Park Play

This is an average day playing at our neighborhood park. We can't usually spend more than 30 minutes out there, it just gets way too hot and uncomfortable. Just look at Eden and Emma's faces, they are so red!

January

I officially deem this, the longest month of the year! I don't know if it's because of all the anticipation leading up to the end of December and then ringing in the New Year, but after that... this month lasts FOREVER!!

Marion Learns to Ride a Bike

Marion learned, in just 2 days, how to ride a bike without training wheels. She had one good fall on the 3rd day. She was going too fast around a corner, but she has learned very quickly when to slow down, how to lean and turn, and how to start on her own.

Temple Square

On our way back to Indonesia, after a marvelous and spledid summer in Idaho, we had a 7 hour layover in SLC. When we arrived in the airport we saw large signs advertising tours of temple square in just 2 hours. So we went for it. It was a really wonderful opportunity to take our kids there. Dallin was the only one who had ever been there with us before but he was only a year old at the time. The kids really loved it! The only thing we didn't get to see in our short time was the conference center. Maybe for our next layover!

Marion Throws a fit

I was watching the girls playing Barbie's together at which point Marion got really frustrated because she couldn't get a shirt or something on one of her Barbie's. She threw the Barbie at the couch at which point I started recording this video. I thought her temper tantrum was hilarious but what followed the tantrum turned out to be even more funny.

First day of School

Yes, the first day of school was back in August, but somehow I missed these photos so I'm putting them up now. Emma started Pre-K so it was her very first day of school ever. The other kids were a bit nervous about starting a new school again, but it has proved to be a wonderful school and just what we all needed. This is also a picture of the kids and I standing in front of our house before the "bus" comes (they actually just ride in a six passenger car with 2 of our neighbors). It's very quiet where we live, it's extremely peaceful all you hear are birds chirping, roosters crowing, and the wind in the trees. We get the occassional cars that pass on our street but they are infrequent.

Thanksgiving

We had 2 Thanksgiving feasts this year. One on Thursday (the real day) with 2 other families, and then a large community potluck on Sunday afternoon. I can't find the pictures I took of our Thursday celebration (bummer), but here are photos of the Sunday afternoon feast!

Dallin didn't even sit with us for this feast, he joined a table with all the boys between grades 5-8, so we were joined by one of Marion's friends Shrishti. It was really fun, everyone mixing and mingling and eating delicious food! There were Thankful tress on each table with autumn leaves for each person to write what they were thankful for, what a clever idea. The only thing missing for me was playing card and board games after the food.

Large Bugs

One of the exciting parts of living in tropical east Asia are the ginourmous bugs! Here are 2 that Mike took pics of. The snail is about 5 inches long and 2-3 inches wide which technically isn't considered a "bug", and the scorpion is a good 8 inches long! YIKES!

Emma's First Haircut

We have reached a monumental stage in which Emma no longer wants me to brush her hair at all. And with hair this long, you can imagine how mangy and wild it was looking. So she agreed that it was time to eliminate the tangle factor by cutting it to a bob. It turned out so cute! But I miss her ringlets.

Halloween

Halloween was awesome this year! I enjoy it almost as much as the kids. We actually did trick-or-treating on Friday, November 4th as much of our camp population was still returning from R&R's. We went with our new friends the Ryan's. In the first picture you'll see Maggie, Matthew, and Ian along with our kids. Then on Saturday, there was a school Halloween Carnival with a haunted maze, pumpkin golf, donuts from a string, a cake walk, monster bean bag toss, and a carved pumpkin contest. Lots' of fun all around.

Many of you already heard about Dallin's costume this year. He wanted very badly to be Commander Fox from Star Wars the Clone Wars. We could never have found or had mailed a costume like that here so we got a seamstress, who works here on camp, to come for 2 days. I had a printed online picture of the costume Dallin wanted and she finished it in 1 day! Incredible!! I paper mached his helmet, which took about 5 days but all in all it turned out amazing! The next day the seamstress made Marion's bride costume and sewed a pirates vest for me with some leftover material. She costs the equivalent of $8.50 per day and works from 9am-4pm. AWESOME!

So, just for clarification purposes... Mike and I were pirates, Dallin was Commander Fox, Eden a witch, Marion a bride, and Emmalyn was Wonder Girl! You'll see she was a worn out wonder girl by the end of the night.