Spencer's Court of Honor

My youngest brother, Spencer, received his Eagle - highest rank in scouting - this past Sunday, 9/11/2011. Here he is with my Mom, Dad, and President Charles Dahlquist. President Dahlquist was our Stake President growing up, a good family friend, and he was the General Young Men's President for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints a few years ago. Now he is serving as something with the boy scouts of America program. Not sure what, but he's pretty high up there and it was an honor for him to be at Spencer's court of honor.

 The Eagle's Nest. If you've never been to a court of honor, this "nest" is where the men sit that have received this honor. You can see the light reflecting off my hubby's bald head on the front row. : )

 Way to go Spencer! You only have until the age of 18 to receive this award, and he got it in the nick of time. Now he's off to college up at Utah State for the next year until he goes on his mission next summer.

First Day of School

Tucker started kindergarten on September 6th. We have been so excited for him to enter the big league. There are 13 kids in our ward boundaries that started kindergarten this year and 9 of them are in Tucker's class. It makes it fun to already know 1/2 the class. Tucker has afternoon kindergarten and 2 girls on our street are in his class, so we take turns (as Mom's) riding our bikes with them to school. Then after school they ride home with one of the Mom's and the older siblings. Tucker loves it and is having fun!

 They were told to bring teddy bears on their first day of school, thus the big bear he is holding in the picture. It's not like he is super attached and has to take it everywhere. He just figured the bigger the better. : )

Aubrey started pre-K this year too. I haven't managed to get a before school picture of her yet. Hopefully tomorrow so that I can add it to this post. She loves school and we carpool with a little boy down the street. The only hard part for me is that Aubrey has morning preschool and Tucker afternoon kindergarten. I'm a bit strapped if I need to run errands. I've only got a 2.5 hour time frame to get down to the big valleys and back. We'll manage though. School is great for them!

Swiss Days Parade

One of the many things I love about living in Midway is Swiss Days. The whole community gets involved for a weekend that attracts around 90,000 visitors. It's pretty amazing. There is a really neat spirit about it and we love being a part of it. Cody was asked to help with the Swiss Taco booth again this year as a co-manager. That means he eats, drinks, breathes Swiss Tacos and yodeling for 2 straight days, plus all the help they need with set up the week before. He's a good sport and willingly does his part. I was able to finally help out the food booth this year because my Mom and sister came up to watch my kids for an afternoon as well as Cody's parents the next day. Saturday is the best because they have a parade that runs down Main Street. It's a lot of fun and the kids receive tons of candy.

 Aubrey loved every princess that rode by. Maybe she'll be part of the Swiss Miss Royalty someday. : )

 Our town is even cool enough to get the Jazz Bear.

My goal is to take pictures of Cody in the Taco booth next year. Somehow I've managed to not do that the past 3 years.

End of Summer Fun

We were able to get memberships to the Living Planet Aquarium for free by opening up savings accounts for Tucker and Aubrey at Mountain America Credit Union. We've been twice and the kids love it. Cody and I aren't that impressed after going to Baltimore's aquarium and Chicago's, but the kids don't know any different and they have a great time. We went as a family the first time and didn't take any pictures. We went with my Mom, Heather and Ethan the 2nd time.

 They have penguins at the aquarium right now.

 We went swimming at my Grandpa Foster's pool. Cole will finally float in a life jacket with arm bands on. Blake LOVES the water and is constantly splashing.

 My kids play with the water fountain just like I did when I was little. It's fun to see them do things that I did as a kid.

 We went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point on their last $2 Tuesday.

 There were cool hands on activities to entertain the kids.

 Their favorite part was probably digging for Dino's at the water table.

 Blake of course wanted to get in the water.

 I told Tucker to stand so I could take a picture with him and the T-Rex, this was what he wanted to do, act like the T Rex.

 It's been fun having my sister live closer. She can come and hangout with us more.

Tucker's 1st piano recital

Tucker and I have been taking piano lessons from my Dad since January. Tucker was able to be in his first piano recital back on May 17th. Unfortunately, Cody and I were out of town and missed it, but I finally got my hands on a copy of his performance. He is playing "It's A Small World".

Summer Pictures

Deer Creek

We headed to Deer Creek for the afternoon last week with a bunch of friends and neighbors. Aubrey was my brave child that didn't seem to mind the water. She had fun playing with her 2 girlfriends.

 Tucker was a chicken and wouldn't get into the water until later when his friends arrived. He was content to sit and eat chips.

 Cole went right to work digging in the sand.

 Blake was so good and sat in the stroller the entire time. He's buddies with Ariann. She's 6 weeks younger than him.

 Tucker and his friends would jump off the dock and swim back to shore and repeat over and over. I wish we had gone to the lake more this summer, but I'm a cheapo and didn't want to pay the $10 fee to get in. Hopefully next year we'll have a boat and then I'll just use our parks pass.