small trip...big memories

Tim had a conference through BYU up in Park City for Monday and Tuesday. Well...if you know me at all...you know that a free hotel with a pool is a free vacation for my kids. We all got up early and made it to Park City by Monday at 8:00 a.m. We dropped Tim at the hotel and headed out to find breakfast. We spent the better part of the day finishing up school shopping at the outlets. Carter spent the entire expedition reminding me how bored he was and asking if THIS was the LAST store. We finally called it a day, and went back to the hotel. Tim joined us just in time to go swimming. After everyone was good and tired, we grabbed sandwiches for the kids and left Kenzie in charge so Tim and I could have a real dinner out. As hotel rooms go...everyone was so wound up by the time we got back, that no one was asleep before 11 pm. We did sleep in this morning (Tim...not so much). After finding out we could stay until noon, I took the kids to the playground just outside our room. We played until Tim was done, and then went to walk the shops on the old main street. We finished the afternoon with ice cream cones...probably the highlight of the day for poor Carter.

Lady playing hide-and-seek in the closets at the hotel.

shopped out....

ahhh...relaxin'!

total happiness

Any day away from home is a vacation in my book! Now, I have two days to catch up on house/yard work before we take off for Payson Lakes! Summer days just make me happy!

Carter's first decade....almost

Tonight we celebrated Carter's first full decade as part of our family! Carter is a sweet boy with a big heart. He puts up with lots of teasing thanks to 3 sisters, but considering all, he handles it pretty well. Carter is learning from his Dad's sense of humor....he recently made up his own joke... "Hey mom...do you know what the best day to steal something is?" "No, what day?" "Steel Days!" (If you didn't know, Steel Days is the name of our AF city celebration). Carter was really proud of that one! Just tonight I realized that Carter is the one who sneaks quietly out of bed after Jace falls asleep and turns off Jace's ipod so his batteries won't be dead in the morning. Such a good brother. I found this picture of Carter taken 3 years ago...not much has changed since then. He's lost a few more teeth, grown in some bigger teeth, grown a couple of inches upward...but the silliness and kind heart inside are just the same! Love you Carter boy!

I'm pretty sure Carter has been in a BYU hat for every one of his parties!

Homemade gifts from Lady & Jace, complete with plastic bags filled with treasures.

I don't know...do ya think he's excited about the cash?

Grandma & Papa supplied him with a new fishing pole for backpacking...
we'll break it in this weekend at Payson Lakes.

The big day is really on August 1st.
We'll be camping with the Argyle clan,
so we'll have to do a little more celebrating then.
Hope the wishes he made come true!

teeth, dirt, and bugs

We just seem to keep losing teeth at this house....Jace and Lady both lost another last week. The tooth fairy is going to go broke trying to leave money for all those teeth, not to mention the tooth shaped notes that must be left behind answering all kinds of questions like "What do you do with the teeth?" "Are you a real fairy?" "Do you like me cause I think you're awesome?!"

On Friday we took our neighbors, the Meyers, up to Shadow Mountain for a quick camping trip. We just stayed one night, but we packed a lot of stuff into those two days.

After unloading and having lunch, we did leather working. I didn't remember to take pictures, but the kids made leather bracelets, bookmarks, necklaces...we spent a good two hours makin' fun stuff!

After that, we pulled out the gold panning stuff and let the kids pan for gold. I think Max spent more time searching for gold than the kids!

Maddy is digging through the sand leftover from 5th grade campers hoping someone missed their gold.

Tim taught the kids one of their Shadow Mtn. games called "Kemosabe" (I'm sure I did NOT spell that right). Quick explanation: One person (Kemosabe) stands on a rock and counts while everyone else hides. You have to hide in such a way that you can see Kemosabe without him seeing you. Kemosabe then does 3 different signals which you have to be able to duplicate at the end of the game. If you are spotted hiding before all three signals have been given, you are out. Kemosabe then calls everyone left out of their hiding places. The survivors line up, eyes closed, and act out the three signals. Whoever gets all three right gets to be the next Kemosabe. Of course, the best part is watching everyone try to mimic the signals...you never know what kids will do once standing on a rock being the complete center of attention!

Notice...no one is doing the exact same thing...but they are all doing signal #2.

Lady being Kemosabe.

First....I know Jace looks like some kind of cartoon character in his shooting gear...it just makes me smile every time I look at it! Max brought his guns and we let the kids do some target shooting. I even jumped in and tried (and for the record, I was awful...didn't hit a thing!)

Tim hit everything...of course!

Maddy and Joshy....poor boy was exhausted and totally done with the sounds of the guns.

The next morning was the hottest day of the year...so we decided to go on a hike to the hippie bus...in the sun...with the mosquitos. We almost turned back several times, but we pushed the kids through with promises we would stop and rest for a while once we reached the bus.

We made it to the bus, but we only stayed long enough to have a snack and get back off the trail. The mosquitos were eating us alive!

The famous hippie bus....you'd have to ask Tim the story he made up about how and why this bus got there.

Coming down was twice and fast and not nearly as hot, thanks to a breeze that kicked up and even got rid of some of the bugs. After all the hiking and heat, Dairy Queen ice cream on the way home never tasted so good! Good trip with good friends and great memories!

fish stories

Tim is now home for the next 4-ish weeks! Yippee! As much as the kids love being on the mountain with him, there is nothing better than having Tim home all day for a few weeks. We get to make up for June when we are never together. Tim kicked off his official summer by taking us all fishing at Silver Lake Flats. The very long dirt road was definitely not made for "the mini", but Tim maneuvered the rocks and we made it. While we were getting the poles ready, this little family of ducks came right up to shore. Tim got all five poles baited and in the water and then we waited.....

....and waited....

...and waited....

....and waited...

the sun came over the mountain and out from behind the trees...

...and we kept on waiting and watching....

...really watching those lines waiting for a tug...

...and then the fish started biting!

... and biting...

... and biting!

When our 3 hours of fishing came to an end, we had seven fish to bring home for dinner.
The kids could not have been more proud of their fish catching skills!

And yes! That is Jace's hand at the top of the blog....mud, fish, and all that yuck!