What We Have Been Doing

The boys went back to school this week.  They have two weeks left until their very short summer break.  We have C track, so they will have a 3 week summer break, go to school for 3 weeks and then have another 3 week break. 

Paul's first day back was a field trip to Antelope Island.  He mistakenly called it Cantaloupe Island, so now we jokingly call it Watermelon Island. 

Everyone seems to enjoy being back in school.  Daniel is able to concentrate better on his work when he doesn't have to work on tuning the boys out.  I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Mark will be starting 6th grade this year.  This will be our last year of being on the same schedule for school.  I understand why the upper grades don't do year-round schedules, but it sure makes family schedules difficult with year-round and traditional students.  It all works out though, so I'm not too worried. 

I have been meaning to post this picture for several weeks now.  I was at my parent's house for a family reunion of sorts (my mom's cousins from New Jersey and Florida were visiting) and I caught my dad and Jane talking to each other on the stairway.  It was so cute to see both of them interacting together.  Jane has been folding her arms a lot lately and I think that it is so adorable! 

I didn't catch a picture of Jane with my cousin Kara, but perhaps pictures of gigantic snot bubbles coming from Jane's nose with Kara just inches away wouldn't be too appetizing to look at, however funny it may have been at the time!  ISLO!

We went to the Riverton Art Festival specifically to buy fresh cotton candy.  The boys had never eaten fresh cotton candy, they have only had it from a bag at the store.  It was delicious and we all loved it- including Jane!  We also bought some cinnamon almonds and we finished the bag while we were at the park!  We walked around and looked at the exhibits and had a fun afternoon at the park.  I discovered that pushing a stroller around in the grass is not fun- it is hard work!

Last week  the boys and I went to the library summer reading program party at the park.  We watched a professional yo-yo champion perform and a jump rope group perform.  The boys played on some inflatable slides and ran around having fun.  They had a bunch of Star Wars characters roaming about, so the boys were pretty excited to get pictures with them.

Masks that the boys made at the library party

 Mark won a free lesson for Tae Kwon Do, so we took him into the class.  Master Hong is a very nice man and Mark did really well with the class.  We signed him up for a 6 month class and we'll see how things go from there.  Mark really enjoyed the challenge and the interaction. 

Jane helped Daniel make punch for dinner.  She had a blast stirring the punch.

Jane also loved 'testing' the punch.  Daniel had to pry the spoon away from her!

This weekend Daniel went golfing in Grand Junction, Colorado and in Monticello, Utah.  It was perfect weather and he had a good time.  Although Daniel had fun, he is in no hurry to get in the car for another road trip for a while.  We joked that it was his Father's Day present, but it wasn't really because he just happened to go this weekend.  He bought a GPS tool for golfing and before he bought it he called me to make sure that I hadn't purchased one for him already.  I told him that he gives me too much credit because I hadn't given it a second thought since he told me about it a few weeks ago!  He just didn't want to buy one if I had already bought one.  The boys asked if I got him anything for Father's day and I told them that I got him the GPS!  They were impressed and Daniel got a good laugh out of it!

Things went well here at the home front without Daniel.  It is so strange to have Daniel gone.  I am so use to him being home that having him gone throws me off.  Jane sure missed her dad.  She kept calling out "Da?  Da?"  This morning when Daniel woke up, she saw him and scrambled to get to him and gave him a long cuddle hug.