Kindergarten!

My Molly is a kindergartner!  So far so good . . .

Some of the pictures our courtesy of the wonderful miss sarah who met the bus kids at school to make sure they got to their classes ok. 

Oh What Have We Done in the Summertime (part 3)?

How did we end our summer?!?

We took lunch to Molly's new school, Liberty Elementary, and then played on the playground.

We hung out at Great Grandpa's pool.  On this particular day, the kids were hunting for snails while my mom did some weeding.

We at lunch at a park.

We went to the Zoo with Joesy!  Amber and Colton have moved back to Utah (well, at least Amber until Colon finishes his last work responsibilities in Colorado).  We met Grandma and Grandpa Binggeli at the Zoo with Joesy and Amber.  It was hot, but the kids had fun.  Joesy is super cute.  We went to the Training Table for lunch.

We went to Scheels one afternoon and Jack was finally able to meet his hero, Hanrahan Lincoln, who he went weeks praying for but has finally stopped.  

One day Jack was so tired he fell asleep watching youtube videos. Summer is rough work.

We took Meranda and Parker on an adventure to the Natural History Museum.  We wanted to do something fun with them before Parker leaves on his mission. The chilluns were only marginally behaved, so it was a bit of a challenge, but still a fun day to hang out with these good kids.

We ended our last Friday of summer vacation (even though we had technically been back to work for a week) by getting happy meals and hanging out in mom's classroom so I could finish up a few things before school started on Monday.

That's our summer and we're sticking to it!

Cousin Temple Outing

Tonight we did something pretty cool!  We went to the Jordan River Temple with a total of 10 of us -  some of my cousins and some of their significant others.  We did a sealing session with some names that I have been working on and some names that my aunt Lori also gave us to get finished.

The temple is always a great place to go, but why was this experience extra neat?  For a couple of reasons . . .

This was the first time I had actually taken names to the temple to do sealings.  I have been working on some of these names since last summer and I finally finished them!  I love to do the nerdy family history work, but it takes time.  My parents and Annie and Ross helped out earlier in the year by doing an endowment session for some of them.  Meranda and Pedro each took a card for me, too.  To finally get all of these cards completely finished felt pretty good.  I don't know that all of the people whose names are on these cards are interested in accepting the gospel, but to think that I had a small part in their ability to finally be able to choose the gospel if they want . . .  that was awesome!

Second, I am so proud to be a part of my extended family.  The cousins of mine who came tonight are a great group of people.  Not all of them could make it, but 10 is a pretty good amount.  Unfortunately, some of my cousins are not interested in the blessings of the temple, but most of us are and that's pretty great.  I think my grandma would be proud of us.

Next, Parker and Natalie have just recently been endowed and this was their first experience with sealings.  It was great to see the nervous excitement on their faces and also the concentration and attentiveness to doing something new and important.

Next, our sealer was a character.  He was from Argentina and was a bit difficult to understand.  He had a hard time pronouncing and keeping track of some of the easier names, like Wood, but actually did pretty well with Binggeli.  He did several sealings in Spanish.  Meranda ended up being a proxy child for a woman named Miranda.  When she pointed that out, he said, "beautiful."  He talked to us about how we need to learn from the ordinances and it is not just the names on the card, but also to remind us of what covenants we have made.  Not only was it a special experience, but it was just fun.

Finally, the most memorable part of the experience may have come from Parker.  Perhaps he was extra nervous.  Perhaps he had been kneeling too long.  Perhaps the super hot room had gotten to him.  From various accounts and reports from witnesses at every angle, we know he started to shake and get very sweaty.  His pupils enlarged to a crazy size.  He began to sway back and forth and went stark white.  Fortunately he said, "I think I'm going to pass out" before he actually did.  (That would have been quite the thud off the alter bench.)  We got him up from his knees and onto a chair.  After a few seconds, his color started to return and he seemed to snap out of it.  It was a little scary at that moment, but afterwards was quite comical.  I couldn't even look at him without laughing.  Oh Parker!  What are we going to do without you when you go on your mission?!?

Anyway, that's my temple story.
Testimony builder.
Temples are important.
Families are forever.
God loves us all.

The end.

Camping makes my hips hurt

Yes, camping makes my hips hurt. There is a reason I was not a pioneer (many reasons actually). I don't camp. Laying on the ground is not fun, even if that ground is the nice, beautiful green grass in your backyard; even when the tent is placed gently next to the hum of the air conditioner as it cools the inside of your lovely home.

It is 4 am. My children are sound asleep, but I lay awake because I thought I heard the sprinklers. I unzipped the door as quietly as I could. I didn't want to get caught in the rainstorm beginning once the cycle hit station 6. I worried about the noise of the zipper and leaving them at all. Waking up on a camp out without a parent could have proved disastrous. I moved quickly for fear of the potential screams.

Phew! It was only the neighbor's sprinklers. However, I turned our's off just in case. Enjoying my new found hip comfort, I decided to take my chances and use the bathroom, too. Should I get a quick drink as well? Nope. I better not press my luck. 

I returned to the hip torture device to find the children silently snoozing and the crickets chirping as if we were really in the great outdoors.

Sleep for the mother? Ha. Instead I picked up my satellite honing device (which works because the router is just inside my nearby home with beds) and record the events of the last few minutes.

My hips still hurt. Sometimes making childhood memories takes a little bit of pain.

Oh what have we done in the summertime (part 2)?

We met some friends at the Zoo one day. James even went with us.  We were there longer than we normally are at the Zoo and kind of lost our friends, but we still had a good time.  We even watched the bird show. 

Molly and Emily pretended to be dinosaur food.

 

James put on his best Gomer Pyle face to test out the weight limit on the wagon while the kids rode the carousel.  

 

 

We tried out Aunt Cindy's new swimming pool.  The kids had fun!

 

We went to this crazy jumping bounce house place.  The kids had fun.  Jack did get stuck in one contraption and I had to climb up and pull him out.  I don't think we would go here often (I felt like it was a bit of a germ factory), but it was worth the one-time groupon and we could go back next summer. 

 

One afternoon our Idaho cousins surprised us with a visit, so we went downtown and had a little excursion around Temple Square.  We wandered through both visitor centers, the Assembly Hall, and the Tabernacle.  When we'd had enough, we went to the City Creek Food Court for dinner.  It was a fun evening.  We're excited to have Preslee added to this group of cousins and we're also excited to have Joesy move closer to home.  Hopefully we can get a picture in the near future of all 8 Binggeli grandkids.