The Maner Family

Thursday, May 1, 2008

Hiking the Y

We did it!

We hiked up to the big Y on the mountain here in Provo.
We did it with 4 other families from the MBA program here.
It was a nice way to celebrate the end of finals!

We started a little after 9:00 am and the weather was just beautiful.

Now this is a sight that you could only find at BYU! :)
Look at all those cute babies!

We borrowed the Baby Backpack from our neighbors. It was a life saver! Katelyn really liked riding in it. I think over the duration of the hike all of the babies fell asleep in those packs. It was so cute!

Brandon found a little hiking buddy. Ethan and Brandon did a great job hiking the whole way and entertaining each other by finding good walking sticks.....

and talking about all kinds of crazy things.

And I must say that we were SO proud of Lindsey! She hiked the whole thing. We didn't carry her one time.

It was definitely a hike, not a walk. It was steeper than I remembered it being from hiking it my freshman year in college. So we hiked and hiked, slow and steady.

But we finally made it to the top of the Y!

And it was a beautiful view....

The hike down was much faster of course.

But we did take time to stop and enjoy the beauty.

It was such a fun thing for our family to do. We were so proud of all the kids - they all did great!

We celebrated on the way home with a lunch from Sonic, and everyone got their own shake of choice. That never happens, so it was definitely a treat!

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Family Reunion

Today we had a reunion with some of our good friends from Kansas. We consider them our "Kansas family" because when we lived in Topeka our ward from church really became our family, since we didn't live anywhere close to relatives. It was so good to see everyone today!

Little Superheros: Brandon and Spencer

(Sorry it's blurry...) Fun with Dress-ups:
Lindsey and Addie

The little ones playing: Katelyn and Marek (Dave isn't so little)

Good food on the BBQ
(notice the sweaters....it's almost May, it's supposed to be warm!)

and good friends!

It was so fun to catch up on everything!
One thing is for sure....our kids are growing up way too fast!

One Down.....

Justin's first year of MBA school is finished, and we are really enjoying having him home with us more today! We have the next week packed with cleaning, shopping, packing, and getting everything ready for our summer internship in Seattle. Thankfully we get to leave most of our belongings here since we are moving into a furnished apartment up there. It'll be quite the experience, especially since we will be living in a high-rise downtown. I think that'll be a once in a lifetime experience for us. Who knows what it will be like, but we're ready to have a summer adventure!

Friday, April 18, 2008

Feeding the Ducks

As the weather has been on a roller coaster ride (note the post from yesterday) we have been trying to take advantage of the warm days. Today we went with Aunt Marianne to feed the ducks at the Botany Pond at BYU.

It was such a beautiful day, and the kids loved throwing bread into the water.

Notice the cute turtles on the log.

Lindsey was very excited about wearing her sunglasses that matched her shirt.

I think Katelyn enjoyed being outdoors as well. She thought the ducks were very entertaining.

Hooray for warmer weather!

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Justin's first golfing experience

Justin attended the annual MBA Golf Tournament yesterday. It was his first time to golf (besides miniature golf, of course). I guess it's better to learn now rather than learn on some business clients or co-workers at his next job! But the weather didn't cooperate. They still did it, but it was cold! I think the high was 43 degrees yesterday. And of course they were delayed for over an hour because there was frost on the green. By the looks of things, there was more than just frost on some of those trees!

Will someone turn off those sprinklers?

And they did endure some snow while they were trying to golf. That's right. Crazy!

But all in all, he had a fun, cold time and only lost a few balls. Good job Honey! Let's not do that again unless it's at least above 60 degrees! He will definitely enjoy the golf class that he is taking next semester with a bunch of other MBA students.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Birthday Dress and Curls

Lindsey got this cute blue dress for her birthday in March, but it hasn't been warm enough for her to wear it until today. So she was very excited to finally be able to put it on this morning. Also, we finally tried our new sponge curlers last night. Lindsey did a great job not pulling them out all night. She kept giggling as I took them out of her hair this morning as she realized that it was full of curls.

So of course she bounced all the way to the church this morning,
as any little girl would do with a new dress and curly hair. What a sweetie!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Conversation with Brandon

Brandon: Is tomorrow fast Sunday?

Dad: No

Thinking . . .

Brandon: Is it slow Sunday?

Dad: No

Thinking . . .

Brandon: Is it medium-sized Sunday?

Dad: No, it is just a normal Sunday

Brandon: Well normal Sunday is slow!

Aren’t kids wonderful!?!

Preschool Graduation

I never thought I'd put on a preschool graduation, but I did! This is a picture of Brandon and the other kids that have been in our preschool co-op this year. It's been really good for them. The hats are actually pretty easy and quick to make. The kids were so proud to get their graduation certificate in front of their moms and siblings. I'm glad we made the day special for them. I guess there's nothing to keep Brandon from kindergarten now!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Katelyn is crawling forward!

Katelyn mastered the art of crawling forward last week. We're so proud of her! It's so cute when she gets excited and starts crawling as fast as she can because she starts breathing really loud and fast. She is enjoying her independence and her curiosity has jumped up to a new level. Oh boy!

Friday, March 28, 2008

Scooting Backwards

Katelyn has learned how to scoot herself backwards. She gets stuck sometimes though. This is how I found her the other day. She'd managed to scoot herself right under our bed.