8000 ft. Wall of Dirt

We were out at the soccer field on a Monday night getting ready for Justin's game to start when all of a sudden we saw this big black thing coming from the West.  We were all looking at it, wondering what it was when all of a sudden it hit.  Dirt was pelting us, and it was nearly impossible to see.  I had a hard time finding Ryan and Abigail, but once I did Emily carried Ryan and I carried Abigail and we ran to the car.  It seemed like it took forever although I am sure it only took a matter of minutes.  We were all well coated with dirt by the time we got to the car.  We now know what it must have been like during the dust bowl.  We are thankful we could go home and take a nice long shower.

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  How it looked at 5:30 in the afternoon from the dirt

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  What we saw coming towards us

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Corn Maze

Abigail went with her class to the Corn Maze.  They had fun trying to follow the popcorn trail through the maze.  It was a little more challenging then normal since it was windy and a lot of the popcorn had blown away.  It was a cold windy day, but they still had fun.

Getting ready to ride the cow train

Abigail was smiling before the train started moving, but when they started it up she started screaming and had to get off.  I think she was a little traumatized from the night before when we got stuck in a dirt storm.

My Kids Are Growing Up

This year has been a big change for our family.  Emily started high school, Tyson started middle school, and Ryan started Kindergarten.  During the day it is just me and Abigail.  I was cleaning out Ryan and Abigail's room today and I found these

Ryan and Abigail would pack these two bags full of toys each time we would go up to school so they had stuff to play with.  They have spent hours using these bags to entertain themselves during awards assemblies, snack shack, AR test, etc. etc.  I put these two backpacks in the goodwill pile and it made me sad to realize just how fast time goes by.  Next year I won't have anyone to take with me up to the school.  The older I get the quicker the years seem to go.  Although it is hard dragging younger siblings up to the school, it makes me smile to remember my two little helpers following behind me with their backpacks in tow!

Now when Abigail comes with me up to the school all she wants to play with is my i-phone.  I think I liked it better when she played with toys!

Field Trips for Justin

Justin went on two very fun field trips in two weeks, the first one was to the apple orchard and corn maze.  They got to go through the maze and then pick a bag of apples.  Because of the drought the corn was not very high so the maze was quite easy and the apples were very small, but he still had fun with his friends.  Here are some pictures

scoping out the best trees

picking his apples

Filling his bag

Johnathan and Justin with their bags of apples

His bag of apples

On the hay ride on the way back

The week after this field trip Justin got to go on another field trip for the GT program.  They went to Texas Tech Medical school and got to use some of their equipment to learn more about the body.  This was a fabulous field trip and we felt very lucky to have a medical school here in Lubbock that would allow them to come and use all of their stuff.  Here are some pictures of this.

checking each others hearts

The whole class ready for surgery

BYU plays UT

We were excited to go to Austin to watch BYU play UT this year.  Now that they are not in the Mountain Conference we don't have our normal gauranteed games to go watch.  The trip ended up being a very quick one.  We drove down Friday after the kids were done with school and drove back late Saturday night, or should I say Sunday Morning (we got home at 4:30 a.m.).  We went and saw the State Capitol building, it was beautiful. 

All the gang before going into the Capitol building

State Capitol building

Ellen with a tea party protester

Looking up to the ceiling

Senate Room

House of Representative Room

Looking down to the floor

Congressional Library

Even the door hinges were imprinted

 After the Capitol Building we went to the Capitol Building Museum.  The kids all had fun dressing up and looking at the stuff they could touch in this building.

Emily and Landon dressing up in the little kids costues

Abigail riding her horse

Abigail and Emily

Justin

Ryan

 We met up with Darlene, Bridget, and Brian for the game.  We had tickets on the very top row.   They ended up being nice tickets because you could see the whole game and there was a little more room to move around, not to mention the breeze you could get.  It was a very hot game the first half.  BYU started out good, but they couldn't get it together in the second half and ended up losing by one point.  It looks as though it is going to be a very long year for BYU. 

Ryan

Emily reading her book during the game

Abigail

Justin with his head all sweaty after taking off his BYU hair

Tyson

Darlene and Ryan

Brian and Bridget

The huge stadium

Princess Party

Abigail had her "kid" birthday party the other day.  She had so much fun with all of her friends.  I had bought them princess and knight stuff to dress up in, but I thought if I give them it at the beginning it is going to be lost all over my house so I had them earn it after completing a task from each Disney princess.  They had a lunch filled with pink items and then played games and become princess and knights in the end.  Here are some pictures from it.

Ryan and Abigail dressed up to deliver invitations

Molly and Abigail eating their lunch

searching for jewels

playing musical carpets

searching for dragon eggs

pinata

Princess Abigail

Blowing out candles

Sir Cole

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school, and it was a big first for most of my kids.  Emily started High School Today at FHS.  She also started early morning seminary this morning at 6:30.  Tyson started Jr. High at FMS, and Ryan started Kindergarten at Bennett.  Justin started 3rd grade, but is still at the same school.  I think I get more nervous than my kids, but they all had a great first day, and no one got lost trying to find their classes. 

Emily didn't want to get out at the high school and pose, and because of traffic at the elementary I wasn't able to take  a picture of her before school.

Tyson

Justin

Ryan

 We have a few traditions on the first day of school.  One thing I always try to do is have fresh home made cookies waiting.  I love to have them waiting for them with the house all clean. 

 The other tradition that we got from a friend is a "no Manners" dinner.  Jeff lets me know every year that he hates this tradition, but the kids love it so we do it anyways.  This year we played twister with colored pudding as the dots at the end.  It was a lot of fun.  I think this would be really fun for a group of friends to do.

The kids playing twister, the pudding was almost gone by now.

Everyone after it was over

Ryan

Emily

Justin

Abigail

As you notice there are none of Jeff.  He was a party pooper and did not participate.  He did take the pictures though.  He did eat his spaghetti with his fingers since there were no forks!