Star Valley!

I love traditions, especially our tradition of going to Star Valley for Memorial weekend. We look forward to it every year... it's our relaxing get-a-way, and we love it!

Heading into the valley at the top of the Salt Pass:

The weather hasn't been our best friend the last two years or so, but this year we had a solid 1 1/2 days of swim-like weather! Abby & Brenna are lucky that Uncle Matthew likes them and we love his swimming childhood because he helped them become more comfortable in the water, and had lots of fun!

and the next day, Jungle Gym Jeremy wanted to swim and A & B were out there with him having just as much fun!

We danced in our cabins

and of course, went to the Cemetery

Samira looked like a tourist!


Aunt Cheryl shared the history of why Memorial weekend was so important to Grandma Crook, and why she finds it so important to come to Etna every year. We then all shared memories of our family buried there... I loved it, and hope this becomes a new tradition!

We also went to Swan Valley one day for their square ice cream cones, and passed the Palisades Dam. I remember as a kid being "allowed" to swear only when a Dam is in sight, so we had fun getting it all out, especially when we stopped here:
Good thing the kids were with Sandie & Matthew watching movies!

and here we are on Memorial day, before we left the valley
We sent balloons to Papa again...
We MISS YOU Dad!!!

Then it was time to leave & we had Claire in our car
for part of the ride home, and as you can see... everyone was happy!

and then the craziness came out and these girls were rockin' out!

and ended up like this...

I've always had a thing for cemeteries... I just love the respect that is shown with flowers, balloons, notes, etc. So, coming home down 900 East in Provo and seeing this cemetery COVERED makes my heart happy!

Brenna's Kindergarten re-cap!

My baby isn't, and hasn't been a baby for a long time, but the fact that she's through with Kindergarten, and will be in FIRST grade next year is crazy to me!

We've been SO lucky that both Abby & Brenna have had the fabulous Mrs. Hylton as their teacher as their 'K' teacher! Over the last two years, I've learned it truly takes a certain type of person to want to spend their days with 5 & 6 year olds. I've always been amazed at her calm nature and I only wish I had the control over my two girls that Mrs. Hylton has over the 20+ kids in her classroom. We have so many wonderful & fond memories of her, and will definitely miss her next year!

Brenna technically missed her last day of school because we were heading to Star Valley that day, but her friend collected her final belongings for her, and in it was a CD of pictures throughout the year from her teacher.

Here's a few fun pictures of her year:
Sledding day w/ her BFF Ashley,
and (below) w/ Dana!


Sierra, Brenna & Ashley!


The whole class for Christmas!


Indian Day... I helped in her class this day and LOVED it!


100 Days of school!!!


Getting into the cowgirl thing, I guess!


Dinosaur Day!


The Friday before Mothers Day, they had a Mothers Day Tea party and had several darling songs and poems they recited to us mamas. I forgot the camera that day, so here's some camera phone pics...

This was a fun song that as they were practicing it, Brenna suggested they add a little "flair" at the end and I missed the actual ending pose, but this shows how all the other kids sat down while Brenna did her thing! She's such a ham!

Brenna also got to narrate a story for the class and I was so proud! She's an amazing reader and read her parts with such ease... it was a proud mommy moment for sure!
Below was my favorite part of the tea party. Abby's kindergarten class did the year before to the song by Louis Armstrong 'What A Wonderful World'. When Abby did it, I cried because of how sweet it was to see the kids with their painted pictures of the fabulous things we have to be grateful for. So, knowing Brenna's class was doing this as well... I bawled again.
There's something about this little performance that I just love!


And here's my beautiful little Kindergartener all graduated
and ready for all day school next year!!!
I love you Brenna and am so proud of the wonderful things you've accomplished this year!

corrections

I'll be the first to admit that I am a "corrector". In my mind, correcting grammatical errors while my kids are young will (again, in my twisted, warped mind) help them in the future. Who knows though- maybe it'll end up biting me in the bum.

One thing I am pretty adamant about is the "Utah accent". I personally can't conform to it, which translates to: I won't let my kids conform to it either. The one that bothers me most is the "T" sounds that tends to disappear from many common words, i.e.:
MOUNTAIN
BUTTON
and many more,
but say those words without the "T" sound, and you'll see what I mean.
It tends to have just a "in" sound at the end.
(this is harder to explain than I thought it would be, but if you've heard it, you'll understand)

Anyway- this story will hopefully now make sense:

The other day Brenna was looking out the window and saw a cute neighbor boy of ours ride by on his bike, and Brenna said to me
"Look mom, there's Col(t)on."
I asked her what she said, and she in turn (knowing what I meant by my question) said
"I really need to work on the TON thing,
don't I?"

STOKED!!!

I literally yelled in Wal*Mart when I saw these!

Jell-O Pudding Pops are BACK!!!!!

And now my life is complete!

Seriously.