Goin' Campin'

We decided to go camping at a posh West Valley campground. We set up our tents and a fire pit and roasted s'mores.

On the left, Alec and Brielle are communing with the local wildlife...

Aaron and I woke up the next morning to Brielle who was wearing a grin from ear to ear, she announced, "wake up, it's morningtime!!! I had fun with fire last night!!!" We got up to make pancakes and realized we'd been hit during the night.

To finish off the campout, one needs toilet paper and a lot of it, our neighbors were kind enough to share some of theirs. We can't believe we were sleeping outside and still got hit without hearing a thing (although with the power of suggestion Alec can now remember hearing giggles and a soft rolling sound).

8/31/08:

Today during my primary class, Justin announced that his older brothers Bryce and Taylor, along with his mom and dad did something to someone's house with toilet paper. Leave it to the 5 year old to rat out the scheme.

Daddy's Full Service Pedicure Spa

Aaron has finally found his true calling, Trent is lined up waiting for his turn...

Our Dinosaur Expedition...

The kids and I headed down to Thanksgiving Point to the Dinosaur Museum to take advantage of the last $2.00 Tuesday, and we ran into some others who had the same idea... so, Krissy and I combined the cousins and toured the dinosaurs together.

Brielle kept a watchful eye out for T-rex and these crocodile-looking-a-sauruses while the rest of us communed with the stegosaurus.

These are some scary dinosaurs...

Digging in the sand and water for dinosaurs.

Brady and Lia show us how docile these creatures can be...

Our friend, Mr. Triceratops...

Apparently none of the cousins have seen Jaws....

This is the guy my nightmares are made of...

Budding paleontologists: The cousins cooperate together to uncover a huge t-rex!!! Alec @Brady uncover one end, Brielle & Skyler work on a leg, and Lia is putting makeup on it's face. This was the highlight of Lia's dinosaur experience, in fact it was too good to be torn away to go potty; consequently, there was some wet sand where she was sitting.

Back To School...

Yippee!!! It's the first day of school.



Alec is in Mrs. Smith's 3rd grade class. Lia and Mommy walked with him to school this morning (he didn't love it).

Giving Alaska loves, before the bus arrives. Notice in the picture to the right, the little one keeping a watch out for the bus. I may see if it isn't too late to sign her up for preschool somewhere.

Brielle's bus finally arrives at 8:00am... now she is off to the adventures waiting for her at her first day of Mrs. Felgar's 2nd grade class.

Lord of the Flies

Today was a barbeque with Aaron's Primerica team. Here's some of the fall-out...

Lia and Brielle playing ring-around-the-rosie...

The mother of all slip 'n slides was left unattended; the line nicely formed with children taking turns broke down and Lord of the Flies ensued. Brielle, Alec, Lia, and Haili are at the top in various stages of sliding down. At the bottom we see the Maddy-Alec-Lia-Haili pile-up.

Alec and Tommy relaxing to video games after a hard soccer game. Go Red Dragons!!! Notice the helpful little sister in the background.

My Interim Job

Okay, so for those who may be feeling out of the loop (Julie :) ), here we go...

Aaron is building a business with Primerica Financial Services. These things take time to start, so no steady income or exciting paychecks yet.

Now, as for me...

I lost my job with Camco July 1, 2008. I thought, "Okay, I have a five weeks of severance, I will just find another job and be okay." Well, that was almost two months ago, I have applied everywhere in the world, had three interviews and no luck, until Thursday...

On Thursday I was dropping off paperwork to Alec's school and I was talking to a lady in the ward who works at the school about my work. I blurted out, "do you need any aides?" she paused and then said, "yes, I think special ed kindergarten needs an afternoon aide, let's go find out." So we went to Brielle's kindergarten teacher and yada, yada, yada... I am one of the Afternoon Special-Ed, Kindergarten Aides (please overly enunciate that title for added importance) for Brielle's kindergarten teacher whom she dearly loved. I also ride the bus to and from school with the kids. It is an extremely lucrative position (okay, not at all, especially not in Utah), but I am getting excited and it will be a nice change of pace. I just have to give the teacher two weeks notice when I find something permanent.

Our Outing to Gardner Village

First we toured the shops. The kids were fascinated with the Christmas Shop and were mesmerized by the displays. Then we went to feed the ducks and the fish. We discovered that carp really like FiberOne cereal; so if you are looking for any gift ideas for that special carp in your life, FiberOne is the way to go. The ducks weren't hungry, so they rejected our bread.

Our last stop was the old mill which is now a country furniture shop. The kids were enthralled by the creaky floors and all the different stair cases and floor levels. Brielle kept "sh..'ing" us, I guess she thought it was a museum.

We Came, We Saw, We Swam...

Yesterday we took a family field trip to the community pool. Lia and Brielle splashed around the wading area and climbed all over the water structure. Alec stuck to the deep end, the lap pool, and the water slide. After a while the girls ventured to a deeper area to take turns jumping to mommy.

Lia wasn't ready to be done having fun for the day, so she staged a sit-in, actually it was more of a lay-under-the-table-and-pretend-to-sleep.

An Evening With Grandma Sibley

Visiting in the courtyard at Grandma Sibley's house. This is just before the game of chase/hide-n-go-seek/"Mommy, where's Alec?" started. I love this pond.

Watching the fish in the courtyard pond.

Happy Birthday Brielle!!!

To kick off this birthday party, the kids played a sofisticated game called "Roll the Container of Jungle Animals Down the Stairs and Have Alec Catch it at the Bottom." It was an exciting game and fun was had by all, until Alec got sick of bringing the container back up the stairs.

Brielle with her prized birthday cake. Note the sprinkles she lovingly placed by herself.

Note the animated fan club and ever present paparazzi.
Here they are partaking of her delicious cake. Brielle also opted for her special birthday jello as well (can't forget the birthday jello). Lia is showing us her see-food diet. (She's our health nut.)

Finally, this was it!!! She got the gift she's wanted for over a year now. A "Lightning MacQueen/The King" dual spiral race track. Now they make enough other mini cars to make buying it worth it. She's 100% ecstatic, and playing with it as we speak in her room. It was a good 7th birthday.