Motorcycle

While at Bicknell Ben and Parker got to talking about Parker's Motorcycle. He has been trying to sell it and hasn't had any bitters. Ben got so excited about it. So Ben pulled me aside, we talked about it and decided that he would jump on the offer.

Ben and I have talked about it many times, when we would get a different motorcycle for him. He has loved his Dad's motorcycle, but it wasn't his, and he wanted something of his own. 

It was a good deal and it was a lot of what Ben was looking for in a motorcycle. 

Ben couldn't wait to go pick it up.

Drive Home

Every good thing must come to an end. Sadly after a short few hours, it was time to head home. The ride home brought again some really pretty things to look at. 

One of which the sun was breaking through the clouds after the rain had finally stopped. 

Boulder Mountain

After Capital Reef, we went to Boulder Mountain. It was pretty cool to see the scenery change. Capital Reef was all about the rocks and Boulder Mountain was all about the trees. 

It was just as beautiful at the rocks. Even better the storm started to roll in and the clouds were amazing of the mountains and trees. 

One of the best scenes were some fall colored trees surrounded by a whole bunch of pines. It was beautiful. I know it seems that I use that word a lot, but it really was just beautiful.

The drive down was just as nice as the drive up. The rain made it even that much better.

Capital Reef National Park

While visiting with everyone at the cabin, we decided to do some sight seeing. We first started at Capital Reef National Park. They had some beautiful rock structures. It was just amazing. Sadly the kids didn't get to enjoy it. They fell asleep in the car, but it was a quiet peaceful sight seeing adventure. 

While driving around the rain was on and off and I was able to capture some cool pictures with the rain.

In the mixed of out sight seeing, we were able to stop and look at the pictographs too. It was fun to watch the kids try to find the different drawings in the rocks. We never had the heart to tell the kids whether or not they found a real pictograph. Then again, it was hard to tell either way.

It was just a beautiful place. Lots of things to see.

Cabin fun

After our walk, since it was raining, we had to spend the remainder of the time in the cabin. The kids pulled out games and toys and had a lot of fun playing with their cousins. 

We just sat around and visited. It was pretty cool to talk to and get to know more of Parker's family. They shared some pretty cool stories of their family and the land that it was one. It was a lot of fun and when it wasn't raining we were outside enjoying nature.

Lighting Storm

Here's a few of the pictures that we were able to take during the storm. It was harder to catch a picture then I thought it would. It seemed like we tried forever. Better luck next time.

Bicknell

Beth and Parker invited us to spend the weekend at Parker's families cabin. It's down in Bicknell near the Capital Reef Nation Park. 

So we planned for a fun weekend. Well, over nighter. Both Ben and I had to teach classes on Sunday, so we could only stay one night. 

Ben got off of work, I went and oicked up Gabbi from school, and then we headed down south. It was a 4 hour or so ride, with our wrong detour it was closer to 5 hours. We didn't get to the cabin til 9:30ish. It wasn't a bad ride, just long with the kids. 

It was pretty cool. They had a bunk house above the garage and then the cabin. We unpacked and set up beds for the kids and us in the bunk house. It sleeps about 20. It was pretty cool. When we were done unpacking, we went into the cabin, had some dinner, and visited with Beth and Parker, and his family. 

After an hour or so, we finally laid the kids down to sleep. William was having the hardest time. He cried quite a bit. I felt so bad. He did eventally fall asleep. When he did, we went back down to that cabin to play games. When we went in, everyone else had gone to bed, so we sat on the porch to watch the lighting storm. After our fair share of the storm we finally headed to bed.

In the morning, they pulled out the 4 wheelers before the rain came in. Ben took the kids and they had so much fun. Parker showed them some really cool places around the cabin. When they came back, the kids talked about waht they saw and how much fun it was. 

After the rides, we had some breakfast and then tool the kids out for a walk. While we were out walking it actually started to rain, so we quickly headed back to the cabin.

While the walk lasted, the view were beautiful. There was so much to see and it was good to be out in the beauty of God's work. Just breath taking.

Field trip

Gabbi had her first official field trip for the 1st grade. They went to the Zoo.

I signed up to go with her class, but was too far down the list to be asked to go. I felt bad, but I was glad that she got to go. 

She was really excited to be able to ride the bus again as well.

When she got back, she talked about all the different animals that she got to see and the group of kids she was with. She had a blast. I really wish I would have been able to go with her. Maybe next time.

Temple Dedication

The day finally came, the Temple Dedication. We had our tickets, our handkerchiefs, and couldn't wait for the dedication.

Ben ended up having to help a friend in the morning, so I took the kids to the stake provided primary and attended the first session.

It was a great session. I really enjoyed it. The best of all President Monson's. When he was done speaking he did the dedicatory prayer and then the Hosana shout. It was amazing and I can't wait to be able to attend the newly renovated Temple.

Sagez get together

The September get together was at Brain and Karen's house. We planned a big game night. Everyone brought goodies to munch on while the kids played, the adults played games too. We played a few different games and each one brought on laugh after laugh. It was so much fun and the kids had a blast too.

The best part of the evening was watching the kids play with Grandpa and the hot wheels loop da loop track. They each grabbed a whole bunch of cars and sent car after car down the track. It was so cute to see them play. It was almost to sad to break them up. 

Last Drive In of the season

I came across these pictures in my phone and can't believe that I forgot all about it. 

Gabbi had a sleepover with her cousin Ellie. For some fun, we decided to take the kids to the Drive In, the last of the session for us. We went to see Dolphin Tale 2 and When the Game Stands Tall. 

On our way there Owen fell asleep. We didn't want to wake him either, so we just let him sleep. I was kind of bummed, I wanted him to watch the movie, I was just hoping that he would wake in time.

While Owen was sleeping in the car the girls were occuping themselves while playing "I spy" in the back of the van. They played forever.

 The time flew by and was finally time to start. We settled in with some blankets and watched the movie.

Owen woke up about 20 minutes into the movie and sat with me. William wouldn't go to sleep which we were hoping for, so he sat with Ben. Both the girls sat in the back of the van and loved the movie, well what they saw of it. They both fell asleep about 20 minutes before the movie ended.

The girls falling asleep was perfect. Now all we had to do was put the boys to sleep. We put Owen in his car seat and gave him his blanket and luckily a fell back asleep rather quickly. William was a bugger. He fought me on sleeping. I tried walking around with him, tried giving him more of his bottle, tried everything; he would not go to sleep. Finally I sat in the van next to his seat and patted his head till he finally fell asleep. It was insane.

At least once he was able to fall asleep we were able to enjoy the show.

Hand update

It took a few days, but he finally can stand to have it touched. The weird part is its starting to peel. The skin must have died from being slammed in the door and then chilled from the ice pack. Luckily its not bothering him enough for him to mess with it. We'll just let it run its course and his finger will be back to normal soon.

Summer reading prize

The same day she came home with her report certificate, she also came home with a reading prize. I'm not sure what exactly she got it for, it just said great job reading. It could have been for the superintendent reading, or the books she brought home to read over the summer, or just reading in class. She never said, but she has done a lot better in her reading, so I was proud no matter what it was. 

Funny little side note: well I'm not sure it was funny, but she has come a long way. She hated to read, she fought us everyday on having to read. She was fighting us because of an incidence at school. She said that her classmates were making fun of her. She was reading a book in class out loud and read the word fart and the kids started to laugh. She just didn't want to read anymore for fear that she would get laughed at again. Ben convinced her that reading takes practice. The more you practice the better you are. She has finally agreed to practice and she is getting so much better.

Animal Report

I was a little worried when Gabbi came home with the assignment to do a report at school. She had to do two in Kindergarten and she had a hard time with it. We had to help her both times. They encouraged them to be able to do it all by themselves. We practiced a lot to be able to get her ready for her report. 

Her report was on Polar Bears. She had to find information to share with the class. We sat down and looked up a few different sites to find information. She picked out what information we choose to talk about. 

We decided to make a book instead of a poster. We hoped it would be different from others, fun different. We put the information she found on the pages of her book and then she colored the cover. It turned out pretty good. 

When she came home that day, she said that she didn't have a problem at all. She did ask her teachers help once, but overall, she did a great job. She even got a certificate and a prize for doing a great job, (I'm sure they all did, but she was too excited about it).

Baby blessing

We were so excited for Beth and Parker when we heard that they were having a baby boy. We were so excited to have another boy in the family. 

Even more so, we were excited for his baby blessing. He's such a cute baby and he looked so adorable in his blessing outfit. Such a doll. 

Before everyone parted way we were able to get a picture. We weren't all there, which was sad, we missed those that couldn't be there. 

It was a great day, a very special day.

Mo-hawk

We were getting ready for church the other day and Owen asked Ben to give him a mo-hawk. I was surprised that he actually asked for it. Normally he doesn't even like to get his hair done. He love it though. It turned out pretty cute on him. 

Hand

William is a fast little crawler. He's in one place one minute and another the next. 

The other day Gabbi was in her room throwing a temper tantrum and William was following her. She was in the process of shutting her door and there was little William, fingers right there. The cries were horrible. It put me into tears. He would not stop crying. Even after we picked him up to sooth him, he still wouldn't stop crying.

The worst part was trying to keep the ice pack on his fingers. We wrapped with an ace bandage, which he of course did not like and wanted nothing to do with it. He was in constant tears. Even after having the ice pack on for only 5 minutes, even after we took it off, he still was crying.

Poor baby, we weren't sure what else to do for him. He was still sad the following day as well. Poor little guy. It was still red too.

School Pictures

Gabbi was so excited for picture day at school. She knew exactly how she wanted her hair and everything. It turned out perfect.

Cute little turd.

Lagoon Part 2

The second half of the day, Ben was able to join us. The kids were so happy that he was able to come. They had so much fun going on rides with him.

Owen's favorite of course was the train. He loves train and even better they got to see animals.

Ben's favorite was of course the music land express. He was so excited that both of the kids wanted to ride it. Owen may not have been so happy afterwards, but he did okay.

The best part about the day was when Ben and I took Gabbi and Owen on a ride that I can't remember the name of. Its yellow and red and they carts can spin all the way around or you can hold the brake and not really move much at all. They both seemed excited to ride it, but once they realized what the ride was they both started to freak out.

Don't you love his face.

Gabbi of course was in tears. She was not very happy with us for taking her on the ride. I just laughed. I thought it was funny. At least she bounced back quickly.

As the day ran down, we found more and more rides to go on. Even new ones. Owen's new favorite was the Jeep ride. He rode it at least 3 times if not more. 

Gabbi's favorite was the lady bug drop. She bugged us all day to go on the ride and we finally did right before it was time to leave. She had so much fun, she begged Ben to take her again and again. She loved it each time.

After a very long day of walking around and ride after ride, it was time to say goodbye and head home. I was ready to hit the sack. Lucky for us, the kids fell asleep on the way home.