Back to School

The boys went back to school just a few days after our vacation ended at the end of August.  First, Connor and Aiden went back to class...

 

We tried to get a good picture of all four kiddos that morning...

But we failed...

Miserably...

What in the world?  Something about Viv looks like a Cabbage Patch Kid in this one...

And then they were off...

But, not really because we drove them to school that first day.  So, they took a few minutes to have a "First Day of School Dance Party..."

Both the boys waiting to go inside the school...

Mr. 2nd Grader...

And Mr. 5th Grader...

They are both having great school years so far.  Connor has Mrs. Lawler.  She is strict, but seems like a good teacher who will turn Connor an even better student.  Aiden has Mrs. Smith who is seriously the sweetest teacher I've ever met.  Aiden has had a few medical problems lately (more on that in future posts) and she is constantly emailing me to find out how he is doing.  You can tell she really loves him, which makes me a happy mama!!  I think both boys are both going to have a great year!

The following day, Cohen started his last year of preschool.  I was a horrible parent & forgot my camera and accidentally left my phone at home charging, so there were no pictures of Cohen at his school.  But, after I picked him up, I ran inside the house and grabbed my phone to snap his official first day of school picture...

Cohen's teacher is Mrs. Covington--for the third year in a row!!!  Mrs. Covington has always just been a three-year-old teacher, but the four-year-old teacher that Cohen was supposed to have actually ended up being promoted to the director spot at the preschool's Riverton campus.  Mrs. Covington then took her place as a four-year-old teacher, so Cohen ended up in her class again!  We couldn't be happier!!  Mrs. Covington is amazing & has turned Cohen into a very outgoing leader in his class.  He loves her & she loves him back!

I was totally bummed about my kids going back to school.  I know, I'm weird.  Most moms love when school starts again, but I'm usually not one of them.  There are some nice things about school (like how it cuts down on the fighting amongst the boys), but mostly it just means more work for me--helping with homework for several hours each day, making sure everyone's homework is done & in their backpacks, scrambling to find shoes & jackets each morning, running to the store late at night because someone wants a home lunch & I don't have anything to put in it, etc.  But, I must admit, the few hours a day when I only have one or two children at home is heavenly!  I'm able to get a lot done, and even go out to lunch with my sisters & mom from time-to-time with a few less children...

But, overall, I'm not a fan of the school year!  Luckily, we're already over a month into it--which means we only have 8 months to go before it's summer break all over again!  Woohoo!!  --Lindsay

Road Trip: Day 8 (Bryce Canyon then Home)

Well, I'm finally on the final day of our vacation.  Day 8 started out with this little gem of our boys.  Do you think we wore them out on the trip???

They were dead to the world!  I love how Cohen is totally sprawled out across Connor.  Hilarious!  All that hiking, sight seeing & having fun must have finally exhausted them of their never-ending energy.  After trying and trying and trying to wake them up, they finally rolled out of bed and were ready for our last day of exploring...

After breakfast, we drove in to Bryce Canyon National Park...

It was beautiful...

Of all the incredible stuff we saw on this vacation, I think this one took the cake...

I loved the contrast of the red rock, green trees & blue sky.  It was absolutely breathtaking...

It's hard to believe that this place is only 3 1/2 hours from our home...

Because it looks like you're on a completely different planet...

The spires are called Hoodoos, and they are formed from erosion caused by the thawing of ice every spring...

It obviously makes for some pretty amazing pictures...

Of course, we had to get a final family picture at our final destination, since we did it at all the others...

We decided to take a little hike down into the canyon.  We took the Queen's Garden trail from Sunrise Point...

Going down was easy.  It was the coming back up that was hard...

I love this picture of my kiddos taking in all the beautiful the scenery...

Such cuties...

It was fun to actually be inside the canyon...

It gave you a totally different perspective of everything...

And you got to get up close to some of the hoodoos...

Nana & Poppy on the hike...

Nana & Cohen taking a little breather...

The fellas...

Cute Cohen...

Just hangin' out amongst the hoodoos...

Another family shot...

I love this shot of the red hoodoos in front of the bright blue sky.  No filter.  This is how it really looked.  Amazing...

Where did the boys go???

We only hiked  part of the way down the canyon because we realized as far as we walked down, we were going to have to hike back up.  So, once we passed through this little tunnel...

We sat & enjoyed the pretty views for a little while...

And then started the long hike back up...

The way back up was steep and hard, but we all made it in one piece...

After our hike, we just went to several lookout points to take in the amazing views.  Here's Poppy at one of them...

My girl & me.  She kind of looks like she's crying, but she was laughing...

Connor and me.  How is he almost as tall as me already?  This is not okay with me!  Did I tell you we already wear the same size shoes?!?  He's not even 11 yet!  This one will definitely out grow me--and soon...

The boys taking another crazy picture...

Sweet Viv at Fairyland Canyon Overlook.  The boys didn't want to have their picture taken at anyplace with the word "fairy" in it...

Ummmmmm, I was not aware these next two pictures were taken until we got home from the trip.  There were some serious words spoken--let's just say that.  What the crap were they thinking???  Sigh...

While we were there, we ran into this little guy...

He ran out in front of us and stood still as a statue.  Seriously, he didn't move an inch, no matter what any of us did...

The boys got pretty darn close to it, but it still didn't budge.  Another guy who was there even threw a few sunflower seeds near it, but it wouldn't move--even for food...

It was pretty funny.  After that, we grabbed some lunch & then headed to another part of the park that had an easy hike.  It was called the Mossy Cave Trail...

It was a fun, fairly flat hike that went right along a creek.  We found out that it was a man-made creek.  The Mormon pioneers who settled Tropic (a town right by Bryce Canyon) didn't have a good water source, so they actually dug a trench to re-route part of the Sevier River over to Tropic.  That was the stream that was by this trail.  You were able to take the trail to two different destinations.  The first was a waterfall along the stream...

It was nice to go underneath it and get sprayed a little to cool off...

The 2nd ending was the mossy cave for which the trail was named.  It wasn't much to look at...

Viv slept the entire hike, and Mike carried her the whole way with his one good arm.  Now *that* is a good daddy...

We took one final family picture...

And then jumped in the cars for the drive home.  When we were about an 2 hours into the 3 1/2 hour drive, I looked back to find Vivvie looking like this...

Haha!  I thought it summed up our trip nicely.  We had a blast...and had the dirty faces & clothes to prove it!!  Every second of the eight days was full of fun.  We were able to go so many places & do so many things.  I think it will go down in the Storrs' Family History Books as one of the best vacations ever.  --Lindsay