Walk-a-thon

Every year, the first Saturday in October, our grade school has a HUGE walk-a-thon fundraising event.  The kids really get excited about it.  They have cards that get punched for each lap (3 laps = 1 mile) and they always have a goal of how many laps they want to do that year.  Last year, Hannah did 10 miles and Emily did 6.  This year they wanted to do better than that and they did!  Hannah ended up doing 14 miles and Emily did 10!  You go, girls!  Of course they took breaks for face painting, the bake sale, eating lunch, checking out the raffle prizes, etc.  It was a fun and beautiful day.  Even Andrew had a blast getting in on the action.

Hannah with friends before the Walk-a-thon started

On your mark, get set, go!

Girls on the run!

Andrew and Daddy getting in their laps

Can't see it really, but Hannah lost a tooth while walking and eating pretzels.  We kept the tooth in the cup for the rest of the lap till we could find a baggie for it!  It was a bottom incisor, I think.

Kids with Mrs. Jung (Emily's teacher)

Family photo op

Grandmas

We love grandmas.  Here are some fun shots of the kids with their grandmas when they were each here in August.  Wish we could see them more often!

All three kids with Grandma Parent

Grandma Waldron with kids before church

Grandma Waldron playing "duck, duck, goose" outside with kids

First day of school

Hannah started 3rd grade this year and Emily started 1st grade.  They were so excited to start school.  We didn't find out till the day before who their teachers were.  We were SO excited to find out that Emily got the same teacher Hannah had in 1st grade because we absolutely LOVE her!  Hannah got a teacher who's fairly new to the school and has turned out to be pretty good.  They were both happy.  Andrew started his 3-year-old pre-school class the next week.  He goes Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  Here are some photos of all of them on their first day.

At home right before their first day

Hannah waiting outside her classroom before school

Emily with Mrs. Jung and another boy

Cheeseball Andrew who wouldn't smile normally for me!

Hannah's Baptism

Hannah was baptized on August 21st along with another little boy in our ward, Max.  Her grandmas and grandpas came out for the occasion and she had been counting down the days for so long.  She was VERY excited.  It was a special day and the room was packed with friends, family, and ward members.  Max's dad put together a video to music of tons of pictures of Hannah and Max from the time they were born until now.  That was really fun to watch.  It took hours and hours to go back through all the pictures, but brought back a lot of memories.  Hannah is getting so big and is such a good girl.  She wants to do what's right and she's a good friend and good big sister.  Here are a few pictures.

We're proud of you, Hannah! 

Birthday Parties

Hannah turned 8 while we were in Utah over the summer, so when we got back, we had her birthday party.  She decided she wanted to have a Webkinz party, so that was the theme.  We had a lot of fun games and prizes all relating to the whole world of Webkinz.  There were 12 girls there and I think they all had a lot of fun.  The best part was that my awesome friend, Sara, who is a rock star at decorating cakes, took Hannah's Webkinz manatee and made a cake to look just like it.  It was a huge hit and an amazing work of art!  Here are some pictures.

Fast forward two weeks later, different set of 12 girls (was I crazy?!) and a tea party for 6-year-olds.  I spent so much time looking for perfect plastic tea cups for Emily's party along with some other specific accessories and just couldn't find them.  The kids didn't care, though.  We did some simple crafts, had the girls get the pictures taken in their fancy clothes, ate fancy tea party food, and played a game or two.  They had a great time and I was totally RELIEVED when it was over.  I told the girls in a moment of frustration that I was never throwing them another birthday party again!  Well, we'll see, but for sure we'll keep it more simple with fewer kids and maybe even go out somewhere so I don't have to do all the work!  :)

Yes, I made the teapot cake.  It was actually really easy and fun to do.

The guests, ready for their tea party to start.

Andrew wanting to get in on the dress-up fun.  Love the Belle / clown / Dr. theme.

And last but not least, Emily getting breakfast in bed the next day on her actual birthday.

Summer Vacation - Week 2

So now for Part 2 of our summer vacation ....... Southern Utah.  We went to Zion's Canyon one day and Bryce the next day.  They were so amazing!  We didn't do much hiking at Zion's, but did more at Bryce.  I went part way down on one big hike at Bryce, but then came back up and let Ruel and the kids go the rest of the way while I waited.  This first picture is at Weeping Rock at Zion's and the others are all Bryce.

Don't know who the other two girls are in this picture, but the whole pose reminds me of the AT&T "more bars" commercials! 

We had a great time on that part of the trip!  The kids were exhausted after all the walking, but they enjoyed it, too.  They also had so much fun staying with their cousins in St. George.  We got a picture of the whole gang together.  This is Vern and Lisa's family (Ruel's brother).

The last few days of the trip were spent in Pine Valley (mountains near St. George) at our Gardner Family Reunion which is held every other year.  Our whole entire family was there except for my sister Karen's husband.  Cousins, cousins, and more cousins!  Here are some highlights:

Pinata time  - Emily's turn........Andrew trying to get in on the action; Ruel raising and lowering the pinata and a boatload of kids anxiously waiting for candy!

Hay ride!  Hooray!

All the girls (plus Andrew, not to be left out) showing off the French braids that Aunt Rebecca did for them.  They love having Aunt Rebecca do their hair!

Family photo

Hannah had her 8th birthday while we were there at the reunion, so we got to celebrate with family.  Check out those big eyes looking at that huge chocolate cake!  She is a chocoholic! 

Hannah and me on her birthday

Andrew with sweet little cousin, Baby Ellie

It will be hard to top this trip for a long time.  We fit a lot into those two weeks and saw almost everyone in both our families.  More to come soon on the rest of the summer (birthdays, back to school, etc.).  And yes, I am trying to get this all done soon because my due date is Oct. 27th.  Two more weeks!  I'm sure I'll want to post a lot of things about the baby when she's born, so I've got to be caught up by then! 

Summer Vacation - Week 1

I am so many months behind in blogging, but need to catch up before this baby gets here, so I'm going back to our summer vacation in July. We were gone for two weeks on a long road trip and had a great time seeing some new sights and seeing lots and lots of family. We started off at Lake Shasta in California and did some kayaking there the first day which everyone enjoyed. I don't have a picture of that because I didn't want to take the camera out on the water. Here's a picture of me and the kids relaxing in the hammock at the motel that evening, though.

The next day we drove to Crater Lake in Oregon which was absolutely, positively breathtaking. It had the bluest water I have ever seen...... and snow in July, which, of course, the kids loved!

We stayed in Sisters, Oregon, that night and the next day went to an awesome cave nearby that is a mile long and goes under the highway. It's very dark and cold, so we had to wear jackets and carry a lantern. Towards the end, you had to crawl, which got a little tricky, especially for Ruel since he had Andrew in the backpack. It was really fun, though.

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We also went horseback riding (the girls and I did) and had a little lesson for an hour. For some reason, there aren't any pictures of us doing that, but we have one of the girls in their gear and Andrew posing on one of the horses afterwards

Once we left Oregon, we headed for Utah and got together with some of Ruel's family in Provo. The kids had a blast hanging out with their cousins, having a sleepover, going bowling, and playing with little Dylan. Here are the cousins together one night at Aunt Kari's house.

After a few days there, we made our way down to St. George with one stop along the way at Cove Fort. We enjoyed learning about the pioneers who came there to live or visit and finding out how they used to do things back then.

Stay tuned for the 2nd week of our trip.............