Swimming Lessons

We spent our first two weeks of summer break doing swimming lessons.  It was the only time we will have two weeks available this summer to do them.  It was hard to get there every morning but now that they are done I'm so glad we did them first.  The kids are ready to swim for the rest of the summer.  They all did a great job.  Ashlyn is a little fish.  She is under the water more than above it for the whole lesson.  Liam has conquered many of his swimming fears and actually does a decent backstroke.  We are still working on getting him to jump in the deep, but I am not concerned about that as long as he can swim.  Gavin probably has made the biggest improvement of all of them.  He does a great job with all the swim strokes he has learned.  Hopefully we can go swimming enough the rest of the summer to keep there new skills in tact.

Dinosaurland

We spent out first weekend of summer visiting Vernal Utah to see the Dinosaurs.  Since our trip to Yellowstone last year with my family, my mom has been planning another vacation for all of us to be together.  We got to Vernal Thursday evening and stayed until Saturday afternoon.  It was just enough time to see the Dinosaur bones and do a little hiking.  The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold.  If it had just been our little family we probably would have spent more time hiking, but it is just not a reality with 20+ people and little kids.  We all took a bunch of pictures so I tried to just grab the highlights.  (but there are still plenty of pictures)  We also spent time swimming in the hotel pool and playing at a nearby park that was huge! We also made a quick stop at the Vernal Temple.  It was beautiful! We had a fun vacation with our family and can't wait to spend a week at Bear Lake with them soon!!

Forgotten Pictures

 It is really hard to keep track of all our pictures.  We have two cameras, plus our iPhones.  I try to gather all the pictures before I post, but I always end up forgetting some.  Here are a few more pictures from my phone from the last day of school.  We went to Cafe Rio for lunch and then the kids spend the afternoon getting wet in our back yard. 

Last day of school celebration picture!!

Last Day of School

It is hard to believe that another year of school is over.  We are very ready for a break.  I love having the kids home during the summer and enjoy doing fun stuff with them.  Gavin and Liam both had great teachers this year.  They both learned so much and improved their Spanish speaking skills.  Here are some pictures of the boys with their teachers on the last day of school.  Hooray for Summer!!

 Liam with his homeroom/Spanish/Math teacher Ms. Veronica

 Liam with his English/Science teacher Mrs. Powell.  (Gavin also had both of these teachers in first grade.  Sadly, Mrs. Powell is leaving our school.  So glad both my boys got to have her.)

 Gavin with his homeroom/Spanish/Math teacher Ms. Ramirez.  (she is due to have a baby in a month or so)

Gavin's English/Science/History teacher Miss Larson.

It was a great year.  Now onto 4th and 2nd grade!!

WWII Personal History Essay

Gavin's teachers were bound to make them work right up to the second to last day of school by giving them a project to work on for most of May.  His class finished reading "Number of the Stars" and were having discussions about the WWII time period.  The assignment was given to interview someone who lived during that time and then write a personal history essay from the interview.  Finally, they had to make a poster and give a presentation on their work (the second to last day of school!)   Gavin interviewed his Great Grandpa Andersen who was a B17 Bomber pilot during WWII.  Great-Grandpa Andersen flew many missions over Germany during the war.  Gavin is fascinated by it all and had a great time putting together his essay and poster.  I think he also gained a greater appreciation for his great heritage.  He is very proud of his Great-Grandpa!!

Field Day

The boys had field day on June 3rd.  I initially signed Nate up to go help with Liam's class, but he ended up having too much work conference calls that day so I went in his place.  Lucky for us it was only in the high 70's that day so we didn't die from the heat.  I think the kids all had fun even though it is a LONG day.  I tried to get a few pictures of Liam and Gavin during the field day activities. The pictures are from my phone so they are not great. 

First of all, is a picture of Ashlyn with all her bling.  My mom has a "treasure box" full of old jewelry that Ashlyn loves to play with.  She put on every necklace and bracelet.  :)

The next few pictures are of Liam and his best school buddy Ezra at field day.  They are such good friends.  

I was only able to grab a couple pictures of Gavin with his friends during field day.  Here they are.

Memorial Day

We had our traditional Memorial Day with my Mom's side of the family.  We all met at the Clearfield Cemetery to put flowers on those that have gone before us.  It is always nice to see my relatives on that side of the family.  It is about the only time I see them each year.  Nate grabbed some pictures of our time at the cemetery.  We went to a park after and had KFC. (another Memorial Day tradition).  The kids had fun playing on the play-set and playing baseball.  After the park all my family came back to our house to hang out and visit for a few more hours.  I love spending time with my family!

 The whole group at the cemetery.

 Superman

 Cheese!

 Love my boys! We failed to get a picture of Nate and the boys all in their Superman shirts. :(

My oldest niece Emma and Nephew Colin.

My goofy nephew David.