Back to School

Emma and Julia on their first day of 1st and 4th grade.

Emma was the first to head out. The bus came at about 8:15.

After getting Julia off to school and I ran up to Emma's school so I could meet her teacher, who wasn't at the open house, and take a picture of Emma at her new school, Rees Elementary.

We were excited to have Max walk to school with Julia on their first day since Lisa had to be in Payson helping another teacher for her first day.

Julia will also be walking to school with our new neighbor, Abbie.

Last days of Summer

Our last trip of the summer to the Reservoir.



Highlights of the Fiesta Days Parade:
Plugging the ears for the first five minutes because of the cannon and guns!

Emma waving to all the princesses!

Our daughter was part of one of the many ball teams that ride in the parade. Usually you're wishing they would get the ball teams over with and get on with the parade, but not this year. We were waiting excitedly to see our Julia and her state championship team!

Our only and last trip to This is the Place State Park where they have a mini train to ride, along with a big train.

You can pan for gold and then use the gold you find to trade for a piece of candy at the bank.

Pet the animals on the farm....

and ride the ponies! We LOVE This is the Place!

That, in a nutshell, was the last few weeks of our summer!

Grotto Hike with Tuckett Cousins

Arches National Park

Day 2 of our reunion found us at Arches National Park. Our first stop in the park was Balancing Rock.

The kids had a great time climbing around on the slick rock trying to put themselves in any crevice they could find. One thing we learned about slick rock is that it's a lot easier to get up than it is to get down:)

There's an arch in the back ground here. I think it's double arch. It was a fun, short hike the kids really enjoyed, especially climbing around on the slick rock. I forgot to take my camera on the hike so I didn't get anymore pictures.


Delicate Arch will have to remain on our to-do list because the kids were done hiking for the day by the time we made it to this one. This is as close as we got.

Arches is a beautiful place! I can't wait to go back some day!

Mesa Verde

The second week of July the Tuckett family had a reunion down in Southern Utah. The first day of the reunion we took a road trip down to the North Western corner of Colorado to visit the ancient Indian ruins in Mesa Verde National Park.



Andrew heading down into the kiva (above), and in the kiva (below).



This was an amazing place to visit, and even though we only did one hike and saw one dwelling place, I was impressed and can't wait to visit this National Park again someday. The kids were just too tired to do anymore hiking that day.