Drew’s in school!

Today was Drew’s first day of “Joy School”. I initially had him in a local preschool but changed last minute when a couple gals in my neighborhood suggested we do our own. This will be my first try at it. I have always enrolled my others ones in an official school. We’ll see how it goes. I only teach two days a months so it shouldn’t be too bad.

Drew was super excited to go to Sister Green’s house today. He toted his new spiderman backpack and headed out the door. He learned about the letter A, the number 1 and how to recognize his name. He had no trouble leaving my side and was thrilled to be learning new things with his favorite friends. Way to go Drew Buddy!


Drew getting ready for school


Making a letter “A” cape.

Claire is a Kindergartener!

The day has finally arrived for Claire to begin school. Claire has always acted much older than she really is so it seems like she should have started school years ago. For the first time ever I didn’t cry on my kindergartener’s first day. I think it was because I knew she was ready. I can’t imagine anyone more ready than Claire. She is extremely independent. She didn’t even blink an eye when I walked off and left her in class. As a matter of fact, she has been asking me since last May when she would get to start school.

I will miss my little girl. I will miss spying on her as she sings and dances through the house. I will miss watching her climb up the counters to get the supplies she needs to make her own lunch. I might even miss the piles of clothes she creates as she changes from one outfit to the next. I am so excited to see what she becomes as she grows into her personality. It is bound to be something amazing I am sure!


Claire in front of her classroom.


Claire in line as she prepares to go into class (**notice the little boy picking his nose…ha!)


Claire in her “circle of friends”. They told everyone to hold hands and she looked up at me with a disgusted face and said “really?!” as she noticed a boy on each side of her! Thankfully this was before he picked his nose!

School is Back in Session

Sadly, the first day of school has arrived once again and my three oldest are back in school. (Claire will start kindergarten this coming Tuesday.) This summer sped by and has left me speechless at how quickly the time has gone. I miss by big kids already. No really, I do. I miss our chats, their helping hands, and the freedom we have when summer is here.

I watch Jacob head off to be a big sixth grader, Megan a fourth grader, Katelyn a second grader and now Claire a kindergartner and I can’t help but shed a tear or two. Partly I am sad that time goes by so fast and partly I am so happy because of the good kids they have become. I truly feel blessed to be their mother.

Back-to-School Night

Following with tradition, we had our annual back-to-school dinner and fashion show. My girls get so excited to show off their new clothes. Megan, KK and Claire started bright and early in the morning making signs and decorating the runway. Megan also made ballots so everyone could vote for their favorite outfit.

Come evening time we had a nice family meal, discussed our theme for the school year (This year’s theme is “Work Hard, Be Nice, and Have Fun.) and had our fashion show. It was a crazy couple hours as expected around our house, but so much fun. We finished off the night with the richest chocolate dessert you can imagine. Seth found this recipe and insisted we give a try for “back to school” night. Imagine if you will, cookies dough, Oreos and brownie mix baked together and topped off with ice-cream and fudge. Yummmmmm!

Check out the video for some live footage of the kids in action!


Chocolate Delight


Our 2011 school year theme

Hobble Creek Half Marathon

This past Saturday I ran the Hobble Creek Half Marathon. For those of you that don’t know that is 13.1 miles. I originally signed up to run it back in May hoping that it would motivate me to get my butt in shape. Well it did just that! From about mid-April to now I have shed a little over 20 lbs and have gotten into pretty good shape as well.

The surprising thing was that it also helped me get back my love of running (that I slowly lost over the the past 11 years I have been bearing children). I also realized that I can run faster than I expected. I haven’t seen a six or seven minute mile since high school, but I started dipping into the upper part of that range while training. I ran the race in 1 hr. 56 min, but I was very cautious since I wasn’t familiar with the course. I have made a new goal to run it again next year under 1 hr 45 minutes.

Race day was beautiful but hot as can be and the race started forty minutes late making the start time at 8:00 am which is too late to start a 13 mile race. Seth got the kids up and met me at around mile 6 with five of our six kids. They were cheering me on and ringing the cow bell as I ran by. They even made a banner that said “Fastest Mom Ever!” I am glad that I am the fasted to somebody! It was very sweet.

And now today my body is still hurting. I ache in places I didn’t know existed. I am grateful for a few days of rest before I start working out again.

2011 Johnson Family Campout

Continuing with tradition, we attended the annual Johnson Family Camp out last week at Tanner Flats in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The kids look forward to it like Christmas. We camped for three days (two nights). Thanks to our kind neighbors I had a pop-up camper for me and Ellie to use, but Seth and most of the kids used our tent.

The first day we mostly set up camp. We also played some four square, cooked up giant sticky marshmallows, and enjoyed the company of Matt, Christy, and her kids. Grandma prepared the traditional scavenger hunt for the grandkids. This year they found a movie and were able to watch it in Grandpa Mike’s new car in the evening. Claire and Lucy camped with Grandma Jan on night one. I knew things weren’t going well when I heard Grandma yell, “Quit talking Claire!” But they made it through the night, although with minimal sleep I assume.


Eatin’ some diner


Ellie loved camping!


The kids getting started on the scavenger hunt.


Some of the kiddos watching “Babe in the City”


Claire and Lucy enjoying time in Grandma’s tent.

The second night involved a short hike for the little kids and a VERY long hike for the big kids (more of that to come in the next post). We also worked on making dolls for a short time and I did a little bit of napping with the little ones, hoping to make up for our lack of sleep the night before. We spent a lot of time playing in the nearby streams as well. The kids made and raced boats with Grandma.


Playing by the stream.

In the evening we did our dutch oven cookout where each family was in charge of a dish. Mom made delicious teriyaki chicken, Dave and Lisa made chili, Seth and I cooked up our tasty cheesy potatoes, Abby and Matt made up some cornbread and Spencer and Rach finished off the meal with gooey chocolate cake. While the food was cooking Megan and Katelyn measured the ingredients for homemade ice-cream and the kids spent quite some time rolling the cans back and forth until the ice-cream was ready to have with dessert.


KK and Meg getting the ingredients measured for homemade ice-cream


The girls rolling of the 5 cans of ice-cream.

We finished off the night with more four square and even more marshmallows. Everyone had a wonderful time. A super special thanks to Mom and Dad Johnson for providing the campsites, most of the supplies and all of the fun. Can’t wait till next year!


KK & Meg by the fire.

He’s a ridin’!

Drew has been anxious to get on his “big boy” bike for quite some time. A couple weeks ago Seth removed the training wheels so we could start the processing of teaching him. He caught on quickly but not enough to ride by himself. A few days later he played on his cousin Wyatt’s balance bike and there was no turning back. He came home, hopped on his bike and off he went.

He is only three, which is a little early for our kids to start riding, but he is doing great. He has some difficulty getting started but is fine once he gets going. He is so very proud of himself. The best part is he insists on wearing his helmet every time he rides. Why can’t all my kids be that way?!

Way to go Drew! Check back soon for some video footage.

AND FOR GOOD MEASURE…HOW CUTE ARE THESE THREE GIRLS ON THEIR CRUISERS?!

First Scout Camp

I have been asked to step in as scoutmaster for our local Boy Scout troop. Like a good soldier, I said yes, even though I knew from previous efforts the amount of time involved. The one thing that I’m excited about is that now that Jacob has turned 11 I can bring him along with me to all the fun camp outs and activities we get to do with the 12-13 year-old young men.

So last week was our our scheduled week for scout camp. We went to Camp Scofield this year. I’d been to Scofield before back when I was an assistant scoutmaster, and I didn’t have fond memories. I’d probably gone back in 2006 or 2007, and I had vivid memories of being insufferably hot with precious little shade. And, I remembered trudging up and down a large hill countless times per day between our campsite and the camp’s main area.

Thankfully this year I had a lot of dads who volunteered to help supervise, even though some of them aren’t big on camping. So, I didn’t have to go up until Wednesday afternoon. Before driving to camp, I tweeted that the weather forecast was looking good for the rest of the week. That may have been my only mistake.

When I arrived at our site (Motherlode), I was happy to see that we had a great location overlooking Scofield reservoir which actually had some trees. We had some cleaning up to do and some tent-swapping too, but we quickly got settled. Good thing too because a big storm had followed us to camp.

The weather gods punished me for the first 24 hours at camp. We had rain and wind and thunderstorms that cancelled almost all of the camp activities. Finally, the storm broke late Thursday afternoon and we were able to resume normal life.

Jacob came along with the intent to work on some requirements for his Tenderfoot rank (the first rank advancement in scouts). Because the storm cancelled everything, he didn’t have enough time for that class, and chose to work on the Leatherwork merit badge instead. He had fun working on some leather projects, and completed the merit badge. That makes three for him, because he finished First Aid and Environmental Science at a special class he went to with his good buddy Landon when he was in town.

Thursday night was a special “reverent” night. The staff did a patriotic program which was really neat, and I could tell that it really affected the scouts. Then we came back and had a nice quiet campfire program. I talked to the boys about the North Star and Gordon B. Hinckley’s quote to be dependable and constant like Polaris. Then, when darkness fell we went out and gazed at the stars. I pointed out the North Star and several other constellations with my special green laser. It was awesome.

The troop had been working toward a special award all week, so Friday morning we got up early, went to flag ceremony, ate a quick breakfast and then went off to do service.

After service and finishing up last-minute merit badge requirements it was time fore camp games all Friday afternoon. The scouts worked hard all week and it was time for them to have some fun. We did all sorts of fun games.


Float boat contest


Tug-o’-war


Knife-throwing contest

We came home Friday night after the award ceremony, after our troop was awarded the coveted Sco-Sho award (the only troop to earn that award). Perhaps the most important part of Scout Camp is that we came home with zero stitches. Usually someone cuts themselves while whittling or being stupid, but no injuries this camp. We had a good time, but I’ll need 11 months of rest before doing this again next year.

God Bless America!

This past weekend was jam-packed full of Fourth of July festivities. It started on Friday evening where we met up at Seth’s parents for our annual tradition of attending the Riverton parade. The kids look forward to it like Christmas so it is a much anticipated event. Afterward we went back to their house for popcorn, grape juice and lots of fireworks.


Claire, me, and Ellie at the parade


Ready for the parade


Ellie was happy with just one piece of candy!


Grandpa Mike and Drew


Meg & KK

Then Saturday we got to celebrate Megan’s birthday by swimming in our neighbor’s pool and eating cupcakes. However, we didn’t have too much time to celebrate because we had another All-Star baseball game for Jake. What could be more American than baseball, right? After the game we met up with all the fam at the park in Riverton and watched the city fireworks show (another yearly tradition).


Drew and I


Seth & Ellie (I love this picture)


KK & Claire


Everybody gets a little crazy waiting for the fireworks to begin.

Then on Monday we went to the swimming pool in the morning and then took the kids out for ice-cream. Later in the afternoon we had another baseball game and then hurried back for a barbeque with friends and family. We finished off the night with a little rain and a lot of fireworks.

We had a great weekend and thoroughly enjoyed celebrating this wonderful nation we live in.


Everybody insisted on a festive hairstyle for the Fourth of July