Moyle Park

For those families who were there with us, I tried to send pictures I took of your kiddos. If it didn't work, or if you wanted something in a better resolution (Picasa doesn't send with very good resolution) just let me know. I'll see what I can do ;)

Moyle Park is in Alpine, UT and a today it was habitated! Direct decendents of John Moyle, the man who built the fort, come in full pioneer regalia most Tuesdays for a couple of hours. There were a whole bunch of us together (I think we had a full dozen children!) but we were given a great tour of pioneer life. The kids got to wash clothes with a washboard and hang it on a line, churn butter with an original churn and paddle, dip candles, and more. The pioneer children games were much enjoyed -- walking on stilts, rolling hoops, checkers, horseshoes... We also got to see a tiny authentic log house -- used to house a family of 13, I believe -- that could barely hold the whole bunch of us standing up! The larger home was pleasantly cool with its 3 foot thick walls; even reasonable in the upper floor.

John Moyle was an LDS pioneer who was an original settler of Alpine. He walked each week to Salt Lake City (a 40 minute drive today) to work as a stone mason on the Salt Lake Temple. At one point, during his work on his farm, he was kicked by a cow and his leg was terribly broken. The end of the leg had to be amputated. After some period of recovery he carved himself a wooden leg with a hinged foot and a leather cuff to tie around the lower end of the healthy part of leg. Then he went back to his regular work in Salt Lake. He is the artisan who carved the words "Holiness to the Lord; The House of the Lord" above the doors of the temple.

For anyone looking for a good "Utah" activity, I highly recommend Moyle Park. You'll want to call ahead to find out when the family will be there to have the full experience -- sometimes they take a week off to go camping, lol.

Read-a-thon

About a month ago Kate made a goal to read the whole Book of Mormon by herself by the time she turns 8. We figured out that if she reads a page and a half each night she should be done in plenty of time. Every night she gets her reading done on her own. She is very consistent and she is even thinking about it enough to ask questions. Tomorrow night she will be finishing up the First Book of Nephi! I am totally impressed by how easily reading comes to her and how much she is enjoying reading the scriptures. I don't expect every child to be ready or able to do such extensive reading at 6 years old, but she sure can and I'm so happy to see how much she's getting out of it.

Tribute

Sure, I should have had this posted by Sunday, but I'm behind. Tough. Better late than never?

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!!!

Today is Lizzie's 5th birthay. Wow. [Note: this took me so long it is now the day *after* her birthday. Oh well, I started on the right day!]

On my other blog, tillysbowtique.blogspot.com, I call Lizzie "Sunshine". I have always though of her that way. She has this adorable round face with dimples in her rosy cheeks and a smile that seems to wrap around her face three times. You can't see her smile without feeling happy. We've often referred to her (especially around the 3 year old era) as our "destroying angel". She ruined so much stuff! She can get in to ANYTHING if she really wants to. Then she'd just look at us with the most innocent, angelic face as if she expected she had done exactly what we wanted her to do.

My favorite story about Lizzie was when she was about a year old -- probably a little younger. She was a fairly recent walker at the time. We were living in a small apartment and had the tv in our bedroom instead of the living room as well as a little tv in the girls' play room that could play videos. One evening we had rented movies for us and for the girls. We turned them both on. Michael and I had a large Hershey's bar (with almonds, of course) that we were sharing with the girls. They would come in and ask for a piece then go back to their play room. Since they kept coming onto our bed, Michael put the candy bar on a little ledge next to the bed (closest to the door you may note). We both heard Lizzie toddling down the hallway towards us and expected her to come in and ask for another piece of candy, but she didn't show up. Her little head never bobbed along in view. A moment later we heard a little shuffling and looked down the hall in order to catch the culprit! Lizzie had walked close enough to our room to see the "available" candy. She crawled into the room so we couldn't see her, grabbed the large chocolate bar, crawled out, then finally stood up in the hall and was booking it as fast as her little legs could carry her with the chocolate firmly in her sticky grip.

Sorry about the length of the movie, but I finally decided to just put all the pictures in. Otherwise it would have taken me another day at least to decide which ones I could do without ;)

Farm Country

So this is what I get for not spending so much time at my computer, LOL. I missed the email that said that the planned field trip to "Farm Country" was going to be moved to the dino museum instead because it might rain. So we didn't spend the time with cousins and such, but we did have a great time. It didn't rain -- it was about 70 degrees and overcast. There weren't too many people and the animals were quite active.

The baby pony is still so young that the fur is like velvet. She was frolicking around -- she'd come poke her nose out at us, then go poke at Mama Pony, then run back.

The baby cow was the most affectionate bovine I've ever met (okay, admittedly it's a small group, but it was a sweet calf). Baby Cow likes to have her ears rubbed. She (he? I dunno) would stick her head out so I could rub her ears, then she'd lick my pant leg in appreciation, lol.

The tiny baby goat kept poking her nose out to sniff at us. Lizzie wanted to know if it would bite, so I put my finger up to stroke her head and check her mood. It is obviously a tiny baby! She kept trying to drink from my finger! Her front teeth seemed very small and the back teeth weren't in yet. She kept running around like a little puppy dog.

WHY the obsession with scissors?!?!?!

Yup, that was Tuesday. It's a good thing she's so cute >:{

A little Monday Math.

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