Lake Powell

My parents, David's family, and Clark's family all met for a Lake Powell trip.  I was extremely bummed that Tige wasn't able to get off work to go with us.  I almost didn't go because it's just SOOOO much work to pitch a tent and do the whole camping thing without him, but I knew the kids were had a blast with their cousins, so I braved it solo.

As soon as we got to the Lake, I realized I'd left ALL my bedding behind.  I had packed everything in the car the night before, but didn't pack my sheets,  blankets for my airmattress because I was waiting to add my pillow after I slept on it the night before.  I just forgot it all.   Ugh!

We got to the Lake, unloaded everything, and started playing.  The kids really couldn't have had more fun!

Char and "baby Kitty" as Taylor calls her.

This is what the 3 boys did practically 24/7.  My dad pulled them around and around for hours on the jet ski.  They traded being riders and observers with the girls. 

Clark & Josh

Check out Kason's sunburned face.  See the faint white lines above his eyebrows and around his lips?  When we first got to the lake, Kason went into Clark's boat and I was in my parent's boat.  Char gave him a sunscreen stick so he could sunscreen his face, and he managed to just cover a couple of spots above his eyebrows and around his mouth.  He looked funny and was obviously tender the rest of the trip.  I was careful with sunscreen for them after that. 

Taylor & Abby having naptime on the boat.  They were both good nappers!

Taylor loved throwing mud and rocks into the air.  He pelted Abby with a mud pile right on her head once.  She was NOT amused.  He kept throwing these bigs rocks in the air.  I kept wondering when he'd peg himself right in the head, but he was lucky and didn't hit himself.

Kason's attempt at skiing.  He didn't get up, but almost.  I'm thinking next summer he'll be able to do it!

This would be sand on my little sand monster.  He had sand in every crack and crevice, and it was caked in his ears and eye lashes.  He just rolled around in it and dumped bucketfuls on his head.  I've never seen a kid who loved to be in the sand like this one does!

Sleeping in the tent with the kids was an adventure--especially without my own bedding.  Clark lent me 2 little blankets, and we made due with sharing the sleeping bags.  Once Abby fell asleep and rolled off her pillow, I stole it from her for the remainder of the night.  In the morning when she found me with me pillow, she said "HEY! You can't take my pillow!"  The 1st night we were dying of heat.  Taylor woke up fussing about 4 or 5 times and kept crawling all over the place.  Ugh.  The 2nd night it rained a little and was very windy.  The kids were a little nervous but we all ended up falling quickly asleep and slept better that night.

2 Tri Races & Monticello for the 24th

We went over to Monticello for the 24th of July weekend celebration.  It was a little different this year because Tige's parents and 2 younger siblings had gone back East on vacation, so we stayed in the house without them.  It was my brother David's 20th high school reunion, so his family came and stayed at the house with us.  It was great to spend time with them and also with Kirk and JaNae's families.  We packed a lot of fun (and a little work too) into our 5-day stay.  We ended up pressure washing and re-staining Tige's parents entire (large) deck.  I didn't take pictures, but it was a surprpise for when they got back from their trip, and it looked awesome!  Other highlights of our week were Kason's FIRST Triathlon, Tige/Kirk/Matt all doing a trithalon together and all 3 of them finishing, and the Saturday parade.

First we have Kason's kid's triathlon on Friday evening.  It was HOT.  I was glad I wasn't exercising.  They swam 1 length of the pool, then biked 1 mile and ran 1/2 mile.  Kason was the first one out of the water (there were 6 kids competing), and he never looked back.  First on and off the bike, and a first place finish.  We were excited for him. 

 He loves this 1st place medal (and wore it the next day to Tige's triathlon, which I thought was cute).

Saturday morning was the Hillman Triathlon.  Tige, Kirk & Matt all did it and were able to finish.  3 years ago Tige did this same triathlon and it was his first.  He finished in around 2:00 hours.  The 2nd time he did it, he had bike trouble with multiple flat tires and had his only DNF.  Matt also had bike troubles that year.  And finally this year all 3 of them were able to finish.  We haven't seen the exact finish times yet (we rushed away to the parade as soon as Tige was done), but he cut about 15 minutes off his time from 3 years ago, so that's great).

 Matt in transition

 Tige & Kirk coming in on the bike together.

The cheering crew.  Notice Taylor trying to take a picture with my camcorder.  These guys were troopers.

Matt starting the run

Tige finishing his run

Kirk finishing his run

We hurried to the parade which for some reason was moved up 30 minutes this year to 9:30.  Dumb.  It's been at 10:00 every year for as long as we can remember.  Anyway, we hooked up with David's family to watch the parade.  The kids had a great time and were able to get lots of candy.

David rode on his "Class of 1992" reunion float.  Dang he's getting old. ;)

After the parade we went to the park for lots of fun carnival-type games.  We thought the kids would love this little train ride, but Taylor was not at all pleased when Tige put him in the car.  So Abby rode solo.

Kason did a bunch of games too like football through a moving hoop, baseball knocking cans down, a joust with Bryce into the water, etc. 

That night Matt, David & Tige put on an awesome fireworks show for us in the backyard, and then we moved to the front yard to watch the city fireworks. 

We also had lots of playing playing in Kirk & JaNae's backyards as well as grandma's.  We threw frisbees, played catch with the dogs, and ran through the sprinklers.  We had a major dance fest at Matt's house Monday afternoon with all 7 grandkids dancing like crazy.  When they were tired, Tige and I had a danceoff, then Kirk and Matt.  I showed them all how it's done!  We picked apples from the tree and ate them all weekend and enjoyed all 3 huge yards and the cooler weather.

Hair, Cookies, books

Yippee!!! Abby's hair is finally long enough to french braid and do piggy tails.  It only took 4 years to grow!  We are excited to be able to kind of do stuff with it now. 

 Waiting for cookies to cook in the oven.  Mmmm! I couldn't agree more. 

Loving when dad reads us some books!



4th of July

Our 4th of July started out with a 5k run by Tige & Kason.  Abby, Taylor and I came at the end of the race with our patriotic necklaces and wavers and enjoyed a delicious pancake breakfast at the Bloomington Park. 

 After being hot at the park and watching a short (and lame) parade, we went over to the Ford's house to swim and eat lunch.  The kids love swimming, especially when dad thows them up in the air!

 That night we met at the Christensen's house for a BBQ and a huge fireworks display.  These folks go ALL OUT! Dinner was yummy and we sat together and watched fireworks.

Taylor was a little nervous and ended up hugging dad for comfort.