School

 School started this week and it is lovely. 

 Even though the five of them came home with 2 hours worth of  forms for me to fill out (the same forms four times over...), it is a small price to pay for a quiet house and kid learning.

 Jeff says he is excited about the awesome things they will learn this year.  They will even get to dissect animals in science!  And learn about world wars and so forth in social studies!  Rad.

 Bug is excited to be in 6th grade (practically middle school!).  She even has a homeroom teacher!

 The 5th graders are even going to different teachers for different subjects!  Pickles is excited to be in almost middle school too.  She is pretty giddy.  And as I looked into her tear filled brown eyes this morning when Jeff took her bagel, all I could think was, 'She is so pretty.' 

 Alana gets to have the same teacher for third grade that she had for first grade.  Pretty awesome!  She is actually getting bigger, I promise.  She has been going gangbusters on reading every evening, Junie B. Jones totally has a Peep in her Pocket.

 Punkin Eater gets to go to preschool.  He goes to a different school than the big kids and as I drove him there the first day he said, "Are you going to take my picture and give me a hug and a kiss?"  He is all for fair treatment.

He is still getting used to having a school career.  He is bummed that he isn't as big as cousins Zeke and Afton who are kindergartners this year.  But his chin goes up when I remind him that he is bigger than Stone and Yubsie.  And he always will be.

Next year they will all five be at the same school for one year until Jeffey heads off to be a high schooler!

Aack.

I had to...

The award winning photographer, Arnon Livingstone, gave me a disk of the pics she took on our trip to Canada.  It is so very handy to have had a fabulous picture taker on our vacation.  So here are some of my favorites.  Above is Alana at Waterton Lake.

 

We took this one because when Phil first saw the bee boxes in the fields he said, "Why did someone leave their legos in the field?".  So we thought a photo would be cool, unfortunately as you can see by the kid's faces, being in close proximity to a million bees was not a happy thing for them, they were all mad as hornets about being made to pose for a photo in front of bees, and it amuses me. 

They were very good sports about rubbing gravestones and did a really great job.  They made some beautiful rubbings and had a great time doing it.

 

This is from the family history treasure hunt.  They were looking for Great Great Great Grandpa Will Redd at the library and found him.  Peter's eyes are excited!

This was taken during a long family history day.  I just love their faces, they did great.  And I think they secretly liked most of the day.

 Here is Grandpa B telling us a story about when he was a young boy at this very school and the scrapes and fights and adventures he had.  He had great stories and the kids liked them a lot.

 

  

This was taken shortly after the above pics, I LOVE this picture.  Note Alana's face, and Grandpa's face.  An ant crawled on her foot.   We learned that Canada ants don't bite, unlike their mean AZ cousins.

 I climbed down from the path to get the video of Leah falling in the river at Red Rock Canyon. 

 

 

 

 

 At the squirty water park with Brad and Kirsti, the kids had a great time soaking Uncle Brad.

  

Lots of pretty grassy steep hills to hike up.

Happy campers.