Denae at Heritage Park

Denae watched Brynlee and Marinn beat a rug and decided that she could too. Mom tried to help but she wanted to do it by herself. It took a few minutes to figure out how she could hold the heavy rod alone, but we got it done.

THIS IS THE PLACE HERITAGE PARK

May 12, 2007 - Our family spent the day at Heritage Park learning more about the pioneers. We also saw a few mountain men, watched a civil war reenactment, and petted several new baby animals. In this picture, we are having a wagon ride. The others are on the other side of the wagon helping take the picture.

A Few Things We Have Done Recently

Kendra reminded me that its been a while since we put some pictures on here so here is an update.

Denae is trying to put words together to communicate. She can get two or three words put together but you have to be able to know how she says certain words or you won't know what she is saying.
She loves to make messes and constantly needs to have her hands and face washed.

Marinn is eager to learn things. She likes to read books by looking at the pictures and saying the words she remembers us reading to her, or she likes us to whisper the words to her so she can say them. She started soccer practice today and is excited to play in a game. She will also be taking swimming lessons in a few weeks. She will be going to preschool this fall.

Brynlee had fun playing soccer with the 4 and 5 year olds this spring. She was the star of her team. She definitely wasn't the tallest, but she usually scored more than half of her teams goals. She was excellent on defense also. She will be playing this year on with the 6 and 7 year olds. She will also be staring swimming lessons soon. She just completed kindergarten.

Mckay was excited (as were his sisters) to be baptized a few weeks ago. I guess he got over being afraid of the water. Mckay just completed soccer with the 6 and 7 years olds. He was the star of his team too. He also scored most of the points on his team. Sometimes he liked to stay back from the ball and predict where it was going to be kicked so he could intercept it. He just tried out for the competitive soccer team for this next year with the 8 and 9 year olds and made the team. He wants to be the goal keeper. Mckay is now in Cub Scouts. He made a pine wood derby car which placed fifth in the competition. He just completed 2nd grade, and is improving in Spanish which he is learning.


Our family has done a few fun things these last few months. Every time we passed the Hill Air Force Base Aerospace Museum on the way to Idaho, we would say, "we have to stop there sometime." Well, we finally got it done. It was well worth the trip. On the same trip, we also went to a dinosaur museum in Ogden. The kids had fun learning about dinosaurs, even though we got wet in the rain , and snow when we went outside to see the dinosaur displays.

A few weeks ago, we went to This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City to learn more about the pioneers who settled the Salt Lake Valley. We had fun seeing all the baby animals, throwing axes, seeing the historical buildings and learning about what happened in them. We also watched a civil war battle reenactment and talked to a few mountain men.

Kendra and I just got back from a trip to Seattle. We were going to go on an Alaskan cruise for our 10 year anniversary. Our plans changed with the change in rules about "how pregnant" you can be and still go. We got our cruise money refunded but we already had our airline tickets, so we decided to convert our cruise to a stay in Seattle. We went up the Space Needle, took some Harbor cruises (see picture), went to Tillicum Village to see Indian dancing while they fed us a salmon dinner, went to the Pike Place Public Market, figured out how to ride the free downtown buses and brought home too many souvenirs for the kids!

Finally, the other day, I found two "gophers" sticking there heads up out of our yard! They are going to ruin our grass.

Golen Spike and Rockets

GOLDEN SPIKE

On our way back from Grandma Karan's, we saw the sign for the Golden Spike National National Historic Site along the freeway. Everytime we see it we say, "We need to go there sometime." This time Kendra said, "Lets go now." So, we went. After getting off the freeway, a sign said it was 29 miles away and we almost turned around because it was a longer detour than expected. But, we did continue. We got there about an hour before the park closed. One of the engines was just retiring for the day but we got to see the other engine, Jupiter. We went through the visitor center, watched a movie, and saw all the relics. We got to see them fire up the steam engine and watched it head back to the engine house. It was a real steam engine, the engine was pretty warm from burning wood (at least the car behind the engine was full of wood), and there was steam and water spurting out here and there around the engine. When the engine started to move, a lot more water and steam sprayed out. Its a good thing we weren't any closer or we would have been burned.


Marinn sitting on the railroad tie (not original, of course) where the two railroads met.












I have my finger in the hole where one on the golden spikes was driven (this is actually a fallacy, the golden spike wasn't really driven into the tie. You can imagine what would happen if you tried to hammer in a golden spike.)















A lady took a family picture of us with the train in the background, but she cut off half the train so Kendra had to take another (this) picture with the whole train in the background.

ROCKETS

On the way back from the Golden Spike National Historic Site, we went another mile out of the way to go to ATK Thiokol. This is the place were they make the solid fuel rocket boosters for the space shuttle. Right before I graduated from BYU and was interviewing with different companies, I interviewed here but they seemed to think I was over qualified and would be bored working there. I don't know how a college graduated would be overqualified. Anyway, they had a display of a lot of the rockets that have been built over the years, (as you can see in the background.)







This was the kids' favorite part. It is a lower part of one of the shuttles solid fuel rocket boosters. They would run up the sides as far as they could and slide back down. Marinn kept bonking her head when she would do it. Even Denae like to slide on it.

Labor Day

On Labor Day we were at Grandma Karan's house. It was an unofficial family reunion as most of the family was there. We all had lots of fun talking and catching up on what each other's lives.

I think all our kids had fun playing with their cousin, Cody. Mckay and the other young boys were all trying to tackle him and Brynlee liked to use him as a jungle gym and be carried by him. (oops, I forgot to take a picture of this.)

On Saturday everybody (except Kendra and Denae, who were napping) went to Cave Falls. The kids took their shoes off and played in the water. Marinn is being really cute in this picture.

Mckay and Brynlee both slipped on the rocks and skinned up their feet and legs. After a brief rest though they were back in the water.













In the cave at Cave Falls.

First Day of School

Brynlee's first day of Kindergarten. She was really excited about her My Little Pony backpack. She was also adamant about having a crown for her hair. She has Mrs. Jensen for a teacher (the same teacher Mckay had). Kindergarten started about a week after the rest of the scool. Brynlee impressed her teacher when she wrote down all the words that she knew.











I think this picture was taken on Brynlee's first day of school, so Mckay had already been to a few days of school. He is still in the Spanish imersion program and will probably know a lot more Spanish than me after this year. He is excited about school.

Crayfishing at Strawberry Resevoir

On Saturday, August 12, we went to Stawberry Resevoir to catch crayfish. Last year we tried this for the first time and had a lot of fun. We wanted to do it again this year and invited some friends to come with us.

We caught the critters by tying a piece of raw chicken to the end of a rope and then tossing it into the water. After a few to several minutes, we pulled the rope in slowly, to keep the crayfish unaware. We used a fish net with a long handle to try to scoop them up. That is the method the kids liked the best - it's more hands on instead of waiting . . . and waiting . . . and waiting. The waiting method is with a crayfish trap. It is a rectangle box with an end for the crayfish to crawl in to get the chicken, but they aren't smart enough to figure out how to get back out. We threw it deep in the water and let it sit for 30 or 40 minutes. This year, it worked better than last. On the first pull, we caught 23. The next try caught 21. The kids loved it! Sometimes the scooping didn't work well and the crawdads would skedaddle before we could scoop them.

Boiling is the method used to cook these freshwater lobster. First, we broke off their tail and de-veined them. If the claws were big enough, we cut them off too. We put them on ice until the water boiled, then tossed all the tails and claws in the boiling water. They turned red just like a lobster! We added to the meal by boiling corn on the cob, red potatoes and carrots. And, of course, the kids had to have watermelon.

The kids had a blast. Last year they were all eventually brave enough to hold them. Those pinchers can look mighty scary - and they can hurt too. This year, they had all forgotten to be brave. Mckay held one first thing, but Brynlee and Marinn had to remember to be courageous.

We suggest to you all - that this is great activity worthy of your time! GO TRY IT!


Denae sitting on my lap, not knowing what to do about the crayfish. She was excited to see the critters as long as they weren't too close. No touching for her.


















Marinn liked them as long as they were in the bucket. Toward the end, she did hold one for about a second.



















Brynlee wasn't too sure about touching them. "Mom, can I drop it now?"



















After not very long, Mckay remembered that it was fun to hold them. He kept trying to tell his siters that they couldnt' get you if you held them the right way.


















Denae had so much fun that she was still tired the next day and fell asleep on the kitchen table.

Late night + early morning (and church) = TIRED GIRL!