1st Day of Preschool

Yesterday was Hayden's first day of Preschool. I got together with some of my friends that have kids Hayden's age and put together a preschool co-op. They go Wednesday and Thursday from 9:30-11:30. Each mom takes a week to teach, helps the following week, and then has a few weeks off. There are 6 kids in her class- Hayden, Lochlan, Avery McMillan, Bradyn Stanger, Eliza Natter, and Aniela Deja.

Hayden was beyond excited! She's been asking every day for the past week if it's time for preschool. On Tuesday night I told her she would be going to preschool in the morning. At 6:45 yesterday morning, she was in my face asking if she could leave for preschool. From then until we actually left a little after 9, she continued to say "Is it time for preschool?" "Hurry, It's time to go" "Come on mom".

Finally, it was time to go. She had her new backpack, that she loves dearly. After a few pictures, we were on our way. When we got to the Deja's house, Hayden was out of the van and in the house. When I went back to pick her up she had had a great time, but wasn't too talkative about it.

Ryan came home for lunch and surprised her with a special Happy Meal for her first day. I told her she is so lucky to have such an involved, loving Dad!!
After lunch she was a little more talkative and told me a little about her day. They learned about letter A. They got to go in the yard and pick real apples from a tree. Then she got to take the seeds out and paint this beautiful picture with her apple!

This morning she was in my face at 7:15 ready to go back for day #2. I think this will be great for both of us. It just so happens that preschool is during Cole's nap time. So, She's there now, Cole is asleep, and I have cleaned up the house, baked some cookies, made my first ever batch of homemade applesauce and now get to relax for a bit.

I could get used to this ;)

Horses, Horses, and more Horses

Our first adventure with horses was at This is the Place park. When I told Hayden we were going to ride ponies, she asked if they had pink hair like her ponies. Funny girl. Needless to say, she was in heaven on this horse and even managed to swindle the nice worker girl out of her hat!

Cole liked it, but didn't want to sit still.

(Yes, I am aware that I am wearing the same shirt in almost every picture I have posted lately. It has been washed and many days have passed in between photo shoots, thank you)

Sean's family came along for the fun.

The kids took a break in between rides to pet some animals. I was again reminded that goats give me the creeps!

Back to the horses we went for a few more rides. Brogan and Hayden even got to ride together. Aren't they sweet?!

Easton was so happy!
After all of the rides, we stopped at the old candy store and took the train ride around town.

Our next pony adventure was at Gardner Village. My mom and I always like visiting the shops here, especially at Halloween time when they have their decorations up.

And finally, horse rides on my brother Darin's horse, Poseidon. We got to walk around the stables visiting the other horses there and then Hayden got to go for a quick ride.

I think we may have to get Hayden in riding lessons sometime. She really enjoyed all of her horse riding expeditions ;)

Labor Day Festivities

So, 2 days after our hike to Secret Lake, Ryan headed off to China and the kids and I stayed with my parents. A week later, on Labor day we got together with some of my fam and headed to Payson Lakes.

My Dad brought his new kayak out for the first time and was more than a little thrilled.

The kayak was in use the entire time. Hayden looks petrified, but actually really enjoyed it. We all brought lunches, set up the camping chairs, laid out a few blankets and enjoyed the day. The weather was glorious. It really was the perfect outing. It only could have been better if Ryan were there.

This poor little dude was missing a nap, and we found out later that he had an ear infection. But once he was loosed from the stroller, you wouldn't know it. He had fun exploring and being the center of attention for a bit.

When the kids weren't taking their turn on the kayak, they had fun exploring and playing in the nasty, muddy water. Some got a little more muddy than others. Poor Brynli!



My nephew, Damon, bet his dad that he could catch a fish with his sticks. Aaron bet him $20 he couldn't. Damon headed off to catch his fish. A while later, he came back with this, and was ready for his money!! It turns out some fishermen took pity on him and gave him one of their fish. It had us all laughing...

After the fun at the lake, we headed over to Natalie's house for a BBQ with Ryan's family. The kids enjoyed even more play time with even more cousins and I enjoyed the great food. The further we got into the trip the fewer pictures I took. So, no pictures from the BBQ, but a great time was had and this was another night when we all crashed into bed!

Secret Lake

We made it to Utah just in time for Grandpa Woodland's birthday! The family got together for a pizza party, topped off with a golf cake. Hayden was so happy to see her cousins!

The next day, after the boys went golfing, we headed to the mountains. Ryan and I forgot how much we missed the mountains, until we saw them! The mountains really are such a peaceful, beautiful place.

We were planning to have a picnic up by Secret Lake. It turned out to be too windy, so the picnic was moved indoors. At least inside the vans.

Then we hiked to the top of this mountain to Secret Lake. I was told it would be like the walk around Silver Lake, which is just a walkway around the lake. This was most definitely not the same. It was a real hike (only 1 mile, but still), it was much colder than expected, and I was still exhausted from our trip. I complained a lot.

Poor Cole was chilled to the bone. His nose was running and his little lips were blue by the time we were done.

Hayden didn't complain at all and loved finding rocks with Sara to throw in the lake.

Looking back, I can say it was actually a lot of fun. And it was.

Then we headed back to Ryan's parents house and crashed soon after!

The Long Haul

At the end of August, Ryan was headed back to China for 3 weeks and I didn't want to be alone with the kids that long. So, we decided to make the long haul to Utah. All I have to say is, thank goodness for portable dvd players! Hayden watched movie after movie. The main downside was Cole's binky. It got thrown about a million times. Which means, whoever wasn't driving had the job of climbing in the back and searching for it a million times! Other than that, it really wasn't a bad drive and we had a lot of fun together. We made a few quircky stops along the way, and that made it interesting...

First we hit Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the Corn Palace. It's not as cool as it sounds, but was fun to see. They change the corn design every year and supposedly they've been featured in magazines and some tv shows.
They also happened to be having Corn Palace days, so Hayden got to play on some fun bouncy stuff. After all of this excitement, we headed to our dinky hotel there in Mitchell. Took a swim in a super cold pool and tried to sleep in the not so clean room. Cole would not sleep. So, about 4:30 am we decided to just get ready and get back on the road.

Our next stop was Wall Drug Store in Wall, South Dakota. There are signs for the place for hours and hundreds of miles before you actually get to it. They have been featured in People Magazine, on the Today Show and some other stuff.

The founder started this drug store forever ago and discovered a natural spring running there. He then started advertising free water. More people started stopping there and the drug store expanded. Now there are little shops, weird taxidermy animals, a restaurant, and pretty good donuts.

It was fun to check out all the weird, random things they had displayed.
After that stop, we were back on the road, again. I want to remember the beautiful sunflower fields. I tried to get a picture as we were driving by but it didn't turn out at all. The fields were so glorious though. Huge fields, full of giant, bright yellow sunflowers. Awesome!


Then we made our way to Mount Rushmore. We've never been and really enjoyed it.


We checked out the displays, hiked a little around the monument, and about an hour later were on our way. We didn't feel like there was a ton to see, but it was definitely worth going to.

As we left, we headed down through Custer state park. In the above picture, you can see Mount Rushmore in the distance from this lookout point in the park.
We saw 4 buffalo,
A ton of deer like animals (I can't remember their actual name now). And a ton of wild Burros. These burros were fearless, as you can tell by the picture. They came right up to the window begging for food. It was crazy.

Then we went down through the Needles Highway. It is such a beautiful place and made for a very enjoyable drive. We were going to stop for a second night but decided just to keep on trucking. We finally arrived at Ryan's parent's house in Taylorsville about 2 am, and crashed. Then it was on to many, many activities. So, be ready for lots of posts and lots of pictures!