School's Out

The end of the school year was packed with all sorts of events. The kids had field trips, end of year parties, concerts and recitals. It was fun to see what they had been working on for the past few months.

We took a trip down to Borders to get some summer reading and as soon as we got home, the kids were out on the lawn reading their books. Hopefully that keeps up through the summer. Naomi chose a Junie B. Jones book and Gray picked the Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

And of course, taking it easy on the porch. Don't those big smiles say "School's Out!"

Naomi the Tag Runner

Although Naomi didn't race, she didn't just stand on the sidelines. When Gray crossed the finish line, Naomi walked over got involved. When I went to see what she was up to, she said that she had a job and needed to stay there, which she did for the next hour or so. As each racer crossed the line, someone would pull the tag off their back, write their finish time and hand the tag off to Naomi. She would then take the tag and a push pin over to the results board where it was posted. Thanks to Michelle and Karen for including Naomi!

Sherwood Hills Race

Saturday was Graysen's first race of the season. The morning started with scraping ice off the cars, a sure sign of an interesting day in the mountains. The younger groups were the first to race that morning. We got up to Sherwood Hills at about 8am and the sun was warming things up nicely. Of course this also meant the ground was warming up as well and Gray returned from his practice lap caked in mud. It was a tough race, but I think he had fun ending up coming in second place. After this, we ran home, grabbed some lunch and headed off to Health Days in Smithfield. Kory and Gray did the ten mile mountain bike ride while Naomi and I went to the park where there were all sorts of booths, games and concerts going on. It was a fun weekend.

Yep, It's Sprung

Spring, that is.

It's been so pleasant the past few days. We spent Saturday doing lots of errands (seems like every Saturday is like that) but we were able to spend some time outside and it was lovely. Graysen has moved into his full time shorts mode and Naomi is doing the same with flip flops.

We went up Logan Canyon Sunday afternoon and walked around Spring Hollow. It was gorgeous in the canyon and so very green. I love this time of year.

Seriously, what kid hasn't lived life on the edge by picnic table jumping.

And yes, Naomi did a little jumping of her own. (I'm loving my new camera by the way. Pictures like this would have been nothing but a blur with the old one.)

Happy 6th Birthday Naomi

We celebrated Naomi's 6th birthday yesterday. She is so much fun to have as part of our family. Naomi is spunky, self-assured, creative, determined, adventuresome, a bit sneaky and ready to play all the time. To celebrate, Naomi took treats to daycare, then more treats to Kindergarten where they have a birthday song tradition of using the first letter of the birthday kids name to replace the first letter of every word in the birthday song, so the Kindergarten class sang "Nappy Nirthday No Nou!" to Naomi. She loved it.

After school it was hailing outside, so Naomi chose to watch a Scooby-Doo in Hawaii movie while eating her favorite meal, Kraft Mac and Cheese. We then went to Grandma and Grandpa Pitcher's house for a family party. We opened presents and had butterfly cake and Little Mermaid cake. It was fun to create a special day to celebrate Naomi!

Enjoying childhood

It's so fun to see kids just let loose and have fun. Here are a few shots of the kids enjoying life.

A few weeks ago we acquired Guitar Hero and Graysen has been absolutely loving it. No one at our house can come close to playing at his level. There have been some funny questions asked of Kory and me about "music when we were young", like "did people really jump all over the stage like that?", "did people really break their guitars by slamming them on the stage?", "did people really dress like that?" all of which were answered in the affirmative.

Naomi has been perfecting her head stand. Now she has moved on to cartwheels, but those are harder to capture with the camera.

Naomi and I went to Disney Princesses on Ice with her cousin Stephanie. They loved the magic of Disney and I'll admit that it was much better than I was expecting!

(yes, the crown does light up and yes, hundred of crowns were flashing all through the show) Thank you to Kelli for the crowns and the fun trip to SLC!

Spring Boarding

We spend a day at Beaver Mtn. a few Saturdays ago. Naomi and I waited at the lift line and debated the pros and cons of snowboarding vs. skiing while Graysen boarded to his hearts content. I tried to talk Naomi into snowboarding since that's what everyone else in the family does, but she's determined to ski. She said she already knows how to ski and doesn't understand how to make a snowboard stop. Let me clarify that Naomi has never strapped on skiis. It didn't help much when she happened to see her best friend (Tori) in the lift line on some magnificent pink skiis.

Here's Gray in the lift line. What a brave kid. He just jumps right into line and away he goes.

Here the kids are at the end of a gorgeous warm afternoon!