First Day of School

The kids are off to a good start already!  They weren't thrilled that school was starting again so soon, but they are glad to be with their friends.  Daniel is at a new school this year for their accelerated program and he was pretty nervous, but he had a great first week and loves his new school! 

 



Nathaniel, Senior

Emily, Freshman

Andrew, 6th grade

Daniel, 5th grade

Jonathan, 3rd grade

This is the first year in a while that they've all been up at the same time on the first day of school.  Neither Nathaniel nor Emily needed a zero hour this year, so they can sleep in a bit more.

My high schoolers--off they go!

Bye Bye, Summer!

Well, our summer has flown by!  After all of our travels, we have spent the last month trying to have fun while also getting ready for school.  Here are some of the highlights:

 

 



Visiting Daddy at his office

Haircuts!

Jonny's brain freeze

We made a Jello flag mold for the 4th of July.  It didn't turn out right because the bottom layer bled into the middle, but it still tasted delicious!

Entertaining themselves when they're not allowed on screens

We didn't have time for individual mommy-kid dates this year, so we all went to lunch, bowling, mini golf, and Sweet Tooth Fairy together.

He had the bumpers up, but still managed to get a gutter ball

Andrew and Mom tied for first place

Yum!

Michael's birthday

Chick-Fil-A Cow Appreciation Day
Only Daniel and Jonny came with me this year.  Emily had a party to go to, so she and Nathaniel went earlier in the day.  They had to wait in a very long line.  We went at 2:30pm--no line for us!  Andrew was at a friend's house and didn't want to join us.

Daniel did Swim Team this year.  He improved so much over the season!!

Senior Year preparations
First--Senior pictures!

This year, the high school assigned parking spaces--look how close he is!  He got a great spot!

Senior Tee Shirt! 
Class of 2018

Nathaniel also got his wisdom teeth out.  I didn't take pictures.  It all went well and he healed quickly.

First day of school tomorrow!

Trade Show in Las Vegas

After our Yellowstone trip, we unpacked and then Michael and I had to re-pack for our trip to Las Vegas.  I love going to trade shows with him, and this time we went to Las Vegas and stayed at the Palazzo. 

Our room was amazing!

The trade show went really well!

There is so much to see and do, even when we just walked around the hotel!  I wanted to do the gondola ride, but the line was always so long.  This picture was taken indoors!

We had a great time the last night going to see Donnie and Marie!  Michael wasn't thrilled about going to the show, but afterwards he admitted he was pleasantly surprised.

 

Yellowstone Part 5

On Friday, we slept in a bit and left the hotel by 9:30am.  We had breakfast at McDonald’s in Rexburg.  It was pretty nice and they delivered the food to our table.  We got to BYU-Idaho at 10:30am.  We were a little early for our 11:00am tour.  They gave all the kids little presents so that was nice.  Our tour guide was Whitney Boyle.  We loved the campus!  I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was very impressed. 

Administration building

This is part of their garden, where they have some really nice places for students to study

The conference center they have for devotionals was especially impressive, and it was attached to an amazing athletic facility with 12 basketball courts and an indoor track. 

After the tour Dad and Michael got cheesecake (only $.99 on Fridays!) and the kids and I went to the cookie dough stand put on by some of the business students.  It was good, but none of us could finish it.  All the kids want to go to BYU-Idaho now! 

We left Rexburg and headed to Yellowstone Bear World.  There were no more spots to bottle-feed the bear cubs, but it ended up being so much fun anyway. 

We watched the bottle feeding and the people only got a few minutes with the cubs.  At $55 each it didn’t seem worth it.  Instead, we took the curator tour and fed the big bears.  We all loved it!!!  Some of the bears even came right up to the side begging for their treats.  We also had a great time at their petting zoo, and the kids went on some of the rides.  Andrew said Bear World and horseback riding were his favorite parts of the vacation.  Daniel just said, “Yellowstone,” was his favorite part. 

Bear cubs

Random strangers who paid $55 each to bottle feed the cubs for about 5 minutes

Jonny loved the chicken coop at the petting zoo

This sweet deer let us all pet her (him?)

Daniel chasing a fat chicken

Daniel and Jonny

Curator Tour

Begging for food!

 

 

Rides

 

Back to the petting zoo

The pig would let you pet it, but not on the head!!

This was the best petting zoo I've ever been to

Bear cubs again

Bye Yellowstone Bear World! 

We left Bear World around 4:00pm.  There was actually quite a bit of traffic, so we didn’t make it to Pocotello until 6:00pm.  We had dinner at the Sizzler again and then got to the hotel around 9:30pm.  Dad had his own room and we had two adjoining rooms so it was perfect for us.  We said our goodbyes to Dad and went to bed as early as we could so we would be rested for our long drive on Saturday.

The only bad part of the trip--saying "goodbye" to Papa

On Saturday, we got up around 6:00am, had breakfast, packed the car, and got on the road by about 8:30am.  Michael did most of the driving, but I did some.  We got to the Grand Canyon North Rim around 4:00pm.  We took the Bright Angel Trail and the view was wonderful! 

We had asked Nathaniel not to climb on the big rock but he did it anyway.  We had quite a talk about that, obviously. 

Walking back up the steep trail was tough, but we made it.  We saw these bison as we were leaving the Grand Canyon.  We hadn't seen one with a calf (is that the right term?) yet. 

Some other cars had stopped to watch and get out and take pictures.  You can't see it in this picture but this one had his tail up, which we had learned meant they were getting mad, so we got out of there. 

We stopped for dinner at Wendy’s in Flagstaff and made it home by 11:50pm.  I was so grateful that all was well with the house and the a/c worked! 

I already mentioned the kids' favorite parts, but here are the favorites for the adults:
Michael:  Horseback riding and river rafting, and also the fact that there was so much variety to our trip--we did so many different cool things!
Christine: I loved being with my family and my dad, and I also loved the Grand Prismatic Spring, horseback riding, and feeding the bears!
Dad (Papa): Being with us! 

In total, we drove 3042 miles!!  Thanks for taking us on this great vacation, Papa!!