A little Hike

A few weeks ago, we took an evening to go on an adventure. Our goal was to find an old bridge that is located out in Leeds. Instead we found an awesome hide away campground with hiking trails.

 

 

 

 Gosh, I love this guy!

 Tyson is just like his dad.  Loves to hike and practically runs up the trail.

 JD loved it as well.  He digs being outdoors.

 And this little stink.  Well, let's say she takes after her mom.  I like to hike and I don't complain, but after awhile, I get bored with it.  Piper was bored 10 minutes in and wanted to go back to the truck.

 

All of our pictures are self portraits and they all look like this.  I have short little arms, so Josh has to do the photo taking.  I don't mind though, because I get to hide behind him!

 Look at my cute kiddo's and pup!  We had so much fun and will for sure be going back.

Awww, such a good Dad!  He carried her pretty much the entire way down. Little Stink!

Tyson

 I had the chance to spend an afternoon, home alone, with this cute kid.

We played some games and chatted about random things.

We took some self portrait, because, well, that's what this mom does.

We had a great afternoon of laughing and playing.  We were in the middle of playing a game and he jumped up and ran into the other room to get a little notepad and pencil.  He wrote on the paper for a minute and then folded it up and passed it onto me.  It said, "Mom, your a loser!"  Little twerp!

Good thing he's cute.  He's such a good kid.  He says the funniest things and is so sweet!  Except when he calls me a loser!

Kenecott

 Largest copper mine in the world! Who wouldn't want to see that?  I didn't actually have the chance to go, but Josh and Adam took the kids to see it the weekend we went up.

 JD of course loved it!  He thought it was very cool.

 All the kiddo's in a row.  Quinton didn't want to go.

 Hmm, I am my fathers child.  Let me climb this big tire!

 Of course, if JD does it, then Tyson has to do it too.

Cute kids at the strip mine! 

Hogle Zoo

 The week after school started, we took the kids up to Salt Lake for a long weekend.  It was our 11-year anniversary and the Alison's Pantry Food Show.  We decided to go up a day early and take the kids to the zoo.  Lindsey and her cute boys came with us!

 Quinton cracks me up.  There is only 7 months difference between Piper and Quinton and they were little buddies.  He likes Uncle Josh too.

 Our first stop was the Elephant Exhibit.  Apparently pooping elephants are extremely funny to a ten-year-old boy.

 The buddies checkingout some monkey's.

 We decided to make a stop at the bird show and were so glad we did.  Probably my favorite part of the whole zoo.

 Then it was off to see the Polar Bears.  I loved this shot of Piper and the bear.

 Quinton and Piper again.  The only reason I have so many pictures of Piper, is that she is the only kid who sticks by me. 

 I love the sneezing elephant.  This is one of my favorite memories from when we went to the zoo the first time.  JD was 3 and Tyson was 6 months old . We took Tyler and Parker with us and they loved this elephant and sat on it forever.

Spending the day at the zoo makes for a tired daddy and a tired Garrison! 

Aladdin

We had a chance to take our whole family to see Aladdin at Tuacahn.  What a neat experience.  The play was wonderfully performed and the kids enjoyed it so much.  Even Josh loved it!

Mustache

Swiss Days Parade

Lemonade Stand

On September 11, 2012, the dike in Santa Clara broke after heavy rain.  The water rushed down into the valley and flooded multiple buisnesses and 60 homes.  We had the chance to take the kids down to help muck out mud and help in way that we could. 

When tragedy hits close to home, you can't just stand by and watch.  This was especially personal as we knew many of the families affected, because Josh grew up in these neighborhoods.  They were his ward family in his youth.

JD wanted to do something more to help.  So we threw a bakesale and lemonade stand.  The kids were able to earn $57.00 to donate to the flood relief.  It was such a neat experience to see how people reacted to the cause and how proud my kids were.

My baby is in Kindergarten

 It's hard to believe it's been 5 year since this girlie came into our lives . She is such a wild child and so strong willed.  But boy, do we love her!

The besties.  They sure do love each other.  They were so excited to get put in the same class.

What a cute little stinker.

Fifth & Second Grade

 Where, oh where did the summer go?  It flew by us.  It's already time for back to school!  Look at these cute boys!

 Fifth grade?  Say it ain't so!!  I can't believe I am the mother of a 5th grade.  So crazy.  Luckily it's this 5th grader!  He is such an amazing kid.  I am so proud of the man he is becoming.

 He, he, he!  I spiked his hair.  He didn't realize it until after pictures and then he flattened it out.  Such a cute little stink.  I kinda like him.  I am way excited for him this year.  He gets to be in Mrs. Maeserang's class that she is amazing!

The traditional JD and Baylee, first day of school picture.  First year they have been a little iffy about it.  I secretly thing they like each other and that is why they were embarrassed!  Little do they know, they have 7 more years of taking these.  I am not stopping now!!

Figure 8 Race

 Josh had this crazy idea to enter a Figure 8 race.  The only thing crazy about it was that he waited until just a few days before to start on his car!  They were able to pull it together though in just a few days and on very little sleep.

 The kids were beside themselves excited to get to help paint it and bust out the windows.  I will have to get those pictures from Grandma.  They loved it!

 He, he, he!  Loving my new lens.  This was the boys hanging out before the race.

 The boys telling stories before the race began.

 

 Getting ready for his first race.  He did awesome.  Took third.  Wish I had a picture but he even tipped one car up on it's side.

He ended up taking 3rd place overall.  Pretty impressive for his first race.  It was a lot of fun to watch.  Not as scary as a demolition derby.  They still crash into each other, just not as much.  The boys are talking about starting a team to travel around and spend their summers racing and derbying.  It would be a lot of fun!