Happy Pioneer Day

We celebrated Pioneer Day starting at the Spanish Fork Fiesta Days parade. I don't know why I go to the parade each year expecting it to be different or even exciting, it is the same thing for me every year. I guess I go because the kids enjoy it. Emma loved the princesses (City Royalties) and horses. Andrew asked a million questions a minute. "Who's that, what's that, etc." We sat in a new spot this year up at the top of Center Street. It was nice and shady, and had we been on the front row we would have had tons of candy. Everyone has lots of candy to throw at the beginning of the parade:)





After a few games of ping pong on Jon's new table, we spent the rest of the day hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa Tuckett's house. We ate lunch, played a game, ate snacks, watched the kids swim and slide down the Bonzai, ate more snacks, played part of another game, ate dinner, and ate dessert, and ate more snacks. It was a great day full of the best F words: FAMILY, FUN, and FOOD!!

The 2nd Leg

The second part of our vacation was a 12 hour drive from Bear Lake to The Dalles, OR. We were all sleep-deprived and sun-burned, but, surprisingly enough, our kids tolerated the drive way better than we thought they would. Andrew only had one meltdown and it wasn't until the last hour of the drive. The sun was shining in his eyes and he didn't like it. He ended up wearing mommy's sunglasses, which felt more comfortable to him upsidedown. I wish I would have been able to take a picture of it, but the battery in my camera was dead. Our camera's battery needs to be replaced. One of the downsides of this leg of the vacation was that I only got to take 4 pictures. Some of that was my fault because I was too lazy to get the camera out, but most of it was because the battery was dead.
I would definitely have taken pictures of our awesome white water rafting experience down the Deschutes River. That experience was amazing, exciting, dangerous, exhilerating, scary, beautiful, tiring and many more things all rolled into one afternoon.
I did get a few shots of us at Multnomah Falls on our way to Portland.




In Portland we spent a fun day shopping at various outlets, meeting all the family for dinner, and then heading to the baseball park to watch a triple A baseball game. Emma and I were only at the game for about 30 minutes, but that was even too long for her. She was very tired and again doesn't do well with loud noises so the cheering crowd and loud speaker were too much for her to handle.
I didn't get any pictures of the kids playing in Kari and Eric's fun backyard or swimming in their pool. I also didn't get any pictures of Logan at his baptism which was the very reason for the trip in the first place. I definitely need to do better about getting the camera out and taking pictures, but after this vacation we also realize that we need to invest in a new camera or at least a new battery for our camera.

All in all we had a great vacation. The kids did pretty good on the drive home, and we were all very excited to be home and sleep in our own beds:)

Lake Play

We all had a great time playing in the sand and in the water. Bear Lake has great beaches fun for making castles or burying people, or even for collecting small seashells. We spent half the day Sunday and all day Monday at the beach. Monday we rented a couple of waverunners for the day. The big kids especially enjoyed playing on the wave runners.




Here is Emma showing off her dirty hands. I'm not sure if this is before she ate handsful of sand or after. I wonder if she is missing some minerals in her diet making her crave sand. She sure seems to like eating it for some reason.

Summer Vacation

This was the start of our 9 day vacation. Everyone was so excited! We headed up to Bear Lake in Northern Utah for a 3 day family reunion with the Tuckett family. Our first stop in the Bear Lake area was Minnetonka Cave. When we got there we found out that it would be a 3 hour wait to go on the tour so we decided to return the next day:)




This picture shows Emma's excitement upon leaving the cave. She does not love the dark. She thought we had walked into night time. She kept saying night-night? "We did it!" Emma yelled as we left the cave.

Fireworks

We ended up doing our own little fireworks show on the 4th because we didn't want to wait until dark. Our kids were already super tired so we tried to do everything as quickly as possible.

Eldon let Julia light a couple of fireworks, something I would never have let her do at 7 years old. I love the shot Eldon got of her running back to the sidewalk after lighting the firework.




Emma and Andrew didn't love the fireworks show. Emma is not a fan of loud noises. They both started out on the sidewalk and moved up to the porch steps and then moved up to the porch after that. Emma would clap after each firework, not because she liked it, but because she was glad it was over.



This is a random picture. We have a tree in the front yard that Julia and her friends call their hideout. Andrew called it the forest and invited everyone to come to the forest with him.

Balloon Fest

I took Andrew and Julia to the Balloon Fest on the 4th. We didn't quite get up early enough because all the balloons had already taken off by the time we got there. We stayed for a little bit to watch the competition, but it wasn't very exciting so we left. Last year I took Emma and Julia, but Emma hated the loud noise made by the hot air going into the balloons, so she stayed home with daddy this year.

More Bonzai Pics

Emma and Julia both loved the Bonzai, at least until Emma got too much water in the face at the bottom. Then she was done, but she went quite a few times before that happened. Andrew was chicken. We forced him down once, but forgot to take a picture of it. He looked like he enjoyed most of it, but would not go again. The kids had a great time playing in the water today.

July 4th

We celebrated the 4th of July by having breakfast at Grandma and Grandpa Tuckett's house and then sliding down the Bonzai slide they bought last year. Grandma Tuckett is always a really good sport and slides down the slide at least once. Today she went down twice. It is quite comical watching her attempt getting her leg from the top step over the top of the slide. Today she almost tipped the whole slide over while straddling the top of the slide.


Once she makes it over the top and she actually slides she tries to avoid the sprayers that keep the slide wet because she doesn't want to get her hair wet:)



After sliding she tells everyone it was fun but I really think she wonders why she did that because now she's going to have to do her hair all over again! She is such a fun Grandma and a very good sport!

Worst hike ever!

We decided we wanted to go on a hike a couple of Saturday's ago. Eldon researched a little online and found the hike up to the hot pots in Spanish Fork Canyon. I have been on the hike a few times and didn't remember it being too difficult. 4 1/2 miles doesn't sound like very far when you're sitting at home. Once you start hiking (uphill) at 12:00 p.m. right after lunch with an extra 30 lbs. on your back(Andrew and Emma) 4 1/2 miles seems like an eternity.

We actually made it to the hot pots. Something we are very proud of. Although after getting up there we wanted nothing to do with hot water. We stayed in the water that was cold:)

Needless to say, I don't think we'll be hiking again for a while.

Father's Day

I know I'm way behind with this little tribute to my sweet husband. He is such a great man and a wonderful husband to our children. I really don't know what I would do without him. We got him a few small gifts for Father's Day and a new bike for his big gift. We made a treasure hunt for him and hid his gifts all over the yard and house. Julia loves treasure hunts so she was probably more excited than daddy was.