Cody

Cody got tagged in a game of "Kiddo Tag". How fun!! Now I'm supposed to tell 5 things about him that people may not know, so here it goes.

1. He's going to be a rock star!! He is taking electric guitar lessons right now and doing very well with them. He's got a great ear for music and catches on very easily.

2. He loves to read. Right now he is reading the 5th book in the Harry Potter series. When he reads before bed each night we have to be good about checking on him to make sure he doesn't stay up all night reading. He has a very hard time putting a book down. Hmmm....I wonder where he gets that from? :)

3. He is the incessant gatherer of useless information!! Whenever he gets interested in something he has to find out everything there is to know about it. Past obsessions have included Mario, Weird Al, and now his most recent obsession is Bucket Head. For those of you who don't know, Buckethead is an electric guitar player who once played in Guns N Roses. I'm sure one day he will be very good at Jeopardy with all his useless trivia!!

4. He is very sensitive. He becomes quite emotional when watching something sad on tv. He also hates yelling and fighting. I think this is a very admirable trait for a young man!!

5. He is very creative. He has always enjoyed building things, drawing things, and trying to figure out how things work. He's very artistic, which is something I am definitely not. He definitely gets this from Les!!

Of course, there are many more things that I could write about Cody. He's a great kid!! He's a great big brother and a great helper around the house!! So Cody, if you read this, I love you!!!

So, now I tag:
Shaylee G.
Maggie H.
Madelyn J.
Dax S.
Maximum Powers

A party, a flood, a trip, and peaches!!!

We have had ourselves a crazy couple of weeks. First of all, the party!!! We had a cousin party at our house with all my Peterson cousins. It was a ton of fun. We had dinner and played games. This was the third party we had together and we are trying to make it a more regular occurrence.

Next, the flood. Last week our basement flooded two days before we were supposed to leave on vacation. We had to rip out the carpet pad in Cody and Kenzie's rooms and part of my office, but we were able to save the carpet, thank goodness!!! We draped the carpet over tables and chairs while we were gone to dry it out. We got the carpet and pad relaid yesterday and can now move the kids back in and try to get our house back to normal!!

And now the trip!!!




We took a camping trip to Yellowstone. It was tons of fun!! This was our first big camping trip on our own. We stayed at Madison Campground inside the park. We took bike rides, long walks around the many geysers, saw an IMAX movie, saw bears and wolves at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, and saw lots of elk and buffalo inside the park. We had a great time!

And last, but not least, the peaches. We have three peach trees in our backyard and it was time to pick them as soon as we got home from our trip. We canned them on Monday and ended up with 37 quarts and 9 pints and we still have 2 boxes of peaches left. Next up is the pears!! Yum ,yum!!!

First day of preschool

Last week Kaden had his first day of preschool. I can't believe he's already going to school. He looked so handsome on his first day. We went to the store and he picked out a new outfit for the first day and a new backpack that had Spongebob on it. He had a great time at school and he wishes he had school more than two days a week. Funny how they go from wanting to go to school all the time to hating it in just a few short years. Oh well, I hope he enjoys it while he can!!!

Copyright infringement

As I was catching up on the news this morning (I read all the news online because I don't have time to watch the nightly news) I saw a headline about Stephanie Meyer, the author of the Twilight series. Since I love everything Twilight, I had to check it out. It turns out that one of the transcripts of her novel Midnight Sun got leaked on the internet by a trusted friend and she is now so upset by it that she will not finish the book and has instead posted the transcript on her website. I was very upset after reading this, first of all because I was really looking forward to this book. For those of you who don't know, Midnight Sun is the retelling of the story of Twilight, but from Edwards point of view. She has had the first chapter posted on her website for quite some time and I thoroughly enjoyed it and was really looking forward to the whole book.

The other part that upsets me is that it seems we as a society have started to condone stealing. How many of us have downloaded a song for free, copied a friend's DVD or CD, or found something online way before it was supposed to be released and watched, read, or listened to it anyway? I think we forget that these things are copyrighted and we are taking money away from the artists each time we do it. I know the usual argument is how everything is just so expensive and these people are making so much money that it's not really going to hurt them, but that's not really the point. I have to admit that I used to have the same opinion until my husband taught a lesson on honesty at church which really changed his mind and mine. It's not always about the money we spend or the the amount of money the other person is making, it's about being honest with your fellow man.

Anyway, I haven't decided if I'm going to read the transcript that she has posted on her website as it is not the finished product and it's not how she intended it to be released. As much as I want to read the story, I also feel badly for how this turned out for her. My biggest hope is that she will decide to finish it eventually for herself and for her fans.

Frontrunner and Gateway

Last Friday I took the kids down to Salt Lake on the Frontrunner train. We barely missed the 12:30 train, so we had to wait at the platform for the 1:00 train. The kids were pretty nervous while we waited because they didn't know what to expect. They really enjoyed the train ride and they think that is how we should go to Salt Lake all the time. It was nice not dealing with the traffic, but next time I will definitely not take a big stroller, that was a pain to have to deal with!!

When we got to Salt Lake, we took Trax over to Discovery Gateway where the kids had a ton of fun!! We felt like we had the place to ourselves because it was so empty. It was nice to be able to wander from exhibit to exhibit without worrying about a big crowd. I've decided year-round school is kind of nice that way!!

The kids playing "store".

Cody climbing the rock wall, go Cody go!!

The kids playing house. They fed me all sorts of interesting food, like a bell pepper in a bowl.
Yum, yum!!

"Tonight on KSL 5 news..." Cody had fun pretending to be a news anchor. Brooklyn just wanted to show off for the camera.

This is Brooklyn trying to take a picture of herself. She loves the camera and wanted to take a picture of everything!!

After Discover Gateway, we went to California Pizza Kitchen for dinner, which I had never been to before and I really liked it!! Then we went over the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and got some sweets for the ride home. I love their caramel apples, I got a Snickers apple this time and it was delicious!! We caught the 5:55 train home, which was pretty crowded with all the business people heading home, but we got there in plenty of time to get a great seat!!

Les was supposed to join us for dinner, but he ended up having to go rescue his parents from Bridger Lake because their car broke down and the tow company wouldn't tow their trailer home for them, so he went and picked it up for them. He's such a great guy!!!

Camping in Vernal

We went to Vernal over Labor Day weekend with my parents, my brother Jarrod and his family and our niece Amaya. We had a lot of fun!! Below are just a sampling of the many pictures we took while we were there. It was so much fun to get in a family camping trip this year.




Here's Kenzie with her fish that she caught.

Kaden loved fishing while we were there!! He even caught a fish, way to go Kaden!!

Cody turned out to be quite the fisherman. He even ate his fish for breakfast!!

We went to the Dinosaur Museum in Vernal while we were there
Here are Cody and Brooklyn with their new friend.
Brooklyn was striking the cutest poses with her little purse.

Watch out Cody, you're going to get eaten!!!
Les likes to be creative with the picture-taking.

The kids all had a lot of fun posing with the dinosaurs.

Brooklyn and Les playing in the water. We stayed right by Steinaker Reservoir.
The kids all had a lot of fun splashing around in the water.

My dad makes the best pancakes ever!!! Especially up camping.

Les and Brooklyn chillin' after a long day.

Kenzie, Shaylee, and Amaya playing Ladder Golf. The kids had a lot of fun with that game while at camp!! Thanks Grandma for bringing it!!