryson was such a good boy all day in the stroller.

One of the houses there had a miniature horse roaming around the yard. It was so tiny!

Another activity the boys liked was the house with the old games. They learned how to play pick up sticks.

As we were walking over to be picked up by the train, we noticed this guy hanging out at the corner. He looked like he was up to no good. After he held us up, he held up the train too!

Then we took the train over to a place where we could pan for gold...

...and take a mini train ride.

It was such a fun day, and a really neat place to visit.

Utah Trip, Days 3&4

Tuesday we had reservations to stay in Bountiful, so on our way there we stopped in Murray to see Rob's uncle Ron. We hadn't seen him for many years, and had a great visit with him. Rob had told the boys that Ron used to show him magic tricks when he was a kid. While we were there, Ethan asked him to show him a trick. Ron left the room and came back with a wooden box and told Ethan to open it. When he pulled the door open a big rubber spider came out with it. Ethan jumped back and let out a pretty good yell. It was awesome.

After our visit, we went over to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. There are around 500 bison on the island. We saw a huge group of them on our way over to the ranch.

The ranch was really neat. There was an area where you could practice roping some cattle. All Rob roped was Ethan, and he didn't think it was very funny!

They also had a lot of old ranching tools on display. Rob grabbed a giant pair of pliers and jokingly told Porter to stick out his tongue, and he actually did, crazy kid!!

On our way off the island, we stopped at an artistic display of a buffalo. When the kids realized they couldn't climb on it they thought they should pick its nose instead. The joy of boys, right?!

We met up with Rob's great uncle Dennis for dinner. We hadn't seen him in a very long time either. After dinner we went back to hang out at his house. The boys loved calling him "Gruncle Dennis" and bonded with him right away. He still had the same games for the kids to play with that Rob remembered from when he was young. He even gave the boys a bag of marbles to take home. I tried to get a nice picture of the boys with Dennis, but soon remembered that I was a mom of all boys and that it's near impossible to get them all smiling at once. Sometimes boys just need to make funny faces!

Wednesday we drove over to temple square.

We toured the beehive house, and saw the Joseph Smith movie at the Joseph Smith memorial building. We spent some time letting the boys explore the grounds. Porter was facinated by all the fountains and water features.

 Ethan stole Rob's hat and looked pretty cute in it.

We got to tour the conference center too. A sweet lady took us around showing all kinds of cool stuff. We got to a room with busts of all the prophets. I figured I should get a picture of my "Snow" boys with their ancestor, Lorenzo Snow.

After the tour we grabbed some dinner and went back to the hotel to swim to finish off the night.