steel days

Today was the town celebration for American Fork...better known as Steel Days. We've been coming to the parade since we were kids. Lindsey, Morgan, Nicole, Brit, Hunter, Ryker, Ora, and Trey ran in the kids race and the 5K. Lindsey won...of course! Morgan came in 2nd for the women..yay! I'm sure Nicole will have pictures from the race on her blog soon. The parade started at 9:30 this year (instead of 10:00) which was good, since we hit 100 degrees today! The kids filled bags of candy..literally, lunch bags full...and came away with a few t-shirts, footballs, and loads of coupons. After lunch, we took the kids to the new pool in Lindon. For anyone with younger kids, this is the perfect pool! The lazy river is only 3 ft deep and even Lady could touch the bottom. We had a great dinner with the Taylor's and, after much convincing, got the kids to come home and fall into their beds.

Kids will do anything for a piece of free candy!

The kids were thrilled to see Cosmo at the parade....but they still preferred candy!

Standing for the flag...hat off, but refused to put down the crackers!

"Hey! Throw it here!"

"Hey mom! Look! I got a pen instead of candy!"

Ty waved and screamed at everyone in parade...except when their were sirens, music, loud anything...then she promptly covered her ears.

Small town summer celebrations are my favorite...they make me feel like a kid again. Such a fun day!

Fifteen years!

Today is our 15th anniversary...which actually sounds like such a long time. Hopefully, not such a long time that we seem old...cause I still feel way younger than that! Tim surprised me with gift cards to all my favorite places and some beautiful white roses (I had told him not to get anything for me...the new trellis' he built for the backyard and the vines to put on them had cost plenty!). We spent the day taking the kids to the new Harry Potter movie..and yes, I enjoy it every bit as much as they do...and having a family dinner at Texas Roadhouse. The kids were extra good and tried really hard not to fight or tattle (since that was the only gift we wanted from them!).

I found this picture and thought it would make the perfect image for this day...this is a picture taken on our first date. Seriously! Is Tim 12 in that pictures? And the glasses? Very Big! And yes, my shirt is tucked right into my too high waisted jeans...ahhh, the 90's. We were having a picnic in the basement of the UVU institute building. After eating, we went ice skating and then went back to Raintree and watched "The Cutting Edge". I don't think we ever went another day without seeing eachother. We were engaged two months later, and the rest is, as they say, history. We've come a long way from that first year of marriage when we would dig up extra change for 29 cent cheeseburgers at McDonalds. Happy anniversary Tim! Love ya!

Found: Lost Creek

So...it is 12:30 and I am posting our trip...again...I had it all done, hit publish, and my internet went down...I am so annoyed right now. Anyway....now that Tim has some time off, we took the kids for a camping trip. We headed up to the Uintas to a little place called "Lost Creek". Of course, no camping trip can go too smoothly...we left about an hour later than planned, and had driven almost an hour when Carter yelled from the back "Mom! I have a bloody nose!" Now, I am usually prepared for things like that, but I had not replenished my bloody-nose-in-the-car tissues from the last incident. Carter plugged his nose, tipped back his head, and did some out of his mouth breathing. Tim finally spotted an outhouse just off the road. We pulled over and cleaned up the boy. We reached our destination about 30 minutes later. We started unloading which takes forever! Especially when you have 5 bikes and a good supply of firewood tied to the top of the trailer. Lady kept complaining about being cold, and even pulled out her blanket to wrap up. I finally checked her temp...103! No wonder she was chilled...major bummer. She spent the day carrying a big pink bowl with her cause I was not going to clean throw up out of sleeping bags! Lucky for us...it was just one of those random 48 hour fevers..no other problems.

This is Lost Creek...we could see the lake from our campsite.

This stream ran right through our spot...Jace threw rocks into the water for hours.

Apparently, being silly means pulling your hat over your eyes and flashing gangster signs!

Me and Kenz... she's growin' up on me!

Tuesday morning, two moose wandered into our campsite. They were only about 100 feet away. When one started to cross the river, I ordered all the kids into the trailer...did not need that moose charging my kids. They wandered off, but came back around 3:00 and stayed til dark.

See the brown fuzzy spot on the right of Tim? That's the other moose.

Jace riding his bike around the circle...can't believe he didn't have a major wipeout!

Carter practicing some archery.

We took the kids on a mile hike to another lake. There were little bridges covering the spots where the stream crossed the trail. It was the perfect hike for the little kids.

Once we reached the lake, Tim tried to teach the kids how to skip rocks. There were all kinds of rocks dropping into the water...but not much skipping going on.

That afternoon, we broke out the marshmallow guns and had a serious marshmallow fight! Tim had made the older kids guns a few years ago, but he made enough for each of us to have our own this year. Marshmallows can be surprisingly painful when they hit your face at high speeds...I was sure I had welts all over my cheeks. I was laughing so hard, I couldn't aim to save my life!

Look at those cheeks!

It was a great 3 day getaway...I'm sure we'll be heading back to Lost Creek next summer. Our favorite quote of the trip came driving home from Jace..."Hey mom! Would it be silly if we didn't live in American Fork, but lived in American Spoon! That would be so silly!" Only Jace!

symphonic night

Last night we scored some tickets to the Utah Symphony at Thanksgiving Point. I thought this would be a good place for them to get a little...mind you, a very little culture in a relaxed atmosphere. The concert was outside at the waterfall. After being stuck in traffic for a good 45 minutes, we finally made it to a parking spot and hurried down to the gardens. We spread out blankets on the hill and tried to keep our kids still and quiet. Of course, the blankets kept sliding out from under our very not still children...and the whole keeping quiet thing was out the door within minutes. After intermission a.k.a. "halftime", they all settled in and listened to the next few songs. We left early so as not to spend another 45 minutes in traffic, but all in all, it was a fun experience for the kids. And as Tim put it "there were a lot of cartoon songs that I knew, so that was fun!" I was surprised he recognized anything....I guess there is something to be said for watching Bugs Bunny, Bullwinkle, the Roadrunner....and all those old school cartoons.

We did get to watch the sky do some pretty amazing things as the sun went down. It was a beautiful night...even the mosquitos managed to leave us alone!

bad mod

Found this note taped to Lady's door when I got home tonight. Apparently, she didn't want to stay in bed and Kenzie threatened to take away her favorite blanket. That is quite a warning being issued by my six year old ladybug!

So...maybe I'll borrow this note the next time I need a time out of my own!

freedom weekend

Part 1:
We spent the 4th at Kelly and Nicole's cabin...it is so close to being finished, and it is beautiful. I'll brag for Nicole, since she would never do it herself. Everything you see has been cut, built, stained...all that stuff...by Kelly. My dad has helped out many, many days, and the Tim's have spent a day here and there when they have had time, but for the most part, Kelly has become the builder of a cabin. Anyway...we spent the day for the most part relaxing and enjoying the mountains. My kids would have ridden the 4 wheeler all day...poor Brit was a very good sport, and drove the younger kids all over the property. Kelly of course, never sits. The boys hung blinds, fixed something on the roof (all I know is Kelly looked like he was repelling with all those ropes tied to him), and washed the big front windows.

Yep...they even cut this tree for the main beam in the center of the cabin.

Tearing down the old fort to build something better.

See, I told ya, window washing.

My kids are already asking when we are going back...they'll be needin' a 4 wheeler fix soon!

Part 2:

After coming home and unloading, our neighbors came over for a bbq and fireworks. Thankfully a breeze kicked up and cooled down the temperature just after we started to eat. The kids rode bikes, threw snaps, and waited for nightfall.

While waiting for our own fireworks, these fighter jets passed over our house on their way to the Stadium of Fire in Provo. The kids thought that was awesome...it was also the signal to start our own sidewalk of fire.

Jace was brave enough to hold the sparkler by himself this year....and yes, aren't those good lookin' headphones he's sportin'? He didn't want to hear the loud noises from the fireworks. My neighbors had a few sets of these for their little kids, so Jace borrowed a pair and looked...well....no explanation really needed there.

Lady would only let her sparklers burn about halfway down before she stuck them in the bucket. She did not want those sparks getting too close to her fingers.

Maddy broke out her disco moves with this one....so Madison-like.

Not sure what they were being...but they were sure silly girls!

This was probably the only time Carter sat all night.

It was a long, fun day! Every one fell asleep within seconds of hitting their pillows, and it was all I could do to wake them all up (Tim included!) and get them off to church by 8:45 this morning.

Day at the Zoo #2

I know what you're thinking....didn't I just see a post about the zoo? Yes, you did. That was our little mom and Lady day at the zoo. Last summer we bought a pass to the Ogden Dinosaur Park (with a family of 7, the pass price was the same as one day admission). Anyway...that pass also gets us in to the zoo the first Thursday of the month for FREE! If you know me at all, I will never pass up a deal like that. So, we spent the day at the zoo. Being July, I was worried we would be dying from the heat, but the day was overcast and by the time we left a big storm was starting up. I will never get Utah's weather, but it worked out well today.

Every child must drink from the lion water fountain...always.

This was the waterfall in the Madagascar exhibit, complete with hissing cockroaches...yuck!

Over in the Asian Adventure, there was a random little house next to the linx exhibit. This kid (well, he was young anyway) was teaching my kids a game using chopsticks and dried peppers. Not sure how that had anything to do with the zoo, but as you can see, they jumped right in!

Funny how hard it is to get a picture of your kids with actual animals in it.

Carter insisted on a picture with the ape head...boys.

Used my big zoom lens, and got a pretty good shot of this one. Maddy was thinking it was pretty cool when he came right down against the glass...until he turned around and she got a close up of his rear end...she was totally grossed out!

What would a trip to the zoo be without a family picture with the bronze tiger? Such fun!