Happy Independence Weekend!

First we went to Dana and Jason's block party and had lots of fun. Israel and Eliza especially enjoyed the rides behind the tractor. Then it was up to Bear Lake with all my side of the family that's living in Utah (27 people)- with only 2 bathrooms between us getting all ready for 8:30 am church was an adventure and I don't know how we did it, but we were all on time. Jane and Bruce brought up 2 4-wheelers with those and Mom and Dad's Polaris Ranger we got pretty dirty having fun driving up Mill Canyon and up to Temple Flat.


Aunt Jan let Israel and Eliza ride their miniture horse/pony Squirt. They took the baby bunnies for a "walk" and did farm chores brushing down Squirt and taking water to the goats.

We also of course spent plenty of time at the lake. Stan practiced open water swimming and my brother Mike gave him some pointers on howto swim straight (a problem in the Provo Tri) I rode the wave boards with my sisters and we all made sand castles and tried to keep Julia from eating them. It was great to be in Laketown- it's a place I can easily allow my body to really relax and enjoy.

We also went to Minnetonka Cave in St. Charles, ID. It was a really fun, cool tour. We spent 90 minutes underground. Israel was Grandma's buddy the whole time and was so creative. The last picture is of a Stalagtite( or is it mite) called the groom. Israel saw it and said right off that it was a space ship taking off. I think his interpretation is much better:)

Maple Canyon just Stan and Me

We had such a fun trip- climbing and camping and eating quick cold food so we could do more climbing. A HUGE thank you to Carrie, Allison, Brie, and Katie for watching our children so we could go. Here's some pictures of our fun. It even rained during the night- I love camping when it rains just a little in the night- hearing the rain tap tap tapping on the tent, knowing you're safe and warm and blessedly dry.



The Zen Garden that we finally found after a bit of an adventurous drive up the canyon. We loved it here and are planning to come back soon!

This is a picture of our serious faces. Don't we look tough.

Week in Review

Where you can commonly find Israel. I'm having to limit his playing time and have no MarioKart days. He is getting good is anybody wants to give it a go. Israel and Eliza's cousin's came down to Provo and we went to the Earth Science Museum to see the dinosaurs, the Bean Museum (for dead animals), the Creamery (for ice cream of course), the library (for their uncle Derrick and the moving bookshelves), the Museum of Art, and then home again. Talk about taking good naps!

Stan's Provo Triathlon- Wow! I'm married to a triathlete. I want a healthy heart for Stan so I'm really glad he's gotten into this sport- even if I have been giving him a hard time.

We tried to skip Eliza's nap and thought we'd just put her down at 7pm. Well, I came out of the bathroom and what did I find . . . out cold on our cement like floor.

AND believe it or not- Stan and I actually went on a real date late last night after all our babies were sleeping (although Israel did get up and brush his teeth while we were out). We saw Get Smart (the first movie we've paid full price for- 8.25 is pretty steep- in 2 years. We enjoy the dollar theatre and netflix) Anyway, it was really fun even if the movie didn't start until 10:15 and we didn't get home until after midnight. We felt young and spontaneous and in love. It was a really good night. We need to get more of them (even if our kids still woke up at 7 am this morning). Thanks Katie and Jason for babysitting.

On the Move

Doesn't Julia Michele look good in brown! Not only does she have my baby hair, but we think she's going to have my fall coloring. This is my favorite onsie- it's the first one she wears after the wash (not that it stays clean long- if we're lucky we sometimes get 24 hrs, but usually, well you know . . .) Moving for real . . .


Here she's actually cheering for Israel- he's playing MarioKart this morning on our Game Cube. Julia likes the sounds and cheers for her big brother.

I can't deny it any longer. Julia is crawling. I've been happy with the sitting and falling in the direction she wants to go, but she's really getting around now and it's hard to deny the evidence. Ask Israel about that one. She's good at moving from crawling to sitting and back again. Now I have to baby proof again:)

Summer Fun

We went to the Natural History Museum at BYU. Tthe kids had a great time seeing all the dinosaurs and running in circles. We didn't even see any staff until we'd already been there for a full hour. A nice old man took us behind the scenes to see pieces of a new dinosaur BYU's team just found in New Mexico or Arizona I can't remember which. Great morning diversion for a rainy day.
Israel finished his swimming lessons. He was happy to be done with them though- not liking to put his entire face in the water. Have you ever tried to get pictures at an indoor pool? Most were blurry or the lighting was off. This is one of the okay pictures, but he's giving me a silly face since he knows I'm taking pictures:)
Today we played in Maple Canyon. My sister Amanda came with us and all us adults were talking about the unique rock- cobblestone, it looks like round rock cemented in. We're all wondering HOW it was made, and Israel starts giggling, gives us a HUGE grin and says, "Silly, Jesus made it like that"
Camouflage- can you find Israel? He blends in quite well.

Israel's Find

While Camping at Crystal Hot Springs Israel found this huge tree stump (new word he just learned) and had to climb it. I did help him a little but he did most of the work himself. When he was up there a sudden commotion came from the tree as a large bird flew out of the tree. Israel, not even phased looked at the hole the bird came out of and said there were eggs. Hence I passed the camera and he took this impressive photo. The eggs are about the size of the eggs you'd find in the grocery store- pretty big.

While Israel still had the camera he took probably over 20 pictures. This self-portrait is one of my favorites.

Stan's Frist Triathlon

Stan competed this past weekend in the Honeyville, UT sprint triathlon at Crystal Springs, this natural hot springs resort/camp ground. The whole fam. came to cheer on Dad, but after a night of little sleep thanks to Julia not really liking the "bed" we'd created for her, we didn't see a lot of the race. This first picture is Stan waking me up half- way in half-way out of the tent. We rushed to get dressed and over to the pool (blessedly close to our camp site) so we could see him swim- but we had to do potty trips and breakfast and feed Julia during the bike, sorry no pictures, but we did get to see Stan finish the run strong, worn out, and happy to have succeeded. He finished 29th out of 350 with a time of 1.14.46 not too shabby for his first time.

Julie competing in her own swimming event- the mighty bathtub.

Laketown Park Fun

Eliza spent most of her time happily swinging and "pushing" other kids on the swings too!
Israel played with this cute 5 year old named Cora while we were at the park.

The Snail Class with Beth

Israel started swimming lessons today and boy am I proud. He's in prewater exploration for 3 and 4 year olds and this is his first time taking lessons. Not only did he climb bravely into the pool- not whimpering at all, but he blew bubbles, played games and floated on his back and his tummy (and blew bubbles in this position). Not bad for his first time. He has 30 min. lessons all this week and next. I'll have to remember to bring the camera and get some pictures of my big boy.

Who's Who?

What Princess are you?

So I took this test I found on a friend of a friend's blog and found out I am Pocahantas, what do you think of that?


You Are Pocahantas!

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

I Finally Did It

Okay, I've finally combined the 4 blogs we set up and used for a very brief time in 2006. Now you can see it all right here at the Hall Farm:) It took me long enough! It's been good to look back as I've combined these blogs and see what our life was like not so long ago.

Heat and the lead wall

We've been waiting so long for the nice pleasant Spring weather to come and now it appears that Summer is here in all her glory. It's supposed to reach 90 today and we're wanting to put our A/C window unit in. Last year we just had this plexiglass above the unit that would fall out any time the wind was strong or the door was slammed, so I've told Stan we need something better this year. He wants me to come up with what that will be. Any brilliant ideas please pass our way.
My sister Amanda and I climbed again on the lead wall today. It's been really hard to get back on since Julia was born. You feel your mortality when you're up there- even though I know it's safe as safe can be- when I'm up there, I doubt. I take deep breaths and tell myself it's not that bad- this is just a 10b, but sometimes, I lose the mind game and request TAKE! Today was the best I've done, I did a flashed a 5.9 and a 10a on the lead wall, and got halfway up the 10b, but then tired arms combined with the leaning wall combined with not wanting to die, I chickened out and took 4 times after almost each of the last clips. It's frustrating, but gives me something more to work towards next time. That's part of why I climb. I know I can do it- on a 10b I'm conquering myself, not so much the wall. Besides, I have to get good again before SuperHero Chuck comes down in August.

My Goofy Family

Here I am with 4 of my siblings and their spouses on our very exciting bowling date at All-Star Lanes in Sandy, UT. We're all pretty pathetic, but most of us got a few strikes and Michele and Janeen, 2 of my older siblings bowled their best games. We had lots of laughs at our impressive abilities- Jane's bum wiggling before each turn, Stan's between the legs bowling (that didn't go in the gutter, but then it didn't hit either of the split pins either). Janeen fell in the lane and Bryce showed off his impressive wrist flick. All in all it was a fun night- even if when we got to Fudruckers they had already closed their shake machine.
Thanks for playing--next sibling date night- lazer tag!

Here's Israel's happy face. You can see half of Aiden, his good friends face on the left. They LOVE to place together and have a lot of fun being bad guys, or super heros, or pirates, or playing cars. Israel being goofy this morning with a pair of Julia' pants. They're pretty thick, so it almost looks like bunny ears!
Eliza being a super cutie and actually smiling for me, something you don't see every day. This morning while Israel was saying we were all Spider Boy, Spider Mommy, Spider Daddy, and Spider Girl, Eliza told me she was a Super Princess!

2 years Later . . .

Well, I found our old blog and finally figured out how to get on it, so here I am again:) We were new to blogging back in 2006 and set up 4 different family blogs-vacations, kids, yoga and I've been struggling to put them all together into this one. Maybe in a few weeks I'll have it all together, I need more computer skills!

Quick update: We have another girl Julia Michele, born Sept. 28th. She's such a happy cute kid and looks extremely like Eliza did at her age. She actually likes to sit, unlike Eliza who was always on the move and cruising furniture before she ever sat. Julia has 4 teeth already and loves to smile and find her daddy and big brother Israel. She has lots of attention from her siblings. Eliza even lovingly shares her precious white silky blanket when Julia's sad. Here are a few pictures of the family:


Israel and Eliza at THE CAVE WELLING in Southern Arizona

Stan celebrating his 30th BIRTHDAY at his sister Susan's house in El Paso, TX
Robin climbing at The Cave Dwelling in Southern AZ, my first OUTDOOR BOULDERING experience.