Pioneer Handcart Trek

McKay studied Utah History in 4th grade this last year. At the end of the year, the entire 4th grade went on a handcart trek to a hallow not too far from our house. They trekked about three miles from the school to the hallow and back to the school pulling handcarts. McKay dressed up for the occasion wearing western attire topped with an appropriate hat. (I put both away for when Jaxon is in 4th grade.)
Here is McKay in the hallow with someone from his "family" that he pulled the carts with. Doesn't McKay look tough?

Jeremy traveled with McKay and the handcart company (per McKay's request). Kayden, Josh and I showed up at lunch time to help with serving lunch. Kayden followed Jeremy and McKay all around the hallow.

McKay getting his lunch of stew, corn bread, and peach cobbler. After lunch they played pioneer games, made butter and did other pioneer activities. McKay enjoyed the pioneer experience.

Josh loved wandering the hallow picking all the dandelions. He had quite the bouquet by the end of the afternoon.

Obviously Josh loved smelling the dandelions as well. He had a nice yellow stain under his nose. Love that kid.

The Golden Rule Opera

Jaxon's second grade class wrote and performed an opera this year. It was called "The Golden Rule". There were robbers, spies, robbers and chipmunks (go figure). Apparently, the robbers were trying to steal the chipmunks and the cops and spies were trying to stop them. Then somehow the chipmunks and robbers teamed up against the cops and spies. Somehow in the end they all ended up as friends because they treated each other how they wanted to be treated. It lasted about 5 minutes and was completely entertaining.

Jaxon was a cop.....if you couldn't tell.

Here Jaxon is with other cops singing their hearts out. Their class even got to paint the scenery.

A Year Of Field Trips

Kayden and I had a good time going with Josh on several of his field trips over the last school year. There are other field trips that we went on that I didn't have my camera (like the pumpkin patch). Here are some of our fun outings.
The first field trip of the year happened to fall on the same day that his class celebrated his birthday. We went to the fire station and learned all about fire safety. We also got to check out the fire engines.

After the fire station, we went to the park and played for a little while before heading back to school. Here is Josh in his birthday hat having a good time.

Just before Christmas, we went to the library for a field trip. Here is Josh concentrating on cutting out a star ornament for the library's Christmas tree.

Kayden tried his hand at cutting as well.

Josh and his class at the library.

We went to the pet store to learn about animals and pets. The lady at the store let the kids pet snakes, lizards and other pets. Josh was a little unsure, but I convinced him to give it a try.

Kayden enjoyed looking at the turtles swim around.

A special field trip was to the dental office of White Smiles Family Dentistry. Josh couldn't have been more excited to visit his dad at work. Above is Cindy explaining the workings of the office to the kids. She did a great job.

Here Dr. White explained how to brush your teeth. Josh is practicing on a set of false teeth.

Finally in the spring we got to visit Thanksgiving Point and the animal farm. The kids learned about how food goes from the farm to the store and saw lots of animals. Kayden loved to feed all the animals.

Josh on the pony ride.

Kayden enjoyed the pony ride as well. We had such a good time on all of Josh's field trips this last year. Kayden and I were glad we got to join in the fun.

Timpanogos Cave Field Trip by McKay

On Wednesday during the last week of school we hiked to Timp Cave. Timp Cave is actually three separate caves. They are, in order, Hansen Cave, Middle Cave, and Timp Cave, they are connected by man made tunnels. By the way this is McKay White blogging again and I was very deeply disappointing that my science and social studies teacher, Mr.Larson was sick. My excuse for my bad smile is that there was a super, ultra, mega smelly porta-poddy.


This is a picture of the mountain on the other side. We were about 7/8 of the way done at this point.


At some points on the trail there were spots were it was sure death if you fell. So I recommend that kids 5 and under shouldn't do the hike because they would either die or complain to much.


This is me in front of a, what I think, is a awesome land scape. You can see American Fork in the back ground.


This is my group at the entrance to the cave. They are Cami, Adley, Jayden, Josh, Kimberlee, Abby, Abby's dad, me of course, Wyatt, Cheyenne, Terrel, Sam, Brady, Mr. Germaine, Olivia, Myalin, Sabrina, Hannah, and Savannah. My mom is taking the picture.


Finally we enter the cave. This is one of the Carmel falls.


I don't know if you can see it or not, but there is a fossil in the lime stone in this picture.


This is a picture of Middle Cave Lake. It was either a boring photo or this window photo that was cooler. It has spikes coming down.


This is a photo of me before they turned off the lights. Your eyes would never adjust because it is pure darkness.


These are "curly fries" formations. No one knows how they formed, except the part that they used to be "soda straws" formations. There are only 2 caves in the entire U.S.A that have thousands of "curly fries". One is Timp Cave and the other cave is owned by a farmer in Texas.


This is the heart of Timpanogos Cave. Our tour guide did a stupendous job on the tour. He even told us the legend of the heart! It went something like this: a Indian women fell in love with a man from a separate tribe that she was not supposed to be in love with. So they went in to the mountains. After a while the man was attacked by a bear. The women realized that she had been cursed by the gods, and that she had brought the curse upon her loved one, so she threw her self off a cliff. Her loved one was so sad that he did the same. The gods took the woman's heart and man's heart that were melted into one and placed as one in this cave. They say that her body still lay there were she made contact with the ground. You can still see her silhouette on the top of Mount Timpanogos.


This is the second Carmel Falls. At the Bottom is Chocolate Falls.


This is what I think, again, is a neat cave formation.


If you were to look at this in real life it would look similar to one of the halves of the Titanic.


I was looking around trying to find out how to spell Timpanogos and I found this:
P.S. I found out how to spell it.

Karate Advacement

Jaxon recently received a new belt in his Karate class. It is a big deal with every belt advancement. We are super proud of him!

Here he is at the belt test performing his form in front of all the instructors. The instructors gave him a lot of praise and told him to have confidence in himself.

Jaxon receiving his purple belt. They recently changed things at the studio he attends. So instead of receiving a green belt, he received a purple belt.

At the end of the belt ceremony, the instructors place his old belt on his head. Way to go Jaxon! You are one talented Karate Kid!

Dear Tooth Fairy....

Jaxon had his tooth extracted at the dentist a couple of weeks ago. (See tooth in upper right corner in picture.) He so wanted to show his tooth to his class so he left the following note under his pillow with his tooth:



He is one cute kid. We sure love him, even when he has whipping cream under his nose. He has such a great personality! (FYI, the Tooth Fairy granted him his wish and he took that disgusting tooth to school with him the next day. Oh, and he got $5 from the tooth fairy because of the trauma he underwent to get the tooth out.)

Happy Birthday, Jeremy (A Month Late)

My dear husband, who is wonderful by the way, had his 37th birthday in April. He went to scouts that night (being the dedicated leader that he is) so I surprised him with cupcakes for everyone. The cupcakes in the picture below were all that was left. I promise, he didn't get jipped-- On Sunday (in conjunction with his birthday week) I made him a turkey dinner with homemade rolls and all the fixings, and he also had an ice cream cake. Trust me, he was well taken care of.

The boys in my life.

Kayden likes to blow out the candles, regardless of who's birthday it is.

The traditional "Bump on the head" from Josh.

Happy birthday, Jeremy even if it is a month late. We love you!