So Long to Sunriver

I realize it's school time and I need to post back-to-school pictures. Lauren and Taylor started last week but Josh doesn't start Kindergarten until Thursday so I'll post some soon. Say an extra prayer for Josh that he will go. Seriously, I'm kind of worried about it.

These last few pictures from Sunriver are the "fun" family pictures. Parley always dreads this day but I didn't think it was too bad.

The first one is my whole family with my cute grandma who just turned 90. The one with the kids in the red shirts are all of her great-grandkids from oldest to youngest!

We had more fun that we deserved and can't wait to go back next summer!!

p.s. The last picture is of our lovely blown-out tire. We were only about 3 hours into our journey home when it blew. Parley is a great driver and got us off the road safely. We found out later that the brand new back tires we bought (they recommended) from Wal-Mart just before we left were the wrong size (too small)!

Mt. Bachelor

My cousin Britt organized a trip for all of us to Mt. Bachelor while we were in Oregon. It is big and beautiful but doesn't even really compare to the mountains we have here :)

We all rode the ski lifts up and most of us were going to hike down but it ended up just being Grandpa and us - minus Lauren. When we got to the bottom we were pretty dirty but it was a great hike. You can see that Lauren had fun with Paige and Seth playing/sledding on the snow mound - in July!

Oregon

I can't even begin to put all the pictures from Sunriver on my blog. Here are just a few with more to come. On this day we hiked down into some lava caves. It was cold but very fun. It started out with REALLY high ceilings and ended up about 3 feet high. Good thing we don't have claustrophobia. We had way more fun than we deserved!!

Gwenfest - finale

Jimmy, Lauren, Eliza, Ian, Josh, Seth, Taylor and Paige

I'm behind on the blogging. We just got back from an awesome week in Oregon but I'll get to that later. I need to finish up our week in July when Gwen was here...

I learned that the Clark Planetarium is free (I love free right now). We played around there and then went over to play in the fountain. As you can see, Taylor really loves getting wet.

The last night Gwen was here we went up A.F. canyon to roast some hot dogs (or horse lips as my dad calls them) and also some smores. My dad took all the kids on a nature walk and taught them about flora and fauna. This last picture is all the grandkids - minus Ava (Carrie's youngest). We had such a fun week and my kids were so sad to see it end.

Gwenfest 2009 pt.2 / seven peaks

On this fun day we took the trip down south to Seven Peaks. Again, we had more fun that we deserved. The kids look forward to this all year and it's become the tradition to wait until Paige and Seth get here. Lauren's very brave and will go on pretty much anything, Taylor.. well he's a little brave and Josh, not so much. He has a good time on the lazy river, as you can see :) The sun's brutal and we all came home with some pink somewhere but it's so worth it!

Gwenfest 2009 pt.1

My sister Gwen has been in town from So. Cal this past week. That pretty much means we spend every waking hour doing something with all the cousins. It's fun and exhausting!

On this day we went to Jump on It. I couldn't really get any good pictures of moving targets, but it's pretty much a big warehouse with trampolines everywhere. It's so good to wear them out.

After that we went down to the park and floated in the little creek (or crick if your from Utah County). The kids had a great time and it reminded me of the times we used to float in the irrigation water when we were kids - the things you do for fun while living out in the country :)

4th of July

We had a fun 4th of July weekend. Well, most of us did. Lauren spent the day home feeling crummy, poor thing. We've kind of had a 4th of July week. Last weekend we went to my parents house to watch the Cedar Hills fireworks. They were great and it was fun to just sit on the lawn and watch.
Friday we did fireworks in our front yard and then went to the neighborhood extravaganza. There's nothing like lots of boys (dad's included) running around with lighters and fireworks.
On the 4th we were invited to walk with Mayor Dolan in the Sandy City Parade. Lauren was so bummed to miss it, but the boys had a great time throwing candy and the day was capped off with more neighborhood fireworks.
We hope you all had a wonderful 4th and thanks to all those who make it possible for us to even have a day to celebrate our freedom!