Off to SCHOOL!

On the 28th of this month, Gabe attended his first day of preschool. We were all so excited. Even though we live only a mile or two from the Iron County Preschool where he is going, we signed him up to take the bus. He has watched kids getting off and on buses across the street for three years now, and he was anxious for his turn! But when it came down to actually getting onto the bus, he balked a little. It was the first time I had ever seen Gabe scared. So, of course, I snapped a picture and continued to shoo him further into the bus. What a mom! He was nervous but he didn't cry. As the bus rumbled down the street through, I started to tear up, which turned to full on tears as I noticed Hiett clinging to the screen door, wailing as he watched his buddy leave. But Hiett got over his sadness quickly when he realized that he had mom all to himself. When Gabe got home he was full of sharing and jabbering about Q and 1, so I figured those were the things that they had started out with in class that day. He has never shared so well before! What do they do in that school that I can't? Anyway, school is a huge hit at our house!

Our Camping Trip

SO MUCH FUN!

We had a great time camping. We traveled a good three hours to Barker's Campground NW of Escalante. It was well worth the drive, it was the most beautiful place I had ever been camping. The fishing was only mediocre, but we sure had a fun time together catching weeds and sticks. Gabe even snagged a pop can with the new fishing net that Grandma and Grandpa gave him for his birthday. Even though we had a lot of enpty casts, we still managed to fry a few trout. Bobby's boy Jacob had the most luck the first day with two fish. Bobby himself is quite the fisherman and he caught a few, as did Dad. I caught one ten incher the second day in our lovely borrowed float tube. Hans finally caught a fish after several hours of determined casting- and he still hates fishing I think.
The scenery was beautiful; Quakies and a few pine trees. It was so green you could barely see the dirt. We saw several deer who would walk right into our campsite along with some pine hens and heard a supposed bear that we never actaully saw. As usual with a Downs' family camping trip, it rained off and on with a few really great storms that drenched us. But with Dad's handy tarp coverings, the boys called it the "circus", we managed to keep mostly dry. We slept, we cooked, we ate too much, and we talked while we played a few games. Once again, we brought enough food to sustain us for at least two weeks, even if it would have been ding dongs and crackers, we would have lived. And I must admit, if I wouldn't have had help, seven year old Jacob would have beat me in Chess- I stink at strategy!
The only thing missing from the trip was half of our family, and we sure did miss them. We would have had double the laughter, twice the sugar high and even sweeter memories.