SCA! (Society for Creative Anachronism, DUH!)

USU's Anthropology Museum has a really cool program for kids every Saturday.  This week they teamed up with Logan's SCA to put on a cool event.  The SCA are those guys who dress up all medieval and have fake sword fights in parks and whatnot.  You can imagine that the kids were in heaven.

On the elevator:  JUMP!

In front of Old Main.

The Helm.

Harper playing in the amphitheater.

Harper and her buddy, Jade.

Getting ready to watch the big battle!

Swwwwwing!  These guys were beating the tar out of each other.  Crazy!

The boys were totally stoked about this brave knights.

Ruby and Owen spectating.

Visiting Artist/ Wonderful Man

What an awesome experience we had last week!  Craig Law, internationally known photographer of rock art in Utah and surrounding areas, came to speak in Bennett's class!  Craig was the head of the Art Dept while I was at USU.  He also taught photography, but I never had him, sadly.  But Jason did!  And they became friends of sorts.  Now we live in the same stake as Craig, and his wife and I became friends while we were both working in stake callings.  She passed away last spring.  You may remember my tribute to her...  What a special lady, and Craig is just an incredible person.  So when I heard that the 4th graders were learning about Fremont and Anasazi Indians, I though of Craig!  He was more than willing to come help, even though he is very busy. He did such a great job on his presentation to the kids!

He even brought a copy of the book he did photography for called "Sacred Images" and signed it, leaving it as a classroom copy!  The kids were so excited!  Craig let them all try out his camera, a cool, old-timey film camera with a dark cloth and everything!  It was beautiful, and takes stunning photos!

He did a slide presentation, and then showed the class this ginormous photograph he had done.  He is so amazing.  We were all inspired!  He talked to the kids about how important he feels it is to preserve this beautiful artwork, and showed them examples of graffiti and damage from bullets (IDIOTS!) The kids were all horrified.  Craig explained how he wants to protect these images because it is the genealogy of the Native American people, and he wants them to know that we value it.  How awesome.

Craig and Mrs. Casperson, looking at the book he presented to the class.

After his presentation, I helped Craig carry things to his car.  We had a very nice discussion, and I asked how he was doing without Nancy.  He told me it was her birthday that day.  We both cried together, and shared such a spiritual experience.  I am so grateful I asked him to come speak-  It felt like a personal blessing to me in addition to all that the kids gained.

Later that day I was able to help in Jake's classroom as well.  Here is a tower he built.  What an awesome kid.  There is something so special about each of my kids, and I love watching them learn and grow when they go to kindergarten.  Jake is doing so great, making lots of friends and learning so much.  I can tell he is really proud of all the things he is learning to do.  Way to go, Jacob Mark!  You are a superstar!

Art days are here again.

I'd had a couple of people asking when I would start teaching art lessons again, and I finally decided to start.  Here are some pics of what we've been doing.  The older class learned about Frida Kahlo.  One thing we looked at was how it was common for her to paint something meaningful to her into the background of her paintings.  Maybe pets, or other objects with meanings we don't understand.  So we learned how to draw the human head in proper proportion, and then planned a composition involving something that is meaningful to each child.  I am stunned by the results so far!  These are 2nd and 3rd graders, making gorgeous art!  I love it!

The littles are learning about drawing things using simple shapes.  We also learned about Eric Carle and collage.  We imitated his style by doing some fun printing and painting onto tissue paper, and then cutting shapes out to create our own bugs.  So cute, and the kids were super proud.

This is the kind of scene I love.  I realize it is some people's nightmare, which is why they send their children away for art time.  And really, this is nothing.  You should see the floor too!  It's awesome!

Fun times.

Cooler temperatures have made me dig deep to remember what we do during all the cold weather we're about to encounter.  Here is one thing that will help:  Jake is learning to read!  Go, Jake!  It's my 3rd time through the Sam books, but I love it.  Watching my kids learn to read is one of the greatest things in life. I am so happy for the doors this will open for Jake!  Here he is with Jade, who was helping him, and Finn, who was watching.

We made some playdough, and it has been used and reused about a gazillion times.  Here they were playing chocolate shop.  There were many flavors of chocolate.

Here's Harper with a monster truck again.  She makes very good sound-effects already, and drives stuff around all day.

Andy comes home for a visit...

My brother, Andy, has been away for a month doing more military training in S. Carolina.  He was able to come home for a week before leaving again for California.  Then in January, it's Afghanistan, but I'm not ready to think about that yet.  The cutest thing happened when Harper was re-introduced to her Uncle Andy.  She LOVED and ADORED him.  She would sit on his lap, follow him around, smile at him and talk to him.  For any of you who have ever met Harper, you know this is highly unusual.  Apparently she really likes Uncle Andy.

Watching the Guy on a Buffalo with mom.

Conference Sunday.

Between sessions of General Conference a couple of weeks ago, we drove up the canyon a little ways to  the Guinivah-Malibu campground for a little stroll to the amphitheater.  It was a glorious fall day, with the first golden leaves starting to swirl down around us.  The kids loved the amphitheater; it really is such a jewel.  Someone needs to be taking care of it!  It's really a shame that it's just kind of crumbling away...

Random end-of-season pics.

Harper climbs everywhere, gets into everything.  You know.  Like all 18-month-olds.  Here she is trying to help me set the table...  I caught her before all the syrup was dumped out everywhere, so that's good.

We have been having the most insanely gorgeous fall.  Here are all my boys, plus Jade, out for a Saturday morning bike ride.  About 2 minutes after I took this photo, Bennett rode up a dirt hill covered in sticker weeds, unbeknownst to any of us.  The other boys of course followed him up, and hence everyone's tires popped.  They had to ride home fast as the air hissed out of their tires.  Bummer.

Finn.  What a cutie.

Here's Owen turning on the irrigation.

Last day playing in the gutter.  See the yellow leaves floating by?  Yep, fall is here.

9th Ward Talent Show

I wish I had photographic evidence that Jason and I sang a duet- John Denver's "Country Roads" at the 9th ward talent show.  It was so fun, and quite honestly, I think it sounded dang good.  The whole audience had their cell phones up, swaying, and swinging their lights, smiling up at us.  Man, I felt like a rockstar.  It was awesome.  Our ward has got some serious talent!  Musical and otherwise.  It was a great night, and felt like a big family.  I love the 9th ward!  Here is a kid in our ward doing a roller disco routine.  See?  I told you our ward is cool!

Fare thee well.

My dear friend, Becca, is in the Philippines for 6 months with her family.  Before she left, Rose and I were able to rendezvous with her at a restaurant in SLC called Epic.  It was such a great night.  The tip-off that our restaurant selection was cosmically aligned was that there was a live musician there who seriously played all our favorite songs from the days when we lived together.  From James Taylor, to U2, to Alison Krauss, and the list goes on.  It was a good omen, for sure.  Lots of time has passed since the days we lived together at Crestview apartments while finishing up at USU.  We've all got different lives, similar in some ways (like politics!) and different in others- which is the way it has always been with us.  But the friendship remains, as fun and strong.  No, I take that back.  It's better now than it ever was, because we are able to view our years together in hindsight, and we recognize what a blessing it was during that time of life, and continues to be.  How I have leaned on these ladies.  I admire them so much, and pray that Harper finds girlfriends like them in life.

12 Years!

It seems crazy that it's been 12 years since Jason and I were married.  It has gone by in a flash.  We had a last minute surprise stay at Grand America.  Thank you, PROBAR!  I had not stayed there before.  It was indeed very grand.  Kind of in a funny way (so much marble and gold/brass everywhere!), but nice.  We had a super yummy dinner there, strolled around downtown,  and were treated to completely awesome music by the Joshua Payne Orchestra in the lounge of the hotel. 

Our view from the 17th floor corner suite.  

We got up early to go to a temple session, which was of course beautiful, and a perfect way to celebrate our anniversary!