Family, Freedom, Fun

The first week of July, my 3 siblings, their spouses, a combined total of 18 children and one dog converged at the humble abode of my wonderful parents. The heat wave did not deter us from our delightful adventures. We swam, visited an airplane museum, rode horses, hiked, toured Timpanogos cave, played at parks, had a "colonial" experience and celebrated the independence of the USA.  The memories are priceless.

Our hiking group playing spot the difference...

Matthew's rock climbing achievement.

Love this picture - a trust jump to Dad.

The beautiful Miss Courtney - AKA "Mexican Cliff Rose".

Alia and Courtney inside the cave

Romance in the cave

Cave formations

Carding wool at Colonial days

Madelyn in Colonial dress

Playing in the stream near the pool.

Happy 4th of July!

And yes...that is a blow torch - the final touch to our firework show.

Butterfly

The beautiful butterfly Ashlie caught.

Innovative fun

A new exhibit at the science center got us testing our innovative abilities.

Testing the friction of different materials

Gears

One of my favorites - using pipe cleaners, foam and a lot of other materials, kids could make their own "machine". When plugged into this wall they could watch it work. Each box had metal sticks that would move in various ways like back and forth, up and down, etc.

Make a paper whirly-bird, fly it up the wind tunnel and watch it shoot out the top and come spinning down. Adjust the wind speed and see what that does.

And last, but not least, a stop animation video made by my girls.

Garden treasures

The harvest begins...

Matthew overjoyed with the ripe strawberries he found in the garden.

Photo Finishes

Last week, classes ended and suddenly I had a lot more time in my evenings. Here's the final moments of the classes my girls were involved in this year.

Piano

 

Gymnastics

 

 Rowing

 This was a new class that Alia took during May and June. She loved every minute of it. Coxswain, sculling, port, launch are some of the words that have entered our family's vocabulary. (FYI - the launch is the boat the coach rides in.)

At the scrimmage, Alia's boat was behind.

They doubled their effort and began to catch up

In the end the race was called a tie.

It was an exciting finish.