Orlando

So last week after hem hawing all week and not sure whether we were going to make the trip, we headed to Orlando for Brandon and I to attend the temple. We had a great time. On Friday we went to po' man's Disney, Dowtown Disney. Cole loved the lego store, he and Laura spend a lot of time playing in their own little Lego land at home. Laura and Hannah enjoyed the princesses (fake, not live) and we left a little bit poorer, sweaty, tired, just like you do at the real Disney so not so bad :). Getting the kids to sleep in a strange place was miserable!, but we eventually all slept. I went to the temple early the next morning and then we all enjoyed the hotel pool by ourselves and had a blast. We played Cole's new game of chasing the kids around in the water. Threw Hannah back and forth, she loves that. Then it was Brandon's turn at the temple so the kids and I a picnic at the park down from the temple, went to the book store, went to Albertson's for the free cookie and a/c!!!! and then it was about time to pick up Brandon. All in all it was a good trip.

Whee!!

"How did they do that!?"


pretty neat


Laura to Cole "We could so do better than that"



Hannah - "I could have so much fun in there, but just like at home they keep me locked out".



"This is so cool"


After not much sleep, swimming, playing at the park
in the heat and not being able to go back to legoland, Cole had
had it, unfortunately this was at the temple, but Hannah's trying to help. Laura's hanging
in there, after all she did get to swim that very morning :).

While there were those moments, my experience on this trip in the temple and our experiences in general make it all worthwhile. I am so glad we weren't deterred from going. I wouldn't trade it and I hope the kids grow up knowing this and are able to have their own experiences that they wouldn't trade. Here's hoping and praying and living.

"Attend the temple. You will be blessed for so doing. Every man or woman who goes into the house of the Lord leaves there a better man or woman than he or she was when he or she entered the house of the Lord. The house of the Lord will have a refining effect upon you. It will cultivate unselfishness within your lives. It will build righteousness. It will impress upon you the importance of doing what you ought to do. Go to the house of the Lord." Presdient Hinckley

I believe this to be true, I didn't come out perfect, I really hope I came out a little better.

Summer school

So we started our home summer school last week. On the first day the kids were super excited, second, somewhat excited and then it kind of went down hill from there, but the important thing is we're still going. This past week Cole had a hard time joining us but he did after a couple of threats. So here's what we did....

I already knew that we would do devotional and exercise as we had started that before school officially begain. So Laura started the idea of getting in our recliner and driving to each venue..."church", gym, school. If Laura wasnt' so into the school thing I don't know if it would've lasted as long as it has. So we sing a couple of good morning songs, say the day, date and what they think the weather is going to be that day. We then read a story. Then we talk about our topic of the week. The first week was our senses, the first day was touch and I had them feel into a bag and tell me what was in it, and we went along like that each day with different senses. Then they're given their worksheets and it's free time until after lunch where I would read a chapter book out loud (this didn't last too long, we finished one book, but have yet to start another one, we will though) and we would do a craft later in the day. I topic this past week was ....surprice, United States. I've got to get on next week's!

so all told we spend a couple of hours working together and the rest was pretty much normal. I really think it helped give structure to our day and even when the kids didn't like it they liked it in the end.

Hannah is adorable doing the exercises and she's pretty good at counting to 10 and saying her abc's. She doesn't like "circle time" though, but she's getting there.

The week we start back at swimming lessons twice a week, so it'll change our school up a little bit. But so far so good.