What we did on Summer Break Part 3

One of our favorite places to camp it at Moosehorn Lake located on the Mirror Lake Highway in the Uintah mountains in Utah.  We have had the most wonderful family camping trips and this one was no exception.  

 After the rain of Moon Lake on our earlier cabin trip we were so pleased to have a nearly rain free camping trip at Moosehorn.  Mark had many fishing buddies including my Dad and 4 out of 5 of our children.  Every single one of them had fun fishing and it was a joy to me to watch DeeDee and MiMi actually fish on their own with minimal help from Mark.  My Boy loved being Daddy's fishing buddy and was able to catch a few fish also.

 The area around Moosehorn is so beautiful.  The pines, aspens and the lake make for a most wonderful and peaceful setting.  Our camp spot was 50 yards from the water so we could sit in camp and watch everyone fish.

We did simple meals and no one went hungry.  The 2 oldest girls made up their own scavenger hunt and played hide and seek with their younger siblings.  MaeMae had a more enjoyable time because the ground wasn't as bumpy and she had been walking for longer.

 

Grandpa took the 4 older kids on a hike around the Lake.  They all made it despite the rocky part where there isn't much of a trail and you have to do a bit of climbing.  I was proud of them all and Grandpa had so much fun with them.

 I was so glad that my parents could come up with us.  They really did have an enjoyable time and we had a wonderful time with them.  We really love being in such a beautiful place.

What we did on Summer Break Part 2

As we were coming closer to August we were, very excitedly, anticipating the first of our 2 summer camping trips.  It was a little bit of an anxious time, also, because Mark was switching jobs.  Everything worked out just fine and we were off to Moonlake, UT.

Moonlake is located about 3 hours from Salt Lake City, Ut.  It is quite the drive through some very beautiful country.  Every little town we passed through was so sweet and I wanted to move to almost every one.  We stopped in Duchesne, Ut for a break and a snack.  The kids had fun at their little park.

 Moonlake is one of the most beautiful places to camp.  We have been Tent camping twice and had the most enjoyable time both times.  This time around we decided that we wanted to stay in one of the cabins at the Moonlake Resort.  I am very glad we did because it rained for one whole day of our trip.

I think rain makes the mountains more beautiful, however, it can make tent camping very difficult and messy.

We had a gorgeous view of the lake from our cabin and the temperatures were really nice.

We were in cabin #5.  It was a short walk to the beach and had the best view.

While we were in the cabin waiting for the rain to stop I taught the girls some of my favorite solitaire games (ie. Pyramid, window, free cell, klondike, etc.).  We also played other games like Skipbo and Phase 10.

The rain slowed considerable in the afternoon.

   I was a little worried about the kids getting a little stir crazy in the cabin.  When the rain slowed a little we went for a walk up to the lodge.  On the back porch of the lodge they had 4 large humming bird feeders and there were no less than 30 humming birds zooming around these things for a drink. (The link is to video DeeDee took of the humming birds)

They had so many different colors and sizes and for the most part weren't to concerned about the people watching.

 The older girls couldn't get enough and spent a big chunk of time looking at the humming birds, taking pictures of the humming birds and also trying to stay still enough to get a humming bird to land on their finger.

A rare smile on this trip. MaeMae was new to walking and had a hard time with uneven ground.

Jussy running the beach with DeeDee while
 MiMi and LeeLee build a sandcastle.

DeeDee and LeeLee having fun digging in the sand.

Beautiful Beach after the Rain

I laid down to take a nap with MaeMae and Mark took the rest of the kids down to the beach.  The rain stopped and the sun tried to come out and after our nap we all went down to the beach.  The fishing was terrible.  The kids had a blast playing in the sand.  The beach at Moonlake is a wonderful, sandy beach.

Nature Art

 One of our favorite television shows right now is Dinosaur Train.  In one of the episodes the kids make nature art from the junk their Mom cleaned out of their nest.

I encouraged my kids to make nature art and they had so much fun.

I love watching their imaginations. 

This was our first big trip with Babe the Big, Blue Van.  It was so wonderful to have so much room and be able to haul whatever we wanted to take.

Despite the rain we all had a wonderful time together.  It is a trip I would love to do again with better weather.

What we did on Summer Break Part 1

We finished out our first year of Homeschool around the middle of June.  This first part of summer was spent swimming, BBQing and spending time with family.  We got up almost every morning and went swimming.  I wanted to do water aerobics.  I did pretty good until MaeMae decided she didn't what to be in her floaty any more and then it popped.  The kids loved it.  They had never been swimming so much and I haven't been swimming that much since I was a kid.

 We celebrated Independence Day and Pioneer Day with a barbecue and fireworks at Grandma & Grandpa T's house.  We took a little field trip up to the Utah State Capital on Pioneer Day after the parade excitement was all over.

 

I

 I was fun for the kids to look at the statues, the fountain, the fun displays from the early days and other history of our state.  As usual the Rotunda was the highlight of the trip.  We had fun on their neat elevator also.  It was a gorgeous day and there were very few people at the Capital.

DeeDee loved the Rotunda and really liked everything.
MiMi loved the fossil exhibit.
LeeLee loved the lion statues.
Jussy loved the fountain.
MaeMae loved riding around in the stroller.

It was a lovely day.

July was cooler than expected and was very enjoyable.k

Recent Projects

I am a slacker when it comes to my blogging.  I want to do this so I can share with all of you the fun and great things that we have done as a family and in homeschool.

My brother, William, asked me to make an Amigurumi Jaguar that looks like a game character he has created.  I finally buckled down and did it and I was thrilled that he was so pleased with it.

In this picture is my creation as well as a picture of the character.  I need to make some adjustments.  It turned out really cute.

Some other projects we did this week are boxes to hold Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Ho cards.  They were super easy and fun to do.

I did one for LeeLee.  DeeDee did her own and MiMi also did her own.

My box for LeeLee

DeeDee's box

 It is fun discovering things that are simple and fun to make.

MiMi's Box

April Field trip to Discovery Gateway Children's Museum

We went to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum in April for our field trip.  With every thing else that happened this weekend I nearly forgot about this little trip.  They had a lot of fun things to do their that teach children about how things work, science, construction, etc.  It is not a large place but, everything is hands on.  It is really child's world.

 

I was able to get discount tickets through Halfpriceutah.com.  I enjoyed the place but felt that they charge to much for the adults.  As adults we can play there also but most don't and I feel that the adult price should be equal to if not less than the children's tickets.  My kids had fun.  I actually had fun.

What a wonderful weekend.

This last weekend was a big one for our family we celebrated 2 birthday's, Easter & General Conference.  Mark and I were exhausted by the end.  This kids all had so much fun.  Here are some highlights.

 

MiMi had a wonderful 8th birthday party with friends & family.  Thank you for all of the gifts and helping to make MiMi's birthday wonderful.

  
MaeMae enjoyed her first Birthday.  It is always amazing to me how much children grow in the first year of their life.  MaeMae just wanted to sit on the top of her boxes.  It was so cute.

We had a good Easter.  We went on a picnic with Mark's parents to Copperton Park.  We didn't stay long because the bathrooms weren't open.

What we heard of General Conference was wonderful and I look forward to listening to the parts I missed.

I hope you all had a lovely Easter Weekend.  I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and everything he has done for me personally so that I might repent and return to live with Him and my Family for eternity.

Changes and changes

One consistent thing in life is that things change.  I have stopped trying to plan to much of life because I have learned that I am not in charge and the Lord will  put me where he wants me when he wants me to be there.  I have found that when I allow him to do this and I accept it, I am happy and at peace.

Mark was called to be second counselor to our Bishop.  It didn't come as to big of a surprise because we had recent changes occur in our family that would facilitate his service in this capacity.  You can read my previous posts .

Little Miracles (and some Big ones, too)

and

And the Miracles keep coming.

We have been so blessed so, we both felt that all of these miraculous blessings from the Lord most definitely warranted our gratitude through service.

On the homeschool front we took several breaks and revisited some of the things we were doing and had a friend send us info on some curriculum that was offering a special.  I signed up for it.  It is curriculum through Latter-Day Learning.  Their curriculum is LDS based and combines the secular with LDS teachings.  It also takes a one room schoolhouse approach and provides different activities for the different ages of children from Pre-K to Middle school.

I am excited for it because I know I am going to learn something as well.