Fort Cody, North Platte, Nebraska

Sadie told us about this great glorified gift shop. It certainly was more than just a shopping experience. Did you know Buffalo Bill was a Pony Express rider?

The Gene Autry Museum

A fantastic trip with our little cowboys and cowgirls; Siena, Peter, Jaden, Levi, Alexander and Owen. (Olivia, Lincoln, Porter, and Sabrina not pictured)
More pictures to come.

Wild West Show

11/5/08

As part of Heber City's Cowboy Poetry Gathering this week they had a Wild West Show. Besides being way overpriced, the show was awesome. The best part for me was when, at the beginning of the show, a group of cowboys came out on horseback driving a herd of real longhorn cattle. I was amazed. It was perfect, since we're learning about the cattle roundups right now. Alexander's favorite part was at the end of the show when they had the fake shoot out at the O.K. Corral and several people "pretend died." Lincoln's favorite part was probably when his dad took him off to the side to bounce him.

 
Alexander, Lincoln and me in front of one of the cowboy performers.

And the best news of all...Alexander is writing! Yesterday he wrote his first word, "HORSE." Today he wrote several words. Here's a picture:


Alexander is writing in his adventure log about the big show. He wanted to write "WILD WILD WEST SHOW." I helped him sound out the words to determine which letter came next (in this case, H) and he wrote the letters himself. To the left of Alexander is a notepad where he wrote his second word, "WILD" and then his third, "HORSE" (again). I'm so proud of my boy. I practically go to tears when I see those cute little words in his own sweet handwriting.

P.S. Alexander typed the title of this post and his name at the beginning of this sentence.

Ranch Hand

 
Alexander at the ranch on Antelope Island. If only he had been wearing his hat! (I was carrying it for him at the moment.)

P.S. Aren't you proud of me for posting only one picture?

Leather and Deseret Dairies

We are still studying cows and all the things they produce. 10/23/08 We made a trip to Beck's Leather Store to see different kinds of leather products.
10/2708 Deseret Dairy at Welfare Square, SLC.

We saw many volunteers working to keep production going. Here is the powder room where I think they were filling bags of powdered pudding.

Peter liked the cheese room and Owen liked the milk room. Alexander and Lincoln also had a good time. Maybe you'll see their pictures too.

Movie: A Cowboy Needs A Horse

The much-anticipated film starring Alexander Henage, with co-star Lincoln, is now yours to experience.

Where's the Beef?

We visited the meat department at Smiths. I think the kids were a little uneasy knowing that the meat was from the wonderful cows that we have recently learned to love. That night we ate some nice BBQ'd New York Steak. Poor cows.

An inquiry science experiment. Learning about refrigeration and what will happen if it is not kept cold. It's been 2 days and their isn't much difference besides one is a little squishy. That's what I get for using an over processed product.

Yee Haa! Ride 'Em, Cowboy!

Here's the poster for our first component (modified from the main theme poster, which you can see in the first post).

The first "Yee Haw..." topic is Cattle Kingdom. This topic is much more detailed than the Pony Express and Ghost Town topics will be, but there was so much fun stuff that goes along with cowboys that I couldn't cut it short.

As you can tell, it's all about the visuals for us. We get this from our talented mother, Karen.

The Henages' First Day

Here's a detailed documentation of what we did on the first day of school. You know me: I can't settle for just two or three pictures. 

Day One. Monday, October 6, 2008:
Alexander came into the decorated room where Daniel and I were hiding in a cowboy/girl clothes. I gave Alexander his cowboy clothes and explained to him about the Wild Wild West theme a little. Then Alexander opened his adventure log, which was wrapped in brown paper and twine on the table. We took pictures (of course) in front of the theme poster. Then we colored small printouts of the theme poster for adventure logs.

Next the Amakasus came over. We sang theme song in the backyard with Mark on the guitar, visited the horses, took more pictures, etc.  We had the kids help make biscuits in individual pie tin "plates." After they cooked we ate them!  In the meantime we watched the Disney cartoon A Cowboy Needs a Horse. Alexander asked to watch the cartoon (both the regular and sing-along versions) fairly often. I only let him watch it if he sang along. He learned the words quickly!

Decorated Room - Yeehaw, Ride 'Em Cowboy and part of Westward Ho sections

Decorated Room - Westward Ho and Turquoise & Tomahawks sections (notice Chimney and Independence Rocks)

Decorated Room - Wildest Ride in the Wilderness (railroad) section. Alexander and Daniel's cowboy clothes are waiting for them on the air mattress (this is also our spare bedroom)

Alexander and Lincoln with theme poster and Alexander's adventure log (journal)

Alexander took this. Daniel is wearing his Toy Story Halloween costume from 2006.

Alexander colors the theme poster for his adventure log.

Alexander, Owen and Peter are all very excited. They run around the house yelling "Yeehaw!" and "Pardner"

The boys took turns making the biscuits

The boys are ready to eat their biscuits

Mark plays our theme song while the boys do a cowboy dance

Alexander, me, Lincoln

And now, after seeing all those pictures, don't you feel like you were there yourself? Between Amanda and me we took over 60 pictures! That doesn't include the videos we took. Now compare my opening day post to Amanda's. 

Opening Day

The cowboys are excited about their new school room. Mark joined us at Brittany's for opening day festivities.

Theme Poster