That is utah’s slogan, apparently,which is where we are today. We spent the last few days at the grand canyon and lake powell. Both are awe inspiringly beautiful. So much so that I will skip posting the completely inadequate pictures my phone captured.

Elliot and Audrey are keeping travel journals. So far Elliot has ended every entry with, “it was big.” The grand canyon definitely fits that description.

I recommend the fossil walk, guided by a ranger, at the grand canyon. It is really cool to find fossils for yourself. Audrey particularly enjoyed finding and keeping count of the fossils. Perhaps she really will grow up to be paleontologist. (She is fond of claiming that as a future occupation.)

For all it’s grandeur, i am pretty sure the kids enjoyed swimming in lake powell far more. I understand that reaction. It is hard to beat cool water and a sandy beach in heat of the desert.

After that we moved on to the petrified wood portion of the day. That stuff is just cool. It is amazing how wood like the permineralize type is. The fully petrified type is really pretty.

The kids got their first jr ranger badges. At each national park kids can do some activities in the park and earn a badge and a patch for that park. It is a great way keep the kids engaged.

I recommend “Here comes science” by They might be giants for your next road trip. It is excellent driving music. Oh, and the kids like it too.

Eating and watching television at the same time is seldom done at my house. It must be fun, though, because Audrey lets her stuffed animals do it.

It has been a big year. Probably the biggest thing is kindergarten which he loves. He is getting to be a big kid but he definitely still has his little kid moments.

The parents of kindergartners, on the other hand, are already having a bit of trouble communicating effectively. I fear for what this might mean over the course of the year. As a parent you, of course, want do what you can to enhance the education of the children. You have to do it with a group of people who you have never even meet before the first day of school. Worse yet those people are only loosely committed to the project. Personal issues, personality conflicts or simple disinterest in the task at hand can easily remove many individuals from the effective team at any moment.

It will be interesting to see how the parents self organize over the year. Fortunately, the parents are just support for the teacher. Even if we fail to form a cohesive team i think the teacher will still manage to educate the kids. That is what professionals do.

Speaking of the profession of teaching, the politics teachers have to manage is rather impressive. Even for a class of 25 kindergartners it must be daunting… you have to maintain the interest and respect of 25 kids; keep about 50 parents placated and helping as much as possible; all while keep the principle happy. And to make that more complicated really none of those people get to choose if they really want work with any of the others. And all that before you even get to the job at hand.

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Last Saturday I took him to Elitch Gardens. We spent a great six hours playing. You cannot go wrong with a day of sugar, video games and rides. He is big enough to ride quite a few rides there. A few of them were even entertaining for me. His favorite ride was shipwreck falls. Getting wet has some sort of unnatural attraction for him.

This morning we started with presents. After everyone was ready for school he donned his wrist, elbow and knee pads and played with his new skate board for a few minutes. He seemed to enjoy it until he crashed into some the patio furniture. Fortunately, no real damage was done to either him or the furniture.

This evening we had dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory with our friends Morgan, Amy, Mason and Madeleine. The picture above is Elliot blowing out the candle the wait staff at the restaurant put in his ice cream.

Then we went to A Taste of Colorado where we ate good food and rode fun rides. Audrey was quite adventurous with rides today. She particularly likes the ones she can go on by her herself. Now that she is three I guess parents just weigh her down.

Of course, this evening we had cake and sang Happy Birthday to Audrey. Audrey really likes to be sung to. I have rarely see such a big grin as the one we got during our rendition of Happy Birthday. She was very proud of being able to blow out the candles, as you can see below. At bed time, she even claimed that the candles where her favorite thing today.