Battlecreek Canyon

A few weeks ago, we took ourselves up to Pleasant Grove, and struck out into the mountains. It was a lovely, late summer evening, and Battlecreek Canyon is a great place to explore.
At first, Maren wasn't too jazzed about our family adventure, but she cheered up as Mom told the story of Robin Hood. She's an expert on those types of things, you know.

The waterfall was really misty and cool on a hot summer's night.

Harry poked around in every "cave" he found, looking for bears, cougars and snakes. Looks like he found a bear.... oh wait, that's just Harry.

And then, because some poor town in Utah was being threated by flames, we were blessed with a beautiful sunset.
We really love this new place we get to call home.

First Day of School

It's official, the Smith kids are "school" kids. Monday morning arrived with cheerfulness and excitement. Despite some first-day jitters, Maren and Harry were thrilled to start "back to school."

Harrison, Age 4 -- Pre-K

Maren, Age 8 -- 3rd Grade

(Isn't her uniform so cute?)

Just goofing off before we piled into the car!

Maren was cool as a cucumber, and refused a hug from Mom as she took herself off to her classroom. Harry dismissed Mom and Norah from the Pre-K room after a measly 5 minutes. "I'm busy now, you can go." Poor Norah was not pleased to leave.

We're BAAAAAACK...

...and blogging from our new home in Utah. We've had a great summer doing what kids do in the summer.

Swimming

Jumping

Feeling patriotic

or not...
Watching TV

Potty training (a work in progress)

Fighting with mom about who is cuter.... Nick or Joe. We both agree that the Jonas Brothers Rock!

Exploring the great outdoors

Reuniting with family

and breaking bones. Sorry there is no photographic evidence of this. Mom is still too grumpy about her broken arm, not to mention Maren's.

Saying Goodbye

Even though we are really excited to move to Utah, we are sad to be leaving the best neighborhood ever. Here are some things we are really going to miss about living on the circle.

The playhouse. It might be filled with bees, but it's the best place ever for squealing and for posing at the window.

The swings. Where else can you hang out in a getup like this and have no one think badly of your mother for letting you have a tatooed stomach?

Neighborhood water fights. Our mom says that it's unusual to have a gang of kids who are all friends and range in age from 1 - 12. The sprinklers bring us all together.

Beautiful flowering trees. For one magical week every spring we live in a wonderland of pink petals.

Spur of the moment BBQs. There's nothing more fun that having dinner outside with all your bestfriends. The marshmallows are just a bonus!

Wide open spaces. It's on these fields that we learned to ride bikes, fly kites, walk on stilts and fly ginormous paper airplanes.

But, of course, what we'll miss the most is all of our friends. You've been the best neighbors that any boy, girl, mom or dad could ever hope for. You had all better come and visit.

The Smiths go to Washington

Believe it or not, we took a family trip to Washington DC over Spring Break. We thought the drive was long and boring, but our hotel was really cool, and we loved seeing the monuments and museums. OK, Norah hated the Lincoln Memorial and literally screamed "I don't like Lincoln" the entire time we were there. But, other than that, we loved it. Here are some pictures from our adventures.

For the Grandmas on Mother's Day

Harry's 4!

We love the Spring because it means lots and lots of birthdays. Harry's is the last of the season. Here are some highlights from his celebrations.

Harry wanted cupcakes with brown frosting. No decorations. Mom was happy to oblige.

We love to lick the frosting off of the candles.

A cool new skateboard. Hotwheels style....

Building Lego Star Wars with Dad

The coolest Star Wars Set Up cake ever. We made this for Harry's party with his friends.

It was strange enough to see what Darth Vader looked like when they took his helmet if in episode VI
and now Dad wants us to think that his head is full of candy?

Darth Vader gave us a lot of candy. If the "dark side" doesn't destory us caviites will.

Sorry

Our Mom is a giant slacker and can't find 5 minutes to sit down and tell you all how awesome we are. She says she's busy trying to get our house organized, but really she's watching "The Biggest Loser."

Maybe she'll get with the program tomorrow.

I like cheese!

I have also learned to open the refrigerator.

Easter

We think the Easter Bunny is a pretty sneaky rabbit. He shows up at strange times and only if our rooms are clean. How does he know?

Here we are all dressed up for Easter. It was cold and our crazy Mom made us stand outside even though we were all freezing.


Norah loves her chocolate bunny. Well, she did until she ate him.

Thanks Easter Bunny. We'll catch you next year!

Baptism Day

My baptism day was last Sunday. It was a really beautiful Spring day. I was excited because I got to wear two dresses, one to be baptized in and the other to be confirmed in. Lots of members of my family were baptized in the same dress I was baptized in. Grandma T. said that it would be really heavy after it got wet, and she was right!


Then I changed into my dry dress, and I was confirmed a member of the church. There were lots of people from our ward there, but best of all, Grandma Jan and Grandpa Win were there! Because I was baptized on Conference Sunday, we even got to have a big pot-luck dinner to celebrate!

Harry would only stand by himself when our friend Sam came to take pictures with us. Thanks, Sam!

When the day was all done, I told Mom that it was the most perfect day ever!