Halloween '08

For Halloween this year, Lenora went as Tinkerbell and met many other Tinkerbells that night. Benjamin went as Bob the Builder, which is what he was going to be last year before he decided last-minute to wear no costume.

We all went to the trunk-or-treat at the church building to get a lot of candy fast and then over to a haunted house in our neigborhood. Lenora was a little timid but enjoyed the haunted house. Benjamin was too scared to get out of the car.

Fabulous Utah Vacation

In early October we drove up to Utah for a week of fun stuff.

Day 1 we saw Temple Square. As always, there were brides and grooms posing by the Salt Lake Temple (like in the background of this picture).

The church administration building opened the 26th floor 2 weeks before we arrived for visitors to look out across Salt Lake City. It was a great view and the elevator was FAST!

The Temple Square grounds were alive with flowers. Lenora was having fun pulling me around to different flowers and posing. This was a great shot...

We also visited both visitor centers and the pioneer museum, as well as the cafe at the Joseph Smith Memorial building. It was really good food.

Benjamin was so tired after our first day that he actually fell asleep while eating a huge chocolate chip cookie on the way back to Aunt Robin's.

Day 2 we went to BYU for lunch with Camille and to see some of Dawnette's favorite professors. It happened to be homecoming week and there were all kinds of things going on at campus.

Day 3 we went to Thanksgiving Point to the Dinosaur musuem. The kids loved it, though Benjamin was a little timid around some of the meat eaters that were posed as though they were ready to eat an unsuspecting visitor.

Lenora on the other hand was getting a kick out of it, such as almost being eaten by the great white.

Saturday we had blue pancakes at the homecoming parade and wore our BYU shirts. Later on we went bowling at the Wilkinson Center. Lenora and Benjamin used these ramps to roll the bowling balls.

Benjamin insisted on carrying the balls to the ramp. He did pretty good until he grabbed a 16 pound ball accidentally and almost dropped it on his foot.

Sunday we had fun going to Megan and Brent's baby blessing and Peter's homecoming talk.

We hung out all day at Craig and Jennifer's to eat Sloppy Joe's and play the "Buzz Word" game. Benjamin had his first encounter with snow (yes, it was snowing that morning) and was eating up the attention he got from Camille and Marshall.

To boot all that, we slept in most days until 9am. It was definitely one our best trips so far.

Noses and Hair

Dawnette took Lenora and Benjamin to the science museum just before school started. Benjamin's favorite booth was the nose that sneezes back all of the pollen (balls) that you throw into it.

Benjamin still looks small on our couch, but he is growing out of all of clothes, especially his pants and shoes.

His hair was out of control again so this time Dawnette tried her own beautician skills and turned a pretty good cut!

Lenora still loves to throw on a leotard before and after school. When her friend Katie came to play last week they decided to put on some dance music and change their costumes between each song of their performance. Bravo!

When we move our pictures from our camera to the computer, we are sometimes met with a few suprises. It is funny to see Lenora's perspective (literally) through the pictures she takes.

Here are a couple of silly poses that she took of herself and Benjamin.

Earlier this month Lenora had a 2 week bout with salmonella and 104 temperature spikes. Thank heavens for her wonderful doctor who was able to diagnose the problem and thank goodness for her strong little body that was able to fight off the sickness so well.

Lenora is back to her creative self and Dawnette is relieved that the war is passed and grateful to be sleeping through the night again.

July and August '08

Lenora celebrated her 6th birthday with a princess party in early July. Games included: pin the crown on the princess, a treasure hunt, and freeze dance. It was a great success.

Later in the month, Benjamin's vocabulary has exploded, along with an attachment to his stuffed pooh bear. This happened to be the thing that his father became attached to at that age, "like father, like son."

August was a great time for another trip to Forrest Lakes near Payson. From the moment we pulled up, Lenora was busy collecting wild flowers...

... and Benjamin was busy digging holes (big holes).

The next day we went to the Mogollon Rim Visitor Center and Woods Canyon Lake. A patio was built out over the side of the rim. It was a great view!

Check out this family pose. Benjamin couldn't keep his eyes out of the loaner binoculars.

Lenora was thrilled to try her hand at fishing for the first time, with her very own Barbie fishing pole. She earned the whole whopping $12 that it cost with odd jobs around the house. She was very excited.

At first it seemed like Benjamin was only interested in bugs, like this ladybug, and in throwing rocks into the lake.

Later on, Benjamin decided also to try the family fishing pole himself.

Amazing enough, some folks around us were catching fish, but the only thing we seemed to be able to catch were crawdads (Lenora caught 3).

Forrest Lakes is still our favorite place to go camping. Hopefully we'll find ourselves up there at least once more this summer.

Dance Recital and Time Away

Last Friday we attended Lenora's summer dance recital. Lenora loves to be on stage with her friends. She had a great time showing off some of her new moves.

The following morning we were off to California for a Jex family reunion. The afternoon was spent at the beach enjoying waves and water. Benjamin was still a little timid of the waves this year, but there was plenty of sand to dig up.

On Monday, Eric and Dawnette went to Long Beach for some one on one. We took a few great tours, first of the retired Queen Mary Cruiseliner and then of a Russian Submarine.

Here is a shot from the deck overlooking Long Beach harbor.

Following lunch, we took a free bus to the Long Beach Aquarium on the other side of the harbor. It was amazing! There were over 40 aquariums of exotic fish, sharks, jellyfish, and brilliant coral and anemone.

After our tours, we took in the ocean breeze and visited shops along the harbor walkway. We also tried a couple of great seafood restuarants with seats next to the water.

We all had a lot of fun.

Forest Lakes

Last weekend we made our 3rd attempt as a family to go camping. It was a great success! We went to Canyon Pointe Campground up by Forest Lakes on the Mogollon Rim northeast of Payson. It was a very nice campsite with spread-out sites and showers. The high for the day was 80 degrees with clear skies.

Just after we arrived we were met with an unexpected suprise. Stephen, Melinda, and Abby drove by with Melinda's parents. They just happened to come up the same weekend and were staying 3 campsites away from us. It was fun to see them. Stephen brought Abby over later that evening and then we stopped by after dinner for some dutch oven cobbler. Later the next day we all took a stroll around the camp ground.

Friday night the quisine was a hearty tin foil dinner. They all turned out pretty well with the exception of a few burn marks from the butter getting too hot inside.

Lenora and Benjamin spent most of their time exploring the new environment. It was funny to watch them pick up all kinds of things and be fascinated with it. They also found a stump that they used as a platform to jump from.

The next morning our hair was all a mess, especially Benjamin's. Despite the strong winds that night, we all slept really well... pulling off about 9 hours of sleep (we were tired!).

The next day following our stroll we went to Woods Canyon Lake. It is a great spot for fishing and enjoying the cool breeze from off the water. There is a full convience log store there and small boat rentals. The lake is stocked with trout from a nearby hatchery. We may try our luck at fishing next time we go or just cruz around the lake.

There are paved and dirt trails and several other campsites running all over the area. There are also many places to take in a spectacular view of the rim dropping 1000's of feet off into the horizon.

We were beat when all was said and done. Benjamin kept saying to himself: "[I] like camping, like camping, like camping..."

Piñata!

For Cinco de Mayo, the Mexican-American holiday, the extended Brower family celebrated with a "Brower birthday bash and mini-reunion". Angela was home from Indiana for a week to prepare for her summer debut with GlimmerGloss in New York. We ate fajita wraps and Mom brought a piñata. In the picture below, Drew is trying to hit while Lenora wears the blindfold.

The piñata was defeated with a fail swoop from David. There seemed to be a lot of excitement after it broke. I think Lenora gathered at least 3 cups full of candy in 3 minutes. Benjamin was content with a single salt water taffy.

A great time was had by all. It is sure to become a tradition.

Beads and a Train

Lenora and Benjamin have suprised us with some nimble fingerwork. This container is full of beads that can be set on shapes in patterns. The beads are then ironed and melted to form a solid piece. They will sometimes spend a whole hour quietly focused on the task! It has been a great break for Mom and Dad.

For Benjamin's birthday, Dawnette made a cake train. Benjamin practiced blowing out of his mouth all day to get ready for the big moment. Lenora of course was on stand-by to help if his best attempt didn't cut it.

Tooth, Reading, Relaxing, and Santan

Lenora lost her first tooth. I was gone the night that it came out and she didn't want to give it up to the tooth fairy until after she'd had a chance to show me.

Lenora has really been enjoying reading. She's started reading to Benjamin, and he loves it. It is so fun to watch him so interested in the books that she reads to him.

Whenever Lenora cleans her room, we are often met with suprises, like this one. All of her dolls are tired in this picture and needed to go to bed.

In January, we were called to serve in the Santan Branch on the Gila River Reservation. It is great! We are very excited. The members there are great.

Lenora's Art Work

Lenora has been having fun with crayons and now recently, watercolors. She is excited about her pictures, so we are posting some of them here. These have all made it to the status of "Let's hang that on the refrigerator".

Clown, 3/18/07

Dad and Mom in front of the Temple, 9/24/07

Ferris Wheel, 1/18/08 (abstract art :-])

Bird, 2/23/08

Happy Holidays!

This year's first Brower nativity re-enactment was a success! Short, sweet, and fun. We managed to catch a shot of the cast before they got tired of wearing towels around their heads.

The day after Christmas we hit the road to Colorado for Marshall and Janelle's wedding in Denver. It was fun! Following the New Year, we headed to California for another reception and the Jex Christmas party. Whew! 3000 road miles in 2 weeks.

See more pics