The First Day of School 2010

August 9th was the first day of school. I can't believe my kids are already in 5th, 3rd, and 1st grades!!

The kids were pretty excited to go back to school this year and see which ones of their "India Friends" had moved back home, and which ones were here for another year. On the 1st day I decided we would drive them out to school and walk them to their classrooms. Ethan and Maddie were excited not to have to ride the bus, but Ellie opted to take the bus.

I have always been told to take advantage of the time with your kids while they are little...one day they won't really need your hand to hold...I think I wanted to cry when Ellie decided to ride the bus. Can she be getting independent on me?!?

When we walked Ethan to his class, he only recognized some of the girls, and didn't want to sit by any of them. He decided to sit by himself at a table until some other boys arrived. I think he was my most excited kid to go to school this year, and I think it is because it's the first year he gets to wear the uniform.

Maddie walked into her room and 5 other girls came running over to her yelling her name very excited to see her. I know that Maddie has really made quite a few friends here and I think she might have the hardest time coming home and leaving the friends she's made.

Alan and I walked down to Ellie's classroom to see if she had made it yet, and she had. There are a few girls that she knew from last year that are back this year, but they are all in a different class. She did make 1 new friend very quickly from Sweden, Karolina. She is new this year and Ellie told me later that she wanted to be her friend because last year Ellie was the only girl who had glasses and this little girl had glasses too. Karolina's father told me that he was grateful for Ellie. Karalina had been very scared to come to her first day of school because she didn't know anyone, and she doesn't speak English too well.

I think if there is one thing our kids have learned while being here is how to make friends quickly.

Our 1st day back in India

So after being in Paris for 23 hours, and on 18 hours worth of plane rides, we finally reached Bangalore. We got to the baggage claim and about 1/2 way through all of the luggage coming off I had a bad feeling. Not 1 of our luggage pieces (16 checked bags) had come off the plane yet. After about 45 minutes of watching luggage go around on the belt we confirmed the suspicion. Not 1 of our suitcases or boxes made it here. I just hope it gets here soon because we had 3 boxes of food that will go bad if not.

We finally reached our house at about 4:oo a.m. and got the kids off to bed. At about 6:30 a.m. I could hear them playing in, what I thought was our downstairs, but was actually the front yard. When I got up and got dressed to tell them to be quiet, Ethan had already knocked on our neighbors door to see if their son Kavel could play. I told them they could not be noisy and had to come inside until everyone woke up. By 8:30 they were back outside rollerblading, and Ethan was showing off his stuff when he hit the curb.

You can image the blood curdling screams that came from him, and I'm sure our neighborhood is glad to have us back!!

Paris

On our way back to India we had a layover in Paris. We decided to take advantage and go out to see some of the sights.
Instead of taking the tour bus around Paris we decided to find our own way through the Metro system and buses.
The Notre Dame Cathedral

This was a small Cafe across from the Notre Dame. Complete with the Huntchback and all. Ellie and I ordered a Chocolate Crepe, Maddie had an omlet, which was essentially a crepe with ham and cheese. Ethan ordered a Hot Dog. (It came out as a foot long)

Unlike India, Paris is VERY EXPENSIVE!

After the Notre Dame and some lunch, we walked to the Louve.When we got there, I was kind of wondering if we were at the right spot because when we walked up to it, we walked up to the back of the building. I couldn't see the pyramids or people for that matter. I had been told that we would probably wait for at least 2 hours to get inside, but there didn't seem to be too many people there. As we walked through the courtyard, we were able to see the pyramids, and we knew we were here. I still didn't see that many people though, and as we walked up to where the line should be we realized why. It's closed on Tuesdays. After walking the streets of Paris to find the Louve though we decided to rest our feet in the fountain.

No trip to Paris is complete without seeing the Eiffel Tower.

Alan and the older 3 kids decided to climb the stairs to the platform, while Annie and I stayed at the bottom.

The view from the top

My view from the bottom.

We also walked to the Opera House that is supposed to be where the Phantom of the Opera was written about, but that too was closed. Also we took a night boat tour down the Seine River in the middle of Paris.

We had a fun, long, day walking the streets of Paris. I'm not sure how much of it our kids will remember, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

Maddie's Baptism

One of the highlights this summer was Maddie choosing to be baptized. She was baptized on July 3rd by her dad. We are so proud of the decisions she has made. One thing that Maddie has done to prepare for baptism is to keep the Sabbath Day holy. Being in India she has had many, many birthday parties that she has been invited to on a Sunday. She has chosen to tell her friends that Sunday is family day and that she wouldn't be able to come to the parties. I am so proud of her for making this choice. She has also had many opportunies to set the example of choosing the right in her class at school. She is the only member of the church in her grade, and I am very proud of the example she sets.

We gave Maddie the choice of being baptized in India or Salt Lake. One of the many reasons she decided to choose Salt Lake was so that she could be baptized with one of her best friends Elizabeth. Also that day another really good friend Ethan was baptized.

One of the other reasons was so that her family could come. She was not disappointed at all. All of her cousins, aunts and uncles all came to support her. We love you Maddie and love the choices you make each day!

Home for the Summer

After a 26 hour flight to Salt Lake, our kids were ready to play, and play we did!! Seven Peaks was having a special where you could get season passes for just a little more than the day pass, so we took full advantage, and ended up at Seven Peaks about 5 times in the 6 weeks we were home.

Other fun things we did while we were home (in no particular order)...

Manti Pagent...

Maddie's birthday party at the Lion House...

Maddie's baptism...(in next post)

Forth of July fun...

Ellie's late night birthday party... (sorry no pictures)

Teaching Relief Society...

Family Reunion with the Kennington side of the family in Star Valley Wyoming...

Playing at Jason's house after the reunion...

Swim Team...

Breakfast up the canyon with grandma and grandpa...

Ruby's blessing...

Lagoon...

Swimming at Uncle Grant's house...

We had a very fun, and very busy summer!!

Tracy and Katie

I'll try and condense 2 weeks into 1 blog, but it's going to be a long post.

Katie and Tracy came to India to visit us at the end of May. It was so fun to have someone come so we could show them what we do, and how crazy this place is. We had many adventures and took many many pictures. I've put some of the pictures into collages so that I can post more of them on here.

When they arrived ViJay and Baby were so excited to meet them. Alan had been telling Vijay how mean his sisters are, he told them that they might hit him if he's not careful. He asked me one day if they really were mean. I told him he'd have to be the judge. When it came time to pick them up at the airport he had it all planned out. This is what he wore to the airport.

We went non-stop, shopping around Bangalore and visiting many temples.

We also went on a train to Hampi. It was a fun experience that was new to us too.

Hampi is an old ruins city from the 14th century that was burned down by the Muslims. It reminded me of the part on Jungle Book when the monkeys take Mogli to the monkey village.

We also went to Mysore and saw the palace. On our way there Alan spotted some men walking camels on the side of the road, and one thing led to another and...

Once we got to the Mysore Palace, Katie and Tracy again braved the camel and the elephants.

Another very fun thing we did was take dolls to the orphanages. Katie and Tracy had their primay and Activities Day girls make yarn dolls to give to the children. It was so fun to see their eyes light up when we gave them the toys and a treat.

On the 2nd weekend they were here we went to Kabini and went on a Jungle Safari. It was really fun to see all of the animals in the wild. We weren't able to see too many because it started to rain, and got a little cold, but it was still fun. Next time I'm going to get a picture of the elephant crossing sign.

After a fun 2 weeks, the kids and I jumped on a plane to Salt Lake for the summer. I dreaded traveling the whole way by myself with 4 kids, but they were excellent and I can't complain one bit!

Need to post

I haven't posted anything in a long time.
We are now visiting home for the summer. The last 2 weeks that we were in India, Alan's sisters came to visit. It was so fun to go around and show off where we live. Tracy kept a really good blog of the trip so anyone who wants to see what we did for those 2 weeks can link to her blog. I will try and post about it later so I have my own record for our journal, but for now her link is Tracy and Chad on my list of friends.