Annie's 1st Grade Play

It was Annie's turn to do the traditional 1st grade play this week.  She was so excited to be the narrator- her hat shows a self-portrait. She told me that she wrote "Annie Walker" on it because she didn't know how to spell "narrator".  :)

 

 Tim came from work, and I brought Eliza and Grandma Steele to watch.  She did such a great job!  The class was divided into 5 groups, and each group did the same short play.  I had a friend tell me that she hadn't understood the whole story until Annie's turn (she was in the 3rd group).  That's pretty good for someone who's been in speech since she was 3!

She was very proud of herself, and it was fun to see her in her classroom.

 I sure love this cute girl- she definitely holds her own as the 6th of 7 kids- and that can't be easy!

Eliza at 7 months

 It has been seven months already?!

I seriously love this girl- and so do her dad and brothers and sisters (and grandmas and grandpas and ward members, and random people in the grocery store...)!  She is definitely going to grow up knowing she is loved.  At seven months, Eliza can sit up, roll over (and over, and over), and get up on her hands and knees, although she hasn't figured out how to crawl yet.  She can take steps if we hold her hands.  She loves to sing and play the piano (her favorite songs are "Skidamarink" and "We are a Happy Family"), and I haven't yet found a food that she doesn't like.  She mostly gets fed bananas and Cheerios, but would prefer a diet of ice cream and brownies.  She must be my child.

Reliving the old days

At the boys' last track meet of the year, Tim volunteered to help run the high jump- it kind of felt like a little trip down memory lane!  I think he had fun, and it brought back all kinds of memories when I came to visit him, at a track meet, with a baby in a stroller!  At least it wasn't two babies and a toddler...

 

Hope of America

Ethan is a 5th grader this year, which means we got to go to Hope of America at the Marriott Center.  The kids did great, we have learned where to park so it doesn't take us an hour to get out after, and Eliza only had two dirty diapers during the show. :)  It is possible that by the time all of our kids have gone through 5th grade we will be really sick of it, but since this was only our second time, we enjoyed it.  It made me excited for summer, actually!

By the way, Ethan is in the upper right hand corner of the blue.

Not that you can see him....

 

Price's Big Hair... Tamed!

Tim has always told me that his hair wasn't curly until he went through puberty.  And now I REALLY believe him- Price's hair has gone from a little wavy to super curly all in about two months!  And when it gets long, it is pretty crazy!

Here he is after the major haircut- and he weighs a little less now, too. :)

 

 

Moab, Day 3

On our last day in Moab, we went back into Arches to catch a few of the hikes we missed- here we are at Windows.

 

And Double Arch, which is always my favorite.

 

Um, Eliza was getting a little tired of hiking at this point...

We thought we were done after this, but Josh really wanted to do one more hike, so I dropped Tim, Price and Josh off at one end of Park Avenue, where they got to walk through this:

and picked them up a while later at the other end.

We really were done then, and drove back into Moab one last time to a park that our friends had recommended to us... and we were so glad we went!

This park has a percussion playground- and the kids were in heaven!

 

 So was Tim, for that matter! :)

We will definitely go back there the next time we're in Moab.

And then we headed home!  It was so nice to get away as a family, and it's always so nice to come home.  We're already planning the next trip....

Day 2, cont.

Okay, Blogger started doing something weird and wouldn't let me put more pictures in, so I'll continue here:

At the end of our Landscape Arch hike, it started to rain- just a drizzle at first, but heavier as we reached the car.  As we drove away, it really started coming down.  Good timing!

Next we drove over to the Delicate Arch Overlook- we thought about hiking to the arch, but decided to leave that hike for next time, and instead hiked to the upper viewpoint.  That was a nice little uphill hike itself, so I wasn't too sad to miss the big hike.

At that point, Eliza had just about had enough interrupted naps for the week, so we decided to let her sleep while we drove over to Canyonlands.  We didn't do a lot of getting out and hiking there- just a few viewpoints while the baby slept, but she did wake up in time for us all to hike to Mesa Arch.  We had never been there before, and the kids had run ahead- when we got there they were all climbing rocks around the arch...

which didn't worry  me until we actually got over to the arch and looked through it...

Yeah... that's a long way down!

Here's what we looked like as we drove:  this was our first trip in the Suburban, and we loved it!  So glad we have enough room for everyone!

Yes, I sat in the back most of the way- it was just easier with the baby.  She definitely likes her mom.
We came back to the motel, where a few of our hardier souls went back into the outdoor pool, and I did laundry (since Eliza was running low on clothes that hadn't been exploded into), and then we drove south about 15 miles or so to a rest stop where we met Mom and Dad Walker for a picnic.  This was no balmy, relaxed picnic, however.  Picture all 11 of us huddled around the table, scarfing down fried chicken while we jogged in place to stay warm.  It was cold and windy, and after eating, we hurried over to the visitor's center where it was at least warm, if not charming.  Despite the cold, it was fun to see Mom and Dad.  Our families love of Moab stems from their trips here with Tim as he was growing up!

Moab, Day 2

After a hot, windy afternoon the day before, Thursday was very cool and sometimes rainy.  Perfect for hiking!  The only problem was that Tim forgot a jacket- he was a little cold sometimes, but I thought it was way better cold than hot!

Our first hike of the day was to Landscape Arch, with a side trip to see Pine Tree Arch and, um... whatever the other arch down that way is.

 Cute hiking baby.  We wore out our baby backpack years ago, so I used a wrap and carried her facing out- she did great!  

We needed someone to walk by and take our picture, but we did our best: here's the family without Price,

 and the family without Rebekah.

Spring Break in Moab, Day 1

 We keep talking with the kids about trips we want to take... at Christmas we were going to go to California.  And then we had the baby, and drove short distances with her in the car, and realized we would never survive that far.  Our compromise was spring break in Moab- we figured it would be a short enough trip that we could actually make it and stay sane!  Then we booked the hotel, and got the nonrefundable deal

so that we couldn't change our minds. :)

Here we are at a park in Green River where we stopped for lunch.  My big kids had a blast on those swings!

When we got to Moab, we stopped first at the visitor's center:

 

and then took a short hike (outside the park) that was supposed to lead to petroglyphs.  Apparently we took a wrong turn, though, because we walked way farther than it was supposed to be, and never saw anything.  And it was HOT!  Eventually I turned around with the little kids and Tim took the big kids a little farther.  By the time we all made it back to the car, the wind had kicked up, sand was blowing everywhere, and we were ready for our hotel!  We ate at Denny's (since it was in the parking lot and I was STARVING.  Actually, I was starving the whole time we were there.  Apparently when I'm at home all day I eat, and that's all.).  Can I just tell you our family can put away a lot of food?  Then it was back to the hotel for swimming, and frozen yogurt at Maverik later.  Fun start to our vacation! 

 

Eliza at 6 months!

17 lbs... and I didn't catch a height at her doctor's appointment.  I've got to pay more attention, I guess!

Love those blue eyes!

What did we ever do without her? (Besides have enough time to keep the house clean, that is!)

We sure love our cute Liza Jo!

At six months, Eliza still LOVES music- she can be screaming mad, and if we start singing, she stops.  Just like that.  She likes to play the piano, too- and reading books with her is very fun, especially when she tries to eat the book!  Eliza loves food, and wants to eat whenever the family is eating.