Fall

Boulton Elementary

For those of you who don't know, I work in the Functional Skills class at Boulton Elementary. I work with the BEST teacher! Her name is Mary and today was her birthday, so I wanted to take pictures. The girl with the red bandana on is her daughter, Maura, who is a 4th grader there.
I've been doing this for 7 years now. 5 years at Meadowbrook Elementary and this is my 2nd year at Boulton. The benefits are wonderful. So, while I'm at work,Elizabeth and Sydney go to pre-school at Bountiful High School. Elizabeth has been going there since she was 2 months old...and then same with Sydney. It's great because our schools are right next to eachother, so I'm just down the street. I miss them SO MUCH during the day, but, I know they're getting the very best care and doing so many fun things.I'll do a post on the pre-school later on...I could talk about it for days!
In my class, we have 8 kids. 7 with Austism and 1 Down-Syndrome. All the kids have their own unique personalities. They are all so different. I just love them all so much. And Mary and Kim...(Kim is the other girl that works with me)
We do so many fun things everyday. I do art on Tuesdays. Of course right now we are doing Halloween crafts. Painting pumpkins and stuff like that.
It's a good school. There's a lot of great teachers and the other students are so awesome with our kids. Mary has set up the "buddy system" where the kids from their homerooms can sign up to be that person's buddy for the day. That means they come get them out of our classroom and help them with some of their work or help them at lunch or recess or an assembly...or just whatever is going on. It's made them all so outgoing and gives the other students a real insight on who these kids really are and makes it so they're not afraid of them or think that they're different. They find out that they're just like them!

Garden After Dark

Every October Red Butte Garden puts on a big event called "Garden After Dark". There's usually a theme to go along with it. Last year it was Dinosaurs and this year it was...yay!...Witches and Wizards! My favorite!
So, there was this big room with a Potions class and an Herbology class...just like in Harry Potter. Oh, I was loving it.
There's always hot cocoa and candy apples. We took Elizabeth and she had the best time.
Some of the fun things that were there...
Painting your own pumpkin from the pumpkin patch
Bean bag toss into the witches cauldron
Magic show
Crafts
Glow-in-the-dark area with black lights
Walking through a maze...Elizabeth loved that one.
Colorful lights everywhere

It was all so whimsical and had such a neat atmosphere about it.
Elizabeth had a lot of fun looking at everything and exploring.
We are going again on Monday...Elizabeth is going to wear her costume this time!

St. George

We had such a wonderful time in St. George last week. We were there from October 4th through the 7th.
Dad ran the marathon. We've been going with Mom and Dad since 2004 and it's been such a great time every year. Now Sydney was with us this time. It was so fun to have my 2 girls with me.
Dad's time was 3 hours 50 minutes! That's so good for him. He always tried to break 4 hours and this year we didn't even get there in time to see him cross the finish line! He had already finished and everything. I was proud of him. After we pick up Dad and drive back to the hotel, we always go get 2 Gatorades or a big drink for him and then have a picture with him and Elizabeth in the parking lot. It's becoming a tradition now.
At the hotel, there's a little wooden carving of a dog that's always there right as you enter the lobby. Elizabeth has loved that dog since 2004! Every year we go, there he is and Elizabeth loves to hang out by him and go visit him at night in her jammies.
Also there's a Texaco store right there by the hotel. We go and get treats or drinks whenever and it was SO FUNNY...Elizabeth has a Chicken costume that she loves to wear right now for Halloween and she put it on and wanted to go to the store...everyone thought she was so cute! People were stopping to look at her and smiling at her because she's quite a sight in her costume! She's such a ham. She also went to the store one night in her jammies.
Sydney loved every minute of this trip. She was constantly curious about everything around her. She's so interested in everything. We bought her a lot of new clothes (Elizabeth too) and toys. She was so happy to be there with us and to go everywhere and soak it all in.
We went up to Zions on Friday. Took the shuttle to Weeping Rock. It's so cool. Water just falls down like it's raining all the time.
Elizabeth was a little bit sick that day. 24 hour bug. We got some Tylenol and packed her down with cold washcloths in the hotel. She came out of it pretty fast.
Mark and I had a great time. Dinner at Red Lobster was fun.
Mom and Dad just had a blast, too, I could tell. Taking care of the girls and being together was great for them.
Can't wait for next year!!!