Soccer!

Tucker participated in soccer for the first time this year. He had so much fun. Since this was the first year he had ever played, Tucker certainly wasn't the best on the team. He improved so much and always worked hard. He always wanted to practice soccer with us. He didn't make any goals until the final game of the fall season, it was great to see him finally score a goal!

Of course there's no better post game snack than a donut!

August 2014

Birthdays, weddings, and school, this month was busy! We celebrated Tucker turning 6 by having a little family party at the park. We played some lego games, had a pinata, and of course had cake.

I tried to make a chocolate lego cake for Tucker, but I thought ganache sounded better than frosting. Unfortunately, ganache doesn't really hold it's shape like frosting. It looked pretty terrible as you can see from the pictures, but it tasted great! For his birthday Tucker wanted legos and a remote control monster truck. He got both and was a happy kid! He specifically wanted the millenium falcon lego set, but that sells for over a hundred dollars, so we went with a cheaper mini millenium falcon.

First day of school! I can't believe Tucker is in first grade. Of course Halle had to wear a backpack just like him. It was a little bit of an adjustment getting used to the longer day, but overall he has done really well. He seems to like his teacher, but of course his favorite parts of the day are lunch and recess. Halle does a little "preschool" with a girl her age in our ward. It's perfect, we trade off and each do it at our own house one day a week. They play most of the time and we do a little lesson. I think because Halle has her preschool she hasn't missed Tucker as much as last year. She has also started playing a lot with Finn. And by playing I mean she teaches him to jump on the beds and climb on everything in the house. 

My favorite part of August was going to my brother's wedding! It was such a great weekend with family and I just love my brother's new wife. She fits in so well with our family. I didn't take many photos at the wedding, I left that to the wedding photographer. I was so proud of the bowties I made for Finn and Tucker. I'm not very good at sewing but I think they turned out pretty cute. Now I just need to get them to wear them more often, because I love boys and bowties.

Halle took a few photos while we were waiting outside of the temple. It's always kind of fun to see their perspective of things.

Instead of staying in a hotel in Logan, my parents rented a house for us all to stay in for 2 nights. It was such a cute little house with horses in a field behind the house. It also had a giant elderberry tree. Sheldon and I picked a huge bag of elderberries and we spent hours picking elderberries off those little stems. I made elderberry syrup and jam. The jam did not set up the first time I made it, but I was able to fix it and add more pectin and all my hard work did not go to waste. The jam and syrup is a little more tart, but I like it. Elderberries are supposed to have lots of antioxidants and health benefits. At least that's what I tell myself when I put lots of syrup and jam on my pancakes, 

photo cred: wikipedia

Elderberries in case you wanted to know what they look like!

THE Narrows (all 16 miles)

We have wanted to do the Narrows for a few years and this year the weather finally cooperated. My parents were kind enough to watch the kids for the day and my dad even dropped us off at the top of the hike and picked us up at the bottom. 

At the beginning of the hike, next to the beware flash floods sign. We saw a few clouds during the day and I was always paranoid that it was going to rain, but we had perfect weather without any rain.

It was an amazingly beautiful hike and we got some great pictures thanks to my brother carrying his awesome camera the whole hike. It took us about 12 hours to hike 16 miles, which seems slow, but when you are hiking in water for 75%  of the time it really slows you down. The water was very muddy which made hiking difficult when you couldn't see which rocks were in your path. I felt like I just tripped and fell down the river the whole time. The water level was never much deeper than knee level, it would have been a lot more difficult had it been any higher. Next time I will bring a tube along and float down. The first 6 miles were beautiful and we only saw a few people along the way. Around mile 9 or 10 we hit a little bit of a wall. It was hot and pretty open in this section, without a lot of shade. The novelty of hiking down a river had worn off, but we pushed on through and made it to some better sections of the hike. 

We stopped for a little break at Big Springs. You can hike from the bottom up to this point. It was very crowded from here on out in the hike. You don't need a permit to hike from the bottom. We had about 4 or 5 miles left to hike at this point.  

These are a few pictures I took at the beginning of the hike. We were still full of adrenaline and a little photo happy. It takes a few miles before you get into the actual canyon and there are lots of trees around.

 

Photo at the end of our hike. Tired, bruised, and battered, but happy to have accomplished such a strenuous hike!

It was such a great moment at the end of the hike to take off our neoprene socks and hiking boots. Technically we weren't quite at the end of our hike at this point. At the end of the narrows you still have a 1 mile hike out on a trail to get to the shuttles in Zion and then you have to ride the shuttles out. It was a long day and my feet and knees were seriously sore the next day, but I'm glad I had the chance to hike it. Orderville Canyon hooks up with the narrows and we didn't get much time to explore it, so maybe next time we can check out Orderville Canyon. I can't wait to go on more adventures!