Fathers Day

Now that soccer and flag football are over we actually have a couple of Saturdays with nothing on our calendar.  June 20th, we decided to go for a hike to Donut Falls.  The hike was so much fun and our kids did great. 

  

Father's Day was a great day for me.  The kids and Jill spoiled me with new sunglasses and a DVD. 

We had dinner at the Bunkall's where Corwin grilled up some amazing salmon.  He also grilled steak for the non-fish-lovers in the family.  Corwin is an amazing father and grandfather; I couldn't have married into a better family.

After dinner we stopped by to see my father.  It's so great to have Dad back from his mission and see him more often.  He is also an amazing man and example to me on how to be a father.

Just to share how funny our kids are, here is a funny story worth remembering about Landon.  Easter was months ago and Logan had been really sick.  He didn't care for much of his candy (which speaks to how sick he was).  Over time, he had forgotten he had a chocolate bunny that he hadn't finished.  In my late night cravings, over time I ate the rest of his chocolate bunny.  Finally months later, Logan remembered his candy and asked, "Mom can I eat the rest of my chocolate bunny?"  Jill responded, "I'm not sure it's still in the cupboard."  Landon looked at Logan and whispered loudly, "DAD!"  "That's why he makes us go to bed early so he can come down and eat our candy, and that's why he runs in the morning so he doesn't get fat!"  Funny kid.  He is SO RIGHT!!!!

Riverton turned 150 years old this year.  All year there have been celebrations, but the big one was the rededication of the newly remodeled park.  It was an average park before but now it's really nice.  The sesquicentennial celebration, held on June 22nd, included performances by Alex Boye' and the Osmonds.  There was also a man in a jet pack, parachutists, and faux Disney Princesses.  We had a really good time watching the show, seeing the new playgrounds and pavilions, and throwing the football around and kicking the soccer ball.  We also loved the fireworks at the end of the night.

Alyssa's 5th Birthday

On June 14th, Alyssa turned five!  She is such a doll and loved the attention.  Our Alyssa has such a positive attitude and loves almost everything.  We celebrated her birthday twice, which she loved.  We celebrated with the Bunkalls on June 7th, while the Buxtons were still in town, and then again on the 14th with the Bryants.

Jill made her amazing lemonade cake for the Bunkall celebration.  Alyssa liked the pink color but said it was too sour for her.  The next week, Jill made a strawberry cake for the Bryant celebration.

Alyssa's birthday was on Sunday.  We had planned to wake up early to have a nice breakfast (she had requested blueberry muffins) and open presents.  We had been out late the night before at the Scera Shell Theater and got to bed really late.  When Jill and I finally woke up about 8:00, we had to race to get ready for church.  Alyssa was a good sport and agreed to eat cereal and open only one present before church.  What a crazy morning! 

After church Alyssa opened the rest of her presents.  She has wanted roller skates so badly, so she was excited to get some new cute roller skates. 

That night for dinner the Bryants came to wish Alyssa Happy Birthday.  Jill made another cake and we had grilled chicken and apples and caramel dip.  She is surrounded with love by so many family members.  We love our daughter so much and are so grateful to have her in our family.

Riverton had a crazy rain storm in June that dumped two inches of water in an hour.  Our house flooded again and gave us all sorts of grief.  I was bailing water out of the window well during the storm and thankfully Jill was inside working to keep the water out of the house.  We still had to dry out our carpet, but it could have been much worse.

The next Saturday Grandpas Bunkall and Bryant came over and we dug trenches in our lawn to carry rainwater away from our home.  It was so nice of them to help.  Every time it rains we stress out, but hopefully with the new drainage we won't have to worry about flooding again.

Another exciting event took place in June.  Kandis and Brandon are now engaged!!!  We are all so excited for them. Wedding details will be coming.

After school ended, the kids enjoyed a week of swimming lessons at the Riverton pool.  

At the end of the school year, the school had an assembly.  During the assembly, they held a drawing for all of the kids who had met reading goals.  Logan won one of four grand prizes!  He can use this gift certificate at Walmart to get an iPod, scooter, or bicycle.  He was pretty happy and will get the iPod shuffle.  They were out of stock when we went to pick it up, but we will return soon to collect his prize.

A young man in our ward just got a mission call to Ecuador, Guayaquil.  It reminded me of my days in Ecuador and I found this nugget from when I was 19 years old.  I haven't changed a bit right?

Buxton's Last Visit Before They Move To Germany

Each week I like to post things that happened throughout the week.  Lately I'm lucky to post monthly updates. We've been having so much fun playing, it's been tough to stay on top of all the activities each week.  I don't like this, because I like being able to go back and remember all the fun things we have done.

This spring, Dave learned that he was being transferred to an air base in Germany.  The Buxtons are excited for this new adventure but also feel really sad to move further from family.  We feel the same.  We really wanted to see them one more time before they left, and were so glad when it worked out.  Dave was sent to Florida for a few weeks of training, and while he was gone Jenn and the kids were able to come to Utah for two weeks.  They had already sold their home and had been living in a hotel, so this worked out perfectly for them.

The kids spent almost every day together.  We planned as much as we could, including a few sleepovers.  Several days were spent swimming and playing in sprinklers.

Dads got to go to work each day, but the kids were having an amazing time with fun activities every day.  One day they had dinner at Amy's house and then all took a walk to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to walk around the grounds.

Bunkalls really like to hike.  They all went for a hike to Timpanogos Cave and the kids did great.  It was very steep, but with enough breaks, they managed just fine.  They had an hour and a half to hike up before their tour began and they made it in an hour.

The tour of the cave was really impressive.  Their tour guide knew a lot about the cave and the kids and Jill loved seeing the stalactites and stalagmites.  At one point, the guide turned the lights off and they were able to see how dark it was.  It was so dark that they couldn't even see their hand right in front of their face!  Outside it was cool that day but it was even cooler inside the cave.  It stays about 46 degrees all year long!  The tour lasted about an hour and was really fun.

These two girls are so adorable.

Aunt Jenn is a little bit afraid of ledges.  The trail has many steep drop-offs that made her nervous.    The kids did pretty well at staying on the mountain side of the trail, but Jenn beat them at being as close as possible.

The next day the dads got to join the kids on a hike to Ensign Peak.  Compared to Timpanogos Cave, the kids thought this hike was a piece of cake!

We feel school is really important, but during the last week of school we let our boys take two days off so they could spend more time with their cousins.  It worked out fine because both of their classes had substitutes (Logan's teacher's mother died, and Landon's teacher had a son leaving on a mission).  They loved being with cousins and will miss them terribly as they are gone to Germany.  We packed a lot of fun and memories into the two weeks that Jenn and her kids were here, but it wasn't enough.  We will all miss them.

As school wound down, Logan was able to perform a presentation the 4th grade had been working on for a long time.  They had been studying Utah history and each child did a diorama about a county in Utah.  Logan had Salt Lake County.  This picture came after the presentation so he was pretty hot and sweaty from wearing a plastic hat.

The fourth grade performed a historical Utah presentation.  They sang songs, danced, and told the history of Utah.  Logan was Heber C. Wells, the first governor of the state of Utah.  He did an excellent job reciting his speaking part.  One highlight was that he got to (had to) dance with a girl.  Neither even looked at each other much, but he did a good job going through the steps and he danced so great. 

 Grandmas and Grandpas came to see Logan and so did the Buxtons and Roundys.

Right after the school presentation we ran to pack meeting. Logan earned his Webelos badge.  Jill worked pretty hard to make sure he completed all of the requirements.  The scouting program is changing, so they wanted to make sure he earned the award before the changes were implemented.

Logan and Landon still got to go to field day and then the last day of school.  They had a great year in 4th and 2nd grade.

The last couple of years we have had a great time seeing plays at the Scera Shell Theater in Orem.  This year they performed Mary Poppins.  We were so excited to see it because our family loves Mary Poppins.

Sadly, Landon had a crazy time sitting still and struggled to enjoy it.  Alyssa was pretty wiggly too.  The beauty of this theater, though, is that kids can be a bit louder and wiggly and not disrupt the show.  This play was more similar to the original story of Mary Poppins rather than the Disney version.  It was still really fun, but Mary Poppins wasn't quite as endearing as Walt made her, and the Banks kids were a bit more bratty.  The acting was excellent, the play was choreographed really well, and the singing was fantastic.  Everything was really well done, but we didn't love the story quite as much.  It was a perfect summer activity, though.