Virtute.org

On Monday we went to Cascade Springs in Provo Canyon.  When we arrived, Ila and Thomas were asleep and I was feeling exhausted, so Zach took the oldest 3 out to explore while I rested in the van with Ila and Thomas:Nicole has been wearing this crown constantly for a week.  She even wears it to bed.  She takes it off to shower and change but puts it right back on. When Ila and Thomas woke up, we ventured out of the van.  Almost as soon as we left the van, Grandma and Grandpa Cochran showed up to explore with us.

Isaac spotted an unusual looking owl:

Here is most of our group observing some ducks:

After spotting that owl, Isaac was really on the look-out for more animals.  He kept thinking he was “scenting deer.”

On the way home we saw a moose.  He just stood there looking at us for several minutes and then he sat down:
Thomas pulling on a string from his sock on the drive home:

I shared most of the pictures from Isaac’s birthday in a previous post, but here’s a few I didn’t share.  I’m not sure how Thomas got up there, but he was fairly proud of himself:

I think it’s funny to see Thomas try to lick all the whipped cream off of my gigantic whisk attachment: Nicole is still wearing the crown and the shirt again for some reason, but this time it’s not inside out and backwards: The next day, Isaac tried out all his new things.  One of his favorites is this air rocket:Ila and Thomas enjoyed watching the rocket shoot into the air: It didn’t take long for a group of neighborhood kids to show up to watch Isaac launch his rocket (I love being in a neighborhood full of kids):
Isaac also got a large Styrofoam plane: Charlotte went on a drive with her Dad after work.  Sometimes living in the mountains, you almost forget how stunning the view is: The girls love to match.  Charlotte usually just picks out the first two shoes she finds and doesn’t seem to care if they match: This is the test of a good dress, does it twirl? Thomas is my little photo-bomber.  Whenever he sees people lining up for a photo, he jumps right in.

On Thursday after Zach got home from work, we all went to Seven Peaks for the evening: Ila’s silly face is exaggerated by Charlotte’s foot seemingly growing out of her head: Charlotte picked out her own swimsuit, I think she looks so mature in it: On Friday, I spent the morning with Isaac at cub scout day camp.  It was cold in the mountains in the morning. By the time they got to sword battles, it had warmed up enough to discard all the coats: We had 15 boys from our neighborhood (ward) go to camp:On Saturday, Charlotte helped her aunt Laresa plant some flowers (note how her shoes don’t match again):
Thomas loves numbers, so he thinks calculators are fun:We tried out some new curlers.  Zach’s cousin posted them on facebook and I was intrigued.  They were inexpensive, so I bought them.  I used half of the curlers on each girl, so I didn’t quite have enough for all of their hair.

I put more curlers in Charlotte’s hair after we took Ila’s curlers out the next morning: Nicole decided she wanted curls too, so I put the ones from Charlotte’s hair in her hair:The results were fun spiral curls. Thomas, my photo-bomber, joined in:
On Sunday night, Zach taught Isaac, Charlotte, and Isaac’s best friend Evan how to play Settlers of Catan.  Isaac got the game for his birthday and they all love it.  In fact, they’re playing it again right now, except for Zach who is at work.