School Begins!

Well, school is back in here in the desert. We had a great time at the open house to meet the kids teachers. The girls are pros but I am a little nervous about Griffin. Kindergarten will be quite the change for him. We will see how the first week goes. The girls both knew lots of kids in their classes so they were excited to see their friends today but I didn't recognize any names in Griffin's classroom so he will have to make new friends! His teacher seems like she will be great. She was recommended by the principal as a teacher who can handle very active boys (his wife was Griffin's pre-school teacher.) So it is just me and Lewy here at home for the next 4 years. Poor kid is gonna be a mommas boy! My plan is to get back into scrapbooking by cleaning off the mess on the desk and being productive while he is napping. He takes 3 hour naps so I should be able to get it something done with that amount of time. Here are the kids with their teachers feel free to try and pronounce their names! :>

Griff & Mrs. Levandowski

Helen and Mrs. Vick

Mary and Mrs. Szaszfai

Lake Powell

Lake Powell was a blast. We were there with almost perfect weather. It clouded up a couple of times but we didn't get any rain. We had fun with the sea doo's, tube, and just jumping off the houseboat. We climbed Sand Mountain, one of Brad's old favorites from when he was a boy. He and Griffin had lots of fun rolling down. Aleksia did cartwheels down and Malcolm, Cedric & my girls ran down as fast as they could. I was happy to sit in the boat (I hate getting all sandy) The girls wish we could stay forever but Grammy and Pap only let them stay a week. :>


Helen and Amie on tube

Anika, Malcolm & Griffin on tube

Griffin sleeping on boat

Brad and Griffin in blue shirts--way up on top

Mary, Leksi, Malcolm & Helen reach the bottom

Evans Reunion Photo

Here is the whole family at the Evans Reunion with our matching shirts designed by Malcolm Freer! Sweet!

Utah

We started the Utah part of our trek in Orem with Auntie Paula and her family. We went to see Wall-e and swam in her pool. And we swam in the pool and swam in the pool. We love Auntie Paula's pool. It was lots of fun.

After 3 days at Paula's we went to visit Matt & Molly and had loads of fun there. Kung Fu Panda was at the Drive In and we had our drive in burgers, loads of popcorn and watched one funny show. Skadooosh! Matt & Molly have a great back yard and deck and we played outside as much as possible since we knew that wouldn't be an option at home. We also went to their nephew's Eagle Scout ceremony. It was a great time.

After 3 days with Matt & Molly--and strangely not a single picture?--we headed to St. George where we met up with DADDY! Yes after 2 weeks without him we were so happy to see him.

The Cruz family & Perry family were there along with Grandma & Grandpa Jenkins and Aunt Denise. It was fun for us to see everyone. We had lots of fun and went to a water park to play and then came home and swam in Grandma & Grandpa's pool. Aunt Denise has all those pictures but lets just say it was super fun and Lewis is one crazy pool guy. He worships the pool. He can hardly wait to get in and you have to watch him like a hawk! He just got out and jumped in to Daddy all day long. The girls--Helen, Mary, Julia & Megan set up a nail salon and painted everyone's nails.

Helen, Mary and I left Daddy, Griffin and Lewis in good hands in St. George and we headed back to Auntie Paula's for our 4th of July fun!! We had tickets to Stadium of Fire featuring Blue Man Group and........Miley Cyrus. Yes you heard right....it was Hannah Montana. Talk about your screaming girls. It was ear piercing in the stadium. I rather enjoyed the Blue Man Group but I think Uncle Boyd, Kurt, John and Emily really were neck in neck with the girls for their excitement for Miley's performance!

Uncle Boyd, Helen, Auntie Paula & Mary

Auntie Paula holding Naomi who loved Under Dog!

First we went to the Freedom Day's Parade and had Grandstand seats. It was really a great parade and we were happy to be sitting in our comfy seats. How many parades have the missionaries in them? Let alone get a standing ovation when they pass? Utah rocks!! Then the girls and I went over to the Freedom Days Festival with lots of crafts and flea market stuff and a free kids area with crafts for kids, free hair-do's, a reptile show, bouncy houses and even rock climbing.

Emily & Mary and not a lizard a skink maybe? Can't remember!

Stadium of Fire hair-do's

We left Freedom Days, went home, had crepes for dinner (thanks Auntie Paula!) and then were off to the main event....Stadium of Fire! It was fantastic. Glenn Beck was the MC, there were 1300 girls performing an Olympic dance which featured every event for the summer Olympics, parachuter's, a fly by from the Air Force and great performers. The fireworks at the end were spectacular and we couldn't have had much more fun!

Watching parachuters

6 Parachuters 1 for each branch of military and on for missing soilders

National Anthem & Pledge of Allegiance

Mommy & her girls

Emily, Helen & Jon--fuzzy sorry!

Uncle Boyd, Mary & Kurt

Stage--Blue Man Group on

Stage--Miley on

Fireworks

We sure packed in the fun on the 4th! The next day we had lunch with friends from PG, Linda Nelson and Jancie Riggs at Mimi's Cafe and sailed back to St. George. Sunday we left St. George for Lake Powell where we had loads of fun.

Idaho

Its been a fun 5 weeks and I'll start with Idaho. The 1st ever official Evans Family Reunion. We had all of my family there and most of Aunt Sandra's family there. My cousin Bruce's kids especially loved the t-shirts that said "Where the Hell is Featherville" ain't that the truth!

Sign by front door on Big Cabin

Big Cabin-- Grandad's cabin to right ->

Grandad's Cabin--Old Cabin

We went to the Church of the Wildwood on Sunday—Father’s Day. With our group of 26 we almost filled the entire church. My mom’s friend Jo Black was the preacher for the day and she gave a great sermon.

Church of the Wildwood

Monday thru Thursday was filled with all the fun activities associated with summer fun in Featherville, Idaho. . . . Swimming in the hot springs at Johnsons Bridge, tubing the river which started with the 3 big boys in tubes, Michael in a raft with the other kids and Sheri and Christy in kayaks and ended with 1 tube and extra kids in the raft. The 45 minute trip took almost 2 hours with the unexpected delays! :> Crafts galore with the kids,

Caley, Reese & Sandra finishing crafts--painted gourds

sandbox fun,

Griffin (5) & Anika (4)

basketball, rafting the Payette river in Banks Idaho, hiking, biking, golfing—yes, Featherville has a 9 hole golf course—and playing in the river.

Helen, Lewis, Cedric, Griffin, Aleksia & Willow at Johnsons bridge--warm water coming out of tube

Making swimming holes at Johnsons Bridge

Uncle Vern, Aunt Sandra, Reese & Caley at Johnson's Bridge

Amie & Brax Lewis & Helen

Lew looking at river

Pap & Lew cleaning decks

Lewis loved basketball, he found a helper—Matt, Bruce’s 11 year old son, and would get a ball and go to Matt and say “ball, ball” he would then turn around and back up until Matt picked him up and he was able to throw the ball in the hoop. It was hilarious! I think Matt’s arms were about to fall off but he just kept going because Lewis was enjoying it so much. Thanks Matt!!!

After everyone left the kids and I stayed a few extra days. We went into Boise one day to visit Jan Schiller Carley and her mom Rae Schiller. The kids swam in her pool and we had hamburgers for dinner. It was great to visit with them since it’s been forever since I have seen them.

Jan, Kathy, Rae & Griffin at Jan's house

We had such a great time in Idaho it was hard to leave but we knew that only 16 days of our vacation was over and we had 3 weeks of fun times left. Next we were off to Utah!

Swimming fun

Well, we have completed our first swim meet for the girls. They did fantastic and were 1st in their heats for the backstroke and 1st and 3rd for the freestyle. They couldn't have been happier. Grammy came down to witness the special occasion and we had a victory dinner at Mimi's Cafe afterward.


(Yes, Helen and Mary's faces are bright red burnt beyond all recognition. They spent last weekend with Grammy & Pap in Flagstaff for Aleksia's pool birthday party and came home with blisters. Helen is way worse than Mary but it just almost hurts to look at them! Ugh!!!)

It was actually our only meet of the season since the children and I are leaving for Idaho, Utah and Lake Powell for the next 4 1/2 weeks. We are just going to be visiting fools and Brad has to join us for a few days at a time here and there since someone has to pay for all our play! :>

Griffin has also finished his 3rd set of swimming lessons and has progressed quite a bit from April. He is the best at freestyle swimming. It can really get him where he wants to go and he splashes half the pool out while doing it. You certainly won't miss him headed your way!

Diving has him baffled! He cannot figure out how you get in that position and then enter the water in a diving position. It is comical to watch!!!!

Here is how he starts out....



And then the big finish.....



It is always entertaining!!!

Lewis is just happy to be here. He is so much fun. 20 months is a beautiful thing! His latest thing was naked cruising in the back yard first on his motorcycle then on his firetruck. The girls couldn't believe that I would let him go naked but then I showed them scrapbook pages of them swimming in our little blow up pool au natural when they were his age and they decided they wanted to take pictures so they could scrapbook a page of him commando style. It was amusing to see how much they got a kick out of him being naked. He did pee on the patio so they did get their eeeewwww factor in for the day and Lewis was very proud of his accomplishment! He laughed and laughed and patted his belly and laughed some more.




Now we are gearing up for the big trek north. I have lots to pack before I leave tomorrow, well, I guess it's today, so I'd better get to bed so I can drive safely!

Later!

Kathy

Summer begins!

Well, here we are our first week of summer break under our belt. The girls are on the swimming team and Griffin is in swimming lessons. I can drop the girls off but I stay with Griffin which gives me 45 min in the sun so I might even get some tan legs this summer. We haven't just been sitting around either! We have been to the zoo, visited friends, been to visit Grammy and Pap and hung out in the pool. It's been fun.

Griffin had a fun pre-school graduation. Mrs. Sterr had a fun program with songs and slide shows and books and lots of great things! We will miss her but we are sooooooo excited for kindergarten next year! And when I say we I mean me!!!! :>

Here is Brad's latest project 95% finished. We just need a few more shelves in the top middle part. It is fab. All of the kids toys, books, blankets, games. junk, etc is behind those closed doors! It makes the loft so tidy.

Enjoy the pictures and I'll try to get into this blogging thing!

Kathy