Jonah's first day of preschool.

He was so excited to go to school just like his big sisters. Even though it's just a couple days a week, every day he asks if its his day to go to school.

Wind Cave National Park

We went to the Wind Cave National Park and the kids were excited to go in the cave and see it, at least while we waiting outside for the Park Ranger to take us on the tour.

Catherine is taking the picture of us and that's why she's not in the picture also. She was very pleased with herself.

This is the original opening (hole) that they discovered the cave with. It is also the entrance that they used to take people down to explore the cave. There are no natural openings large enough to walk through so they had to create one for tours. This is called a breathing cave and it was discovered when an explorer was hiking around this area and had knelt down and a gush of wind from the ground knocked his hat off. He came back later and crawled down that hole and discovered the cave. You can see the ribbon Catherine is holding is blowing pretty good from the wind coming out of the hole. The ranger said that sometimes the wind is sucking in and sometimes it is blowing out.

At first the ranger asked Jonah if he would help him hold the ribbon, which he didn't want to. Then Megan who didn't want to and then Catherine happily volunteered to help.

One of the things that are fairly unique to this cave is the popcorn formations that have developed. There are no stalagtites or stalamites in this cave. It is a realatively dry cave and so any water that is down there sits and forms these popcorn.

They also have these boxwork formations that Jonah kept calling spiderwebs. The ranger said that 95% of all boxwork that has been discovered is in this cave. It is not found in many other caves that have been discovered.

A closer view of the "spiderwebs"

As we first started into the cave, the girls got very nervous. It was dark and there were some very step stairs, about 400 of them all together. They kept saying how they didn't like being in there and wanted to leave. After the walkway straightened out, the girls mothering instinct took over and they took on the job of helping Jonah and making sure he was ok. It was so cute to see and hear them making sure he held onto the rails and wasn't scared. You can see Catherine holding Jonah's hand in this picture.

Mt. Rushmore

A few years ago we were looking at a map and realized that Mt. Rushmore was only about 650 miles from us, which is about the same that we drive to Southern California and it would only take a day to get there and a day to get home. So we decided that we really wanted to go, it was only a question of when. Dan and I love planning road trips and some happen sooner than others. Last year we didn't make it on any long trips so we were determined to go somewhere new this year. As we planned, it started out a lot longer, but then reality checked in, along with expenses and we decided it was just to South Dakota and back, not a huge trip like we dreamed. But that will happen someday. Dan's work has just been so busy he didn't have a lot of time to take off either.
This is as you walk up to Mt. Rushmore. On a side note, we had started playing the out of state license plate game, which is great to do when you go to a National Park, especially one like Mt. Rushmore. We kept track and saw so many plates from different states and from different places in Canada. More on that later.
This was our first real glimpse of Mt. Rushmore. We are just on the other side of the entrance and right next to the Information/Visitor Center.

Dan & the kids. Me and the kids.

Getting closer. This is by the Avenue of Flags. Our state of Utah was near the end closes to the memorial.

I thought this was a pretty good picture for our little camera just on the viewing terrace. The morning was a little overcast and drizzle would start every now and then, but overall really nice because it wasn't hot.

Dan and the kids.

Me and the kids. Megan wouldn't turn around because she had already taken one picture in front of it and she wanted to keep looking at it.

We kept getting comments on how Nytis had the best seat being carried around all day. We also got lots of comments on how cute he was. I'd have to agree.

There's a long walk you can go on and getting closer to the monument. I think it's called the Presidents walk or tour. We got some really up close pictures of the statues. It was really cool. This is as close as you can get unless you're a worker helping with the upkeep of the monument.

Overall, very cool to see and I would highly encourage everyone to visit it at least once in their life. After we left, the weather turned very wet and it poured most of the day. We really went at the perfect time. As for the overall out of state license plate game, by the time we got home we were only missing 4 plates, which were Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire and Kentucky. Yes, we even got Hawaii and Alaska. It was a lot of fun.

Nytis on our Road Trip

We went to South Dakota for the weekend and Nytis spent a lot of the time in his carseat. He traveled really great. He slept. and he played with Jonah's dinosaurs. He was so cute because if he was grumpy at all you could give him one of these dinosaurs, especially the brontosaurus and he'd hold it and start growling. Sometimes we'd have to growl and then he'd start growling and he'd just sit there in his seat and growl.

Such a cute boy.

Jonah had to join in the dinosaur fun.

The other thing is, we'd be driving around and Nytis would get very tired and just sit there zoning, but when we got the camera out to take a picture, he'd perk up and give us an adorable smile.

Fireworks

Anxiously waiting for it to get dark enough to watch fireworks. I know it looks dark and by this picture we're probably just getting ready to start.

YEAH!!!!! FIREWORKS!!!!!!

Dan's hanging out with the kids while I get to light a few.

SPARKLERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jonah was really nervous to hold a sparkler and when it got down to the end he started freaking out and saying that it burned him. We rushed his hand in a bowl of cool water and he just sat there soaking his hand the rest of the night. We're not really sure that he did burn his hand though because there was no mark at all, not even a little red spot. So we think that as the sparkler worn down it might have been hot and it just really scared him.

4th of July fun

These pictures are in no particular order. We went to Grandma's annual 4th of July party. There was sponge races. A ring toss to get tootsie pops.

A pie eating contest. Jonah did not actually participate in the contest but after watching everyone eat their pie this way he decided to also.

Megan did participate in the contest for the first time.

This was Catherine's first year participating also.

A waterballoon toss.

A three legged race.

Jonah and his grandpa. He absolutely loves his grandpa and gets so excited whenever we go to grandpa's house.

We had to include Nytis in the pictures.

And the giant water slide. These pictures were supposed to be first.

Love this picture with the braids going wild.

We also watched fireworks at Dan's brother's house that night. Fourth of July was a lot of fun.

Birthday's this year

Nytis just turned one and loved eating cake for the first time. He's so cute. He's crawling and growling all over the place. He also loves his dad, actually prefers him to me. I think it's cute. Jonah turned 3 and is a very loving little kid. He loves to have "I Love You" fights with me and he yells it at me in a very angry voice, but smiling and a twinkle in his eye. He's all boy with wrestling and playing with cars and trains and dinosaurs.

Megan and Catherine wanted a combined birthday party this year so they had a "Super Mario Party." They are getting so grown up. Catherine loves to help take care of her siblings and Megan is still very cuddly. They all had fun birthdays.

One guess

Can you guess what my boy's favorite character is right now. It's kinda hard, I know. Two year old boy + cars = little boy in heaven.

Here fishie, fishie

We've had passes to the aquarium for a long time now, thinking we'd go often. It took Catherine being invited to a birthday party there and I'm not comfortable with my daughter being driven around by someone I've never met to get us to go. It worked out well though. Dan stayed home with Nytis and I took the other three. During the party, Megan and Jonah and I walked around and saw all the fish. Here's Megan trying to touch the stingray. She eventually was able to. Jonah all excited about the "Nemo" fish.

"The Big Green Frog"

Jonah was so excited about the "ish" it was so cute. He's at such a fun age.