Saturday, September 29, 2012

And a Little More September Fun

I've done a little canning... or a lot of canning.  Two batches of applesauce, two pints apple butter, 7 quarts of apple pie filling, 20 quarts of nectarines and maybe almost fifty quarts of grape juice... I love having  a full pantry!

 Maama is the professional applesaucer- and the kids love to grind the apples up.  (Hyrum calls the apple torture chamber).

 We took a little field trip to the Sons of the Utah Pioneers party at the Pioneer village in Provo where the kids played games, learned Deseret letters, ate hot dogs, played the dulcimer and were fascinated by the blacksmith.

He made dinner bells by bending crow bars into triangles.

Hyrum and Weston ran the BYU Cross Country Triple Crown Race- it's a whole mile!  Weston did awesomely and finished 32nd in his race- right in the middle of the pack.  His time was 10:17!  The kids that won ran it in 7:50- crazy fast for a first grader!


 Hyrum started out pretty consistent but pretty soon his stomach started to ache... maybe from the two big hot dogs and the snow cone he ate just before.  He finished strong though, and beat his previous time by doing the whole mile in 9:47.   Then he puked out his guts at Grammie's house.  Lesson learned.  The winner of the fourth graders ran it in an amazing 6:19.  Seriously.

                                                      I was proud of them for doing so well!
On the weekend of the 22nd, we headed south... all the way to Spanish Fork!  We went with Maama and Kristi's fam to the Harvest Moon festival- mostly because our very favorite Piano Guys were playing!  We were planning on going to play for a bit, going back to Mom's for dinner and then going back for the show. BUT the Popularity of the Piano Guys caused the seats to start filling up fast so Zach and the kids sat there for two hours saving seats (and they were good seats!) while we ran home to get the dinner, bring it back and then eat dinner in our seats before the show started.   It was so worth it.  Jon Schmidt and Steven Sharp Nelson are two great entertainers and performers but it just wouldn't have been the same if we couldn't see their faces.  We laughed all night long!  The boys are once again inspired to do more piano practicing- though Hyrum says I need to practice the cello and get as good as Steven.  Pretty sure that's never going to happen (not the practicing part, just the 'good as' part!).  Anyway, here's the pics:





 Sadly, the only picture that half way worked out in the dark... Oh well.
We then stayed the night at Mom and Dad's so we could get up in the morning and go together to the Brigham City Temple dedication which was streamed to all the Utah stake centers.  We dropped Afton and Weston off at Kristi's and picked up Bryson- it was fun to take two handsome boys in suits to their first temple experience!
Then, we came back for a fancy lunch of Meatloaf, zuke casserole, rolls, corn on the cob and strawberry cake in honor of Robby's 28th birthday.  Happy Birthday Uncle Bobby! 

 Then, just yesterday, Weston and Liesel had an audition with in infamous Kid History brothers- of Youtube fame!  If you don't know who they are, go look them up... You will laugh.  Anyway, they needed some kids to come tell some stories, act out scenarios and just be kids so we signed up Weston and Liesel to do what they do- talk!  Of course they were a little shy to start but I'm hoping they warmed up enough to actually get some good footage.  Anyway, it was a cool experience to meet them and see their studio!


Sunday, September 16, 2012

Bear Lake in September!

Grandma and Grandpa Largey decided it was time to take a little trip with the WHOLE family so they worked their connections and got two condos up by Bear Lake for us to crash in while we played!  It was great fun.   We arrived (late because of U vs USU game traffic!) Friday night to swim and eat yummy pizza (ranch sauce? Yes!) at Grandma and Grandpa's condo down the hill.   Then we headed up to the big condo to stay with all the siblings for the rest of the week end.  
In the morning, our little family woke up (earlier than everyone else, of course) to hike the 'Limber Pine' trail above Bear Lake.
 It was a chilly morning so we were glad we had our jackets!  As you can tell, we were in good spirits...
It was a little hike- mile round trip- but this is the famous 560 year old limber pine tree which was thought to be the biggest in the world, until they realized it's actually 5 trees grown together. Anyway, it was ...neat. :)
We headed back to the condo where people were slowly waking up, getting breakfast and packing up to head to the lake.   We spent the next 6 hours:

Digging in the sand

Making castles, volcanoes, dolphins and mermaids.

Being cute

and stylish

and DIRTY. But we didn't care.  The big boys rented jet skiis for four long hours... and then they got one more hour just for fun.  I took my turn on the jet ski and we stopped to look at some awesome huge fish in the beautiful clear water- and then we tipped over. After that I was just cold and ready to go. I know, I'm just not the beach kind of person the Largey family is!  Zach definitely had a blast though, and even took the kids out for a couple rides.  Weston loved it, Hyrum did not.  Afton was just squished inbetween Zach and Weston so I'm not sure she even realized she was going anywhere.  But, we did have fun creating in the sand and floating in the rafts (I'd take a raft over a jet ski any day!)
That night Zach cooked up some Tom Kha and we played games and watched movies.  The next morning we got ready for church and walked down the boardwalk to the beach.  It was so beautiful!




Me and My Afton


These are my cute crazy kids saying THANKS to Grandma and Grandpa for a fabulous trip!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

When Summer comes to a Close...

At the end of the summer we have a "Summer Piano Recital" at Grandma Norviel's
 We go to Midway with our cousins and climb a crater.
 We run around the Homestead resort
 We eat at fancy Mexican Restaurants with awesome Salsa Bars
 We go swimming with our cousins in Midway, at Seven Peaks and the Scera Pool
 and sometimes we kiss Frogs.
 We also climb large pyramids at parks in Lehi
 Play with 1st cousins once removed- we are cool like that.
 We play with our new baby cousin Cooper!
 Taking Hyrum on a date to Cheesecake Factory
 And then, we start school!

 Hyrum goes to Mrs. Topham's class
Weston heads to Mrs. Maynard's 1st grade class
 And Afton and I go to Thanksgiving Point, of course!
 We feed ducks
 Hang out with Nick
 Go to jail (I love their sad faces)
 Go on cart rides
And just make use of our 'no boys' time!  It was one great summer full of all kinds of good stuff.  Zach keeps saying "I don't know how we'll beat this