Firsts

 

All three boys are in school this year, and they all had different first days, because they are all in different schools!  Jaiden is in our neighborhood school, Austin in a preschool, and Zach in a preschool with the school district where he will now receive his therapy.  Once kids with special needs turn three, they transfer out of the Early Intervention program and into the school district.  He is bused to his school and therefore, is gone the longest. 

Jaiden is being Captain America (with shirt and backpack all Captain America too -- even though he hasn’t seen the movie), and is throwing his “shield” in this picture.

Austin is squinting in the bright sunlight and just wanted to get going, he was SO excited to start school!

I had to drop Zach off his first day, so I got pictures when he got home.  He LOVED his dinosaur that the bus driver gave him and wouldn’t let go of it all day.

It’s a little bit of a juggling act the days that Austin has preschool to get everyone dropped off and picked up, but they are all loving it! And, twice a week, I have about an hour and a half to myself! It’s been kind-of nice, but I’m glad to see my cute boys when they are done. It also gives me a little bit of time a couple of the days for some alone time with just Austin or Zach, which has been fun. I need to figure when to get some alone time with Jaiden too.

Name That Place

 

Here’s a newer(ish) photo to hold you over until I get around to actually blogging.  I’ve been way busy, and yet it feels sometimes like I don’t get anything done!   All three boys are starting school and we’re right in the middle of that, so maybe once they’re all in school I’ll get something done.  Maybe. 

So…..ten points to the first person (not including siblings/parents) to name this place. 

 

Family Reunion {that was over a month ago}

Um, so a quick synopsis.  We go to the Payson Lakes Group Site every year on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday after Father’s Day for the Wilkey Family Reunion.  It’s also always the same weekend as the Manti Pageant and I’ve always wanted to take Carlos but he hasn’t seen it yet because of that.  Anyway.  It is a lot of fun and the kids have a blast.  This year there was a fun paddle boat race on the last day and everyone had a chance to make their boats the day before.  There were canoes and kayaks and a raft.  There was also a great talent show.  So here’s a photo journey of those few days.

Obviously, Austin wasn’t a huge fan of the cold water.  Jaiden and Zach, on the other hand, loved it!

There was also a cool little platform that needed lots of love and attention.  Thanks to the Uncles for trying to make it work!

And then there was the epic fit by exhausted Jaiden and Austin because they didn’t win in the Paddle boat race (Zach did) and the resulting screaming which, for Austin, lasted until the very bottom of the canyon when he too finally succumbed to sleep. 

The best was that the whole time they were crying, Zach was playing with his prize, a little stuffed bear, and singing along to “I’m bringing home a baby bumble bee!” 

Blah

Today I feel like it really is more like a blah, blah, blah day.  I’ve got lots to post including family reunion and Fourth of July.  But I don’t really feel like doing anything.  I’d like to read one of the books I got from the library but there’s a “futbol” game in the background (I hate the sound of sports on tv, it’s just a big, awful white noise to me) and it’s too hot to go out in the hammock.  And it doesn’t matter where I go, I’ll just get mauled by the kids!  What I really should be doing anyway is making dinner or figuring out some other way to feed my family.  Hmm.

If you want more…

If you want to see more pictures of our hike at Jenny Lake, go to my photo blog, HERE and you can see some of the beautiful nature along the way.

Weekend Getaway, part II

On Saturday, David made us a yummy breakfast of pancakes, eggs and bacon and then we eventually got ready to go.  We headed over the Teton Pass into Teton National Park and Jenny Lake.  I was driving while Carlos was trying to do homework. 

We spent most of the drive trying to get the iPad to load this video about the Toyota Sienna so David could see it.  It never worked well and we had to wait until we got back home for them to see it all.  We like that van and I think the commercials are funny!  Anyway….

Once at Jenny Lake, we took the boat across the lake to hike up to Hidden Falls. 

We didn’t really know how far we would go because we didn’t have a carrier for Zach and his 30+ pounds feel even heavier than that! It ended up being a really pretty easy hike and really enjoyable. It helped that *everyone* took turns with Zach (I didn’t really carry him until the end of the return hike…) There were places that you had to be careful with the boys, but it wasn’t panicky the whole time like when we hiked up to Timpanogos Cave last fall.

Right where the falls are still had a lot of snow and it was a little tricky walking across it because there were so many people and it was pretty icy.  We all did okay, but I did go down when we were leaving and slid a little bit.  Don’t worry, I saved my camera! 

The falls were really pretty and, because of all the snow and rain, were really powerful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hung out for a while…

…then headed back down.  At one point when we stopped, there was a group eating sandwiches.  We hadn’t brought any because we were going to get pizza at a restaurant just outside of the park.  Here, Jaiden is telling us that we should have brought sandwiches!

The boat was leaving when we got to the dock but we waited for the next one and had a snack and hung out for about fifteen minutes.

I didn’t ever get any good pictures of the Tetons because, first, I was driving whenever we had a good open view, and second, the gray day made it hard for me to get a good one, the clouds and the mountain tops just kind of blended together!

We went to Durnans for lunch and had pizza.  Then, just about everyone fell asleep on the way home while I drove!  David kept me company though!

We all just lazed around for the afternoon, taking naps, doing homework, and watching TV.  The boys loved, loved, loved Milly and David got these cute pictures while I was helping Carlos with homework or taking a nap or something!

We went to church with them on Sunday and headed home that afternoon.  This time, we took the more direct, faster route, but it was still pretty.  I love the rolling, green hills and fields on the road from Driggs to Rexburg!

We had to take a couple of hurry-and-pull-over-by-the-side-of-the-road stops, but other than that, we only stopped once at a rest stop close to the Idaho-Utah border.  I thought it was really pretty and there were lilacs everywhere that smelled so good!  There was even hot water in the bathroom sink!  There were pathways and bridges and benches and tables all over.  It was really quite quaint!  At least as quaint as a rest stop could be….

Well, that’s the end of our little trip!  We made it home in just under 5 1/2 hours (even with the 20 minute stop) and with one tank of gas.  We may have been practically coasting into our driveway, but we did it!

Please excuse any typographical or grammatical errors, it took too long to do this post and I’m not going to re-read it!