All American Family
Growing Fruit
Learning to Teach
Codex Young Author's Publishing Program
Stairsteps Homeschool Academy
Kingdom Academy
Living Sola Gratia
Wynfield Christian Academy
The Cow Queen
Peace Creek on the Prairie
These are the 10 featured blogs on our list this week.
Now head on out for a nice day of “walking”.
Katey has really long hair. It goes clear down to her bum. Brushing it is a struggle in the mornings. I can usually get her to sit still if I tell her we are going to style it so cute, and that people will probably tell her “Cute hair”. I came up with this one the other day, It was so easy, and it actually kept her hair from getting to snarly.
What I did was take her hair and put it up in 2 “piggy tails” then tied them in a knot (like the one you use to begin tying a pair of shoes) then I just put in another hair tie at the bottom.
It is a little unusual but it did get her the comments she wanted. “Cute Hair Katey!”
I told the girls that after we dropped Tommy off at Astro Camp we would go home and pack a picnic lunch and head downtown for a free event put on by a local radio station; Disney Days. It was at the Gallivan Center. Since I had never been to the Gallivan Center, nor did I even really know where it was at, other than downtown. I also knew that I would have to pay to park, and drive in downtown traffic. So as I was looking online for how to get there and were to park, etc. I saw that there was a Trax stop right in front of it. I thought that would be fun to ride the train, and we would only need to transfer once, from one train to another. So I surprised the girls with a train ride. It actually was probably cheaper for us to ride the train vs paying for parking and gas. Plus it was a fun treat and relaxing for me. First we got on the Frontrunner, which is a bigger train that goes around 60 mph. Then when we got into downtown we had to transfer to Trax which is a smaller trolley type train. The kids have ridden Trax before, (we ride it to the U of U Football games, did you hear we are now part of the Pack-10!) But the Frontrunner, the girls had only ridden once before, on opening day and it was packed!
I did struggle with my bigger stroller on Trax, but I was so thankful for some nice people to help me, and people even moved to allow me their seats so we could all sit close. A nice young man even held my stroller, since I was holding Tyler, so it didn’t go flying down the aisle of the train.
Then we made it to Disney Days. It was so much fun and free too. We played games to win prizes. 
They had a bounce house and slide.
They had dancers, and then did interactive dancing.
They had a really cool waterfall.
We got to see where they film the news.
We had a great picnic. We “Got Milk” mustaches!
We headed home for an afternoon movie and nap!
Whew what a day.
When dropping Tommy off we saw Emily’s Team Badge that they made when she was at Astro Camp a few weeks ago I had to take a picture of her by it.
After Paul’s relaxing breakfast in bed. He decided he would like a nap. So I took the kids to the park, so he would have a quiet naptime. 
The girls made a sand castle with a moat and all. Then played together.
I got this amazing picture of Emily, she is just so beautiful! Just a kid having fun.
We were only gone about an hour. We got home just in time to wake up Daddy and head out for more fun.
We headed over to Paul’s parents house to celebrate 2 things; Father’s Day, of course. And Paul’s brother Matt, had a birthday party as well for his 33rd birthday (he is single ladies). Matt got a kindle for his birthday! He is really excited about it. He had been wanting one for a while now, as he just loves to read!
We got Paul a few pairs of shorts, which was really more of a need than a want. He was happy with them none the less. We got Paul’s dad a family picture of us. Since we hadn’t had a good one taken since Tyler has been born. I am planning on changing my blog picture to match the new ones. Someday….
I love my grandparents dearly. I often wish that I was closer to them, both physically and emotionally. It has always been a tradition to head down South to their house for Memorial weekend. We have also headed down the two weekends that followed. My Grandpa was not doing so well. He has a rare type of Leukemia and he had Colon Cancer a while back. I realize now more than ever how much I wish I was closer to them, and how much I want my kids to know them.
My Grandpa is an amazing carpenter. He owned a construction company almost his entire life. He was a prominent business man within his small town. He also builds smaller things in his free time. Some that quickly come to my mind are the bunk beds that my brother and I shared when we were younger, and they were passed on to my cousins, and then on to my children, and now they are back at my moms. (Now those are some well made bunk beds, to last through that many kids) He has made some very nice end tables and picture frames, and jewelry boxes, and he made me and all my female cousins these amazing cedar chests. He also made my kids this very cool toy box/ bookshelf for Christmas one year. He has always been so generous with his skills he has helped many of my family with their house remodels, and repairs.
My Grandma is an amazing cook, she loves to make things from scratch. She always makes homemade bread or rolls to go with dinner. Around the Holidays she always makes made from scratch candy (cherry cordials, turtles, divinity and caramels). Her recipes are always sought after. She makes her famous Rocky Road Brownies for all of our family get-togethers. I can never forget her homemade Hamburger Soup (also known as clean out the fridge soup, you just use whatever veggies you have left over in the fridge).
So the last few weekends that we have been making the two hour drive to visit them and we have been leaving so early in the morning that this is something we came across,
We saw both the sheep and the cows being moved on the same trip up, and along the same stretch of Highway. We didn’t mind waiting and watching. It actually amazed me how young some of the kids on the horses were that were moving the cows. They looked younger than my older kids. It was also very early in the morning. I was very impressed.
We celebrated Father’s Day today. We started our day out by waking up early and quietly making cards for daddy, while mommy cooked breakfast.
I will post our afternoon activities later.
We are an avid die hard outdoorsy type family. We have been waiting to go boating for so long now. The weather hasn’t really been cooperating with us though. Well finally a nice weekend came along. We decided we had better take the chance. Paul spent all morning getting the boat ready.
Then we spent all afternoon boating.
The lake was absolutely invigorating (which means freezing in our family).
It was much too cold for me to get in that water, and nobody tried wakeboarding this trip. It was just too cold.
Well maybe next weekend, we will go to a warmer lake.
That’s right another blog walk. This is such a great way to get to see more blogs without getting overwhelmed.
The featured blogs this week are:
1. Second Star to the Right and Straight On Till Morning
2. Surviving The Testosterone
3. Family Style School (That’s me)
4. School Around The Bible
5. 1628 The Story of The Goebels 5
6. Morris Family Madness
7. Homeschool Musings
8. Homeschooling (and then some!)
9. Heartfelt Homeschooling
10. following Him home
There are so many amazing ladies (and gents) on The Crew this year (over 200). I hope you are all getting as excited about our reviews as we are.
With our Botany Science we got to dissect a flower. We are lucky enough to have two big patches of poppies in our yard. They are absolutely beautiful when they bloom. (I was going to go take a picture of one of them, but the weather took them all away before I did)
I wasn’t going to take pictures of us while we were doing it, I really wanted to focus on it with the kids. So this is our finished paper. They each had their own.
They loved doing this so much, in fact I overheard them telling their friends what fun it was. (I did a secret “yes” fist pump)
That’s right, she is doing it. Her training wheel came loose, and she asked me to fix it. Daddy said, “Well, lets just take them off and see.” Katey said “Umm Ok.” So we did. 
She is so proud of herself. So are we!
She said she was going to have to learn because now she can race BMX with Tommy and Emily. We will just see about that.
I absolutely love discovering new blogs. With me being on The Old Schoolhouse Crew I am meeting so many new wonderful people. It is all a little overwhelming. So to break it down into manageable bites (you eat an elephant one bite at a time), We are featuring 10 blogs per week.
Presenting the first 10.
1. Reaping a Harvest
2. Pink & Orange Coffee
3. Live, Laugh, Learn!
4. Mrs. Mandy's Musings
5. The Fantastic Five
6. Refined Metals Academy
7. Just A Moment in Time
8. Providence Farm
9. My Journey
10. Petra School
I have gone through these. There are some I was already following, and I decided to follow some new ones as well. Go visit them now, there are some that are really worth it.
They have been much more diligent with eating since they know the rules.
The rules are:
So for the last 2 weeks the kids have given these rave reviews. I highly recommend this idea.
Thanks Susana for sharing it.
Well we did it. We cut Tyler’s hair. It was getting so long. He also had a shelf type thing going on in the back, that I now realize I totally forgot to get a picture of. =(. Oh well. So here is a before picture.
I thought for sure he was going to scream and cry when we took the clippers to him. But he didn’t he just sat there. So patient. So cute.
Here is the after picture. It was cute, at first. However, now I miss the long locks.
I notice as I am posting this, that he is scowling at me in this picture. Nice.
Who am I kidding? He is still so cute.
We have been missing Emily these last two days. She has been away at Astronaut Camp. She had the best time.
Her friend went with her. It was both of their first overnight camp without family.
She was on the “Alpha Team” They won the team trophy.
This is her cot, and she is holding a rocket that she made. The weather did not cooperate, so they did not get to launch them. She brought it home and we will launch it someday.
Emily has a small paper route, and she had to save up to pay for 1/2 of each summer camp she is going to. She said it was SO worth it. Next year she is going to go to Astronaut Training Camp. Which is a 4 day camp, and you get to go Scuba Diving. She is already saving for it.
