Little Engineer

 Chandra loves to create forts, or build with legos, magnatiles, k'nex. So building with marshmallows and toothpicks for her engineering class today was more like dessert and play combined.  She had so much fun and was so proud of her creation!

Zucchini Fairy

 Chandra was the "Zucchini Fairy" this year.  Every time we had extra zucchini or other vegetables growing in our garden (which was a lot since we gardened with Sister Stapel again!) she volunteered to deliver the prizes to our neighbors.  The Mcleary's, Jan, Jess and Dave and Mary were some of her favorite places to deliver. 

Happy 3rd Birthday Kinsey!

Happy Birthday Kinsey! You have looked forward to being three for months now.  You've told us regularly that you wanted a fuchsia cake and fuchsia ice cream for your birthday. You got both, along with purple streamers and balloons for decorations.  You love the color purple, and yellow is your second favorite.  

You are incredibly determined.  You are creative.  You love to pretend you're a dog, a kitty, a mommy, or a baby with Chandra and Zedek.   It's much easier for you to share and have a nice voice when you're pretending to be somebody else. :) You love it when I read stories to you, when Daddy comes home from work, and when I tell you "yes" when you ask to eat fruit snacks or "half a raw tortilla." (yuck!) You build so many fun creations with magnatiles, magformers and duplos.  You are a beautiful dancer, a snuggler, and write pictures with scribbles and plenty of l's and o's. I love to hear you tell me about your drawings.  

We love you Kinsey! You keep us on our toes, and you are so full of fun and energy.  Happy 3rd birthday!

 Opening presents. Grandma Sue was here and Zedek came down to join us! Everything was wrapped in purple paper by Bracken and Chandra. 

Bracken and Chandra gave Kinsey these purple butterfly wings and she loves them! 

 Mitchell's came over to join us for cake and ice cream.  Kinsey got a purple birdie cake from mom and a purple porcupine cake from Chandra.  She loved them both. 

Mcleary's came over and brought Kinsey a little bear and book.  She named him "Bear" and carries him around and takes care of him. We have such great friends! 

Solar Eclipse 2017

Solar Eclipse 2017!  We weren't in the path of totality, but 90% of the sun was covered by the moon.  We got some solar eclipse glasses and joined the Mitchell's to watch it happen.  The light changed and dimmed, and the temperature dropped 8 degrees.  A pretty cool experience!

Mason, Dallin and Bennet

Ava, Chandra and Emerson

Such a cool thing to watch!

Best buds.  Bracken and Dallin recorded themselves experiencing the eclipse.  These boys should make their own youtube channel. 

We're so lucky to have our good friends/cousins live so close to us! The kids have so many best friends in one family. 

Bracken, Dallin, Ava, Chandra, Clara and Zedek

A picture I found online, but pretty similar to what we saw through our solar glasses.  

Dovey

 Chandra discovered a baby mourning dove that had been knocked out of it's tree last night by the car crash in front of our house. She was careful not to touch it but built it a little nest, dug worms for him and kept checking on it throughout the day. The mama never came back for it so tonight she brought "Dovey" home, snuggled him for just a minute, made him a bed and then put him in our bathroom so a stray cat wouldn't get it in the night. She read it stories, sang it songs, and said nighttime prayers with it. Tomorrow it's going to a bird refuge, but tonight she is the most joyous pet owner.

*Update: The next morning Chandra took Dovey back outside to see if it's mama would come feed it. Before too long it's mama did fly down, and Dovey flew off into the tree with his mama.  We didn't see him again.  It was a sad day full of tears and reminiscing for Chandra, but really the happiest way this little story could have ended.  Even after weeks have gone by, she still gets teared up when thinking about her little pet.  

Reading Time

This makes my mama heart happy.  I also love when I walk by Kinsey's room and Chandra is reading to her in the rocking chair. Her favorite books to read aloud are the ones she's partially memorized and partly reads.

Bracken and Chandra often fight over who gets the coveted reading spot in Sister Stapel's tree.  Bracken's Favorite Books lately:  Harry Potter 1-3, Fablehaven, The Boxcar Children and Calvin and Hobbes comics.

Coin Collecting

When Bracken started working on his Coin Collecting Adventure in Cub Scouts, he was quickly hooked!  He and Brian have spent hours pouring over rolls of pennies and quarters that Brian would exchange at the bank on his way home from work at night.  They get so excited each time they find a copper penny, a bicentennial quarter, and in the picture above, an actual silver quarter!

He has made friends of all different ages who share his interest.  He just completed his first penny collection this last week. He's learned a lot and had a lot of fun with his new hobby.

Crazy Kids

They are adorable.  But why is it that every time I ask for smiles they make crazy faces? 

Bracken, Kinsey and Chandra

Week of Cousin Fun!

We got to have Jeff and his younger kids come stay with us this week while Hayden and Allie went to EFY. We just missed Niki! We played hard and had a blast.  

We went to the SLC and Provo waterparks on different days. We celebrated Stetson's birthday at the Lehi Fun Center with laser tag, go-carts, mini-golf and carnival rides and finished the celebrating with Pizookies that night. 

 We went camping up American Fork Canyon where we had BB gun shooting contests, went geo caching down an almost non-existent path, worked on the boys' cub scouts requirements, and Jeff and Brian made a delicious dinner of cowboy potatoes and BBQ chicken in the dutch ovens, and peach cobbler for dessert.  Yum!  

Chandra and Tuff exploring in the creek by our campsite. 

 The next day we met Kristi and Melissa and hiked to the Timpangogos Caves. They were so cool to see, and the kids were troopers hiking. 

 By Saturday we were ready to stay home for a bit...but the fun didn't diminish.  Sally and three of their kids flew in to join us for the day.  We devoured a watermelon, played with the dunk tank for hours, and then swam in our neighbor Dave's pool for another hour or so. 

Dunk Tank!  Bracken, Mylie, Ella, Stetson, Chandra and Adelle.  

The kids were in cousin heaven this week, and are already asking for another get together. What a special week!

Bartlett Lake Trip * 1st Johnson Family Reunion

What a special few days this was!  Lake camping takes a lot of hard work, but it gives us the chance to be together as a family for several days in a way we can't be at home with our responsibilities ever present.  At the lake, we're together, with few distractions, doing something we love.  Especially our kids. From the moment they woke up until their eyes unwillingly closed in exhausted sleep they were in a magical cousin heaven.  Playing together, discovering, digging, and pushing themselves to try new things-- swimming to the buoy, catching fish with a net or pole, water skiing, or bumper tubing a little faster.  I felt like the hard work was worth it as I watched them for the most part blissfully unaware of the effort that made the trip possible, and joyfully absorbing every second of lake time. 

Adelle, Bracken, Ethan, Chandra, Benja and Ella catching minnows and blue gills with a net and gold fish crackers as bait.  They had a lot of success!

Tuff and Bracken

Kinsey and Chandra  (Kinsey potty trained herself two weeks before our trip and I was so worried this would be a rough week, but she did such a great job.)

Bracken feeling on top of the world!

Chandra holding on with all her might and Ella.  These two like the calm rides. 

After eating watermelon we always have to have watermelon rind wars.  We also played watermelon rind baseball.  Mike's at bat, Brian is pitching.  Swim Mike!

Grandpa Rob

Kinsey loves her Uncle Jeff and "my little friend" Quinnley.

Cousins.  Using the bumper tube as a raft and the water guns as oars. 

Bracken was so intent on pushing me off the bumper tube!  He didn't fall off in this picture, but climbed back on and pushed me off. Boy was he proud!

Bracken and Kira

Brian on the wakeboard.

They caught a catfish using one of their minnows for bait. A most exciting moment!

Kira skiing. 

Cousins bumper tubing.

Mike and Sally took the cousins out in the boat for a swim.  Happy kids!

Ella, Benja, Bracken, Ethan, Stetson, Adelle Chandra and Mylie

Ella and Chandra.  These two are inseparable!

All the grandkids were present for this picture.  Smiles were optional. 

Such a special week!