First Day of Kindergarten

Danny's first day of kindergarten was on August 25th. He attends the morning session at Challenger. This is him in his uniform that morning. He's all smiles here, but that changed when I took him to school. He hasn't been thrilled with the idea of going to school every weekday. Sorry, kid. It's a long, long road ahead. His ideal day would consist of playing games and, uh..., playing games! Since he has such a great love for playing games, I use it as a motivation for him to do his homework, chores, and whatever else I can think of that he needs to do.

Top of Utah Half Marathon

I ran the Top of Utah half marathon near Logan on August 23rd. It was a scenic route, and the temperature was perfect. I would recommend this race to anyone who runs. I met my goal of completing two half marathon races this year! Yippee. (I trained for 3 of them. There are pictures posted in April from the first half marathon race I did this year.) I put this picture of Alina instead of one of me, because I looked like a DORK in all the pictures with me in it after running the race. (Sweaty, red face.) Alina was waiting for me at the finish line as well as JD and my Aunt Karren with whom we stayed during the weekend. (Thanks Karren!) Alina's holding two essential items: some food (given out after the race) and her puppy dog that we call "Wolfie". (She loves that stuffed puppy. Thanks Grandma Weber for getting it for us.)

Primary Activity

Just a fun morning of games with the ward primary. Pictures taken August 22.

Electrical Engineering Work Party

We spent a lovely evening in park in the Big Cottonwood Canyon for JD's work department family dinner party. Danny and Sam were delighted with the giant bubble wands. Sam later took a "bath" in the buckets of bubble soap. He reached in his arms to his shoulders then proceeded to spread the soap all over his legs and rear-end to wipe off the soap from his arms. He then started playing in the dirt, so it stuck all over him. I don't have picture of him at that point, but I wish I did have one. This picture of Sam was taken before the bubbles.
The boys helped JD with a little competition, too. The employees had been asked to create a contraption using a mousetrap and other materials to see who could send a ping pong ball flying through the air the furthest. Danny helped JD create theirs, and they ended up getting a 3rd place prize! Not bad for a 5-year old.

Fun with Paint

I have a couple ideas how Alina got this purple paint dot on her nose. Was it Sam or Danny? The boys created their masterpieces while Alina watched (and ate her lunch). Pictures taken August 18th.

Alina's 1st Birthday

My baby girl turned one on August 5th. She's grown so much in the past three months, putting on nearly 6 pounds, which is fine, because she was only in the 25th percentile for weight at 9 months old. This 6 pounds puts her into the 90th percentile. She's also in the 99th percentile for height. She's not walking yet. To be honest, I don't mind that. I know I'll have my hands full when she does start walking. For now, she is content to scoot around on her bum. It's a very slow method for getting around. (Again, fine with me. It's easier to keep track of where she is. I hope I don't sound like a lazy mom, but most of you know what it's like once your baby is walking.) She is a good girl most of the time. She does seem to get frustrated occasionally at Danny and Sam when they are in her face too much or in her way. She's even bitten them!! Luckily, her teeth did not break skin. Speaking of teeth, she now has 7 of them with one more starting to poke through on the top. She only had 2 bottom teeth as of 2 months ago, so it seems they've all come in at once. The pictures were taken on her birthday. Her Aunt Angie is holding her in one of them and helping her open a present in the video. I made from scratch a double layer round carrot cake (sans nuts) for her birthday cake. It had a cream cheese frosting which I had added a little bit of orange juice and zest. Very tasty! I didn't decorate it, though, so I feel a little bad about that. Even so, I think she liked the taste of the cake. She also liked eating her birthday dinner. I'd like to post a video of us singing "Happy Birthday" to her while she is looking at her cake, but the video would take forever to upload.

Lagoon Day

On August 1, JD's work had their annual Lagoon Day. The kids had a blast. We started the day off in lagoon-a-beach playing in the water. Afterwards, we spent hours at the kiddie rides. Sam's favorite was driving the cars. I think he was a little scared of any other ride than cars after he went on the helicopter ride. While JD and his sister ran off to ride an adult roller coaster, Sam did this ride over and over and over, dragging Danny along with him. We were able to persuade Sam to go on the river rafting ride. We all got soaked, which the boys thought was hilarious. Danny was a little more adventurous than Sam. JD even convinced him to go on one of the tamer adult roller coasters, since Danny is tall enough for most of them now. Alina loved her flinstone push-up sherbet treat as you can see on her face. She also enjoyed the train ride, on which she got to see animals.

I just love this outfit for Alina. Even the shoes match! Thank you to Aunt Lindsey for giving it to her. Picture taken July 30.

Weekends in the Mountain

JD's dad has been building a cabin this past summer. We like to go up there to spend our weekends while JD helps his dad. This is how the kids typically spend their time: Sam plays outside, rolls around in the dirt, and teases the dogs; Alina begs to get out of the playpen, which she has to be inside of to keep her safe when nobody is holding her; and Danny plays a game on the Playstation 2.

Pioneer Day Floats

Alina, Sam, and I went to a local convention center to see the floats that would be in the 24th of July Pioneer Day Parade in downtown Salt Lake City. The public was able to see the floats on the 22nd for free. Sam and Alina really enjoyed getting up close to them. Plus, there was some candy being passed out.

Dirty Laundry

You'd think Sam made this mess on these clothes, but it wasn't him. It was my 5-year old. I wish I had posted something right after Danny got food all over his shirt, because now I can't even remember specifically what he was eating. The pants are covered with a red Crayola twistable crayon. (BTW, the twistable crayons are really great. I received a couple of sets for my birthday, and the boys love playing with them.) Both messes happened on the same day.

Horse Ride

In the middle of June, our family went to Lava Hot Springs in Idaho for a family reunion on JD's mom's side of family. During that time, we all went on a horse drawn wagon ride to a canyon where we had a BBQ dinner around a campfire. Danny got to sit up by the driver for part of the time. Sam enjoyed sitting on one of the horses for a brief moment.

Dinosaur Museum

You'd think I asked them to make silly faces for this picture, but I didn't.


We're visiting the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point near Lehi, Utah. The boys love it here. There are some interactive galleries, which make the museum even more fun. They are brushing away the sand to find dinosaur bones. Pictures taken July 1, 2008

Mommy's Princess

These pictures were taken at the end of June.

Monkeys at the Zoo

We celebrated Danny's fifth birthday at the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. Danny likes to play on this elephant statue, which squirts water out of its trunk.










All my kids are seated on the zoo train ready for it to start going. JD's parents came along for the ride, too. Thanks to them for their help on that day!










Sam poses on the alligator (or crocodile?) in the playground area of the zoo.

Another Dr. Zimmerman in the Family?

I just thought this was cute. Danny received this outfit from a parent at Challenger who brought outfits in for every child in his class during Career Day. Picture taken in May. For those of you who don't know, JD's dad is a doctor...now the title of this post makes sense.

I guess Danny was listening pretty well during sharing time this past Sunday, during which we heard stories of pioneers who traveled to Utah. In one of these stories, we were told of a young girl who froze to death. After sharing time was over, Danny turned around in his seat to locate me. (I am a primary teacher for the 7 year olds.) He asked me, "Mommy, are you going to die? I don't want you to ever die." So, we had some talking and reassuring to do when we got home from church. At least he was listening!

Ringing Ears

That would describe the state of JD's and mine after Tuesday night. We went with JD's dad and siblings to the American Idol concert in Salt Lake. I have never seen or heard so many screaming teenage and pre-teen girls in my life! They were quite a spectacle for us to watch. Shrieks and shrills all night long. We could almost hear the music through it all.

Seriously, though, it was an entertaining concert, and what music we did hear sounded good. Thanks to JD's dad for taking us!

Swell Time at Jordanelle

We had a fantastic weekend camping at Jordanelle near Park City. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the camera, so we don't have any pictures of our adventure. JD's dad rented 4 waverunners to ride out on the dam lake. (Sorry if that offends anyone. I just couldn't help myself! It IS a lake created by a dam.) I was a little reserved on them at first, having never driven one before, but with a little practice, I got much more daring, so it became alot more fun to ride them. It actually is a slight workout to the arms when you go fast, flip around in a 180 then fly across the wake you've just created.

The boys even went out for slow rides with us. Sam would scream, "Slow!" anytime he thought JD was driving him a bit too fast, which was really not fast at all, and Danny enjoyed his ride with me. They liked to watch the other waverunners and boats out on the lake.

We were all very fortunate not to get sunburns. By "we" I mean the kids and I. I reapplied sunscreen over and over to my kids and myself. Since we are all so fairskinned, we would have cooked otherwise. No serious injuries either. Of course there were the minor scrapes and scratches to be expected from active boys playing outside all day.

Why is it that camping food tastes so good? Is it because we're famished when we eat or is it the smoky flavor of the barbeque? Maybe both. I guess in our case, it's also because we don't eat the types of food we had very often. A nice indulgence for us. Many thanks to JD's family for providing us with a great weekend!

Kids' Birthday Party for Danny

Danny is excited to open presents.
The scramble for candy from our dinosaur pinata.













The children are decorating their cupcakes with frosting and different candies.











Sam really likes his cupcake. At least the chocolate frosting part.

Danny is about ready to swing for the pinata. I made him pose for a picture first. I wish I had had the camera rolling, because when I asked him to hit the pinata, so I could take a picture, he maintained this position with his back to the pinata and started to swing the bat behind him. I guess he thought I wanted a picture of the front of him.