First day of school

Keely started her first day of Kindergarten on August 8, 2012, and she was so excited! For about a year, she talked about how she couldn't wait to go to Kindergarten, and the day finally came for her. She loves to learn, and she has been teaching herself how to read. We drove to school, and she stood by me the whole time before the bell rang. Once it did, she stood in her line and walked into the school. I was good at controlling my emotions until I was driving home, the tears started to come. I felt a new chapter of life starting that I wasn't sure I was ready for. The next day of school, Keely was having a hard time leaving me. It is full day Kindergarten, and after the first day, I think she realized how long she was gone from home. There were tears shed, and I just had to convince her everything would be okay. And it has taken about 2 weeks for her to finally say, that she doesn't miss me, and doesn't cry when getting ready for school.

Here she is in her new clothes and backpack. 

That first day Lydia and I came home and I put Molly down for her nap.  Lydia got a lot of one on one time that day. I am sure she needed that attention, but a few times that day, she was crying because she missed Keely so much.

 

Lydia also started her first day of preschool this year on August 27th. I started a Mommy School with 6 other friends in the ward. We each take a turn to teach and move from house to house, so I only teach every 7 weeks. Lydia loves it! And I love it. I am so happy, because she has something to look forward to while Keely is at school. 

Here she is on her first day. She was so excited.

 

I was so worried about the change of life school would bring into our family. It has been about a month now that has passed and I welcome this new chapter now. We are now in a routine, and it has been good for everyone.



FROGS

There seems to be a memorable storm every monsoon season during the summers in the desert. And I remember a certain storm when Keely and I were on our way home from school clothes shopping. We got home just in time before it really hit, and we just watched out the window as the "rains came down and the floods came up" literally. It didn't rain very long, but it sure left a lot of water. After it stopped raining, Shawn took Keely to the wash behind our house to see the damage, and there were frogs everywhere. Keely was smiling from ear to ear to tell me how many frogs she caught when she got back home, so of course the whole family went to check it out.

 Keely would just march into the water and grab them. She probably caught about 50 frogs. Of course she let them go, but it was just one after the other.

 Lydia was so proud of herself when she held them. I don't think she did any catching. But Keely caught them for her to hold.

Molly didn't know what to think of this weird slimy think on her head.
When we went back the next day, they were gone, and they left thousands of tadpoles to catch instead! It was a lot of fun. We brought the tadpoles home, to try and get some frogs out of them. We did end up getting a couple frogs, but they didn't last long, and they died. It was fun to see them grow legs though.

Williams Reunion

I am behind in my blog, go figure.
During the summer on July 19-21st we had our annual Williams family campout. Shawn, me and the girls look forward to it every year, and can't wait to escape the heat and enjoy family and cooler weather. This year didn't dissapoint. It rained every day on us, and we had much laughter. I wasn't pregnant this year, but camping with a begining crawling baby isn't too much fun. I ended up just letting her go free and play in the rocks and dirt. She was a happy baby of course. We ate good, and swam at legacy lodge everyday.

 Molly inside our tent. She was such a good girl.

 Drying off after swimming.

 My dad enjoying the family. He even swam with us this year. :)

 Kelli will probably not like me posting this photo, but I wanted to show the rope swing into the pond.

 Sweet Lydia with cousins and Grandma

 Keely feels big when she holds Molly. A storm was coming in, so we left the pond pretty soon after that.

 This picture is priceless. You hardly ever seen my dad playing cards. It was a lot of fun.

Hanging out by the campfire.
Till next July!

Utah

For our family vacation this year, we took the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Shawn's cousin Amy got married and his favorite Uncle Gene had a suprise 60th birthday on the same weekend. So we made an excuse to get away for a couple of days and attend both family gatherings with doing a little of our own adventures as well. We caravaned with Shawn's parents and left on the 4th of July and traveled all day to stay the night in Manti where we were able to make it to their 4th Parade, which was really fun for the girls because they had various town "Miss Pagent" floats and lots of candy was gathered. It was beautiful weather and we laid on the temple grounds of the Manti temple to watch the fireworks. We stayed in a very small but suprisingly comfortable hotel.

Watching the Parade from the street.

Waving at all the floates and begging for candy.

Got their glow sticks.

Molly watching the fireworks

Manti temple at night.

On Thursday the 5th, we traveled to Provo about an hour and a half away, and checked into our hotel. When we got there my childhood neighbor Brindi Porter was the front desk person! It was such a suprise. I hadn't seen her in like 8 years. It was so crazy. We went swimming while Molly took a nap, and got ready for Amy's reception which was at Brighton Ski Resort in Park City. I had never been there, and it was so beautiful being in that country. They served Churros and ice cream cones, which was really fun idea.

On Friday Jeff and Jennifer came with us to walk around Temple Square in Salt Lake. We got there about 10 am and toured the new conference center, which was so pretty. I loved the garden walks on top of the building. We ate lunch at Cheesecake Factory, which was nuts, but so yummy. Then we looked around the temple, the visitor centers, the old tabernacle, and the church museum. All in all it was a fun day. I hadn't been there forever.

 Lydia peaking over a chair at the conference center

 This was a picture in the conference center of Chirst coming to the Nephites. It was so big.

 It was really nice having Jeff and Jennifer come with us. Poor Molly just wanted to be down to crawl, but she did really well.

 Statue of President Monson.

 Fountain on top of the Conference Center

 Keely in the old Tabernacle

 I love this picture. Shawn should go into photography. :)

 There was a fun children's center in the church museum. Mexican dancing!

 I love Molly's face in this picture with the stuffed animals

Watch out here comes Molly!

On Saturady, we took it easy and went swimming in the morning, took family pictures at the Provo Temple, and ate lunch at a fun BBQ place, oh and took the girls bowling for the first time. It was a lot of fun even if Shawn killed me. I bowled really badly...but the girls had fun. Later that evening we went to the Provo libray where Shawn's Uncle Gene worked and had the suprise party for him. He was totally suprised, and they are such a fun family. We had a great time, and we were so glad we were able to make it.

 Keely eating meat on a bone (aka ribs) her favorite meal.

 Lydia got excited every time she sent the ball down the alley.

 Uncle Gene making a speak. He spoke from the heart. It was sweet.

 Jeff and Shawn's aunt sing "All my Life's a Circle" for the guests.

 They had dress ups at the party so you could take a picture with Uncle Gene and his famous outfits for the reading time at his Library. The girls had a blast with these silly costumes.

 This is what Lydia looks like with long hair. She was smiling from ear to ear and wore that wig for so long. It was so funny.

We love these silly girls.

Before we left on our trip we wanted to take as many family picture as we could of the different temples we saw. We wanted to see more, but we were only able to see three. The Manti, Salt Lake and Provo. I forgot to do the Manti so here it is.

The Manti temple is beautiful! Too bad it was raining on us, we probably would have spent more time there. Thanks Utah! We probably won't see you for a long time! We are glad to be home. :)