Our Kindergartener

Kindergarten is typically 1/2 day here. We didn't originally plan to put Benjamin in two kindergartens, but the public school office was only open two days a week in the morning during the summer and whenever I thought to dis-enroll Benjamin, the office wasn't open. It turned out that they scheduled him in the morning opposite of the other program. At first I thought I was crazy to think of putting him in both kindergartens, but when I asked, they said that other kids did it and research shows there's no difference in outcome between 1/2 day and full day kindergarten. So we decided to see how it goes. Benjamin likes the private kindergarten better than the public school because "we do more fun things" but he's happy after both of them (a bit tired in the evenings, but otherwise it seems to be going okay).

I'm glad the schools didn't start on the same day. Benjamin had two afternoon only days before public school started. Ryan took him to school on the first day both times. It wasn't too traumatizing sending Benjamin to school because one kindergarten is about the same amount of time as preschool was last year and it's been nice to have lunch with him in the middle of the day. We've generally been walking to and from school and eating picnic lunches in between. I'm not sure how winter will be... I'm enjoying the extra exercise at the moment though. Ryan's been having lunch with him MWF and Benjamin really enjoys the one-on-one daddy time.

Bridal Veil Falls

We had been driving all the way up to the splash park in Highland (a few times a summer) and I wondered why Provo didn't have a splash park, but then we discovered Bridal Veil Falls. The natural one is much more eco friendly.

James wanted to be part of the action too of course. He and Ryan are sitting on the log bridge playing in the background.

Benjamin and the falls.

 The water was COLD, but the boys didn't seem to mind too much. Alexander laid down to warm up and I was his sun shade.

Preparing for the End of the World

(Disclaimer: Ryan suggested the title for this post, it but does not necessarily (per se) reflect the views of the author! He was also excited to take a picture of me barefoot in the kitchen and made sure my feet made it into the photo)


I'm trying to augment our food storage with things that aren't available at the LDS cannery such as hulled barley, garbanzo beans, red lentils, popcorn, kidney beans, real salt, etc. I'm also trying to transition most of our food from buckets to cases of #10 cans because they store better and will be easier to move. So I decided to can a bunch of food myself.

I made the mistake of driving our Honda coupe to pick up the canner and all 52 cans. The guy helping me pack it all into my car offered to let me drive his truck, but Ryan was supposed to be putting in time at the hospital and I was already running a 1/2 hour late without having to drive an extra 40 minutes round trip. Logic would have said I drive our van in the first place.

I was quite intimidated by the canner when I picked it up, but it was very easy to use and I only disfigured one can lid during the entire project. They didn't give me enough oxygen absorber packets, but luckily the salt didn't need the packets so I was only 2 short. I hope I'm not idolizing our can wall in our bedroom, but looking at it makes me as happy as using my blender!

Me and Marvin

My mom watched the boys while I went to afternoon classes at BYU Education Week. I felt like I dork for asking, but here I am with Marvin Goldstein. I saw him at Ed Week when I was ~17 and have a bunch of his albums. I think he thought I was a dork too... He seemed a lot more humble 10-15 years ago.