September 5th - 11th

On Labor Day we met up at the park for brunch.  The kids loved playing pickleball.  Rylea loves playgrounds and could spend all day on them.  After that Logan and Damon got to go play with Lincoln and Sequoia and we got to get some things done around the house with just the 3 younger kiddos.  It was really nice.

Pack Meeting was on Wednesday and Logan earned his religious knot for his Duty to God, I was really proud of him.  He is such a good kid and I'm so grateful he is such a good example for his younger siblings.

Their kissing booth was a success and everyone loved it.  Tragon guessed the closest without going over and got the prize, but then Logan realized that there was someone closer who went over, so Tragon was nice enough to split the kisses with him.  It all worked out great.

We celebrated Brittyn's birthday by being invited to Pizzeria Limone.  It was fun and the kids loved their individual pizzas.  We planned a little trip to the Children's Museum for after.

Rylea still loves the postal service truck.

They just opened a new room, the dinosaur room, it was awesome.  Jaron loved playing on all the dinosaurs.  It was a blast.

Later that day while I was teaching piano, Tragon thought it would be a good idea to cut Jaron's sleeves with scissors...grrr...but Daddy saved the day by turning it into a muscle shirt, just the name alone made Jaron love the shirt even more, good thing he's just about grown out of it.  :)

This past weekend, Morgan and I got to go on our overnighter date.  We decided to stay sort of close and just go to Vegas.  We've always wanted to go to the Las Vegas Temple, so that was our first stop.  It was beautiful and a perfect way to start our getaway.  Our session was really small and there was just so much peace there, it was wonderful.

 I sure love this eternal companion of mine and can't imagine going through life with anyone but him.  He is my everything.

 We were pretty spoiled this weekend.  We went to a resort on the outskirts of Vegas, in fact, we never really went in to downtown Las Vegas at all, it was nice.  The resort was beautiful at night.  Lots of palm trees, swimming pools and walk ways.  We just strolled along and explored that night, the weather was perfect.

 They had a pretty awesome set of giant chess and checkers.  It was fun.

 This weekend was so needed.  We cuddled up and watched half of a movie before finally crashing.  It was so nice to know that we could sleep in in the morning and not have all the kids waking us up early.  :)  We did sleep in until 7:30 hahaha.  We finished the last half of our movie and then got ready to go down and kayak.  We grabbed a quite bite to eat for breakfast, then headed down to the beach, the kayaks weren't available to rent for another 45 minutes, so we went back up to the pool.  We were going to swim, but ended up just relaxing on the pool chairs talking.  It was perfect!  We went down and got our kayaks and went out on Lake Las Vegas for a little while, it was so fun.  We came back and went down the water slide and then did a little swimming.  We cleaned up and got ready for the day and to check out and then we headed to IKEA.  We wanted to get some dishes while we were here and Morgan ended up with his coveted Paong chair...still not sure how that happened, but it did.  :)  We stopped by the Red Rock Recreational Area just to check it out on our way home and then made it just in time for the BYU/Utah game.  I was able to catch up on almost all the blogging before I went to get Rylea at my parents, she wasn't feeling good, but the other boys still wanted to stay the night so we let them.

I'm so grateful to my parents for taking our kids this weekend.  I'm not sure we realized how much the two of us just needed to get away.  It felt a little like a 2nd honeymoon and was just what the dr ordered for both of us.  I love my family so much and through all our trials and challenges I'm grateful that we have each other.  We make a good team.  Until next time.....

August 29th - September 4th

The month is coming to a close and we are fast approaching Labor Day!  Wahoo.  Ty and Rachel are coming up and we are doing a dutch oven cookout with them.  The boys still love to build cities in the toy room and insist that we take pictures.

 This poor girl keeps falling asleep during the day watching her show because she's not sleeping well.  we actually had the missionaries over for dinner and asked them to give her a blessing.  She finally got over her stomach bug soon after that.

 Most of the time Jaron and Rylea love each other.  She loves to follow him around and play with him now during the day, it's really nice for mama.  :)

 We were at Grandma's house playing and Logan got his knee stuck in the bars.  It looked pretty swollen and I wasn't sure what we were going to do.  Grandma went in to get some soap, while I was working on it.  I was able to squeeze some of his skin back around the other side and his knee popped out.  He was fine after that, but he was pretty devastated when it happened.

Logan and his friend Kaden have been working on a scout booth.  They decided on a kissing booth.  They had a lot of fun putting it together.  The pack meeting isn't until next week, but they have been doing a great job being prepared....people have to come and guess how many kisses in a jar.  :)
Until next time...

August 22nd - August 28th

We decided to put the trailer to good use and head out to a short campout.  We decided on Coral Pink Sand Dunes because it was close to Kanab where my parents would be for the weekend helping with the Quick Draw shooting at the wild west roundup days there.

 The journey started off pretty well.  We were going through some dirt roads and lost cell service right at Siri says "in __ blank miles, park your car and walk to you destination"  Uhhhhh, uh-oh.  We were scared we had been on the wrong road and we would have to turn around or something.  Luckily we forged ahead and it turns out it was the right road, and it was a 45 minute short cut to get there, whew!

 The weather was perfect when we got there, the kids played around the campsite while I got the coals going for our dutch oven calzones and Morgan got all the tent gear unloaded and set up.  It was starting off to be a great campout.

 The pizzas were delicious and pretty easy to make.  We made the dough ahead of time and just brought all the ingredients to finish with us.

 All the kids ate it.  It was perfect.

 Rlyea loved playing in the sand.

 Jaron loved smashing the sand castles

 Logan and Damon loved exploring and helping with the tents.  That night was when things took a turn for the worse...well depending on who you ask.  We let the boys sleep in their own tent, at least the 3 older boys.  It started raining as we were sitting by the fire, so we all went to bed.  It rain ALL night!!  I loved it, I love the sound of rain on a tent, however, there was a leak that we didn't know about and the futon mattress got SOAKED!  Tender Mercy: we didn't have any muddy scared kids run to our tent in the middle of the night.  In the morning it was pretty chilly, but not too bad.  Tender Mercy: Damon chose cereal for breakfast so it was easy to eat in the tent together without having to cook in the rain in the morning.

 We decided to go check out the dunes before we headed to Kanab to see my parents.  We walked out on the balcony that overlooks the dunes, it was a beautiful foggy morning.  The rain had let up, but it was still a little chilly, I wanted to go back for my coat and Morgan wanted to go back to use the restroom.  Bad Luck: We ran over a nail or something and had a slow leak in the tire.  Tender Mercy: there was another nice couple that stayed to help Morgan while I watched the kids on the dunes for a little while. Bad Luck: One of the lugnuts busted and we couldn't change the tire and our air compressor emergency kit was in the van, not the truck, so our only choice was to hurry and get to Kanab before it got too low...sad that Morgan didn't get to play on the dunes this time.  Tender Mercy: we made it to Kanab without any incident and found a good place where they fixed the tire, they couldn't get the lug nut off either, so he just fixed the hole while the tire was still on.  The nice lady at the grocery store gave us free popcorn and while we were waiting we got to read a chapter of Fablehaven.

 We got to see my parents at the quick draw.  It made my moms day.  We even did a little shooting ourselves...more on that later.  :)

 A little bit out of order, but when I fall behind on the blog, I just want to hurry and catch up, I'll fix it in the book later.  :)  Family Home Evening Logan picked soccer for our activity.

 Rylea was the cheerleader/goalie.

 Damon was "helping" Jaron put his laundry away.

 What the diapers?!

 Rylea the cheeser.

 Ah, yes, the dough for the camping calzones.  It doubled way too fast even in the freezer and totally spilled all over.  We just punched it down and stuck it back in the freezer and it made it just fine.  :)

 At the campsite again.

 Those kids had almost endless energy at the dunes, of course until it was time to hike back, then suddenly they were all exhausted.

 Me and Morgan got to have a quick draw contest.

 I beat him.  Haha, just barely though.  It was really fun.  I want to do some more quick draw shooting.

 Logan, Damon, and Tragon all got to do a target shoot.  They did awesome.

 The evening that we came back we unloaded everything and went to the ward party.  It was really fun, and it was dinner that I didn't have to make.  Bad Luck: the sprinklers came on and got all the tents wet again...now we have to wait until Sunday to put them away.  Tender Mercy: Church is at 2:30 so there will be plenty of time.

Overall, the kids had a blast.  I was cranky before we left, but cheerful and optimistic when we got home, Morgan was happy and patient before we left, but not so happy when we were coming home.  Ultimately though, it was for the kids and they had a lot of fun, even if Morgan thinks it was the worst camping trip he's ever been on.  :)  I love my family and I'm looking forward to more adventures with them.  Sometimes, it's all those things that go wrong that help you remember all the things that went right on the trip.  Until next time....