June re-cap

I can't believe it's JULY already!

June is just a BLUR in my mind.

It went something like this:

I'm hungry.

Can we play lego star wars the video game?

Our room is ALMOST clean...

I'm hungry.

Can we have an ice pop?

I'm too full to eat my potatoes.

I'm hungry.

Can we have a sucker?

WHY?

We fed the dog and watered our garden and cleaned our room.

Now can we play lego star wars the video game?

I'm hungry.

Is there any more food?

Can we make orange julius?

I need a band-aid.

I'm hungry.

Can we go to the park?

Can I have a snack?

I can't find my crocs.

Is it hungry in here?

Mom! Mo-om. Mom?

What's for dinner?

And I can't even count how many times I've found a chair next to the pantry and the freezer.

Summer is fun, but I can't afford it much longer!

Family Yahtzee

I saw a homemade yahtzee game tutorial on this blog, and I had to make it!

Todd cut the 2" wood blocks for me, and I used an electric sander to sand them (for all of you who live within range of a craft store, you can just go pick up some wooden blocks...be sure and think of me while you're there).

I had to wait over a week for Todd to fix our printer so I could print the pictures and the scrapbook paper, and after a couple hours of painting and mod-podging, they're finished.

You can download actual Yahtzee score cards online (just google it), but I made my own so they're a little easier for the kids.

Dillon has the barfies today :o( so we'll have to play as soon as he's feeling better.

Relay for Life

Todd purchased a couple "Relay for Life" luminary bags from our little friend Alyssa's grandmother.

For our Family Home Evening last night, we decorated them in memory of our Grandpa's who passed away from cancer. The kids did the one of Dave (I printed off the pencil sketch from the computer), and I did one for my Grandpa Salisbury.

The bags will have candles in them, and surround the track at "Relay for Life" this weekend.

For dessert, we made strawberry rhubarb pie, which was one of Dave's favorites.

Stalling...

Setting: 10:15 PM. I am downstairs searching the net for summer fun idea's for my upcoming enrichment class, and Dillon (who is supposed to be in bed) comes to the top of the stairs to ask some very important questions. Todd is passed out on the spare bed next to the computer (he's had a fever for two days).

Dillon: "Mom!"

Me: "What, Dilly?"

Dillon: "Mom? Would you be afwaid of a twotodioe as bid as a house?"

Me: "Yes, Dillon, I WOULD be afraid of a crocodile as big as a house!"

Dillon: "Mom! Would you be afwaid of a twotodioe as bid as a smawe house?"

Me: "Yes, I would be afraid of a crocodile as big as a small house."

Dillon: "But Mom! It would tate YEAWS foe him to eat you. You awe BID!"
translation: But Mom, It would take years for him to eat you. You are BIG.

Todd: ...suddenly alive and laughing hysterically.

The Graves's do Cow Dung Road

We got home from the Grand Canyon, and surprised the kids with a trip to Hanksville (the other side of our county) to take a tour of a dinosaur quarry. Brayden and Caleb are set on being palientologists when they grow up.

The Burpee Museum was invited by the Utah BLM to "do a dig" here, and they're very excited at the findings. This is the third summer they've done excavating, and they have public tours going on until the 2oth.

I called the BLM to find out exactly where we needed to go, and I laughed out loud when the guy told me to turn left on Cow Dung Road. And sure enough...

You can't even get to this place without a truck, so of course Todd loved the drive. Brayden and Caleb kept saying, "This is awesome. It's like a roller coaster", and poor Dillon said, "Do you think we should go back home now?"
Brayden and Caleb are looking at one of the bones of a Barosaurus (one of only three barosaurus skeletons to have EVER been found). There's never been a skull found, so they're hoping to find one here.
The bones are very brittle, so they clear as much dirt away as possible, and then wrap it in plaster to keep it together during shipping. If anything breaks off, they have their trusty "paleo-bond" (super glue) to put it back together.

They have found at least six different dinosaur skeletons here, and they think this site will rival Dinosaur National Monument. They are hoping to have more educational opportunities and possibly a museum in the future. I'm okay with anything that creates jobs in this area!
All of the skeletons they've found so far, are young dinosaurs. They are studying the layers of rocks, and the angles that the skeletons are laying to try to hypothesize what might have happened here. They know that there were no volcanoes, and they know that there WAS water, and that at different periods of time this "river" moved at different speeds. It's amazing what they can tell from studying the dirt.

Somehow they also know that these dinosaurs traveled at about 3 mph, but they were capable of going 7-8 mph.

I was hoping the boys would change their minds about wanting to be palientologists, but they thought digging in the dirt looked like a great job!

On our way home, we caught a Kids Astronomy class at Capitol Reef, and then made s'mores around the campfire in our backyard.

I love summer.

The Graves's do the Grand Canyon

We took our fist vacation of the summer this week,

and visted the Grand Canyon...and grand, it was.

I didn't have to worry too much about the boys

getting too close to the edge, because Dillon

worried enough for all of us. We named him our

personal GPS (Graves positioning system).

If we got too close to the edge, he let us know

...and he wasn't quiet about it.

There were plenty of places to have a picnic and look

over the rim. The boys had a great time jumping off of

rocks, and that was just fine with me.

We took this trail, and saw the foundations of some

Native American homes. It was great for Brayden

since it passed off one of his scout requirements.

The boys became "Junior Rangers" by completing the requirements

in their booklets from the visitor's center. We also attended a class

on the California Condor, and it was actually quite interesting.

My favorite part was "Angel's Window". The video at the end

is the view we had while standing at the edge of this formation.

We stayed at a cabin in Jacob Lake (about an hour from the

Grand Canyon) where my cousin Clarissa is working

for the summer. It was fun to see her. She seems like

she's having a great time...I miss those college days :o)

Until Clarissa started working there, and I looked at a map,

I had no idea we only live about 4 1/2 hours away from the north rim.

The boys named their dad "The 8th wonder of the world",

but made sure that he knew how well known he wasn't.

They grow up so fast...

Dillon took this picture of Todd.

We spent the $80 for the National Parks pass,

so we're hoping to get to Canyonlands, Arches, Zion's,

Bryce Canyon, and possibly Mt. St. Helen's and

Mesa Verde within the next year.

We live within a 3 hour drive of the first four,

and we're only about 5-6 hours from Mesa Verde.

Hopefully we can do Mt. St. Helen's during our

trip to Washington in July.

Now if we could just buy a trailer...

I figured it out, people!!!

I've had conversations with a few of you, about how when you put pictures in blogger, SOMETIMES you can click on them to make them big, and sometimes you can't. Maybe you all already know this, but

I finally figured it out.

If you click and drag your pictures to move them around in your post, it breaks the link that allows you to click on the thumbnail and make it bigger.

You have to switch to HTML, and move the code to wherever you want it in your post, and then you'll be able to click on it as a thumbnail.

Ahh. I feel better.

Summer Schedule

Here's what we are doing for Summer this year:

This is the first summer since we got our Nintendo, and I wanted to make sure that the boys weren't playing it all day long. So I made up a schedule and presented it at FHE last night. It was well received, so hopefully the boys will hold me to it, because they are fanatics about schedules and charts (I am not...in any way shape or form).

I'm not sure if you can see it, but I try to do a simple (we're talking 15 minute) activity with my kids each day. I'm also going to teach the older two piano lessons, and typing (home row).

Monday is Art Day, Tuesday is Library Day (story time) and writing day, Wednesday is Goal Day, Thursday is Science Day, and Friday is field trip day.

For writing, I made a journal jar with writing prompts. They can pick out two and choose which one they want to write about. They brought home their "writer's workshop" notebooks from school, so I'm just having them write in those.

I made a checklist of goals for each boy that they can do on Wednesdays. Brayden's list comes mostly from his Scout Book and his Faith in God book. Caleb's list came from the Tiger cub requirements that I found online, and Dillon's came from my own preschool knowledge.

Science Day is easy, because Todd bought a set of books that he thought were workbooks for kids, but they're really lesson plans with lots of little science projects. The kids can't wait for these.

Friday is the hardest, because we don't have too many places to go. I imagine we'll visit every park in our county, take a few hikes in Capitol Reef, go fishing, geocaching, and maybe we'll go bowling or mini-golfing a few times.

Our daily schedule is quite flexible, but follows this pattern: eat, work, play. At lunchtime we "start over" and they do afternoon jobs. I've left an hour and a half for jobs, but it doesn't take anywhere near that long. As soon as they're done, they can play.

Our neighbors are doing similar things, so that helps because the other kids know our boys can't play until their jobs are done. Some have the same video game rules, too. No video games until 4:00.

The Book Bingo chart is to keep them reading. Each square has a different type of book. As they read one, they can mark it off. On the day they get Bingo, they can play video games before 4:00. When they get black-out, they get an ice-cream cone from Maria's (local restaurant).

I'd love to hear what you're doing with your kids. I'm always looking for idea's.

Proud.

It has taken YEARS of nagging and whining (mostly by me), but my boys are FINALLY catching "the vision", and I am so proud of them this week.

Brayden and Caleb wanted their own garden this year, so Todd tilled them a couple rows (we're talking about 4' x 8'. I figured it wouldn't last, because last year didn't go so well, but they have watered that garden every day this week, on their own, without being asked. I know because whenever I need the sprinkler for the front yard, I find it back by their garden. The day we planted it, Caleb announced, "this is the BEST day of my life."

On Sunday, I turned the sprinkler on for my newly planted strawberries, and then got busy making dessert, and forgot about it. I woke up at 5:00 AM Monday morning in a panic when I remembered I was still watering my strawberries. I threw a sweatshirt on and ran outside, and the water was off, and the hose wasn't even headed out to the strawberries. I followed the hose and it ended at the boys' garden (and was turned off). That was the first proud moment. They're doing better than me!

We introduced our Summer Program to the boys at FHE last night, and this morning they did their morning jobs willingly. I truly never thought it would happen.
Well, two out of three isn't bad. Dillon hasn't caught "the vision" yet. He's supposed to be sweeping the kitchen floor with his little broom...

Earlier in the week I caught Brayden (twice) reading The Book of Mormon on his own during the day. Not the simplified readers, but his actual scriptures. He's reading ahead of our family.

It makes my heart happy.