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.