July 4th in Park City

For the 4th of July we decided to try to go somewhere cooler....
I mean as in temperature!
(Yes, it is midnight and I am blogging instead of sleeping and my humor is LAME)

 

Mike got us a great deal on KSL for a timeshare up at the Marriott for the weekend. We loaded up the trailer with our bike and the van with our kids and set out for some adventures.
Lots of swimming! Our kids are fish- they could swim all day.
Our room looked out to the Alpine Slide so we watched as people came down. Brigham could hardly wait to ride the slide. Some of us went on the gliders and some rode the lift up and came down on the Alpine slide. It was a blast to go so fast!
There were many, many critter friends crawling around on the ground below and we could do a whole page on just their pictures- courtesy of Katelyn. They were fun to watch!

 

We did lots of bike riding! Lucky for us we have an amazing Dad that let us ride down the mountain and then he biked back up the mountain to retrieve the trailer while we all played at the cool park. Brigham was able to ride along this time on his new bike. He was a trooper. Jessie rode along in the bike wagon and was happy to. The air feels cleaner in Park City and the views of the mountains were just so pretty to look at.

 

We went to the parade in downtown Park City, watched the firework show the Canyon's Resort put on and hit the outlets on our way in.

We had a great weekend and came home to a personal firework show right in our circle put on by the Ericksens. With the legalization of the big fireworks this year the show was amazing and we couldn't have gotten any closer! The turkeys enjoyed it as well from the Ericksen's garage.

Tyler Update

In June, Tyler gained a diploma and lost a tooth.
Ty was sad to have Kindergarten over with, but excited to be a first grader.He will have the same 1st grade teacher Amy had. It was a very cute program with lots of music and silly movements. I was really impressed with Miss Merrill and in the end I think Tyler forgave her for having a tattoo.
Afterwards we took some pictures with his friends. It just so happens that Henry and Caleb are also on his T-ball team this summer. I had a couple of moms come up to me and tell me their daughters thought Tyler was so nice and cute. Tyler requested to have his picture taken with this girl (I can't remember her name and Tyler is asleep so I can't ask him). Ahhh young love.

 

This tooth was not ready to come out. At the end of May we all visited the dentist and Tyler just got it in his head it would be cool to lose a tooth. So he pushed and pulled and twisted until he got it pretty lose. The tooth still wasn't ready so Tyler endured a week or so and finally with Dad's help it gave up. I think next time he will let the tooth fall out when it is ready.
>

 

Tyler is the best hitter on the team. If they could have home runs- he would be the Homerun King!

 

After his last game his team went to dinner at the Pizza factory and the couch gave everyone a trophy
The coolest trophy ever!!

World's Greatest Missionaries

 

I do believe these pictures sum up our trip to Colorado. We were so happy to see where Grandma and Grandpa are spending their time serving the Lord.
Could my children's smiles get any bigger?

The Dedicated Photographer

Raise your hand if you are so glad we have such a talented Grandma?!!!

Visiting Our Missionaries

We had an absolutely delightful time in Colorado over Father's Day weekend.
We went to visit Mike's mom and dad. They are serving a mission in the Denver mission and live in an old mining town in the Rockies.
Idaho Springs, CO
The mountains are so rugged and go on and on.The Colorado River was very swollen with all the moisture and spring run off.It all made for a beautiful drive.

It was so good to finally see Grandma and Grandpa after the long drive.
Grandma had a wonderful picnic ready for the weary travelers. We visited as we waited for the train.

 

This was the first real train ride for several of us in our family.

 

The train took us to the Lebanon Mine. The coolest REAL miner tour guide gave us a fabulous tour. His knowledge of mining and geology was fascinating. He was the real deal!
Every one needed to protect their huge melons- even Jessie. We got to see several veins of silver in the mine. Grandpa got in trouble for trying to take too much home with him.

 

It was cold, as a storm passed over, but the train ride was still breathtaking. After learning all about the mines we could then see the mountains were littered with mine tailings.

 

The next morning after breakfast Grandpa took us on a walk down along the Clearwater Creek. We saw the water wheel, met Charlie Taylor and fell in love with the authenticity of Idaho Springs.

 

After some lunch we headed up to Mt. Evans. We drove along the highest oiled road in the US. We just kept going up and up. The wind chill on top made it 5 degrees. The clarity, distance, and elevation were truly breathtaking, or was it the wind?
The top is uninhabitable to everything, but the goats. They lick the minerals off the rocks. We went to the visitor center to learn some more and became Junior Rangers.

 

JNB: 3 Months

Jessie Bessie is 3 months already!

The always present Thrush! Argh!

Is getting good at grabbing things! Wants to be sitting up

Brigham is teaching her how to play the DS.

Summer is Here

Summer has arrived and nearly half over. In May, the kids told me the things they wanted to do during the summer. We are trying to have one adventure each week. We started off the summer with going and visiting Kaye, Matt and Maddie and helping Kaye with her classroom. Thanks for blogging about that Kaye.


The next week we had a picnic at Wheeler Farm. A great petting zoo type place. There were geese sitting on nests, billy boats, pigs, turkeys, cows, horses, rabbits, ducks, tractors, forts, pioneers houses, etc. Lots of fun animals and lots of birds- like we need to see any more of those!

 

The next week we went to Boondocks in Kaysville. For each "A" or "3" the kids got on their report cards they were given $ on their cards for games. I forgot my camera and then half way through our activities I realized I did have my iPod camera- oh well. We did a round of mini-golf and rode on the bumper boats to cool off. Then went inside for some more games. Katelyn won 1000 tickets on the big spinning wheel. Tyler won that last summer. Laser tag was supposed to be fun, but "there were too many big kids". I think everyone had fun, though most were sad because they couldn't get the cool prizes like Katelyn because they didn't have as many tickets. Note to self: don't trade tickets for prizes right before going home.

 

Then we went to Colorado- which is a very separate post. We have also been swimming at the rec center each week, Rocket park, played with friends and family.
This last week we went back to Wheeler Park and brought Dad along for our picnic this time.
We've seen lots of movies! The kids liked "Rio"

Mom and Dad liked "3 Idiots" and "True Grit"



We look forward to many more adventures!

Backyard Pirate Treasure

Brigham came to Mike a while ago and told him there was a secret door in the kids bathroom and that he wanted his help to see what was behind the door. The "secret door" he was referring to was the false drawer front under one of the sinks in the kids bathroom.
So on Saturday Mike and Brigham got some tools and took to taking off that secret door. Before Mike took it off we asked Brigham what he thought might be behind the secret door and he told us "either pirate treasure or snakes". You wouldn't believe what we found. A treasure map to some buried treasure!
Tyler figured out it was a map of our backyard and began to guess where he thought the treasure might be. Everyone followed Tyler outside. Briggy guided us with the map and sure enough there was an old, old box underneath the big pine tree in our back yard. It was completely sealed and had crossbones on it and something written in a forgein language. We hoped it didn't say "Beware" or anything scary like that.
Mike got his crowbar and opened it up! Treasure galore! Two magnifying glasses, pirate eye patches,a long,long gold necklace, diamonds in an old antique vase, sea glass, a glass cube with a dolphin carved in it, a huge sea shell, and some colored rocks in a Danube jewelry box.

The boys were blown away. Tyler guessed that a long time ago some pirates must have sailed up our creek from the Great Salt Lake to bury their treasure and it was lucky they buried it in our yard.
Very lucky!!

 

Treasured Photographs

I was downloading pictures from my camera and found these pictures. With iPhones, iPods and cameras everywhere the kids do a lot of picture taking and video recording.

Mike looked at his iPhone gallery one night and Brigham had taken 120 pictures of himself. Here are some I found on my iPod.





I think Katelyn and Amy were inspired by one of Taylor Swift's album covers







I also find lots of pictures of stuffed animals, toys, and interviewing videos.
Funny stuff!