Aliece Graduates from Kindergarten

Today was a very big day for Aliece. This morning, shortly after school started, we were invited to the elementary school to attend the 2008 Kindergarten Graduation.

Aliece prepared all week for this momentous occasion. She knew exactly what dress she was going to wear. She wanted her hair in a braided pony tail. She wore a pearl-like necklace. Finally, she wanted to make sure that we were going to be there.

Aliece was so cute at the graduation. She would sit perfectly still and quiet - she knew that this was an important day! She had one struggle that she had to deal with throughout the entire 30 minute program, however. Her poor little graduation cap would not stay on her head with her hair in a braid. She would be sitting quietly only to turn her head and have her cap fall off. She dealt with it well through their performance - holding to her head when it would slip, or quickly picking it up and placing it on her head when it would fall off. Nonetheless, she kept her smile and loved every minute of the ceremony.

I have condensed the half hour program into the following small three minute video:

7 Miler with the Kids

Last night, Amber, Michelle and I watched National Treasure 2 - The Book of Secrets. It was pretty great. The movie needed to be returned today, so after a bunch of chores and work in the yard, Aylee, Johnathan, and I hopped on our bikes and made the seven mile round trip to the nearby Macey's Grocery store to return the DVD.



The bike ride went very well. I think it is the farthest that I have taken either one of the kids (though Aylee may have gone farther with someone else - not sure). Johnathan's seat is going to need to be raised some more - that kid just keeps growing. We made the trip in a half an hour each way. I was worried how the kids would do in the narrow tunnels underneath bridges and freeways, but they did remarkably well. They are setting themselves up for some more biking adventures if they keep this up.



Once at Macey's Grocery store, we went to the deli and ordered small ice cream cones. The cones were massive for a 51 cent small order, but they were good. We sat for about 20 minutes licking our ice cream and chatting.

It sure was a fun way to return our rented DVD.

May Snow?

When we purchased our house a couple of years ago, we were very excited about all the trees in the front yard. Little did we know, however, that one of the byproducts of these trees was a plague of cotton in the month of May. I guess these trees were not quite that simple Quaken Aspen variety that I grew up with in the nearby hills of Arbon Valley. These trees have a strain of cottonwood in them.

During the beginning or middle of May, Cotton begins to fill the air. It is hard to walk outside and not get caught and particles in your nose and in your lungs. It does wonders for the allergies. Another problem with the cotton is that if you leave the door open to the house for any small duration of time, the airborne cotton loves to make its way into the house onto the floor and carpet. It is always a mess to clean up. If you walk in it it will cling to your shoes and then when you walk on the carpet it sticks to the carpet.

Last Sunday I took this picture of the cotton in our yard. The blanket of cotton looked just like a new fresh blanket of snow. I try to rake it up earlier this week. However, it's very hard to rake cotton. It tends to ball up and stay in the grass rather than gather on your rake.

On Tuesday night, however, we had a Pacific storm rolling in. Part of that storm was high gusts of wind during the night. Ever since that windstorm, we have not seen any more cotton flying in the air. I am hoping that the wind has blown away any leftover cotton blossoms on our trees. Luckily, the cotton season only lasts a week to 10 days. Other than that we still get to enjoy the shade of the trees provide in front of our home. I guess there will always be trade-offs between the plants we love and their byproducts that they produce.

Dance

Jenna is just getting ready for her big Dance Recital tonight. She has done really good this year. She has a good teacher, and has really been practicing hard.She has 2 dances, Ballet and Tap.
She dances to: Singing in the Bathtub and Music, Music, Music.
I will post her recital videos here later if they turn out ok. Wish her luck!

"Flipping" Out

A few weeks ago, Johnathan and Aylee had an end-of-class gymnastics performance for all of the parents. The Provo Parks and Recreation hosted several gymnastics classes over the spring. Aylee and John both participated and enjoyed learning some of the basics of gymnastics.

I made a video of segments of their performance for your viewing pleasure. If you cannot see the video below, click HERE.

Hiking the Y

I started up my last class this weekend. To the kids, this meant that on Saturday I would get to rip off a chain that is the countdown until I finish my MBA. Every link I pull off on Saturday afternoon after class represents one more weekend down. The link I tear off has an activity written on it along with a countdown. This one said "Hiking the Y" and "4 more Weekends!" I was excited about the "four more weekends" and the kids were excited about the hiking.

Amber had prepared some gear, along with borrowing a hiking backpack baby carrier. I grabbed a GPS and some hiking shoes and away we went. Jace did very well nestled in the backpack carried which I wore during the hike.



We had a great time starting up the mountain. During the hike we probably passed some 50 other people making the ascent or just coming down from the hike. We passed two sets of people that we knew from our neighborhood that had moved out in previous years. One of them was a webelos leader in his new ward and he had a handful of cub scouts with him. The other was a family that moved out three or four years ago. We were lucky to meet up with them because they were moving to Denver in a week to start a new job. It is pretty fun to see who you can meet when you hike the Y!


On one of the 14 marker posts up the mountain, we stopped and grabbed a photo of our family on the trail. The view of Provo was already starting to look pretty impressive. The weather was perfect for a hike and the kids were energetic!



As we neared the trail split where you decide if you hike will end at the bottom of the Y or at the top of the Y, we asked the kids which end they wanted to take. They all were enthusiastic about going to the top of the Y, so we altered course and headed up the higher trail.

Aliece was full of energy and ran on up ahead of all of us. She was the first one to make it to the top. She was pretty proud that she was the first one.



Once at the top we had a brief snack, chatted, and then called Jen to sing happy birthday and let her know where we were at (Jen has made this hike with us several times when she lived in Provo). We also had a girl take a picture of our family sitting at the top.

I had my GPS with me and had tracked the hike. Here are the stats for going up to the Y: We had climbed 1,100 feet in just over one hour of our adventure. Of that hour, we were moving 40 minutes of the time and stopped for pictures and breaks for 20 minutes. Our moving average was 1.7 miles per hour. Our walking distance was nearly exactly a mile.

On our way down, we stopped at a geocache that was located near the top of the Y. We let the kids take a look at it, but we didn't have anything to trade, so we just put it back. As we neared the trail split where we had originally turned to go to the upper part of the Y, Aliece pleaded that we take the other trail and visit the bottom of the Y. After much persuasion, we all agreed and made that short trek.

After visiting the bottom of the Y, we headed back down to the van. On our way down, we stopped and took a picture for a family that had eight children. Their oldest was 11 years old. They had a lot of very young kids. It was pretty cool to see a family that size doing the activity together. They explained to us that they made it a ritual every year.

Near the end of our trip, I continued to carry Jace in the back carrier. He had been very quiet and content the entire time. As we were walking Amber stopped and asked the kids to be quiet to see if they heard something. The mountain was quiet as we all listened. While we were listening I heard a faint hiss. I thought that was what Amber was pointing our attention to. I listened again and the hiss was a little louder. Amber asked, "What is that?" Again, I thought she was talking about the hissing sound. I listened more intently wondering if it were a snake, or an upset badger. All of the sudden the hiss was even louder, but this time it seemed to be right behind me. Suprised, I yelled and started running (I was behind everyone) and yelling "let's go!" Amber and the kids just looked at me with confusion. I stopped and said, "didn't you hear the hissing?" They had no clue what I was talking about. I asked Amber what she was listening to and she said, "it is the Carrillon Bells at BYU - they are playing a song". Then I realized what I had heard, and why no one else had heard it. Jace, who was riding on my back had has head propped in a position where his breathing was up against his blanket right behind my neck. The hissing sound I heard was Jace breathing with a snotty nose through his blanket. We all had a good laugh about it.

Aylee Performs

Last night Aylee's piano teacher held a Piano recital at a neighboring church.

This first video is of Aylee's first of three pieces.
(If you can't see the video, click here.)


This second video is of Aylee and Amber's duet together.
(If you can't see the video, click here.)


Aylee did a terrific job. It is fun to see her get so good at playing the piano!