First Day of School....... Round 2

Classic first day picture - I promise Talin's smile was the same in every picture!

Talin - Kindergarten

Kelcie - 3rd Grade

Laura - 5th Grade

Jamie - 8th Grade

Talin - waiting in line, a little nervous....

Talin - on his way......  I just happened to catch the two little girls in our ward in the same picture!

Laura - headed to the classroom

Kelcie - headed in, too.  It was SO HOT!!!!!!  Even at 8 in the morning!!!  They had to cancel the last 2 recesses because it's so hot!!!!!!!

Olympics!!!

I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!!!!!!!

London Summer Olympics

 We've been so excited this year to watch swimming because a friend of ours', Breeja Larson, qualified for the 100m Breast Stroke!  She is the daughter of a friend of ours' and she used to babysit our kids! It's been so fun to follow her!  She even beat Soni at the Olympic Qualifying meet!

She got first in the Semi-Finals!!! and qualified going in 4th to the Finals!

So proud of her!!!

During the 100M Breakstroke, she false-started because the buzzer went off prematurely - which, you can imagine, would through you off!  So, she didn't get disqualified because it wasn't her fault, but I think it affected her swim and she ended up 6th.  The news media commented on how impressed they were with how she handled the whole thing.  She was up for the 400M Medley Relay, too, and swam in the qualifying heats, but then they put in Soni for the Final today - understandable, but we wanted her to have another chance for a medal.  I think she did MAGNIFICENT and I hope she keeps going so we can watch her again in 4 years!!!  GREAT JOB, BREEJA!!!!!!!!

First Day of School......Round 1

First Day of School - Ethan just keeps growing, and growing.....

Erin

Ethan - he was thrilled that school was starting :)

Sunset Crater and Indian Ruins

Next day in Flagstaff we went to Sunset Crater (Volcano) and some Indian Ruins.

Sunset Crater - we were disappointed we couldn't see down into it like the pictures in the Visitor's Center.

Climbing on the Lava - shhhhh, it wasn't allowed.

Better side of the Crater

Wupatki Indian Ruins - this first one you could climb through and it was really fun too see where they had dug out and where it was still buried.

Wupatki - the bigger one, couldn't play in this one :(

Closer picture

Laura in the middle of the "gathering area"

Ballpark - cool tip - if you stand in just the right places you can hear each other across the whole thing even if you whisper!

Blowhole - wasn't too strong that day, but you could feel it.

We decided it was fun to see, but that's probably why my parents didn't ever sound very excited when I would ask to go as we drove back and forth to Utah - Once is good.

Walnut Canyon - you hike way down in there to see the ruins...

Inside one of the little "houses"

More of the little "houses" across the canyon from us

View from inside the one I picked for our family!

Loved this one - it was a lot of fun and amazing to think how they really lived this way!!!  The river, when it was flowing, was still quite a bit further down in the canyon!  After all this hiking in the heat, we went back to the Flagstaff Aquaplex and went swimming - woohoo!!!

Bearizona!

After the Reunion Weekend, we pulled the trailer up to Flagstaff to do some things around there.  First stop - BEARIZONA!!!!! Lafe's brother, Brian and Melinda and kids came too!  You stay in your car and drive through with a GPS box for a guided tour.  It was really fun to see them so up close - they would come right up to the car.  Here are some of the animals:

White Bison - baby!

We loved the signs - they made it VERY clear not to roll down your windows!

We were expecting to be lucky if we saw one or two bear (they're always asleep at the zoo and we never see them!), but they had LOTS of bears!!!  It was SO COOL!  They were all around us just doin what they do!

We loved how they sit - it looks so funny.

One of the kids caught this bear coming down the tree

Um, hello.  Excuse us please.....

This black bear was more brown, but sure was pretty.

They also had an area where we could walk around through the animals and this was a neat bird show they put on.  They would fly literally inches from our heads - in fact, I think one clipped Jamie's head.

All the kids with the Bearizona Bear 

Cute beavers

Porcupine

Here they had younger bears.  These two were in the "preschool" area - SO FUN to watch these little cubs play!!!

More little ones playing

We just love their paws and I finally got a picture

Here we are looking at all these cool animals and Talin is mesmorized by a leaking hose.....

Bobcats, I think?

We drove through a second time because it was so fun!  Big Horn Sheep

This time they were feeding the bears - CUTE!!!

Loved their sign out front.  L-R:  Dawson, Audrey, Autumn, Jamie, Laur, Kelcie, Erin, Ethan, Talin, Noah

Our crew at the sign

FUN DAY!!!