Kelly came for a visit!

Sorry I am a bit of a slacker, my sister came like 2 weeks ago and still haven’t posted anything about it. Like I said, my sister Kelly and her family (husband Bob and kids Brett and Allison) came to visit us from Oregon. They were here for about a week and we loved having them. We took a trip into Yellowstone and to Jackson Hole so I have posted some photos from that trip. The family photo of us is taken in front of the Tetons right at twilight. It was really beautiful, those mountains are so awesome. We spent a lot of time visiting and the kids had a blast having their cousins here to share the pasture with (they made some cool forts). It was awesome to have them make the effort to come so far just for us. It is the first time any of my siblings have come to see us (except when they might have been passing through) and it meant a lot to me (no this is not meant to be a guilt trip guys, just an observation. I know how far it is.). Thanks again Kelly. Anyway, the county fair starts this week so I am sure I will have a long post about Sadie and her sheep experience for you next week, not to mention my brother is getting married on Saturday (congrats Joseph) so check back then and enjoy the rest of your summer.

Lagoon vacation

All right, so we finally took our kids on a vacation that did not involve fishing, hiking or huckleberry picking. Although we love doing those things, we loved this trip so much. We left last Wednesday and went to Downata hot springs and spent the entire day playing in the water and going down the water slides. It was fun, but the pool was too hot for me. Ya know when it is 90 degrees outside, you don't really want to swim in a pool that is warmer. It didn't seem to bother the kids though. They loved the slides and slept hard that night. Thursday morning we headed out early down to Farmington, Utah where there is an amusement park called Lagoon, for those of you not from around here. I had never been there before but Brett had gone a lot when he was a kid. There are rides of all kinds there and even a water park. We avoided the water park, since we spent the first day at one, and concentrated on the rides. Now for those who aren't aware, I have never been a roller coaster type person. I have vivid memories of riding the kiddie coaster at the state fair as a kid and feeling sick. I was so scared of throwing up on someone that I never even tried any other roller coaster since then. So going to Lagoon I knew that I was going to have to suck it up and just do it. Well, we started out slow, carnival type rides and then worked our way up. On the first day Sadie and I went on the "Jet Star" a short but totally fast roller coaster. I screamed like a little girl, but I loved it. We also went on the original roller coaster which was rickety and I didn't like that so much. By the end of the first night Sadie and Cody were set on the idea of going on Colossus, one of the BIG coasters that has a double loop-de-loop (yes you go upside down twice!). I was unsure. So as soon as the gates opened the next morning we ran to Colossus because the lines could get pretty bad. Brett took Sadie and Cody on it since Jackson and Greg were unsure if they wanted to try it yet. Well, they got off it laughing and telling us how awesome it was. I couldn't let my 8 and 10 yr olds go on a ride that I was unwilling to, so I did it. Humbly I admit that I was wrong. Roller coasters rock. I guess that the feeling of terror you get standing in line, is part of the fun. Sadie and Cody ended up going on Colossus 8 times that day, myself 6 times and the twins both rode it at least once. Jackson wouldn't go on it after the first time though because, as he said, "I screamed like a girl". Apparently, that was humiliating for a 6 yr old boy and he didn't want to repeat it. Brett was the only one of us who rode all the coasters, see there is the newest ride called "Wicked" which the kids and I just refused to try. You shoot out of the launch building and go straight up, no joke and then go straight down and then it shoots you through a corkscrew. NO THANKS! Brett liked it, but admitted that it was kinda freaky. The kids all enjoyed the big swings and we all laughed when we looked over and Jackson had both hands in the air as we soared over the park. He did that on almost every ride. Overall, we were exhausted after those three days, but had just enough energy left to take in the sights of Salt Lake City. We had a tour of the conference center and walked around temple square. We even watched the featured movie at the Legacy theater on Joseph Smith. It was really good and stimulated some good questions from the kids. Hope all of you are having fun too. Enjoy the slide show. The first slide shows the slides at the water park, and there is one of the Colossus. If you look close you can see Jackson and I in one row and Sadie and Cody behind us. The photos of dirty faces show us eating the traditional ice cream from the pioneer village. I might try to post some video later if I can figure it out.

Happy 4th of July

Well, the past couple of days have been BUSY! On the 3rd, we had several friends over for a BBQ (of course we really didn't BBQ anything). Three of Brett's friends from high school and their families came over. There were 8 adults and 13 kids here and boy did we have a good time. It had been a long time since we had seen them and it was great to catch up. All the dads and the kids even floated the canal that is close to our house and they all got wet and cooled off pretty good. On the fourth we met up with Brett's brothers and families at the river. Brandon brought his boat out and we all did some fun stuff in the water. I attempted water skiing for the first time ever (shown in the top photo). I almost got up on the third try but tried standing too soon and lost it. Oh well. I was a lot better at knee boarding. When it was done though, I was totally pooped out, as you can see by my lovely photo above. After fun in the river we headed to Cameron's (another brother) and we had a yummy dinner and played on their new Wii "rock band" which was pretty funny to watch. Cameron could rock the drums pretty good. We watched the fireworks from Troys (another brother :) ) and finally headed home around 11:30pm. Needless to say, we were really tired when we got home. The boys slept in until 10:30 this morning which, if you know my kids, is totally late for them. The bottom two photos I took while we did the fireworks thing. It is hard to take photos at night without a tripod so excuse the blurry nature. The one with Greg swirling the sparkler is my favorite photo though. It turned out exactly like I wanted it to.

Hope all of you had a great 4th and took a moment to recall why we celebrate it. I am truly grateful for the men and women who had the foresight (or was it the divine help?) to fight for the freedoms which we now posses. May we try not to take those freedoms for granted, that is my prayer for us all. Have fun.

Airplanes and trails

Just a note to show some of the fun we have been having. A couple weekends ago we went to a free air show up in Rexburg. It was a beautiful day and the planes were amazing. I think all the kids left wanting to become pilots, and so did I. We left the air show and went up in the hills to do some fishing and hiking as a family. We had a lot of fun being outside and together. Sadie helped her brothers by putting the worms on thier hooks. The photo is a silly one on the trail by a cool tree we passed, the kids called it the "U" tree. By the end of the hike they were all pretty worn out from a busy day. Our family was asked to speak at church last Sunday but somehow there was a scheduling mix up and we were only left 15 minutes for our entire family. None the less, the kids all spoke individually on Fathers and the priesthood and Brett and I had a little time left to say a couple things. The bishop said that he would have to ask us to speak again soon since we really didn't get to give our talks. One can only hope that he forgets, hee hee. Other than that we are just busy taking care of our animals and our property - no automatic sprinkler system here, so that keeps us hopping. I was so spoiled in Nampa. This last photo is taken from our front porch of the sunset last night. Makes me grateful for all the beauty that surrounds us. Enjoy the wonders around you.