Abundant Recompense Copy

In October we had a little two-day break from school, so we went down to St. George for some exploring with Grandpa. Our first stop was down a long bumpy dirt road to see some petroglyphs. I've never seen so many in one place! After exploring there, we went out into another stretch of desert to see some real live dinosaur tracks. Check out that big track right by their feet! Leah found another one. My foot is marking the beginning of a line of tracks. After the tracks we continued the long bumpy dirt road theme and headed to Toquerville Falls, but Grandpa's Explorer was no match for this particular bumpy dirt road, so we didn't quite make it. Last stop was Kanarraville Falls, where Nate and I and Grandpa have been a few times before. Unfortunately the rest of the world has now discovered it, so it was totally packed. But it was still beautiful and adventurey. The kids were not fans. Something about having to cross an ice-cold creek 44 times just took any good humor they had...

Yesterday Addison turned nine! I cannot believe we have a nine-year-old son. How did we get so old? We are proud of the boy that Addison is growing into. He really wants to do what is right. He's smart and funny and creative. And he's kind to his siblings, most of the time. A very cute, excited, and grown-up-looking boy at breakfast time. Here's the boy himself in an exclusive birthday interview. I think he had a great day. He got to take his fave, Lofthouse cookies, to his class at school and wear the birthday hat in his class. He told me that he watched the clock and took the hat off until the actual time of his birth, 10:51. What a cute kid. Then he came home and helped me make his birthday treat of choice - caramel brownies for brownie sundaes.  Nate brought home 9 birthday balloons for our nine-year-old. We had grilled cheese and tomato soup and corn for dinner, followed by a present extravaganza. He was surprised and thrilled with everything he got - even the socks.  ...