Wolf Creek

We had such a great time on our weekend at Wolf Creek this summer (July 10-12)! We picked up Dave from work at noon, stopped to get Hadley and Zach, and got up there on Friday at 2. We were splitting the condo with the Sinemas so we got to have some time with them before they left.
The Foxes were in another condo just two stairwells away. We got to celebrate Brandon and Katelyn's birthday with a marshmallow war, pasta bar, and yummy, adorable dragon cakes. Easton and Skyler even stopped in on their way down from Logan. After dinner everyone went for a swim. It was so much fun to have time with our cousins and friends.
On the way up to Wolf Creek, we asked Maddi if she was going to go down the slide. Every year she says she will do it, but when we get there, she gets too scared. I think she has even gone up to the top of the slide, but then come back down the stairs. So this year in the car, she said, basically, "No. I am not going down the slide, and you can't make me". Right then, I reminded her, "Maddi, you rode on the Jet Star at Lagoon over and over. You can go down a tiny little slide." And she immediately agreed. When we got to the pool, she didn't need any encouraging. She went down it lots and lots of times and loved it.
After the swim, Kimee and Audrey talked Easton and Skyler into staying for a game of mafia before they had to leave. They played 3 rounds, with Kimee, Audrey and Easton each taking a turn as narrator. It was so much fun! Hadley and Zach stayed for breakfast Saturday and then had to get back home to work. We were so glad they were able to come.
Saturday, we did more swimming, playing volleyball, bug catching, and games with the Foxes. Maddi and Katilyn were inseparable. Kimee, Audrey, Blake, and Derek played a few more rounds of mafia and Apples to Apples. We even squeezed in a few games of Rummikub.
Sunday we packed up, went to the Eden ward, and headed home in time for my camp meeting:) Wishing we could stay up there forever.

Summer Firsts

They say there's a first for everything...
This week we were able to do many fun summer activities for the first time. I'm not sure why we haven't done them before, but I think it had something to do with kids that were to little to really enjoy the activities, and not wanting to deal with the whining and so forth coming from said young children.

1. Wednesday- Strawberry Days Rodeo
2. Friday- Manti Pageant
3. Saturday- Strawberry Days Parade

I have to say that at each of the activities, there was quite of bit of down time that had to be spent waiting for it to start, in the HEAT. The girls were so good to not complain. Really good. I'm so glad we were able to enjoy these activities as a family and that they ended up being really positive, fun experiences. (A big thanks to fun cousins and lots of yummy treats!)

Vernal

I love it when my kids say, "This was the best day ever!" Kimee said that when we were in Vernal on the first Saturday in June. We had a really special and fun day.
Friday night, we drove out to Vernal. Grandma and Grandpa rode with us in the car and so we had lots of fun visiting. We stopped for dinner at Arby's in Heber. When we got to Vernal, we dropped of G&G at Jill's and stayed to visit for just a little bit.
We stayed at the Springhill Suites not far away. We tried to go right to bed, but Maddi was so stir crazy from sitting in the car so long. She would not settle down. We tried to get her to go outside and get her energy out but she wouldn't. She said she wanted to watch a show. We only had the hotel cable, no DVD player, so we looked and looked for something to watch. We watched a discovery channel show on fishing tuna. Then we switched to HGTV house hunters. We ended up watching that show every time we had down time throughout the weekend. It is so fun to watch people shopping for, buying, and sometimes fixing up a house. It's a good thing we don't have that channel at home.
Now for the best day ever...
On Saturday morning we got up and had our free breakfast at the hotel. Then we went to the church for Jeremy's baptism. It was really nice and special. Jeremy looked very handsome and grown-up in his suit. It was really crowded, so many people were there to show their support of the three youngsters getting baptized. Afterwards, we had a brunch out at the pavilion on the church grounds. There was tons of grass for the kids to run around and explore. They had so much fun running, collecting rocks, and defeating ants. There was tons of yummy food and we got to stay and visit for a while.
After cleaning up, we made plans to meet back up at 3pm. We went back to the hotel and rested for a little bit. Then we got swimsuits on and headed to the pool while Dave took a nice long nap. Pete and Andrea stayed at the same hotel as us, so we swam with their little girls. Then Ella, Lauren, and Luke walked over. They all had a blast. We had the pool to ourselves for a long time.
When it got close to 3, we got ready to go have a late lunch/early dinner. We all met up at KFC/A&W's, which was right by the hotel. It took FOREVER for us to get our food (like a half hour), but luckily the place was pretty empty and we took up one whole section so the kids could play and we could all visit.
When we were done eating, we headed out to the Remember the Maine park. It's a really cool place with a playground, firepit, and river nearby. We ate leftover berries and s'mores. We stayed 'til almost dark. The kids went on all sorts of adventures walking around on trails and climbing through the brush. There were parts that were flooded, and they had some pallets out to walk on. It was nerve wracking for me. I was glad when it was time to go and no one had been lost or bitten by a snake.
We got back to the hotel with just a little bit of time to swim. Dave took Maddi and Audrey. Kimee and I got started watching another House Hunters episode (actually Kimee probably just read:) We slept a lot better the second night (I guess we were more exhausted). Sunday morning Audrey couldn't eat breakfast cause her stomach hurt. She went back to the room and threw up, mostly pool water it seemed. But it was just a few minutes before we were leaving for church, so her and Dave stayed back just in case she had more coming.
Kimee, Maddi and I went to Jill's church with Jill's family and G&G. It was really neat. The best part was Jeremy bearing his testimony about baptism and the Holy Ghost. It was so sweet and true.
After the meeting, we got G&G's stuff back into our car, went back to the hotel to get Audrey and Dave, checked out, and were on our way home.
What a great weekend filled with lots of family memories!

Conference Weekend

One of our favorite things we look forward to all year is General Conference. Every October, we spend the weekend with our good friends the Sinemas. We've gone to different locations, but finally settled on Wolf Creek as our favorite and have started to go there every year.
The girls get to play like crazy. Lots of Build-a-Bears. We do crafts and conference packets. We settle down to watch conference and have great meals. In between, we try and do something fun to get the wiggles out.
This year we decided to stop at Scheels on the way up and just happened to get there at the same time as the Sinemas. Fun! Fun!
Dave went over to the golf course club house restaurant to watch the BYU game. It was on a cable channel they didn't have at the condo. So he ordered a big meal and took a long time to eat it. He enjoyed it very much. Finally, they had to switch the channel to another game (the other TV was not working).

We love spending time with our first besties!

Summer Fun- friends and cousins

One of our favorite things about summer is that we have more time to spend with our friends and family.
At the beginning of July, we had our really good friends the Seamons come for a visit from Texas. The kids got to play several days, and they even stayed at our house one night!

On July 12, we took a trip up to Wolf Creek. Dave's niece MaryAnne was getting married that morning, so we went to her wedding first at the Oquirrh Mountain temple. One of our favorite things about Wolf Creek is the fun pool. We went up to the Sinema's cabin and some of the kids floated down the river.

When we went to church in Eden, we saw the plaque for Easton's mission president.

We also had few fun cousin days with Jill's kids and Mark's family. These pictures were taken July 15 &16.