The Reason For My Joy . . .

The Reason For My Joy . . .

Thursday, December 13, 2012

First Day of School

 I'm quite a bit behind on my posts, but here are the kids on their first day of school.  Looking pretty good!

 Waiting for the bus.
 Getting on the bus.
 I always let the kids ride the bus on the first day and then I meet them down at the school to take their picture and make sure they made it to their classroom okay.  By the time I got to Alexa's classroom, her teacher had already started talking and I didn't want to embarrass her by taking her picture, so I just got Landon.
 Andie is in Kindergarten this year and she goes in the afternoon,  so she got her pictures later on that day.
 Rylan's not in school, but he was feeling left out.
My big Kindergartener!

Splash Park

 Right before school started, I took the kids to the Splash park in Rexburg for one last bit of summer fun.  The kids rode the carousel, played in the water, and had a really good time.  You can tell by Andrea's face that she is enjoying the carousel ride!


Trying to warm up on the cement.

My Cute Baby!

 Lyndie looked so adorable in this hat that I had to post these cute pictures.  She is such a joy to me!

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Summer 4-H

 Alexa and Landon were involved in several 4-H groups this summer that kept them pretty busy.  Both of them did woodworking, microwave cooking, and biking.  Alexa also did crocheting, art, embroidery, and dairy.  Here's Alexa with her first place, judges pick ribbon at the county fair for her woodworking flower box that she made.  This qualified her to enter her box at the state fair where she also placed with an Outstanding award.
 Here's Landon with his microwave cupcake that he entered in the fair.  Because he was just a Clover Bud, he only received participation ribbons.  Next year, however, he can get first, second, and third ribbons.
 First place on the pencil drawing Alexa entered!
 Both Landon and Alexa entered their school science fair project in our county fair and both placed second.
 Here's Alexa with her calf, "Pumpkin Pie" getting ready to show her calf in front of the judges.  This whole dairy thing was very new to me.  I know nothing about cows so it was very interesting for me to learn along with Alexa.  The process of showing a calf is actually pretty difficult.  They have to maneuver the calf around in certain patterns that the judge tells them and the calf even has to have his legs in a certain position when he stops.  This is very difficult considering how stubborn cows can be!
 Here's Alexa showing her calf.  I thought she did really well for her first year, but only received a red ribbon.  Hopefully next year she'll get a blue ribbon.

The Trip Home

 We took the trip home from the coast in two days rather than three, so it made for a very long trip that first day.  We did stop to take one last shot of the ocean.  Good-bye ocean!  We sure had a blast on your beaches!

 We also stopped to stretch our legs and feed Lyndie at Multnomah Falls.  We took the time to hike up to the falls.  It was beautiful.
Here are the kids on the hike up to see the falls.  It was so green and beautiful.  Everything was damp.  Moss grew on everything and vines were everywhere.  It felt like we were in the rainforest.

Monday, November 19, 2012

More of Our Oregon Coast Trip

 Our beach house was on Newport Beach but we took a day trip to Cannon Beach to see the tide pools.  Here are some pictures of the kids exploring the pools and playing in the Ocean.







 We also went to the Tillamook Cheese Factory while in Oregon.  Here's Farmer Alexa and Andrea Cow.
 Here's Farmer Landon with Grandpa cow.
 Riding in the Tillamook Cheese bus with cousins Katja and Jenner.
 One of the kids' favorite parts of our trip was the Newport Bay Aquarium
 In the Jaws of a shark!
 
 It was neat to be this close to a stingray.
 You could even look through the floor to see sharks and rays swimming underneath you.
 
 Touching the coral.
 Here's Landon driving the ship in the children's play area.
 Andrea caught a fish!
 Quite the fisher-woman.
 Here's Rylan in the beaver lodge.
 Lyndie loved the aquarium too!
 Digging for seashells.
 My beautiful girls by the seals.
 Waving at the sea otters.