Waterfall Canyon

Mark's brother John had told us about a hike in Ogden up Waterfall Canyon, so on the 26th we decided to attempt the hike. The hike was a total of 2.6 miles, and luckily for us, Matthew hiked almost the whole way. Once we got into the canyon and saw the stream for the first time, Matthew got super excited. "A waterfall!" he exclaimed, pointing to a 3-inch drop in the stream. He was just so excited. We had to explain to him that there was a bigger waterfall at the end. I noticed that when we were hiking among the trees, Matthew did just fine, but when we hiked in the open, he couldn't take one more step. The most surprising part was that we got Matthew and Hannah to sit next to each other to take some pictures. They never do that. 

Mark, Me, Hannah and Matthew

Me, Hannah, Matthew and Grandma Pingel

Matthew and Hannah

Matthew and Hannah

Matthew saw this and 

thought it was the waterfall.

The actual waterfall. The water level was rather low.

Matthew

Mark

Mark and I

Hannah wanted in our picture

Hannah and Mark

Matthew and Grandma

Hannah sleeping

Mathew climbing down

Grandma and Hannah

View of the Ogden Temple

View of Ogden

Mark "carrying" Matthew

A Day in Salt Lake

Two weeks ago, we spent a day in Salt Lake City. We parked at City Creek Mall and met my mom there. The kids had fun walking around the mall, riding elevators and escalators, and playing at the playground in the food court. Melissa and her kids met us at the playground, and Benjamin joined us for lunch since he works downtown. After lunch, we got on the light rail train and rode it to the end of the line, and then basically back to where we started. We planned to visit the Church History Museum, but it was mostly closed for a major renovation. Afterwards, we walked around Temple Square. We visited the visitor's center, the Conference Center roof, and the observation deck of the Church Office Building. We finished the day up with some ice cream at  City Creek Mall.

City Creek Mall

Grandma, Matthew and Hannah

Matthew and Hannah

Riding the escalator

Hannah Boo

Ready to jump

Ayden, Melissa and Matthew on the train

Ayden

Matthew and Ayden

Looking cute

Just some pictures of my darling children looking cute.

Weekend at Jacob's

We spent the weekend of the 19th at Jacob's house. We kicked off the weekend watching Jacob's high school boys' team play. It was fun to see Jacob coach. He reminds me of our dad. Then on Saturday, we went to a nearby park and took Jacob's dog, Mishka, with us. Surprisingly, Matthew seemed to warm up to Mishka some; he's usually terrified of dogs. Hannah was excited to pet the doggy, but not so excited about Mishka's kisses. We then went swimming at the Fruita Rec Center. The Rec Center was a really nice building with a library, gym, basketball courts and pool. The pool had a large children's area, and a really cool whirlpool section that was a little like a mini lazy river.

On Saturday night, Mom watched all the kids and we went out to a drive-in movie. The first movie was The Maze Runner. I've actually read the books, so I was curious how the movie would be. We missed the first 15 minutes of the movie, so maybe that's why I never really felt like I connected with any of the characters. The plot was basically just as convoluted as the book. I wasn't really terribly impressed. The second movie we saw was If I Stay, about a girl who's been in a car accident deciding whether she wants to live or die. I rather enjoyed the movie, though it had plenty of faults. We headed back home after church on Sunday. It was a short trip, but it's always lots of fun to see Jacob and Serene. And Violet is just so cute. She reminds me so much of Hannah - except for those vivid blue eyes.

Violet

Violet and Serene

Mark and Matthew

Hannah and Violet

Violet

Violet and Grandma Pingel

Hannah

Look how long her hair is!

Hannah

Matthew, Mark and Hannah

Jacob and Mishka

Matthew, Serene, Grandma and Hannah

Serene, Violet, Hannah and Mark

Serene, Violet and Jacob

I love this picture of Serene and Violet

Mark and Hannah

Grandma and Matthew

First Day of School

Matthew had his first day of school on September 11th. This year, we are doing a Joy School with Matthew. It's just a bunch of mom's in the neighborhood doing our own weekly preschool/play date. The kids meet every Thursday for an hour and a half. All the mom's take turns teaching the lesson, so I only have to teach once every other month. Matthew wasn't terribly excited about school until I got him his own backpack ... which is actually an old lunch box. Walking to joy school, he told me he was just like Daddy and that he was off to work. Apparently, his first day of Joy School, he ignored the teacher and all the other children and just played with toys the whole time. That's my Matthew. He's since gotten the hang of school, and is doing much better.

1st day of Joy School

"No more pictures, please!"