End of Summer

Summer must be over. How do I know? It's still dark when we leave to go walking in the morning. The nights are cool. The kids have gone back to school. Peaches are in season. Football games have begun. Leaves in the mountains are changing colors.

The last couple of weeks there have been a lot of fun things happen .

Zeke married Paige Hinkey. 

It was a great day. Michelle made a cute cake for them.

It was Ralph's birthday so there was a little message from him in the cake.

 Tina came home from her mission. It was really fun to see all the friends together, most of them with their spouses.

Look at that man who "rarely smiles"!

We took a quick trip down to St. George with Sam and Tyson. 

They hadn't ever been to any of the National Parks so we went to

 Cedar Breaks

Kolob Canyon

 and Zions

Dennis and Tyson crossed the river at the start of the Narrows hike.

Lindsay and the boys came for a couple of weeks and Andrew came up for a week.

We were able to go to the first Aggie home game.  

It was so much fun to see Rileys reactions to the game. 

 I'm not ready for summer to end, especially the shortened days. 

But I love autumn and the changing of seasons.

Chicago

Dennis had a business trip to Chicago (America Association of Clinical Chemistry Conference.) I got to go with him and Lisa, Cameron and the boys came up and met us there. We spent a couple of big days going to museums and seeing the sights. We went to the Art Institute of Chicago (for Lisa and me), the Shedd Aquarium (for Caleb), the Field Museum(because it was right in the same area as the others), the Adler Planetarium (for Cameron), and the Museum of Science and Industry (for Ben). That's pretty good for a 2yr old and a 4yr old. We were able to go to that many places because there were great  hands on things for children in each of the different sights. We had a really great time and I gained a whole different perspective of Chicago. I had thought it was just a big, dirty, industrialized, crime ridden city but it is also a beautiful city with lots of great things to do.

The Cloud Gate aka the "Bean"

 Our reflections in the Bean. So entertaining.

The Lake front and boat docks equals miles of great walking and biking paths

 

 Caleb loved the water at Crown Fountain. 

Ben was a little more timid but really didn't like it when Grandpa really splashed him.

 Ben waiting for the aquarium to open

The kid sized submarine was a hit with Ben

 This is the oldest fish in the aquarium  - supposedly living here since 1930


The boys had a great time at the Field Museum. There was so much to see and although we spent several hours there we didn't see half of what there was to see. Next time!

There was a great childrens play area where the kids could dress up as a forest animal or harvest corn and store or cook it in a pueblo.

The Adler Planetarium is reported to be America's first planetarium. It was the last thing we saw in the day and I spent most of the time with the kids discovery area. Ben loved the spaceship, especially the space toilet. 

The last day we went to the Science and Industry Museum. It is HUGE!

Cameron and Caleb check out the tractor. This has some really nice features.

Ben checks out how to milk a cow. Interesting for about 30 seconds.

Ben's favorite was the combine. He gave his grandpa a ride.

Those are huge tires! 

Steering a boat

Caleb thinks the cable car is just perfect for him

The model train display was enormous. 

Ben gives the train a trial run.

The camera battery died before we got to the airplane and we didn't buy an extra ticket for the spaceship. There was also a huge German submarine (U505) and it was really interesting. I learned a lot from that display that I didn't know before.

We went home with Pace's. We got to see their garden patch.

Caleb is a good bean picker

Ben washes his carrots before eating.

Such good workers

It was a wonderful trip and I was so glad that everything worked out so well.

July 2014

These are a few of the things we've done this summer:

Allison Olsen and Joyce Larsen taught me how to play Pickleball. Our Cats Paw place has a couple of courts and a bunch of people that play every morning at 7 AM so we are beginning to learn how to play. It is something that I can enjoy doing without to much stress on my knees.

The Smith family joined us for the 4th of July weekend in St George. We went to see Little Mermaid at Tuachan and the fireworks in St. George. We had a little bit of free time to play games.

I did a day trip with LeAnn, Allison and Carol. We had fun seeing Devils Slide, finding a historic church in Porterville, and shopping and eating in Midway.

Dennis and I went to St George and Andrew, Lindsay, Riley and Tanner came and spent several days with us there. We had fun swimming, exploring some of the parks and seeing the temple. Alyna and Kevin came and spent a night also.

We spent one day at Zion's.

We went to the Briscoe Family Reunion organized by Brad and Liz just outside Bryce Canyon.

Riley is a good little hiker

Grandpa, Grandma, Kevin and Alyna listening to Andrew during our evening program.

I put together a friendship quilt for Julie Holist for her wedding.

 The sisters in the ward tied it at her bridal shower. It turned out really nice.