Preschool Boy Joshy

Joshy gets to attend Ms. Heather's Preschool again this year. He is such a sweet boy that she begged to have him back this year. He has this affect on a lot of people. He's such a loving and kind little guy who always smiles and has fun.
Last year in Preschool one of the reasons Ms. Heather loved Joshy so much is because he has such a cute way of saying things. All of his "J's" and "F's" come out "H's" so it made for some interesting times at preschool last year.

Some of our favorite words Joshy says with the H replacing the J and F sound are:

123 Hore!

I pledge allegiance to the "Hag"

"Humping" on the bed or Trampoline. It makes 5 Little Monkeys Jumping/(Humping) on the Bed a much more interesting song! Especially when all the other kids at preschool start repeating it like Joshy. You can imagine their parents shock when they came home with a new version of the song.

I need my "Hacket!"

"Hakey!" instead of Jakey.

Some other cute phrases are, Keepers Finders!! Prenzils, and Boonanas.

He is so adorable we often say don't grow up any more Joshy!!

Mr. Sam Man is also in his class again and we are carpooling. These two have such a blast together and love to play at co-op after preschool.

Change

What the Caterpillar calls the End of the World......the Creator calls The Butterfly

I know that we can learn and grow from the changes in our lives so I should embrace them right? Wrong. I still resist them and drag my feet and worry and stress. I think I'm getting a little better at it (or at least I hope I am). We heard a year ago that our kids were going to get rezoned for the 2010-2011 school year at a new elementary school that they were just beginning construction on. I looked up the location and was immediately dissappointed. Too many business' nearby, small streets making difficult loading and unloading, and a small lot for the playground.

I went to all the rezoning meetings dragging my little kids along and fighting to have my elementary kids stay in their old school that they had grown to love. I felt anxiety and stress when I realized that our requests were falling on deaf ears and like it or not we were going to be rezoned.

In May we learned more about some of the staff members and again were dissapointed. Not sure what to do, I prayed and fought all summer to get Zone Variances to the old school for my two children. Finally the week before school was starting, I started really bugging our old school to let me know. I even offered to teach a Soccer Academy before school. They finally gave me the official NO the monday before school started. I was crestfallen and saddened that so much effort, time, and energy had been spent on this pursuit....only to be told NO.

What I have learned however, is that no time is waisted when it comes to going to bat for your children and their well being and happiness. Education is very important to our family.

So now what?? We have moved forward and taken the "No answer" as an opportunity to embrace the positives about the new school. Afterall, how you teach your children to react to difficult situations is just as important as teaching them to take a stand and fight for what you believe to be a good cause.

Some of my anxieties have diminished after a week and a half at the new school.....and some of them are still there. I am choosing to combat this by being more involved in volunteering, becoming an acitve PTSO member, and helping with school activities so that I can be right on top of any subtle or not so subtle messages and education, that are contrary to our family's belief system, that may be taught to my children.

On the bright side.....the new school is BEAUTIFUL. It is two levels which allows for bigger classrooms, lots of windows and state of the art technology. They have permethium (sp?) whiteboards in each classroom as well as overheads that can project anything (not just things written on plastic) up on the board for the class to see. They even have interactive tools that each student holds and pushes to vote for the right answers and such. It reminds me of Jeoparday! They have a science lab, and an amazing computer lab completely stocked with brand new Mac computers. The library is filled with all brand new books and more Mac computers.

They painted accent walls here and there in the classrooms, hallways, and libraries in bright colors such as lime green, blue, and red to make it a more cheery atmosphere. Its a very bright school with wide hallways which makes it feel very roomy. And last but not least..... my kids are bussed to school. They have one bus for our whole Waterfall Community which is mostly filled with kids from our ward.


Triggs Travelers....the new school mascot and logo
My School kids....wait I'm missing Carter....where are you?....oh yeah in bed with a 103.5 temperature. On the first day of Middle School?? Now that's bad luck. Or good luck depending on how you want to look at it.

Mia, Aspen, and Hanna Back to School Buddies!

Both of my children were blessed with Awesome teachers that I trust and know will teach high quality education.
Jake's 2nd grade teacher -- Mrs. Eldan
Hanna (4th grade) with Mrs. Montgomery at Meet the Teacher Day There are 5 kids from the ward in Hanna's class
Jack and Jake are best friends, neighbors, and lucky to be in the same class again!! (okay so mom had to manipulate the system a bit to make this happen...no one is that lucky)
We survived the first day!

Hanna has laid out the entire weeks worth of outfits for the last two years in a row. I never got a picture of it last year....so I vowed to get one this year!

Bryce Canyon

One of the neatest things about Duck Creek is that it is so close to Bryce Canyon. So we packed a lunch on our last day and headed to the Park. We stopped at the Visitors Center where we learned about how Bryce Canyon formed in a video. We couldn't help joking about the funny name for the funky rock formations: Hoodoos. Anthony kept saying "Get you hand off my Hoodoo"! It never really got old the entire day. What did get old was the game I was playing with the kids about native birds to the Park. I told them if they could spot them I would pay them a dollar for each one. We had to keep reestablishing the rules....they thought it was one of those get rich quick schemes....not just an eduactional exercise with a small monetary prize ending as I had intended!! They were cute though and it did keep them busy!
After a quick lunch we were off to explore and hike




This hike went really deep into the canyon with lots of switchbacks it was perfect for the kids...but really hot by the end.


The lighting was really hard the further in we got. We all look like we have fake tans
Some how these two trees grew amidst all the red rock, but had not branches until very high up? Strange.
We tried to do Hanna's hair like Katelyns from the day before, but because it is so long, it kind of looked more like Princess Leia
Anthony's cute family
I think this squirrel is used to people..... the kids were feeding it nuts from the trail mix
So many neat formations
Hey get your eyes off my hoodoos!!!

Cedar Breaks

Cole loves anything that goes Vroom-Vroom!

The best part about these ginormous helmets was that they had silhouettes of naked ladies on the backs of them.
The backside of the cabin where the fort was located. The tree stumps are the fire pit area. It was perfect!
Spike's kids?

This swing was a real bonus to the cabin
We had a slow fun morning at the cabin while the big boys (Jared, Carter, Clark, and Jake) went fishing again. They had more success!! Clark's was monster big.

Then we decided to head to a fun park near by called Cedar Breaks. Oh my was it beautiful! I love summertime!

Its weird how erosion makes all of this happen

Hanna and Katelyn had the best time together

The rowdy, rebel group
We next went on this quick little hike that the kids were way too tired and whiny for.....was it really only 1.5 miles???

The hike wound down to this cool lake...infested with mosquitos
The hike was beautiful and maybe one day I can look at these pictures and not remember the whiny voices....on a side note, Aunt Rachel did Katelyn's hair and it turned out sooo cute!


As we were pulling into our cabin, this deer met us!

Fishing and more

We enjoyed a very windy day fishing with the Hackmans on Panguitch Lake. The Hacks happened to rent a cabin for a week at the same time we were there....so we met up! It was so much fun to have such a large loud group...we may have scared away some fish, but we still had a little success.
Jake was the only kid out of our group that caught a fish. Jared also caught one and Braxton Hackman got one. James also got one but in an unfortunate turn of events it made its way back to the water--one of those things that is much funnier after the fact.
Unhooking Jake's fish

Hanna and Katelyn sure looked cute all day....I had to convince them that it was okay to go potty in the wilderness even if you are a girl. Lead by example RIGHT???

That night Anthony and Rachel, Alyssa, Sabrina, and Oliver showed up. We were happy to see them and enjoyed smores by the campfire with chocolate swirled marshmallows and reeses peanut butter cups.
Oliver and Cole were in rare form at this moment and not beating on each other, they looked so cute in their Authentic Jackson Family Member Sweatshirts!