Lego Robotics

This fall semester, Jeffrey and Brooklynn signed up for a Lego Robotics League. They meet twice a week to work on team building skills, programming, and inventing. If you're their age, what's not to like? 

Their coaches are fantastic! The kids are excited with what they are learning and come home to work on their programming assignments, do research, and write papers. So far, it's been a great experience for them.

The theme for this year's competition is Helping Seniors. Their 'senior partner', Mr. Giles, has problems getting out of bed and out of chairs. They are working on an invention to help him.

Last Friday the group met at University of Utah to speak with Nancy, a gerontologist. She listened to all of their ideas and gave them some great feedback!

 Jeffrey and Brooklynn happy about their first day of college.

Professor Nancy and their lego buddies

Early Morning Violin Practice

Lake Mountain Fire Update

Here is the latest picture from my neighbors yard. If you look close you can see some flames. Still no evacuation order for our neighborhood, so we're holding tight at home.

I forgot to mention that this is the second fire in the area in 3 weeks. Crazy!

Our Mountain on Fire

Someone was shooting targets on the mountain behind our subdivision yesterday.  Here is the fire they started, and how it looked yesterday (pictures compliments of my neighbor) from behind our house.

Here is how it looks as of 2 hours ago. They are starting voluntary evacuations in our neighborhood and mandatory evacuations in the neighborhood a couple miles north of us. I think we'll stick it out a few hours longer. Mark is at work, and the two oldest have the flu. They don't feel like doing much of anything right now.

Here are 2 more shots from a few streets over.

Moving on up

Jeffrey went shopping this weekend for a new church outfit. He really wanted me to buy him a suit.  I know he won't wear the suit coat for more than 5 minutes in the summer heat. He chose a different outfit, including a REAL grown up tie. He feels like he has matured past the clip-ons. So here you have it, a few pictures of Mark helping him get his first tie knotted snugly around his neck.

A Birthday Favorite

Happy 4th Malia!!

Watching the Sunrise

Rolly Polly Racing

A Preview of our Family Pictures

Mark's aunt took our family pictures over the weekend. Here are a few of the pictures she has ready!

 

Ring of Fire

Tonight's solar eclipse. 

(I borrowed this picture from the internet.)

Darla's Wedding

In March, Darla was married to Steve. I was glad to be at the wedding and see her so happy!

The happy couple

The happy couple with her kids

So, here is where it gets really fun. All college freshman roommates together again for the first time in years!! I don't know how Darla swinged it, but we were all able to be there for her on her special day.

Soon after her wedding, Darla moved out of state with her family.  This was our going away lunch to tell her good-bye.

Keeping Busy

I know. It's terrible that I haven't updated the blog in months. I hope I have a good excuse. We moved!  Hooray! Buying this home was a giant emotional roller coaster ride. I didn't believe that we would actually close until we got the keys. But we finally did it!  We've had company almost every weekend for weeks. It's been fun spending time with family and friends. I'll post more on that later. Here are a few highlights:

 My mom came from CA to help us decorate. Yea for moms with decorating skills! Here is a picture of her and Brooklynn in the middle of arranging nick knacks on the mantle.

 Brooklynn started horse riding lessons again.  She just loves her teacher and the friends she is making.

 Mowing the lawn for the first time: not a small task. One of our next major purchases will be a riding lawn mower. Mowing with a regular lawn mower takes a big chunk out of Saturday mornings.

Last, but not least, cute neighborhood friends. These friends are our neighbors and some of neighbors' grandkids.  Yes, our street is nicknamed 'retirement row'.  Our neighbors are really friendly and have been great teaching us little things like how to turn on the irrigation water. 

Jeffrey, Brooklynn, and Malia  have a favorite thing too- the other kids in the neighborhood. They would stay outside all day playing if I would let them- jumping on the trampoline, riding scooters, running with the dog, building forts  with the trampoline, blankets and sheets, etc.

Well, that's a reader's digest version of life over the last few months. Now that we're getting settled, I'll start posting more.

A visit to the dentist

I have to say, I really, REALLY, hate taking my kids to the dentist every 6 months. I always leave feeling like a failure.  This visit was no exception.  Thankfully, Jeffrey only needed one filling.  Brooklynn had her first cavities, and so did Malia.

Malia was brave when we took her back to have the work done, but her gag reflex is so strong that the dentist needed to put her under general anesthesia. I was with her in the recovery room and it seemed to take forever for her to finally wake up.   Of course, when she woke up she was gagging because of her dry mouth and the sandy grit left in it.

I'm glad it's over with! Thankfully, the dentist created more space between her molars so I can get in there and floss better!! Hopefully she'll be cavity free for a long time.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

Ready for the move

Boxes packed and ready to move!

Robo-box

Wrestling Season

Jeffrey signed up for city league wrestling this year. I had never taken the sport seriously until I sat at his practices.  It's really quite a physical and mental sport. He enjoyed learning offensive and defensive moves. He was banned from practicing his new 'skills' on his younger sisters. Here are a few pictures of his first meet.