First Day of School 2011

Wow, where did summer go?  The kids started school yesterday.  They all came home happy with their teachers and happy to be back at school with friends.  I think this is going to be a great school year!

Ashlee started 5th grade...her LAST year in elementary school.  Oh man, growing up way too fast!

Brynlee is in 3rd grade...

I love these two girls!

Trevor wanted to be in a picture too!

Landon goes ALL day now in 1st grade.  Probably harder for me than him!

All the kiddos.  When the kids all got their backpacks on, Trevor went looking for his froggy backpack that Aunt Cheryl made him.

A few of the PTA board members painted some photo op scenes for the first day of school.  They were so cute!  I only got a picture of one with Trevor and some friends in it while we were hanging around after school started doing PTA stuff.  There was also one with a girl with a stack of books balancing on her head, an Eskimo with two huskies (their mascot is a husky), 3 astronaunts, and a few others.

When we were leaving the school Trevor said, "Wait, where are Ashlee and Brynlee and Landon?"  Poor kid!  Luckily he'll start going to the 3 year old class at the USU Child Lab in a couple of weeks and won't be so lonely.  I'll have about a month of being by myself Tuesday through Friday in the mornings before this baby comes.

Back to School Girls Night

Ashlee wanted to have some friends over for a movie night last Friday before school started this week.  It was a fun little girls night.  Landon was banished to his room (originally he was watching "Megamind" but didn't really like it and kept bugging the girls...such a little brother!)  Brynlee was there for the first part, but then was invited to a friend's house for a late-night  movie as well.  We ate pizza for dinner and then did facials.

Cleansing...

Shiny masks...

I did pedicures while the masks dried.  Some had very ticklish feet!

They also enjoyed dipping brownie balls in chocolate...

Peeling off the masks...

The recipe for the brownie balls is from here.  Some rolled them in toffee bits or coconut.

Pretty toes...

Then they watched "Gnomeo and Juliet".  Cute movie.

Pillow fight!

I love this one.  Trevor didn't want to be left out of the fun...

Definitely Not Afraid of Heights

Brynlee loves to climb trees.  There are two pine trees that are right by our driveway but in our neighbors yard that she would climb everyday.  She started just climbing to the first few branches and over the next few months, kept going higher and higher, eventually making it nearly to the top.  YIKES!

Our neighbors mentioned one time that they were thinking about cutting them down since the grass doesn't grow very well under them.  I think Brynlee almost started to cry when she heard the news.  Luckily for her, they haven't yet.
 
One day she came in and told us that one of the trees had a bunch of branches that were splitting and breaking away from the trunk.  Don't worry, she didn't do it.  We think it was from a really bad wind storm we had just had.

You couldn't tell standing on the ground below so Rob got up on the roof to see what she was talking about...and of course, Brynlee climbed up the tree. 

Rob has been talking to the kids about taking them to Lagoon. We are probably the only parents within 2 hours of Lagoon that haven't taken their kids there.  The last time we went I think Ashlee was about 6 months old and Rob's dad had free passes from his advertising business.  Brynlee really wants to go...Ashlee not so much.  Everytime we drive past Lagoon on our way to Salt Lake, Brynlee talks about how she wants to go on Wicked.  Some day...

Guess Who Got Her Ears Pierced...Take Two

Remember this?

Yesterday as we were passing by the jewelry counter at Walmart, Ashlee said, "I think I want to get my ears pierced now."  Um, like, right now?

We were in kind of a hurry, getting school supplies and needing to run some other errands, plus I didn't have my camera (you have to document these types of events with pictures, you know) so I asked if we should wait until tomorrow...which would be today. 

She was so nervous the whole day, but kept saying she couldn't wait until the next day.  I'm glad she did it...more for the fact that it taught her that she can do things that she thinks will be scary, hard, etc.  She is definitely not my daring, do anything child (total opposite of Brynlee...that's a post to come).

Before (just a little nervous)...

Gettin' it done...

It only hurt a tiny bit...

About 15 minutes later, she said she couldn't even tell they were in there.  I told her now she doesn't have to keep thinking "I wonder when I'll get my ears pierced..."

2011 Barton Family @ Bear Lake

Last weekend was the annual Barton family get together.  On Friday we had a BBQ at our house and then headed up to Bear Lake on Saturday morning.  Bear Lake is one of my favorite places.  I wish we would have made it up there more than twice this summer (hhhmmm, there are two weeks left til school starts...)

Row, row, row your boat...

I bought this boat the day before we went to Bear Lake and it was a hit.  Kyle (in the visor) especially loved it and probably spent most of the day in it, hitching a ride with whoever was floating around.

Lots of digging and playing in the sand...



Always have to bury someone...

 

All the Barton cousins minus the two newest girls, Violet and Jane, who were hanging out in the shade (and probably napping)...

After a fun day, we went back to Grandpa and Grandma Barton's house for some yummy homemade pizza for dinner.  Then we took the annual Barton family snap shot.  Here are all 14 grandkids being silly...

Hmmm, runs in the family? Check out the similarity between Sarah's and Grandpa's "silly" faces...

The whole family...

Tracy Aviary

On July 21st we took a little day trip to Salt Lake City.  We went to Tracy Aviary and most importantly, got to see the newest Barton cousin, Jane Elizabeth Dickson, who was born on July 16th.

We've been wanting to visit the Tracy Aviary ever since we bought this bird there for Trevor's birthday (I just went into the gift shop when we were down there for a family party so we hadn't ever been in the aviary).  Trevor would often talk about the place where we saw the pelicans since he could see them from the parking lot.  We have a family pass to the Hogle Zoo and it gives you a discount to the aviary on Thursdays.  The kids had been having their "We're Bored" summer days so we decided to take a trip.

We got there just before the "Eat or Be Eaten" bird show.  It was quite entertaining and the kids loved it.  I think Trevor knew almost every bird that came out and would shout out it's name.  Just before the next bird was going to come out, he kept asking "What bird is next?"  He couldn't wait to see more!

Kind of hard to see but this first one is Storm, the Red-tailed Hawk (sitting on the branch in the center of the picture)...

This stump was right in front of us so it was cool when the birds flew to it and sat for awhile.  Great Horned Owl...

Toucan...one of Trevor's favorites...

They called a volunteer out from the audience and had her hold a bowl of food.  The audience then had to yell "Dromaius novaehollandiae" (which sounded like a spell from Harry Potter, but is actually the scientific name of an emu) and then an emu came running out straight to the bowl. 

Can't remember the name of this one...

Blue-and-Gold Macaw (another of T's favorites).  The macaw would fly back and forth from the guy to another handler behind the audience and it flew right over our heads...pretty cool!

The King Vulture flying down...

I think this girl's accent (Australian perhaps?) was just as cool as the birds.  I loved listening to her talk about the birds.

Turkey Vulture...

At the end of the show, they brought out a donation box and the crow would take the dollar bills from the visitors and put it in the hole on top of the box.  Talk about an awesome way to collect donations!  Ashlee immediately wanted to do it.  Good thing she brought her own money because I don't carry cash...

After the show, we wandered around.  Two cute little owls...

Silly birds...

Hurry, someone take a picture...they are all looking AND smiling.  Oh wait, I got one.

My favorite exhibit was the South America one.  You walked into this enclosure and it was supposed to be like you were in someone's backyard in Argentina.  In the other exhibits, the birds are behind fences but this one you were actually inside with them.

As we were walking out to the van, I quickly realized I didn't have my keys in my pocket.  When we first got there, I was going to bring my purse so I put my keys in it.  Then I decided I didn't want to carry it along with the camera so I pulled my credit card, zoo membership and cell phone out and put them in my pockets.  Forgot the keys.  Rob was in SLC for a conference that week but we decided there wasn't much he could do to help since he just had a little car and needed to stay for another day.  I ended up calling a locksmith and they dropped the price from $75 to $45 to open my car, which was nice but still bugged me that I had to waste that money for them to take 2 seconds to open my car.  Grrrr, oh well!

Then it was off to see this cute baby, who is the first of 5 Barton/Kovacs babies to come in the the next 5 months.