Graduation(a few months later)

I was so happy to get these pictures that someone else had taken from graduation since the ones I took were mostly terrible! Doesn't Juice look so happy?

Christmas time!

My boys are all growing up! They've all been so excited to go Christmas shopping. I told them that it was still three weeks 'til Christmas but they didn't care. Silly Guy even told me that giving presents was almost just as fun as getting them. Wow! I guess they really do learn a few things whether it's obvious to me or not.

I love how Cutie was so excited to hang these rubber bands on our Christmas tree! He can't do anything without making something out of it first.

Swimmer of the Meet!

This picture was taken by someone at the swim meet and must have been the only one they had of Sonny Pie because this is the picture on the swim team web site showing the swimmer of the meet. Sonny Pie says he doesn't mind so I thought I might as well share it with the rest of the world. :) My Sonny Pie is doing great at swimming this season! He was swimmer of the meet(of boys on the Logan High team) twice already--once for the in house scrimmage before the season started and again at the invitational they went to on Saturday. He's been dropping time at all his events like crazy. The team lost a lot of boys this year so they need all the boys to step up and do their best. The pressure has really brought out some good things in Sonny Pie! I'm so pround of him!

Happy Birthday Superstar!

Our Superstar is nine years old! It's amazing to think that it's been that long since he came to join our family. He's always a surprise and always enthusiastic(for good or bad) about everything going on around him. We're so glad he's in our family and keeping us on our toes.

Here he is with the Ironman action figure from Grandma Barton. She came to stay with us for a couple of days and took us to dinner at Golden Corral(Superstar's choice). Since the food makes or breaks everything for Superstar, that made for a pretty special day.

Here's the spooky cake made according to Superstar's instructions--complete with vampire, ghost, jack-o-lantern and spider on a web.

The big hit of the birthday was the "happy birthday" jack-o-lantern made by yours truly at Superstar's request. Silly Guy was really wishing this was his birthday so that he could have one too!

Recent Events :)

There have been several events during my blogging break the last couple of months so here are some highlights--not necessarily in chronological order-- Sonny Pie went on his first date! It's a little wierd for me to see him doing that...he's still my little boy. He went to the homecoming dance with a very nice girl and they had a lot of fun--mostly playing games with friends before(imagine that).

Juice went off to Snow College. Here she is with some friends when she was home for the weekend. I don't have any pics of her at school. I better get some from her. She is having a good time--meeting lots of people and working hard!

I ran a 5K!!!!!! Remember a couple of posts ago when I said I was going to become a runner? Well, I'm on my way. Three other girls from my ward were running in the same race so of course we needed a picture of us all together. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be(it certainly wasn't easy either!). I'm running another one this Saturday!

First day of kindergarten. Cutie has been going with me to volunteer at the elementary school for pretty much his whole life so you can imagine his joy at finally being able to go to school for himself. He loves it and is doing great!

First day of 3rd and 5th grades for Superstar and Silly Guy. The first day of school is always an exciting day(especially for mom!) Sonny Pie is a junior in high school(I didn't have a picture of him from the first day). He's taking hard classes, working hard, and doing great. He's really happy!

Our great vacation---part 2---Yellowstone

When we left Sonny Pie at Camp Loll on Monday morning we drove back over the awful dirt road and then into Yellowstone and camped for two nights. The kids were so excited to see all of the geysers and hot pools! Cutie kept asking me who built them and how did they make it. When I told him Heavenly Father made it he was amazed. This is Mammoth hot springs which is amazing. It is far north and a long drive but so worth it. It is different than anything else we saw in Yellowstone due to limestone there which is not in the other places. It is really strange to see the dead black trees sticking out of these beautiful formations!

Here are the kids resting on our long hike to see all of Mammoth. We missed having Sonny Pie come with us to Yellowstone.

We saw a lot of wildlife, especially bison. Silly Guy was so excited to see animals, but got bored with bison after a couple hundred. Animal-wise this golden bellied marmot was the most exciting thing. We stopped at a picnic site to make some dinner and this little guy was just sitting on the rocks. He let people walk right up to him to take pictures and even feed him(that wasn't us!) He came pretty close to us on his own. He wasn't afraid at all.

Here we are by Emerald Pool which was really beautiful. The rock inside the pool was yellow and the water was very green. We learned that the color of the rock was due to bacteria--different types of bacteria were different colors. The different colors in the water was caused by the temperature. The brighter the color, the hotter the water. Very interesting!

Cutie and Superstar at the lookout near lower falls.

Our great vacation--part 1--Camp Loll

Camp Loll is a Boy Scout camp located between Ashton, ID and Yellowstone National park. Sonny Pie worked there all summer last year and returned again this year, so we decided that we better visit him and see what is so attractive to him there. It is a wonderful place! (The dirt road to get there is not so wonderful, but the destination was worth it!) It smells like Christmas there due to the large number of evergreen trees and in fact it was Christmas while we were there. The staff celebrate Christmas every July 25 with a gift exchange, Christmas tree, and even lights! This tiki was carved by our bishop when he came to scout camp with our troop. They camp in the same site every year marked carefully by our bishop.

In the lake --- poetically named The Lake of the Woods --- we found many minnows ready to nibble on whatever---or whoever---entered the water. As you can see here, the members of our family quite enjoy having their toes nibbled.

OK....Juice doesn't like having her picture taken. This was the best I could do. She was very ready to defend herself with silly string.

Here we are at polar bear springs, about a 1/2 mile hike from the camp. The scouts have the opportunity to sit in it and recline under this waterfall for the count of ten to get a special polar bear award. We thought it was better to just take some pictures:)

And here's our whole family together for the last time until the holidays. Juice will leave for college ( :S ) before Sonny Pie gets home. They miss each other by just two days!