Manti Trip

This trip gets its own entry.
For the last few years I've heard my sister-in-law Kristen talk about the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti and how nice it is. A few days before the event ended this past June, I remembered it was being held.  I made a few phone calls to the nearby hotels in Manti and was placed on a waiting list, in case there was a cancellation.  Luckily, there was one.  So, we packed our bags that Wednesday afternoon, picked up Newel from work and drove to Manti. 
Manti is is the middle of nowhere, really.  It's surrounded by farms and it's relatively a small town.  It is also the 4th settlement the Mormon Pioneers made when they arrived to the Utah territory.  So, when we were driving to Manti...I wasn't expecting much.  As you're about to reach the road to Manti, you make a right hand turn at the highway intersection and then you drive on a straight road for a few miles.  Then, it slightly curves and as you come out of the curve, you are surprised by a breathtaking view of the Manti Temple.  That's the tallest building you can see.  It's on top of a hill.
We arrived to our hotel...unpacked our bags, saved our seats at the Pageant and started to explore.  I LOVED the old pioneer houses by the Temple. They were so adorable.  The atmosphere was of a nice small town feel.  Even though the other Christian protesters were there, it was nice to ignore them when we were around such nice surroundings.  We grabbed a bite to eat...got our free Gordon B. Hinckley video, and walked around some more. We let the kids play at a playground and then headed back to the Temple to watch the show. 
There aren't any photos of the performance, because it's hard to take good pictures with a camera phone, but the performance was fabulous! The costumes, the music, the entire performance!  My favorite part was the guy who stood at the top of the temple dressed as the angel Moroni.
Maya was so tired she fell asleep halfway through the performance.  After the show was over, we headed back to the hotel, that was across the street from the temple. Also, another thing I really liked was seeing the constellations.  The night was clear and the stars were bright. 
We mainly drove just to see the performance, so the next morning, we got up pretty early and drove back home. I hope we get to go next year and perhaps go with the rest our family.

June

 After such a long rainy season, finally in June, the weather started to get really nice.  Less rain and warmer days.
Arden finished his soccer season.  The Walters cousins came to his last game to support him and so did G-ma and Paka.  He was really happy to see them at the game. I was also glad the season was over.
Then, we signed up Maya to play softball.  She said she'd play if they would give her a pink jersey. On her practice days she would dress up all in pink.  It was really cute and funny to see her practice...although the day I went to her practice it got really windy and chilly.  Anyways, they had practice sessions and then the games.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to attend her games due to some scheduling conflicts. Also, at one of the practices she received her jersey...it was red...so she refused to wear it.  Too funny.
 I love lazy days of summer, although I don't love how late the children go to bed. So far, we've gone to the pool and on occasional hikes. There's a trail by our house that is paved and we've gone on several walks.  On our first walk Arden found a treasure (to him), a large lug nut.  That sucker was so heavy, but he liked carrying it around.

In Nephi's boat

On the second weekend in June, Newel flew out to Cali for his buddy Rory's graduation from Stanford.  I was jealous he got to go, but I was also happy for him...Newel hardly ever goes on trips by himself.  He hung around with some of his old buddies from FL who went to Rory's graduation.  He had a blast!
So, I was doing a 'single mom' weekend.  We had a great time here too. We went to the Museum of Church History.  They've updated the children's section and it's amazing!  We had so much fun.  Sophie and Hallie joined us in our adventure.

Playing in the creek at our picnic

Then, we went to a park nearby and had a picnic lunch.  So yummy. Remember having a totally fun and relaxing day.

Arden...on his scooter.

After our picnic, we headed over to Liberty Park where we met up with our Walters primas.  They played and played in the water feature.  That was so much fun.  As a side note...Beatrix had hurt her knee while playing in their trampoline...it turned out that she needed surgery a couple of weeks after this adventure.
On our 'Single mother' weekend, we woke up early...sort of early...on Saturday morning and went on another walk...this time it was still the paved trail...but it was on the other end of the trail.  That was a lot of fun.  We also bought Arden a scooter and gave it to him as an early birthday present, since we knew he'd enjoy it more if we gave it to him early in the summer.
That afternoon I took the kids to the Library kick off Summer Reading party they had.  It was a lot of fun for all of us.  There were bouncy houses, sea creatures, reptiles, and princesses...everything these kids like. Oh yeah, they also had treats to eat.  My favorite part was this amazing playground they had made out of wood. It looked like a gigantic castle.  That was so fun...although I was worried I might lose one of my kids, since there were so many children there.

The following Monday, Newel wasn't back from his trip, so we drove to the mountains where G-ma and Paka were working as campground hosts.  They had a great little site, with a mountain side as a backyard for the kids.  They were in heaven. Maya was so excited to ride the Gator while G-ma ran errands with her. We also went on a little hike with their cousins.  Arden didn't want to go, so we left him back at the campsite with Troy and Paka...This mischievous little boy decided to play with fire and burned Zoe's sweater.  Now, I think it's pretty funny, but not on that day because he'd been told not to play with fire.
On that same day, Troy had accidentally gotten Zoe's shoe on fire while he was trying to dry her shoe after it had gotten wet.  Poor Zoe. Our little hike was fun and it was nice to NOT see so much snow.