First Days of School

Figured I better post the kids first days of school before it's time for me to post the last day of school. :)

Maizi started Kindergarten this year....one day before her 5th birthday. I can't believe I have a kid in school already. That went by WAY too fast. I was so worried for her, starting school, moving away from her family & friends, but she did great! She was so excited to go & thankfully there were no tears (from her anyway). Maizi's teacher is Mrs. Cowley & we haven't had any problems there so that's good news. Maizi does really well in school & likes going most days - she occasionally complains about PE - sounds like me!! :)

I had some trouble finding a preschool for Soakai, but we were able to find one in September and we love it. Soakai's teachers are Teacher Brandy & Teacher Shelley. He goes on Mondays & Wednesdays for 2 1/2 hours at Shelley's house. She has a whole set-up in her basement & they do the cutest things with the kids. He also did great on his first day - walked right in, started playing with the toys & didn't even really care about saying bye to us. I was so relieved! His teachers have most recently told me that he's really started opening up & talking to them & the other kids. I was shocked when I heard that he didn't talk at school - that's all that kid does from the time he wakes up til he goes to sleep is TALK! :)

So the school year has been a success for us so far ~ hope we make it last for a few more months.

Prescott

Time for another attempt to update our blog....if I learned to do this more often I'd be better at remember the details. :/ Anyway, back in August Sione had an event in Prescott so we got to go with him & to make it even better we got to meet up with my family! Zachary, Teresa & my mom met us there - so did Sage & Dana. I was pretty homesick at this time so this was a much needed visit with some of my family. :) I am so mad now that I'm looking back at my pictures...WHY didn't I take more pictures??? While Sione was busy one of the days we drove to Jerome to check it out. It's a pretty cool little town with some neat stores, but I am warning you the drive up is TERRIBLE. It's this teeny, tiny, narrow, windy road up a mountain & we almost got hit head-on so, be careful. On our way back we saw all these antelope so we stopped to watch them for a bit. We had a lot of fun & the kids were so excited to see everyone again - probably too excited since we got a call from the front desk of our hotel asking us to please keep our kids quiet. SORRY!! :)

On our way home to St. George we stopped in this little town called Seligman. It was a fun, cute little place that has lots of old history as part of Route 66. There was this really cool little restaurant - they had a lot of old stuff to look at & old cars. It reminded me of stuff my dad would love.

St. George Temple

My mom came to visit us when we first got here. Cory & Jeri were going to a wedding in Salt Lake so they dropped her off on the way & picked up a couple days later on their way home. We LOVED having her here & unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of her for proof....I wonder why??? ;) One of our little stops while she was here was the temple. Isn't it pretty?! My pictures obviously don't do it justice. You can see it in the distance when you first drive in & it's really cool to see at night.

The Little Mermaid

The first weekend we were here in St. George we were able to take the kids to go see The Little Mermaid. They have this really cool outdoor stage/amphitheater called Tuacahn. It's so pretty & the backdrop is red mountains. Many of you may know Maizi is pretty much obsessed with Ariel so she was in heaven. It was a really cool production with the water & everything. Maizi was singing along to every song & when they sang a couple that weren't from the movie she very loudly said "Hey, this isn't the way it goes!" :) It was a little warm on this night, but the kids had a really good time & we did too. After the show we got to meet the actors - we've seen "Ariel" around a couple other places & she's been so nice to let the kids just sit & talk with her...Soakai mostly just stares at her. :)

Prince Eric & Ariel

Ursula

Flounder

Sleepy Head

Poor guy! Triumph was giving Soakai a trim before we left & I guess it had just been too much for him to handle. He was literally asleep sitting in the chair getting his hair cut. Good thing he wasn't injured with his head falling all over. :) Funny kid!