Pioneer Day

 As usual, we headed up to Marysvale for the holiday weekend.  Here are the kids hanging out and waiting for the fireworks to begin.

 We did a 50's themed float this year.  It was JD's idea he wanted to turn our float into an actual rootbeer float!

Sherry made these awesome poodle skirst for the girls.

Here we are waiting in line to play the games!  Always a fun time!

 Tyson and Ashton hanging out waiting in line.

 JD is the king of winning goldfish.  Although all 4 of them died before we left to come home!

 This was Pipers first year in the fish rodeo and she caught one!  Grossed me out a little.

 I think Tyler was even more grossed out than I was.

 JD and he fish.

 Tyson and his.  He insisted we take it home.  I gave it to Grandma to take care of.  She was thrilled!

 That night we had a campfire and made smores.  Piper did not like them at all!

 Crazy boys!  They each had like 5 and then we had to ban them from eating anymore!

 Ah, a popsicle that is the ticket, much better than smores!

That night we watched some awesome fireworks at the baseball field.  Not sure who provided the awesome fireworks, but thanks!  They were great.  Afterwards the kids laid on the grass and watched The Sandlot! 

Zions

 Last week we took the kids to Zions.  Living only 40 minutes away, we've never actually been.  We decided to take a day trip and it was a blast!

 It is so much cooler up there!  It is also beautiful! It is also very busy and very full of tourist. If you ever want to learn a foreign language just spend some time riding the shuttle!

The first place we got off at was Weeping Rock.  This is the river across from the shuttle.  We hiked down and looked at some deer and tried to catch tadpoles.

My boys were fascinated by the tadpoles and we actually came home with a few.

While up at Weeping Rock we met another little girl named Piper.  That's not a very common occurence.

My proof I was there!

When you get off the stop for the Narrows ,which is the last stop the shuttle makes, there is an awesome place for wading!  The kids of course jumped right in.

Tyson was making me so nervous.  The water was moving pretty fast.  I was on the shore with the camera, Josh wouldn't let me come in :(, however see the red shirt there at the edge of the picture.  Some nice European man helped him across.  He couldn't understand me, but I guess the frightened pacing on the edge, he did understand.

Joshua!

Josh and JD made a little trek across the river and up the trail across the way.  They did barefoot!  Crazy boys!

Ha, ha, ha!  Piper pickin' a weggie!  She's going to love this when she's older!

This was at the middle emerald pool. It was super high up there!

Looking for more tadpoles!

Josh showing them how to catch the tadpoles.

On the shuttle, Tyson at one point told us we should walk back to the truck.  Josh told him it was far away and he was complaining about the shor hikes we were doing.  He asked him how he planned on getting back and he said, "With the speed of the Puma!"  Hillarious!  He say's the funniest things.

Cute little stink!

Me and Josh at the Emerald Pools!

We ended up with about 10 tadpoles.  Only 3 survived.  JD was trying to get them to move around in the bottle and told Tyson that he thought they were all dead.  Tyson said, "They aren't dead.  Their just playing doggy pile!"

It was such a fun day!  It is absolutely beautiful there and the kids had a blast.  We enjoyed just spending the day in nature.  We were there from 10 to 6.  It was a long day, but oh so much fun!



I need a 1000 of these bears

 Hilarious!  I came out the other night and JD was turning our sorting bears into a Lord of the Rings reenactment. 

I heard him call down the hall, "Mom, I need about a 1,000 more of these bears!"

You Deserve a day off

 This cute little boy wrote me a very special letter, on a day when I was feeling very bad for not being a good mom.  He left it on my pillow for me to find when I went to sleep. 

It says:
Dear Mom, You work so hard taking care of us. So I decided to give you a day off.  Than you mom!  Love, JD, Tyson and Piper.

JD is so sweet and so sensitive to the needs of others.  He is so good with handicapped children and kids who are kind of loaners.  He's just a nice kid and others love him for it.  I love him for it.  I love him tremendously and don't know what I would do without all his help!

Tenting it!

My house is tiny.  Squeeze 6 LOUD kids into one tiny house and you have chaos.  The solution, make em' sleep outside in a tent!

Now, go to sleep!

A Night with the Cousins!