September 2012

On September 6th, Parker turned 8 years old!  He opened his presents before school.

He got some Legos, a camera, a book, a dice game, and some wheel shoes.  

Grandma & Grandpa Chappell gave him a tie and some books.

And later a bear from Grandma & Grandpa Bell came in the mail.

Parker in his birthday hat from school:

For Parker's cake this year he had a raspberry swirl cheesecake.  Yum!

Parker had planned to do laser tag for his birthday, but ended up

changing his mind.  That weekend I asked him if there was anything else he wanted to 

do to celebrate his birthday.  I was surprised when he chose a little activity we sometimes

do just for fun.  I make a pretend movie theater with a snack bar for the kids to visit.

We have a fun movie all ready to play, then the kids take pretend money and come 

to my snack bar and buy what snacks, etc. they want and buy a movie ticket.

This time we had dinner plates (we did corn dogs), popcorn, candy, and mini sodas.

The kids always have so much fun playing this. :)

On September 22, Parker was baptized!  We originally had planned to baptize him
in October, but changed it to September so he could have a chance to go to the
Brigham City Temple dedication that was on September 23rd.  It turned out  perfectly,
and some friends watched Bryce and Quinn while Josh, Isaac, Parker and I went to the dedication.  Such a neat experience to share with my boys.

Parker's baptism was really neat as well.  Grandma & Grandpa Bell, Grandma & Grandpa Chappell,
Aunt Melissa and Family and some friends from church all came.  I gave a talk on Baptism, Isaac gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, and Parker did a musical number himself playing "When I am Baptized" on the piano.  Josh baptized and confirmed him.  We are so proud of Parker!

Quinn sure loves these bowls with straws on them!  He loves having cereal in them in the morning. :)

Josh's business has been doing so well and he has helped so many kids with autism and other disabilities, that he was invited to join the Autism Speaks expo this year!  We had a big

banner made for it (that's the logo I designed for him).  I also designed a new brochure focusing

on autism, a sign with benefits,  and some new business cards.  Each participant in the carnival was supposed to do a carnival game.  We decided to do a fish pond (my favorite) and it was a big hit!  We had lots of fun and hopefully got the word out about how much massage therapy can help autism.  Isaac and Parker came and helped us out and we all had a good time.  

Cute sleeping picture of little Quinn.

Parker on his first day as a cub scout!  He was excited to finally be in scouts with Isaac.

Just a pretty picture of some cosmos that Parker planted by our shed.

September 29th was Josh and my 11th Wedding Anniversary.

Josh surprised me with a boquet of roses.  The weekend after we went out and had sushi to celebrate.

On the last day of September, we decided to take a ride up the canyon to see the fall leaves after church.  It sure was pretty - so good for the soul. :)

August - Family Vacation and Back to School

The first weekend in August, my mom came up and we went to Park City to do the school shopping.  We had so much fun last year, that we wanted to do it again this year.  I didn't get any pictures, but we had a lot of fun buying school clothes, exploring Park City and eating out.  :)  This year the kids all decided to stay home with Josh, so it was kind of nice to just spend the weekend with my mom. : )

For our family vacation this year, we had planned to go to Yellowstone.  However, our plans fell through, and sort of at the last minute we decided to keep it simple this year and make our family vacation more of a "staycation" and go to Park City.  So after my mom went home, Josh and the boys joined me there.  Park City has a great hotel that we like to stay at.  It's super family friendly, inexpensive and it comes with a free buffet breakfast at their restaurant which definitely saves money!

Josh had a couple of business meetings the first day or two, so the rest of us hung around the hotel and just relaxed, then later we went to downtown Park City and explored the little shops.  One of the days we went to the Olympic Museum.  That was really cool!  We learned all about when the Olympics were held here in Utah in 2002.  

The kids got to sit in a real bobsled

Olympic medals

Everyone loved the ski similator.  It's hard to tell by the picture,

but there is a big screen that makes it look like you are really skiing.

This was a fun little game where you try to get the ball to go off the ski

jump just right.  It was hard!

This was another one where you try to keep the ball

on the ski track and get it to the end as fast as you can.

Bryce loved playing with this one.  Every time we turned around 

he was back over at this game.

After we finished at the museum, we went outside.  We watched

some of the skiers practicing on the jumps.  Yep, they practice 

in the summer too!  They had to climb

a bazillion stairs to make it to the top, then they would ski down

and land in the pool at the end.  It was fun to watch!

These jumps were amazing to watch.  You could barely

see the little skier at the top, then they would ski down

and fly off the jump and land at the bottom where they would 

slide out on a big pad of grass.  I couldn't believe how high and

far they went through the air!  

Josh took Parker, Bryce, and Quinn (one at a time) on the

ski lift they had there.  Isaac and I chickened out because we 

are both super afraid of heights.

 Josh went on the big zip line they had there!

He loved it!

More walking through downtown.  Gotta get a picture

by the Park City bear!

Quinn got a fun little Indian drum for his souvenir. :)

On another day we went to the Park City Mountain Resort.  We started with

a game of miniature golf.  It was pretty hot, but we had fun anyway.

Quinn got to hold whichever balls that weren't being used 

in between plays. 

And of course, it was more fun to throw them

than hold them. :)

 

Next, Josh and Parker went on the Alpine Slide!  They loved it!

Isaac and I eventually decided to brave our fear

of the ski lift that takes you to the top of the slide.

Isaac was big enough that he had to ride by himself.

I went with Bryce.  The ski lift part was terrifying, but 

the slide was pretty fun!

We also went to the Park City Museum.  We ended up getting there just right before they closed, 

but they let us hurry and go through.  Isaac had really wanted to see this museum, so we

decided we'd better do it even if it was short.

It was neat to see the old artifacts from Park City's history.

This was a neat old switchboard machine.

Replica of an old store.

Before they had ski lifts, they had these little train type things that

went underground to take skiers to the top of the mountain to ski down! Crazy!

In the basement of the museum there is an old jail.

Hard to see, but this is one of the cells.  It would sure

have been awful to live in that tiny dark room!

The week after we got home, summer vacation ended and school began!  Isaac started 4th grade, Parker started 2nd grade, and Bryce started 1st grade!  They were all excited, had lots of fun, and loved their new teachers.   This picture was taken after school.  You can tell Bryce had a bit of a hard time adjusting to the new schedule.  He was tired!  It didn't take him long to get back in to the swing of things though.  :)

That same week I started babysitting my sisters kids as she had to go back to work and hadn't been able to find a babysitter up north where she lives.  One day, I walked into the living room, and this is how I found Quinn and Briley.  Haha.  They were both standing in the car seats.  :)  Cute.