First Day of Kindergarten

Alyssa was more excited than any of our children to go to Kindergarten!  She has been excited to go for weeks.  On the first day of school she was so happy!  She has afternoon kindergarten, so it was a long morning!  

Alyssa is in Mrs. Giles' class and there are some neighbor girls in her class.  Here she is with Brooklynn Steiner. 

Calli Chandler was in Alyssa's preschool class and now they have kindergarten together.

Parents were invited to spend the first part of class with their kindergarteners.  Jill and Alyssa toured the classroom and worked on a few projects together.  After they were done with their assigned tasks, all of the parents were excused.  Jill was sad to say goodbye to Alyssa, but she was so happy to be at school.

Sadly I missed Alyssa's first day of Kindergarten.  I had to go see a client in Buffalo, New York.  I took an executive with me and it was an amazing sightseeing trip.  Sure we met with two great clients, but we also got to see some amazing sights.  We drove over to Palmyra to see the Hill Cumorah and the visitor's center.

We hiked to the top of the hill and while the hike wasn't terribly difficult, it was extremely humid and very hot.  We worked up quite a sweat. Then we drove a couple of miles away to see the Sacred Grove.  I only took one picture of the Sacred Grove and if you look close you can see a deer in the background.  It was sad not to have Jill there with me to see these sites.  It was really neat to see them  because they hold such historical significance to our church.

The next day we were able to see Niagara Falls!  I've always had this on my bucket list so it was nice to finally see it.  Again, I was sad not to have Jill there with me to see the falls.  

At the airport on the way out of town we got some Buffalo wings.

On Labor Day we finally took a trip that we have talked about for years.  Our son Logan had never been to the city Logan. We drove up to the city and walked around the campus of Utah State University.  On the way into town we had to get a picture of Logan with this sign.

We got some Aggie Ice Cream at the creamery. Then we let the boys see the football stadium, so they could see where the Aggies play.

Our good friend Bishop Doug Burton turned 40 and celebrated by taking our running friends and wives to dinner for pho.  Doug served a Vietnamese-speaking mission and the people ate a lot of pho.  He and Vanessa love going to dive restaurants and eating pho.  He invited us to first meet at the park to play spike ball, and then go to dinner.  We spend so much time together running, but we don't spend much time together with our wives.  It was such a great night being together.

Landon had a very special event in his life.  He was asked to be a part of a Riverton Stake Primary choir that would sing during General Conference!  Sadly it meant he would miss a football game.

Landon got to perform at the Conference Center during the Saturday afternoon session.  For several weeks beforehand, the choir practiced at our Stake Center on Sunday evenings.  A week before conference, they attended a dress rehearsal at the Conference Center. Landon was really excited to be a part of conference, but mostly he was excited to "be on tv and eat three cookies."  I'm not sure where he got the idea he would get to eat three cookies, but being on TV was a big deal to him (and all kids).  He had a great experience learning the songs and being part of something so memorable.  The choir director, Sister Wadley, was so good at teaching the children and keeping them entertained during practices.  The General Primary Presidency even came to visit during the last rehearsal.  They expressed their love to the children and told them how excited they were to see the choir perform.

Here is Landon at the Conference Center.

He is up against the wall, second down from the top.  His seat was an easy one to find from the audience, but unfortunately the TV cameras never reached him.

Jill was at the Conference Center to see him perform (I was in St. George and Logan had a football game). She said Landon sat very still and was singing really well the entire time.  Being at this conference was extra special because three new apostles were called.  Landon felt really good being at conference and yes, he was on TV (in the large group shots) and also got three cookies!