Sept.- Week 2- GF 90th

Dan's maternal grandfather, Russell M. Nelson, celebrated his 90th! birthday on September 9th.  

We arrived at the JSMB in time for a HUGE family picture.  I don't have a copy of that yet, but this is all of his locally available children and spouses (missing one son-in-law and another daughter and son-in-law serving in the Area Presidency in Japan).  

We attended a fancy dinner and program with 180+ family members! 

The Primary aged grand and great-grand children sang all four verses of, "The Family Is Of God." Thanks to a LOT of at-home practice, McKenna and Ben miraculously knew almost every word! 

Here's a little video of the kids singing:

http://youtu.be/M51PkVrWwBc

The "youth" age grand and great-grandchildren sang, "True to the Faith."  

All of Grandfather's children (missing one daughter) sang the hymn, "Our Prayer to Thee" which Grandfather wrote the lyrics to in 2003.  

There were a couple beautifully done slide shows, and then some loving words from the birthday man himself.  Oh, how blessed and thankful we are to be connected to so great a man!  He is an amazing example of everything we could hope to become in life!  A true disciple of Christ in every way!  

Some morning cuteness.  

Three goofies in the tub.  I love how tan McKenna is compared to my other extremely white children.

Funny how Anna was "dancing" with her lips smacking.  :) 

 Back to School Night was later that week.  We enjoyed some SWIG afterwards!  

That weekend, Dan had an overnight work event in Aspen Grove with a bunch of foster families.

While, he was gone, I took the kids to a park to enjoy the nice weather and get out some energy.  I need to also document that thanks to Kindergarten, McKenna has successfully learned to pump her own swing!  :)  

Sept.- Week 1- Labor Day, State Fair, Peach Days

Labor Day, we had our first family hike to Ensign Peak.   The kids did great going up and, oddly enough, it was actually a little more difficult going down.  Ben wouldn't hold my hand and with how steep it was, I was worried he'd slip.  Thankfully he never did.  

Anna was a trooper too!  She only got upset when we stopped in one place for too long.  

We also played at a park and went to City Creek, all with the Winegar family.  

We enjoyed some quiet time in the afternoon.  Then for dinner, we grilled and ate corn on the cob from our neighbor's garden.  It's SUCH good corn! 

Labor Day was also the last day the Hokulia Shave Ice stand was going to be open, so we decided to finally try it and see what all the hype/fuss was about.  

It was A-mazing!  We'll definitely be going back next year-- hopefully more than once! 

I had my first teaching co-op preschool to these cute boys!  

Taggart, Ben and Henry

We went to the State Fair opening night! 

Inside a tank from the National Guard (Dan wouldn't fit, so he took the picture from outside).

The butter sculpture.  

Being little farmers!

Struggling a little with pedaling.  

My favorite part is always the live farm animals!

The older kids got to ride the Giant Yellow Slide-- twice!  

McKenna did her super high-pitched scream the WHOLE way down! 

Ben looked a little scared till the very end.  When he got off, he ran to me and said, "That was AWESOME!"

Anna loves selfies.  :) 

Needed to document McKenna's "Princess Corner."  This sanctuary of hers can sometimes get a little out of hand with the clutter.  I try to limit her to only the bottom two shelves on the bookshelf, but it always manages to creep up higher.  

Cute little girl. 

We attended the Ogden Temple Open House.  It was of course as beautiful as ever!  A couple things that stood out to me were stained glass roses with thorns.  You don't really think of thorns as beautiful, but in the temple, they totally were.  And the huge dome section of the ceiling in the Celestial Room.  The kids were pretty reverent, though Ben wanted to be held the whole time.  McKenna was always concerned we weren't staying with our group enough if we ever stopped to look at something for an extended period of time.  But overall, I'm certainly glad we could go and feel the spirit that prevails in the House of the Lord.  

My brother and sister came along too! 

Great picture taken by Dan.  

So happy to know that families can be together forever!  

The next day was Peach Days in Brigham City.  Dan's brother, Jake, is going to be the new General Manager for a new hotel in Brigham City, so they wanted to advertise for that hotel during the Peach Days Parade.  We volunteered to help ride in the truck and pass out taffy and some small cups of fro-yo from Ugurt.

McKenna had mentioned before that she wanted to be in a parade when she grows up.  Well, she got her wish a little early. :)  She loved it.  The kids did pretty well and the weather was near perfect!  

Before the parade started, McKenna got to go meet these lovely princesses just one float ahead of us! She was in heaven!