Halloween 2009

1st day of school 2009

Austin started JR. High this year, and I have yet to capture his picture, but I am determined that I will. He is such a great kid! He had no reservations whatsoever starting JR. High. He remains a kind and sweet boy, and I don't think I am just a Mom speaking here.

So, this is Austin the 2nd week of school. It was difficult for him to look happy at 6:45 in the AM.

Abby started 3rd grade this year. She is an excellent student and takes school seriously. Sometimes we think she needs to relax a bit, but she has excelled in practically everything she does, because of her serious nature.

Lydia started the 2nd grade this year. She was excited to go, but was/is a little disappointed with how easy the work is that she has been given. Hopefully they are just reviewing for a short time and will get into harder stuff soon. She is such a fun and playful girl!

Zach started kindergarten the week following the other kids. He was very excited to go. He has surprised me with the knowledge he has, because he has refused to learn for me. Come to find out he did know most of his letters and numbers. His teacher told Abby on the second day of school that he was a really good student, and I have not received any complaint calls from the school, which I was worried about.

We are lucky enough to have breakfast offered at our school. The kids enjoyed eating their breakfast with their cousins Jensyn and Berlyn who attend the same school this year.

The first day of school was also a bitter-sweet day for us. We found out that the baby Natalie had carried for 14 weeks no longer had a heartbeat. On August 25th, which was Isabella's due date, Natalie had a D&C. The recovery has been much easier this time around, although emotionally it is still hard, but with the Lord's help we will get through this too.

This is the 12 week sonogram, everything looked good at that point.

The Cruise

We boarded the Carnival Cruise ship on Monday about one o'clock in the afternoon. Lunch was already being served, so we ate at the buffet, where there was more food than you can imagine!

The kids couldn't wait to swim!

This is one of the many hot tubs on the ship. Right next to it is one of the pools.

Zach is drying off from his swim.

The kids second favorite thing to do was the miniature golf located on one of the decks.

Zach is getting a good look at where he needs to hit the ball.

Abby is tumbling on the golf course. She liked to impress the other people on the ship with her tumbling skills. She was flipping all over the place and was dissappointed when she was told she couldn't do tumbling in the talent show, because of the liability.

Austin was either on the golf course, or shooting hoops. He won a free throw contest and they awarded him a medal for it.

Jude is soaking up the sun. Can you say "farmer tan!"

Abby sitting on the banana at the Habana Cabana t-shirt shop in Ensanada, Mexico.

We heard some seals while we were walking by the shore in Ensanada, and sure enough we ran into a bunch of them hanging out by the shore.

The Mexican flag in the background was huge! It was cool to wake up to see the flag and realize we were in Mexico.

One of the Ensanada shops is in the background.

Lydia standing on the track that goes around one of the decks.

Zach turned into a chipmunk at the kid's camp. Lydia and Zach had a lot of fun during the times they spent at the camp. There were always fun things going on there, like coloring t-shirts, building volcanoes, making hats, singing and dancing. It was nice to have a place where they could go, so the grownups could have alone time.

Zach is sitting in the window sill in our cabin. Catalina Island is in the background.

We got off the ship on Friday around eleven in the morning. We drove straight home from there and arrived home at one o'clock in the morning.

Traveling

We were able to stop in Nevada to visit Natalie's cousins Kim and Shannon. The kids enjoyed swimming in Shannon's backyard pool. We didn't get any pictures of this, though, darn it.

On our way from Las Vegas to Long Beach we stopped at a cute little 50's diner, where they had ponds and dinosaurs in the back.

There was also a cute gift shop with all kinds of 50's memorabillia. We had fun trying on hats!

Cedar City Utah Summer Games

We arrived at Abbey Inn on Thursday night. Abby's competition was not until Saturday, so we were able to relax and have fun all day on Friday.

We actually spent 2 hours at McDonalds just letting the kids play.

This is what Abby looks like when she doesn't get what she wants. She wanted to go swim at the hotel, but we told her we needed to do a couple things first.

Abbey competed Saturday at the Summer games in tumbling, both on the floor and what they call a double mini, which is a trampoline they tumble onto and off of.

She placed first on the floor and fourth on the double mini. She got to stand on the podium 2 times and received 2 medals. We are really proud of her.

We are going on a CRUISE!!

We are so excited to be going on a cruise! We had initially planned on going to Disneyland, but after some research, we found that a short cruise to Mexico will be much cheaper. We will be leaving from Long Beach, CA on June 15th. We will dock at Catalina Island on June 16th, then we cruise to Mexico, but we do not dock there. We return to Long Beach on June 19th.

The Kids are very excited about the water slide on board the ship!

This is the miniature golf course on the ship.

This is the atrium on the ship.