Choir

I convinced Ethan to try out for choir this year, and he made Concert Choir - the top choir at the school!   (They needed guys, but he does have a great voice and pitch)  Last night was his first performance - I think they did a great job.  It was so fun to watch him - I think he might like being in choir :)

Singing - You can see he was right behind the director - luckily, Erin could grab this picture of him.

He was really enjoying wearing a tux!  He swaggered onto the stage :) and kept pulling 007 moves - I think he liked lookin' GOOD!!!!!!!

School Pictures!!!

Erin - Junior

Ethan - Sophomore

Jamie - 8th Grade

Laura - 5th Grade

Kelcie - 3rd Grade

Talin - Kindergarten

Cancun

Last week, Lafe and I got to go to Cancun!!!!!  We had so much fun!!!  Just look how beautiful it is!!!

View from our balcony.

View of the Beach

Church - great ward!  Really friendly people

Chichen Itza

Baby Turtle - We got to let the baby turtles go!  It was so cool!!!!!  They would line us up and then count and we'd let them go toward the ocean.  They were so cute!

Us and the Guthries at Chichen Itza

 

This is a Cenote - an underground water hole that the top eventually caved in.  It's really beautiful and fun to swim in!

This is at Ek Balam - another Mayan site - this part looked as if it had been rebuilt, but he said it was just cleaned and then protected - amazing that it's still there in such detail.

 

There's a better picture of Lafe at the top, but it didn't upload.  Here I am holding on for dear life about 3 feet from the top.  I figured the view was the same from there :)    Do you see how beautiful it is behind me?  So GREEN!!!!!

High and STEEP!!!  It took me a while to get back down.....

Lafe and I in the "Lover's benches" at at park

We're Parasailing!!!!!!!!!  (We're the white one)

Me in the air - see, I'm smiling.  This was at the beginning, we got a lot higher.

Lafe in the air - he LOVED it - crazy.....

Dinner at the favorite Taco spot

Lafe went down early one morning to catch the sunrise and was able to see this mama turtle, too.  She had just laid her eggs and he got to watch her bury them and then go back out to the ocean.  Really cool!  I missed.....

The eggs

The sunrise he was after - GORGEOUS!!!!!

View from the lobby.  We had a BLAST in Cancun!!!!!!!!!

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!!!