Natural Bridge

On our way home from Florida, we stopped at a natural bridge in Arkansas. We had a lot of fun taking pictures around the rock formations.
The mountain men of the family.

Amita being a rock climber.

Florida Trip

Isaiah and I have been planning a Florida trip for some time this winter. We were thinking in January, when on a Wednesday we decided why wait, we should go now, so Friday we packed up and headed to Panama City Beach to spend a week.

The crazy think was we had some close friends, whom also decided to do an impromptu trip to Florida at the same time. We ended up only 3 miles from them. It was really fun to hang out with them while we were there.

Some highlights from our trip were:
miniature golfing
snorkeling
seeing dolphins and stingrays
chasing crabs on the beach
Benjamin diving for hermit crabs

The boys with their sand octopus.

Melody loved playing in the sand, but would get so mad when a wave would come up and get her.

Our condo was on the 23rd floor, so we had an awesome view.

There is just something about the ocean that is just magnificent. We had a great trip. I am glad we didn't wait and just did it.

I Passed!!!

This last weekend Isaiah and I drove up to Madison, WI so I could take my final clinical exam. My wonderful mom flew out a few days before and took care of the kids while we were gone. The test was three days of intense exams. I had an examiner follow me around while I took care of patients. She made sure I did everything right and if anything was done wrong or it I forgot to do something then she would fail me. I have never done somethings as stressful as this. I prayed a lot during those three days and I know it was with Gods help that I passes. Passing this test means I am going to graduate with my associate degree in nursing.

Better Late then Early

As I have researched homeschooling, I have found that many people believe in starting their kids formal learning later rather than early. This was a very new idea to a public school kid like me, but the more I learn about the more I like what I hear.

I realize that, kids are institutionalized earlier and earlier. We make this fake world called a classroom and put them into it from the time they are 3 or4 and they stay there until they are in their twenties. We expect them to learn about life, to become working members of society not by being in the world and learning from the example of their parents, but by being in four walls and taking a test on it. To me, something seems a little wrong with this picture.

I listened to this radio broadcast by James Dobson and found it very thought provoking.
http://www.myfamilytalk.com/index.php/2010/09/01/school-can-wait/

I write this not to tell you what to think or believe, but to get you thinking.

Boating

Even though we live close to a lake, we rarely go boating. But a very kind friend of ours invited us to spend the evening on her boat. We took all the kids and Isaiah's two brothers Helaman and Gideon came along. It was so much fun. Isaiah tried skiing for the first time. He did great.

Amita was a little fish. One time she jumped off the side of the tub and ended up going under the water (she doesn't know how to hold her breath yet). When she came up I asked her if she was ok. And she smiled and yells, "I drowned, I drowned."

Melody liked being in the water if she was with me, but when someone had to lift her back into the boat and I wasn't there she cried.

The three oldest kids got to ride on the tub with Helaman. I was worried they might be a little scared, but nope. They kept begging to go faster. It was so fun to see them having a blast.

Canoeing

We have done a few canoeing trips this summer.
The first one was on the Buffalo River in Arkansas. All of Isaiah's family went on that trip. We only took the three older kids and left Melody home. It was so much fun, even with Amita being sick and it raining on us for a few hours. The sad part is I forgot to bring the camera, so no pictures.
The next trip we did was right here at Caplinger Mills. This time we took all four kids. It was lots of fun, but way harder with Melody. She pretty much wanted held the whole time and fussed about having to wear her life jacket. The other three kids swam a lot of the time and had fun finding clam shells.

Utah Trip: Salt Lake

After our stay in Delta, we drove up to Salt Lake and stayed a few days. We did so much fun stuff and didn't get to do a lot we had planned. There just wasn't enough time to fit it all in.

Some of the highlights were:

riding the trax

eating at the Mayan

visiting temple square

lots of swimming at the hotel

Hogel Zoo

Isaiah went hiking with all his brothers one afternoon, so my mom and I took the kids to the zoo. We had a lot of fun. The kids' favorite part was a bird show we got to watch, then afterwards they got to have their picture taken with a golden eagle. This was also my first time driving in a large city, so the day ended up being quite the adventure.

Here is a five generation picture with my mom, and grandma.

Saturday morning, we got up and walked a few blocks to a huge farmers market. It was so fun to see all the neat things for sell. The kids each got a little balloon animal made. Amita's was a little turtle, Carter's was a mouse, and Benjamin had a ladybug.

This is a picture of Isaiah's brother, Jacob and his wife Christine walking with Melody. One of the main reason we made the trip out west was to attend their reception/bbq.
It was so nice to get to visit them. Christine is such a wonderful person, and I am glad she is part of the family (it is nice not being the only sister-in-law any more).

Isaiah and Helaman found a little cherry tree in the park where the bbq was. They climbed it and through the cherries down to the kids, who were total thrilled with the treat.

Melody eating the cherries. She was so mad then Dad and Helaman stopped picking them.

We left the bbq and headed home that afternoon. For dinner we stopped at a rest area and ate peanut butter sandwiches. There were tons of prairie dogs running around. The kids had so much fun feeding them their sandwiches from the top of the rock.