The Eclipse and some hiking!

This year on August 21 the United States was set in the path of being able to experience a total solar eclipse. St. George was just out of the path of the 100% eclipse, but we were still at like 89% or something. The schools were being really weird about it and so Mom went up and checked us out of school to experience the eclipse. Mom had remembered at the last second that she actually owned a pair of solar eclipse glasses that she picked up during the last one (that was only a partial eclipse) like five years ago! The day proved to be cloudy in St. George and we thought we might not get to see the eclipse at all, but just as it reached it's peak the clouds parted! 

Mom had us use the pinhole trick to see the eclipse. She remembers this trick from when SHE was in fourth grade and saw a solar eclipse.  Can you see it there on the paper plate? That's what the sun looked like!

We all took turns with the glasses.

And then Mom showed us that our shadows were getting all kinds of wavy and distorted. It also got a little bit cooler.

It was pretty neat. Nothing like the full eclipse that some of our friends and family got to experience, but maybe someday we will experience that.

The 21st happened to be a Monday which meant Mom didn't have to teach that night OR work in the emergency department. A real treat. She decided we needed to go on an adventure and clear out of the house while Dad was teaching. So she loaded us up in the van and drove to Zion to take us on a hike. We loved the shuttle.

We settled on taking the River Walk trail up to the beginning of the Narrows. This meant we got to ride the shuttle THE WHOLE WAY.

Sam was such a trooper in his back pack. But Mom says he was getting heavy.

We discovered this lovely spot along the river that had access, but NOBODY was playing there. We took advantage of it.

We played the "how deep does it go" game. Luckily there were no losers!

Sam thoroughly enjoyed throwing rocks. Some as big as him.

It was so fun. We are so lucky to have Zion so close!

Regular life...

Once school is in session life starts to feel regular. Mom enjoys a few more naps with Sam (at least I think she does. I'm at school!)

It took us an extra couple days again, but we did manage to celebrate the start of school by going to city pool again. It's always nice because we have it to herself.

Mom actually managed to reserve the pool for the Panorama PTA and we threw a back to school party for all the students. We had a boundary change over the summer and we were much bigger and wanted to make people feel welcome. We even had free snow cones!

Poor Iva had an incident in the car involving a finger to the nose....

And Mom discovered why our water bill was higher and our grass was dying anyway. It took her another week to figure out all she needed to do was simply screw the sprinkler back on. Face palm!

Back last year, Mom signed up to run the Kokopelli Triathlon and had to defer her entry because of a conflicting date with a training. So that meant this summer she had to try and get herself training for that triathlon. Last year she could have done it with her sisters and Dad, but this year she was going to have to go it alone. This meant we got a few days out at the lake so that she could get in an open water swim!

We love summer time. The sun charges us up and the water is so glorious. And being together as a family rocks.

I should probably mention that Mom also signed ME up for this triathlon. My first open water swim too! So we BOTH had to practice swimming. I wore a life jacket though since Mom was going to go far out.

And just like that school's back in session....

I can't believe another school year has come!! This year Mom is the PTA president at Panorama. This means we were at the school A LOT even before it started. 

Cara is in second grade this year and gets to be in Mrs. Anderson's class.

I am in FOURTH grade! (Practically the top of the school. Just one more year!) And I am in Mrs. Nisson's class.

Iva was a little bummed that the big girls were back to school.

The first day was a success! We both loved it and were excited to start learning again.

A Baptism!

Note from Mom: Life is so much more busy for me. I work a lot now and my kids have more demanding schedules. I am going to do my best though to catch up on this blog!!

Back to Siena:

Pictures of me learning how to do a handstand in the Preslars' yard can only mean one thing! We went BACK up to SLC the very next weekend after Dad's reunion.

Sam and Iva and their cute white butts took baths....

But the REAL reason we were in SLC was so that Cara could be BAPTIZED as a member of our church. She was extra lucky because she got to do it the same day as our cousin Emma AND Rosey. Which is the whole reason we were doing it in SLC in the first place!

All dressed in white thanks to Grandma Deb!

Sam did not appreciate Mom's attempt at sibling photos in order of age...

Emma was also all dressed in white. She and Romney wanted their picture taken too.

We have so many memories and photos on the Preslar Porch. It's a happy place.

Getting to the church turned out to be mildly stressful. The Preslars don't have a font in their building so we have to go to one within their stake. We got there with only like 15 minutes to spare, but Rosey and her family were nowhere to be seen! All the guests were arriving and we took our traditional photos and the building coordinators were breathing down our necks because apparently there was another baptism scheduled only AN HOUR after ours. We had three baptisms to do! Why did they only give us an HOUR in the first place?!

The Seattle Romneys did come blowing in eventually and we managed to snap one photo of the girls before the services began!

The cousins all sang When I am Baptized just before the ordinances.

The locker room was a very small bathroom. It was quite close quarters. But look at all those smiling faces. They said the water was very warm like a hot tub.

Aunt Rachel did a cute job of decorating a little space with pictures of the three girls as they grew up.

Sam was slightly more cooperative AFTER the baptism with taking a few photos. We didn't manage to get a single photo of the whole group because it was THREE families worth of friends and family. Too many people plus the added stress of the other baptism group arriving and like just taking over.

However, Mom LOVES this photo of our family.

Aunt Becca and Grandma drove up that morning to make it to the baptism and Double Grandma quickly drove down the mountain to get there.

We took the party back to Apa's house for some yummy food. Apa wasn't actually there due to an opportunity to go on a sailing trip and unfortunate timing. It actually took us awhile to get to Apa's because Rosey's little brother, Park, went missing. We had to search the church and the parking lot and the neighborhood. He was eventually found at a park clear down the street!!!!

These cute cousins were so happy to share the day.

All the baptizers and baptizees

SIBLINGS!

Iva and Park wanted in on the photo. Ha!

It was a beautiful and sunny and awesome day. We loved it and I'm so happy Cara was baptized like I was.