Halloween

We spent a fun day as a family. In the afternoon, we enjoyed attending Daniel's class fall festival. After school we carved our pumpkins and chowed some pizza before heading out for some trick or treating fun. We ended our evening by watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Scary!

Daniel & Jared are modeling their jack-o-lantern faces

A vampire, a princess, and a pirate ready to trick or treat!

Jared decided he didn't care for the pirate costume we purchased so he went digging in the dress up box and put together a pirate outfit that he liked better!

The minute Sara walked in the door, she kicked off her princess shoes and dug into her candy, wrapper and all!

Where has the time gone?

I'm not sure when it happened but our little Daniel is looking a little more grown up. He looks so smart with his glasses.


Daniel,
You will always be mommy's angel baby!
I love you!!

Another one lost

Jared came home from school today with a little itty-bitty treasure chest. Inside the treasure chest was another lost tooth.

Whoa! My baby is losing his teeth!

Cub Scout Space Derby

Daniel participated in his very first Cub Scout Space Derby.

He did a great job of sanding, shaping, gluing, and painting his rocket.
And it was a real learning experience for mom, too!

Daniel with his "golden bullet"

Getting ready to race....

Daniel's golden bullet earned BEST in the category of:

Worth Its Weight In Gold!

Way to go Daniel!!

We're so proud of you!

Gratitud

I'm grateful for....

...brotherly love

....happy children filling our home with music

...smiling faces sitting on pumpkins

...a little girl that recognizes when she's tired and puts herself down for a nap!

New Doll House

Sara LOVES the Dora the Explorer doll house!!!

Thanks Auntie Raquel!!

Going...Going....GONE

Jared lost his first tooth!!

The tooth was really bothering Jared so he asked Mom to yank it. I just didn't have the heart (rather stomach) to do it. So, Jared waited patiently until Dad got home and asked him to yank.

Dad was more than willing!!

Music

Okay so my friend put a link on her blog to some amazing cello music.

I just love the deep rich sound of a cello so I had to share it too. Enjoy!!

Click on the picture to hear the sample

Thanks Dacia!

Silly Venetian Hats

Jared & Sara

Sara & Daniel

Moments like these...

As a parent, I find myself worrying and wondering...

am I doing the right thing?

is it enough?

Then along comes a moment like this...

and I feel a peace that what we are doing as parents isn't all that bad.

Daniel & Jared working on their General Conference booklets

during the Saturday morning session



Sara playing conference bingo

(with a little help from mom & dad)

Just Because...

All aboard!!

Sara, Jared, Daniel on their way to toothbrush valley

Sara LOVES wearing momma's shoes

click-clack-click-clack

Sara hiding under the trampoline

Our Summer Vacation

Travel Log: Day 4

(Wed. June 18, 2008)

We spent day 4 of our vacation at the beach (Coronado). The Herrera Family was so nice in letting us use their beach condo. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Jared, Grandpa Flores, & Daniel setting out to explore the tide pool

I just love Jared's smile!

Daniel, Sara, Aimeè in the tide pool

Sara just LOVED being left to float with her life jacket

Daniel all geared up for snorkeling


Our little family in the tide pool

Our little family on the beach

Daniel & Jared playing in a fresh water stream where it meets the ocean



The boys & Bryan playing in the freshwater stream



Sara taking a little snooze in Coronado pool
For the record, she did her very best to keep up with her brothers but at the end of the day, she was just plain tuckered out!




Uncle Kevin, Aunt Melissa, Michael (Uncle Kevin's friend), Daniel, Bryan, Jared hanging out in the pool after playing in the ocean




Grandma Kemp, Sara, Grandma Flores

Our Summer Vacation

Travel Log: Day 3

(Tues. June 17, 2008)

Bryan, the boys, and Grandpa Flores enjoyed a little fishing in Gatún Lake. The had a wonderful time. After they had their fill of fishing the guide took them to Monkey Island to feed the monkeys. What fun!

While the men-folk did their thing, the women-folk went shopping! Grandma Kemp took us to her favorite place to pick out some beautiful handmade linens. The workmanship was just so beautiful!!

Daniel & Grandpa Flores ready for a morning of fishing

(the guide is in the background)

Daniel & Jared

(notice the big boat behind Jared)

Daniel, Bryan, & Jared ready to go!

Time to feed some monkeys!

Daniel & Jared eating the bananas meant for the monkeys. Yum!

Enjoying a swim in the lake after fishing & feeding monkeys!

A little about Gatún Lake....

The lake is situated in the valley of the Chagres River. It was formed, and the river widened and deepened, by the construction of the Gatun Dam about 10 km (6 miles) from the river's mouth in the Caribbean Sea in 1907–1913. The geography of the area was ideal for the creation of a large lake here; the hills bordering the valley of the Chagres open up widely around the area of the lake, but come together to form a gap just over 2 km (1.4 miles) wide at the location of the dam. The damming of the river flooded the originally wooded valley; almost a century later, the stumps of old mahogany trees can still be seen rising from the water, and submerged snags form a hazard for any small vessels that wander off the marked channels. Gatun Lake has an area of 425 km² (164 square miles) at its normal level of 26 m (85 ft) above sea level; it stores 5.2 cubic kilometres (183,000,000,000 ft³) of water, which is about as much as the Chagres River brings down in an average year. With the creation of the lake many hilltops became islands. The biggest and best known of them is Barro Colorado Island, home of the world famous Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). The lake has given its name to the Gatun structure, which may be an eroded impact crater. http://www.answers.com/topic/gatun-lake

Our Summer Vacation

Travel Log: Day 2

(Mon. June 16, 2008)

We took the kids and my folks to the Miraflores Visitor Center. Wow! The visitor center sure has changed since our last visit. It was nice to see all the improvements. The kids really had a lot of fun learning about how the locks work and getting to watch a couple of ships make their way through the locks.

Click here to take a virtual tour of the Miraflores Visitor Center

Checking out the view from the new observation deck

Bryan, Jared, & Daniel with a ship passing through the locks.

Grandpa Flores is trying to get a shot of the passing ship.

Bryan, Sara, Jared, Daniel on the observation deck.

Jared & Daniel getting the sillies out

Being silly with the HAZ mat suit on display

Our little family just outside the entrance to the Visitor Center

What? No elevators!

A little about the Miraflores Locks...

This is the first set of locks situated on the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal. The locomotives maneuver the ships through the locks prior to being raised or lowered 27 feet per chamber. Twenty six million gallons of water is transferred in only 7 minutes and all done by gravity. Your bath tub doesn't drain that fast. There are three sets of locks in the Panama Canal. On the Pacific entrance are Miraflores, with two chambers, and Pedro Miquel with one chamber. On the Atlantic is one set of locks with 3 chambers, the Gatun Locks. Ships are raised a total of 87 feet above sea level into Gatun Lake and then lowered at the end of their transit into the other ocean. A common misconception is that one ocean is higher that the other, but they are both at sea level. Panama receives as much as 200 inches of rain per year. This was a determining factor in placing the canal there since 52 million gallons of fresh water is lost to the ocean on each transit. http://sunnyfortuna.com/fortunacam/showcams/panama/miraflores.htm

Click here for a very cool video of the locks in action.

In the evening we went with my parents to work on the Panama Temple. It was still very much under construction and having it ready for the open house was somewhat of a miracle! (The electricians strike really set things back.) My folks and I worked on the lockers in the womens dressing room while Bryan went to work figuring out the wiring for the washing machines in the lodging area for the temple missionaries and patrons. It was a very cool experience for us!

Thanks Raquel for taking care of our kiddos!

Here's a look at the publicity photos for the Panama City Temple.