Labor day camping

We had a super fun, but cold and muddy weekend camping up Ferron Reservoir.  It rained on Friday and Saturday, making for a muddy mess, but the kids didn't seem to mind and had a blast building forts, riding four wheelers, and using their imaginations.    Debbie was happy because the whole clan was able to make it:  Her and Derk, Rory and I and the kids, Derek, his girlfriend Kelley and their kids, and Kyle and Candee and their kids.  The kids played so well together and ended building an amazing fort out of fallen trees.  They said they were going to sleep in it, but it was so cold and by the time it was dark they were all ready for their own beds.  Sunday Rory and I took a beautiful four wheeler ride up Duck Fork and up on top of Skyline drive.  It was a gorgeous drive and we even some a couple of does and a woodchuck.  It was the perfect way to end the summer.    

Back to School

First day of school for Kinlee, Kadee, & Connor, Matthew starts preschool in a couple of weeks.

1st day of 5th grade

1st day of 6th grade & middle school

1st day of 1st grade

Denver

We had an amazing family vacation to Denver.   We were able to stay in Wellington, CO and eat at the Wellington Grill, go to the Fort Collins Temple open house and jump at a trampoline park there, the boys went to a Broncos game, we all went to the Denver Zoo, and to a Rockies game.  We stayed busy but also found time to go school clothes shopping and relax and play at the hotel pools.  We ate a lot of yummy food and even bought some Palisade peaches to can.  I so enjoy these times with my family and it was a great way to end the summer.   

With Boone Logan, a player for the Colorado Rockies

Trampoline Park Fun!

At the Fort Collins, CO temple open house

Happy Birthday Kinlee!

This girl was super excited to turn 6.  She's been counting down since Connor's birthday in July.  Saturday she invited 2 friends, Jocelyn and Maddie to come over.  I took them shopping to the dollar store where they each picked a toy, a treat, and a drink.  We then went and got fresh popcorn from the movie theater and headed back to our house.  As soon as we walked in the door Kinlee opened her presents from her friends and Aunt Susan.  She was so excited to get an Olympic Barbie set from Maddie, Hello Kitty stuff from Jocelyn, and money from Aunt Susan.  After opening presents we sang happy birthday and the girls devoured the cupcakes.  They then watched Kung Fu Panda 3 and played and played and played.  It really was a lot of fun.  Yesterday Nana Kelli took all of us to the Castle Dale pool and bought us Pizza.  Kinlee felt very special because she felt like it was another birthday party for her.  We swam for hours and all the cousins had a blast together.  Kinlee also got to pick what she wanted for dinner and she picked Dairy Queen.  As I tucked her into bed she told me that she had the best birthday ever. 

 

Last Thursday Rory and I had the opportunity to go to Cassi's wedding in Bountiful.  It was a beautiful ceremony, a beautiful day, and Cassi was a beautiful bride.    

Potter's Pond

We had a fabulous weekend camping at Potter's Pond with Kyle, Candee, Landon, Kella and Kadee's friend Baylee.  The kids spent most of the time on the four wheelers, lounging in the hammocks, playing in the lake, and even did a little bit of fishing.  Matthew loved fishing and could not get enough.  Every chance he got he was asking us to take him to the pond to go fishing.  One day we had him out in the little fishing boat and all of the sudden he just jumped out!  Luckily he had his life jacket on but it scared the crap out of me.  We weren't too far from the shore so he swam to Candee and told her he was tired of fishing.  It was such a relaxing, fun weekend.  Thinking about all the fun the kids have I hope these memories stick with them forever and hope we are able to give them a good childhood.        

Utah's Birthday

Friday night we enjoyed fireworks as the Rauhala's, and then, as usual, we spent our 24th of July weekend at Wellington Pioneer days. Rory and I were over the parade again this year and it happened to be very eventful.  It started out with Derk lining up the back of our parade the wrong way.  Once we got that all straightened out we started the parade and everything was going great until a little boy fell off his float and got his legs ran over!  It was super scary.  Luckily he was ok, but it was a very traumatizing thing for him and the kids on his float (Kadee was on the float with him and said he just leaned over too far and fell forward).  Because of all the chaos of that, the highway patrol accidentally started letting traffic through on the eastbound lanes, so Rory and I had to stop a few huge diesels from plowing through the middle of the parade.  I was so relieved when that parade was finally over! The kids had a blast in the parade though, Matthew was on our ward float, Kinlee was with Dance Technica, Kadee was with the Rising Raptors float, and Connor rode with Laurie and Don on their Christmas Vacation RV float.

After the eventful parade, the girls danced at the park.  They both did great and Kinlee is getting so good at doing facial expressions.  The kids love all the free activities at Wellington and stayed all day.  Sunday we went to my mom and Gary's for their annual fireworks show.  It was a great show!  The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins, eating s'mores, giggling, and watching fireworks.

We also did a little family history lesson this weekend.  We dug up a flag pole that has stood at grandma Archie's house for 56 years and put it in our front yard. Rory shared this on Facebook: "Any of my family recognize this?? For a lot of the grandkids and neighborhood kids this was "base". This flag pole stood tall and proud since 1960 in my Grandma Azella Bradley's yard. I wanted it to be proud in my yard, so I transplanted it to my yard. I cleaned it up and fixed the old hardware on it and proudly erected it in my front yard. The flagpole was put up by my Grandpa Archie in 1960 in his yard and dedicated to my Grandma Azella's father Azell Thayn. He served proudly in WWI and the American Flag he gave my Grandpa flew proudly for many years. I'm so happy it is flying a new flag that can be enjoyed by all!"   

This is a really long post, but there is a lot to post about!  Our community is doing a Back the Blue parade this weekend at International days, as a tribute to our law enforcement.  Although we are headed camping, Rory and I wanted to be involved so we bought the kids and ourselves Back the Blue t-shirts and I made a few signs for the fallen officers of Utah.  I only made 3 signs, but I wanted to share one on here to remember the law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.  Our cub scout troop wanted to get involved as well, so we made  Law enforcement survival kits to deliver to our Wellington Police and our Sheriff's deputies.  Of course Matthew and Kinlee are mini scouts, so they wanted to help too!  So proud of them!

Rick, Justin, Rory, Brandon, Jeff, Cletis, & Vickie

July happenings

Summer is seriously the best and is seriously going by way too fast!  This past week Connor had his crossover ceremony in scouts, even though he's been in scouts for a year, he isn't technically considered a boy scout until he turns 12.  It was the same ceremony they did when he left cub scouts and got his arrow of light, but it was really nice and the scout leader read a list of attributes Connor has that make him a good scout.  Just a few things she said is that he is kind, loyal, a good friend, hard worker, and good example.  Since I've been in the cub scouts for over a year now Matthew knows all about the scouting program and had to help with the flag ceremony, it was so cute.  

 

These past 2 weeks the kids have been doing swim lessons...  Connor and Kadee were in Shark, the highest level of swim lessons they offer.  They both passed this level last year but wanted to do it again.  This is actually Connor's 3rd time passing this level so I told him this was his last year of swim lessons.  I told Kadee she can do it one more year, and of course Matthew and Kinlee have lots of years ahead of them.  All the kids did so well this year.  I was so impressed with Matthew.  He listened to his teacher and worked really hard and passed his level.  What a difference a year makes.  Last year he was a mess and I really didn't think he would be interested in lessons at all this year, but he certainly proved me wrong.  The Miller family had lessons the same time as us, so it was fun to see them everyday.  Kinlee and Kaydree got to be in the same class so they were very happy about that.  

On Friday and Saturday we had the Clark Family Reunion up 9 mile canyon.  As always we had lots of fun and made lots of memories.  Friday night we had dinner with individual families and were able to visit with everyone.  Saturday morning we had breakfast, played minute to win it games, made family flags, played life size jenga, and a really fun dice game called Liar's dice.  We did a lot of visiting, a lot of eating, drank a lot of homemade root beer and did a lot of laughing.  So grateful for my wonderful family and all my blessings.  My favorite part was cuddling Ashlee's baby Aubree and visiting with grandma and grandpa.  The cloth they are holding in the picture below is the family flag we made, complete with Curtis written by Derrick in Japanese.  Love these people of mine.