November: Field Trips and Thanksgiving

A basket of headache helps for Kimber for her birthday.

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Thanks to UTVA we enjoyed a visit to the Clark Planetarium.

Max and Zane on the moon and Mars.

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Another great ALPS field trip, this time to "This is the Place."

They of course loved riding the little train from place to place.

A wonderful park for little boys to play on.

For his homework the next week Max wanted to write a Thank You card to his teacher Mrs. Davies.

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We were able to gather most of the Fullmer family together for Thanksgiving at Kellie's house. (Unfortunately Kellie and family wouldn't be home until Christmas.)


Kimber brought fun activity pages to keep the kids occupied and the huge bin of legos that stays at Kellie's house is always a favorite.

James found a spot on the stairs where he could handle the chaos and noise of the huge family crowd.
So many boy cousins!

Playing games. watching football games, oodles of food and pie, and lots and lots of laughing.

The crowd included Mom and Dad, Joe and family, Josh and kids, Cami and family, Kimber and kids (including Levi, Daymia, Bret and Erike), Jake and family, Kate and family and Jim and Landon.

October

The Annual Tooele Fire Department Fire Prevention Week Open House

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During conference I was able to finish up a few projects that I have been itching to get to. I painted the boys' bathroom shelf, my magazine rack and finished two collages. The boys wanted to have projects of their own so we got out boxes and paints and they enjoyed crafting during conference.

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Visiting our new Dentist in Tooele

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The boys made Grandma and Grandpa Fullmer Welcome Home Cards.

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We enjoyed S'mores at Kate's house with Mom and Dad.

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Kimber, Kate, Kathy and I spent an enormously fun night at Witchapalooza dressed up as witches; eating a delicious dinner and laughing through a hilarious musical production.

(Mike had fun editing the picture to give us all witch noses.)

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Zane dressed up as the Black Spiderman for Preschool.

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After trying on many costumes the boys ended up with their favorites (and the same as last year) to wear trick-r-treating. They enjoyed walking the neighborhood and after being here for a year we ran into many friends that we stopped to visit with. Zane wore out sooner than Max so he and Dad headed home while Max and I stayed out collecting more candy.

September

Max's Piano Teacher decided to go on sabbatical and I had the struggle of finding a new teacher for him. I made many calls and after narrowing it down by price and availability chose one. After only two lessons I knew she wasn't the right fit for Max and started the process over. We were so lucky to find sweet Elaine Lunt. She is in Grantsville so it is about a 20 minutes drive but well worth it. She is so loving and sweet with Max and he is enjoying lessons so much.

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We took the boys bowling for their first time. They had a blast!

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The whole family attended the ALPS Field Trip to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. After a guided tour through the museum they participated in the fun craft activity and Max presented his city project. He has such a creative imagination and used all kinds of materials and spent weeks building his city.



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We drive past the Tooele Train Museum several times a week and all summer long Max asks to go. We have been several times but this time we made it for the last day of exploring the exhibits inside the old train cars.

They have been fixing the small train cars so we haven't been able to ride them yet.

Inside the train cars are extensive miniature railway layouts and exhibits from when the trains were used in the military.

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One Saturday we decided to walk across the Tooele Dam.
It is just a short walk and there is fishing on the other side.

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Max planned Family Home Evening and taught us about Noah building the ark.
He gathered all the materials for us so we could build and sail our own boats.

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Riding bikes, playing at the park, video games and ice cream were a few of our summer activities.

August: Lagoon, School Supplies, James Birthday & Costumes

We were able to go to Lagoon courtesy of James' work.

We took pictures right before entering the park just in case they were needed.

We started out with a fun ride in the Red Rock Rally. After the excitement of the first ride we were disappointed when Max was too scared to go on other rides;. As James and I tried to encourage him, our encouragement turned into snapping and threatening and tension between us and him and between James and I. 

Meanwhile Zane was game to go on just about any of the rides and was having a blast.

We finally got them to the bumper cars where they rode over and over and over again.

Then headed to the pavilions for lunch provided by James' work.

After lunch we had a great time together riding the Rattlesnake Rapids...

   and the Wild Kingdom Train.

We shared ice cream in Pioneer Village, wandered through the Model Railroad Museum and finished up the day riding the bumper cards three more times.

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The boxes from K12 arrived and as always we had fun looking through all the books and supplies. 

I spent the rest of the day as a "teacher prep day," organizing books, supplies, going through paperwork and preparing for school to start.

And we took pictures in our UTVA T-shirts.

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First day of school pictures

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This year they can have a picture next to their name in online classes so we took pictures of Max to send to his teacher.

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Last fall we went to a Let's Play Music sample class and Zane has been asking ever since when he gets to start his music class. He watched Max go through the classes and already knows so many of the songs. He was super excited to have his own bag and bells. He was a bit shy during class but he loved it and has been excited to listen to his red balloon CD and practice his bells.

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After much debate and indecision I finally chose a paint color for the walls and spent two days immersed in my project. I painted the walls Sparrow (25%). I found a bed frame at a yard sale and painted it a dark purple to match the new curtains. The color looked so different when I first painted it on and I called Kimber to talk me through the panic attack. Three coats of paint later I loved the color.

I left the one dark green wall. I brought picture hangings and purple vase up from the living room. I found the computer hutch (which started the whole idea), tan bookcase, red chair and red night stands all on yard sale sites. Then added new throw pillows and other little touches from Ross and DI. After a year of living in our home, my room is finished; I even hung my collages up. Every time I walk into my room it feels like a breath of fresh air and I can't help but smile.

While in Rexburg helping Kimber pick paint colors I found a purple color that I bought with my bathroom in mind. 

It turned out more blue than I expected but I love how it lightens the room.

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The boys had a blast trying on all of Kate's costumes. The favorites they decided to keep for Halloween this year are the fireman for Max and Darth Vader for Zane. They have been wearing them several times a week.

I told Zane to give me his serious ninja look. 

I love his serious intense look.

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James is 41! The boys helped me pick out his Super Om T-shirt and a replacement Jimi Hendrix shirt for the one that he has worn til it is threadbare. He doesn't even like cake so we made no bake cookies in the shape of a 41.

Rexburg

We made our annual summer visit to see the cousins in Rexburg...

There were games with Daymia and Levi, vegging in front of the TV and jumping on the trampoline.

Zane bonded with Bret over their mutual love of Batman.

Playing at the park...

...and what a park!

Picking raspberries...and they wouldn't try even one.

Learning to fish from cousin Erika

Saying hi to the caribou

Such a fun outing!

And such beautiful boys...