Dance Recital

left to right: Bailey (Alyssa's best friend), Alyssa, Annie, Emily, Halle, Ellie





The girls have been taking ballet from Aunt Emily this summer. Last night was their recital. They all did such a cute job. They did a busy bees number, and a flower babies number. It was really fun to watch. Thanks to Emily for a job well done!!!!!

Walking Kate

My little baby is growing up!! She has started to try to walk. She gets better and better every hour. She is 9 months and 1 week old. She and Carter both started walking about this age. Halle was about 2 or 3 weeks later and Alyssa about 5 weeks later. They just get earlier and earlier. Would have been nice to have been able to enjoy her as a baby a little bit longer, but she apparently has other ideas. She's SOOOOO cute toodleing around; we all just want to pinch her!!

Alyssa can drive!

I love this one of all the adults riding and Alyssa driving. It was hilarious.



Off and on Alyssa would aquire new passengers.



Grampy hooked up the riding lawn mower to some barrels on wheels and called it a train. The kids LOVE it! Grampy also threw Alyssa on, set it in a low gear and let her go. She drove that thing (getting faster and faster as the night went on) for about 3 hours. I think she was in heaven.

Emily & Bryon at the temple

My sister Emily and her husband Bryon were sealed in the temple on Saturday August 26. It was very neat and we are all happy that they chose to be sealed for eternity. Congrats to them!

First Day of School!!!!

Halle is in Kindergarten and couldn't be more ready! She really is excited to meet some friends and to do "crafts" at school. Let's hope she loves to learn as well.



Alyssa is a great big 2nd grader this year!



Today was the first day of school. Both girls woke up REALLY early and were very excited.

Jenny's Lake

On Saturday we drove to Teton National Park and played for the day. We had a great time. We ate lunch at Billy's Grill in Jackson, then rode a ferry across Jenny's Lake and then hiked to hidden falls. It was a fun day. Ben and Kaylin endured the entire day, (even the drive) with all of our kids. Hope they had as much fun as we did!

Gregg Manwaring Family Reunion 2006

Kate looking groovy. Actually she didn't like this very much, but it was cute so we got a picture of her anyway.


The kids had a ball finding snails in the forest. Here's Halle showing one of her's.


Natalie


Alyssa, Payson, Megan, and Sami


Emily

We had our Gregg Manwaring Reunion this past weekend. Blake and Melissa were our hosts this year and they took us camping to Timpanogas Canyon. It was a beautiful campground and we all had a great time.

Aloha!

Here is most of Jarom's immediate family at the Holley Manwaring family reunion we attended over the weekend. It was a lot of fun and the Brett Manwarings went to a lot of hard work to make it successful.
Front Row: Annie, Ellie, Megan, Alyssa, Sami, Carter, Halle
2nd Row: Jarom & Kate, Elena, Justin & Ogden, Amber, Gregg, Anna, Becky, Alex, Katie & Gabby
3rd Row: Brandon, Emily, Kevin & Owen, Chris

We are missing Blake and Missy's family, Benjamin and Kaylin, and Natalie

Wild Animal Park (Escondido, CA)

My little baby weaver birds! This is a replica of a weaver bird's nest. The kids thought it was so "cool" inside. (To quote Alyssa.)







Jarom lived in a home where he had a view of this beautiful valley of animals. He has always wanted to bring me back and show me and we finally got the chance. It was so neat to see big herds of giraffes, rhinos, many deer, and wild cows, roaming pretty much in a wild environment.

Sea World!

Carter with his souveniers. He loves pirates!



What a little trooper Kate was! She was so good the entire week!



The kids LOVED holding the star fish at the tide pool. Halle couldn't get enough of it. She loves to touch things. We also went to a little touch pool like this in Veags and she was very upset when it was time to leave that one too.



We enjoyed a very full day at Sea World. I don't know who enjoyed it more, me or the kids!

The Ocean! (Oceanside, CA)

Halle was infatuated with palm trees. She couldn't get enough of them. She tried to "pet" one and got some serious slivers from it. She still thought they were neat though.


I know this is blurry, but it's an action shot and you can see how much fun Alyssa was having. I think she enjoyed the ocean the most out of us all.



The kids (and Jarom) absolutely loved the ocean. We were only planning on wading in it, but as you can see we ended up soaked. It was a lot of fun. Jarom seved his mission in this area and we all enjoyed touring it and seeing places where he lived.

Let's get moving!

Kate helping me pack to go on to San Diego.

Viva Las Vegas!

Hoover Dam, it was just a "little" bit windy there! However, we still managed to sweat in the Vegas heat. It was between 104 and 109 while we were there.



M&M Factory, and Coke world. We got two trays of samples of sodas from around the world. The kids thought it was great, but we were all sick after we were done!



Ever since Jarom's mission he has LOVED "In-n-Out" burgers. Here we are enjoying one of Jarom's favorites.


We just returned from a week long family vacation. We went to San Diego and back with a few stops in between. Here we are in Vegas visiting Quin and Natalie. This is in the Bellaggio in front of a chocolate fountain. How I would love one of these in my home!