Cornelius Chronicles

After a very long and stressful year of home school last year due to Covid-19 we are venturing back into the world of Public In-Person School this school year.  It's promising to be a good year despite a few bumps along the way.  The kids have been so excited to head back to school that when I tried to get their pictures for the first day this was the best I could get.  They had no time for me.  They had friends to make and important things to learn! This year I have 1 in High School, 2 in Middle School, 2 in Elementary School, and 1 in Preschool (starting in September)  I would like it to be noted that I attended all 3 schools myself at their varying ages (except for preschool).  Weird. Loyd using his ingenuity to commandeer his baby brother's scooter to transport his beginning of the school year supplies to campus.   Owen trying to block my camera.  Stinker!  Maeve with her BFF Lily on their way to their first day of school! John is now discovering the joy of being the only k

For the past year Rebekah has had a wonderful opportunity to volunteer at the Kearsley I Can Ranch.  Here she takes care of stunning Arabian horses and assisted in lessons for special needs kids.  She also gets the occasional free riding lesson too!  Love the perks! Rebekah has really grown in confidence and self esteem helping out with this program.  She had enjoyed her time with the horses, learned the skills needed to properly care for a horse, discovered she is a valuable member of a team, stretched herself to care for others by helping the special needs students find comfort with the horses and helping to teach them riding skills.  We can't express enough how grateful we are to be part of this wonderful program.  It has been a fantastic year and a super awesome experience.   Pictures from Rebekah's last lesson.  The ranch will be winding down and shutting down this coming year as the owners get ready to retire.  We just squeaked this opportunity of a lifetime in! Rebekah c

How did we manage that?  A weekend at the Cedar City Shakespeare Festival with a little hike thrown in to boot without the kids.  Heaven!  Thanks Mom for watching the crew so we could get a little time away! We loved watching the plays, Richard the III, Comedy of Errors, and Comedy of Terrors.  The hike to Cascade Falls in the Dixie National Forest was scenic and fun.  Such a great weekend!  

Before we head back to the more rigorous schedule of back to school, first we had to squeeze in a little more fun.   Loyd totally scored an awesome mountain bike used on KSL thanks to Uncle Royal's mad shopping skills.  Uncle Royal even tuned the bike up special for Loyd an slapped on a couple of brand new handle bars.  Here's John showing off the old ones.   We stopped by the Morgan County Fair to support our great nephews at the baby content and east some cotton candy that happened to be bigger than everyone's head.   We absolutely had to take the Barra cousins with us to Ogden's George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park.  It was a super cool place to visit!  We saw fossils, gems, crystals, giant replicas of dinosaurs, the coolest dino themed playground ever, dug for fossils in the sand pit, ate pizza for lunch, checked out the gift shop, and even snapped a rare photo of the most dangerous creatures on earth.  Grandma Phillips and I had a ball exploring this fun park with these

My Mother says it is very important to take pictures of your garden because in Morgan come January and February you need a something to prove that at one point in the year we enjoyed glorious green and colorful flowers in our yards.  So, here are some pictures of my pretty first backyard garden here in Morgan, Utah.  My mother and Dustin helped me shape and build the garden beds, plant lots and lots of fun plants, and care for it all summer long.  Enjoy the memories!  I included a few pictures of a few of the yummy vegies we harvested from our garden this year too.   Vegetable Garden in August Giant sunflower fairy garden in side yard. Zuccini flower that looks like a star Strawberry blossom Little helpers with all this fun garden work to be done John hiding under a sunflower leaf Maybe my boys should start growing like sunflowers!  Look how tall they grew! Maeve and her best friend Lily in the Sunflower tree garden in early September This potato didn't come from my garden, but com