One Crazy Busy Week

We have had a great week with family and friends. It has been busy but fun. Here are some pictures of some of the events. Carson at the Bees game. It went 12 innings and then we stayed for the fireworks after. We ended up getting home at 1:00 am

Here is 1/3 of the gang that was there. I won one of the nickel rounds, it was a small one thanks to Sara just winning right before me.

Here we are at Cherry Hills. We went with lots of cousins and our other "cousins" we had a lot of fun. All of the kids love the water.

Here is Natalee and Matt on the ride called Cardiac this one is Natalee's favorite ride.

Here is Isaac and Ryan he loved going around the lazy river with only the help of his floaties.

Carson's favorite was the lazy river, I am not sure I can count how many times he went around it.

Here we are at the Granite open house. We got to walk through my old High School that is officially closed down now. It was fun to show the kids and it sure took me back.

Here the kids are at the Freedom Festival watching the fireworks.

The kids had a great time waiting for the fireworks.

We had lots of friends and family with us so the kids stayed busy.

Somehow during this week we also fit in 3 swimming lessons, tumbling, watching our friends 3 kids, a drive in movie, scouts, Amazing Race with the youth, activity days and a sleep over with the cousins. Thanks again Mike & Madeline for taking on our kids too!!!! We have had a great time and we are getting ready for the Colorado family reunion next week. I am begining to wonder if summer will kill me?

Tuacahn Trip

We just got back from St George and we had an awesome time. We love to get away and have family time together. We love it when someone takes a picture of all four of us. This is us at what the kids call the St George Narrows. They love to go up there and go hiking. We spent some time chasing after lizards there.

This is Natalee jump roping with Annie before the show. The rope was going so fast that you can't even see it. But you can see that Natalee got some air.

This is Carson's frog friend that he found. It was just too cute that we had to take a picture with it.

This is the family on the steps of the Tuacahn theater. The kids loved walking on the edge of the waterfall.

Here are the kids in front of the sign. This is one of my favorite theaters of all time. I think we might have to do this every year from now on. We saw Annie and it was great. Even Carson stayed up the whole time even though we only got done at 11:30 p.m.

This is near one of our favorite restaurant's to go to in St George. We love to go to the Pizza Factory for those delicious bread stick twists. Oh and the chocolate chips cookies there are one of my favorites also.

Here is Carson with his metal friend. These were really cool pieces of art and the kids had fun climbing on them.

This is our hotel room. I have to give a shout out to Price Line for getting us a screaming deal. This was one of the newest and nicest hotel rooms we have stayed in. If you haven't tried Price Line this is my second shot at it and it has not disappointed me yet.

OK so I did what as a kid I said I would never do. I took a detour and took the kids to Cove Fort. A historical church sight. I hated when my parents made us do stuff like that, but I am finding more and more that it is fun to torture your kids like that.

But the kids had a great time and I am going on Trek this year so how could I not stop at a place like that. Oh by the way THANKS Dad and Mom for making us do crazy stuff like that when we were growing up.

Park City Trip

WARNING MANY PICTURES TO FOLLOW!!! We took a mini trip to Park City last weekend and had a great time. We stayed at the Marriott Mountain Side resort right on the mountain. There were so many activities to do we ran out of time for everything else. This is Natalee and Carson in front of the Baja Cantina where we ate the first night we were there. The kids love Mexican Food.

As you can see the kids are getting good at their photo skills at least enough to be able to post a picture that they took. This is right next to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory that was closed the whole time that we were there. (Major Bummer)

So we settled for shakes at Burger King. This is Natalee with the straw that they call the BK Pipe, this thing was humongous.

Carson and I dressed up in the Maze club, this is a place that they have all kinds of activities for the kids. Our kids loved it.

This is Natalee diving right next to a sign that says NO DIVING. But she is getting very good at it.

Here are my cute kids in the hot tub. They were kind of mad that there were only 5 of them. As kids we were grateful if there was a grungy pool to swim in.

They loved playing all the fun games at the resort.

Here is the life size Jenga game that Carson won. He has a certificate that calls him the Jenga Master. I think he was pretty proud of that title.

Matt played some pool with the kids, they had a great time trying to beat him.

Here is Natalee making a bracelet during the beading time.

They were also playing some Guitar Hero on the big screen.

When it wasn't Carson's turn on Guitar Hero they had 2 X Box 360's to keep him busy. We had a great time. We just love to get away for any amount of time.

My 4 states in 7 days trip.

Ok so I always put these in wrong and they go from the end to the beginning, but I am not going to fix it. So here is my trip from the end to the start. We are in Omaha at the Zoo. It was a really amazing zoo and there was no way that we were getting through even half of it in one day. Isaac enjoyed the big ball with water.

This was in the rain forest enclosure. The kids couldn't help but look at the animals instead of the camera.

Here is Isaac with the gorilla, they had many places were you were right next to the animals.

Isaac loved throwing rocks into the river. This is at one of the parks in Iowa. We went on lots of walks to some neat parks and lakes.

This is Maddie in the field of dandelions. She didn't like the grass on her legs so she would not look up.

Here is my brother Ryan and his cute family. He took me on a tour of his school and we got to see the simulated labs. It is a really nice University.

This was before we got on the paddle boat, Maddie is smiling because she doesn't know whats coming.

We got on this paddle boat and I am not going to lie it took us awhile to get it going. Ryan had to hand us the kids so he could paddle with all his might. When Sara and I paddled it pushed the kids up and down. That was definitely a once in a life time experience. Mainly because none of us would do it again.

This is at my brother Gavin's house. This was the last night and he made us Chocolate Souffle. He is a awesome cook. We had a great time and we are grateful that they let us crash their life for a few days.

Here are my bunk mates at the Hotel. They are way cute and they did a great job all together.

Here is my sister in law Krystal with the two girls that would be twins. These two girls had a great time together. It was really fun to watch them interact.

This is the only time during the 5 day period that I saw my Mom without a kid in her hands so I had to take a picture. Grandma was a real trooper she always had at least one Grand kid in her hands at all times.

This is Katherine the whole reason for our trip. We had to go and see her. She was so cute and a very good baby considering the craziness going on around her. And there you have my trip a little bit backwards but there it is.

Happy Late Easter

As you all can tell there is a theme to my lateness on Holidays. I try I really do but I never get them on here till much later. Here are the kids after the egg hunt. They are starting to get a little old for this one but we make them do it anyway. I think it is their job to humor us.

They do still love to find their baskets, because there is usually more than just candy in those.

They looked really cute in their new Easter clothes. We love the fact that it actually looked like Spring on this day. I hope the warm weather wants to stick around for awhile now.

We Love You Grandma!

I had the great opportunity to be with my Grandma when she passed away last night. It was one of the most spiritual experiences I have had. She was a wonderful woman without one enemy in the world. She was kind and gracious and taught me a lot. She will be missed by all that knew her. I am so glad that my kids had this long with her in this life. Heaven can only be better with her there. I love you Grandma.

Pay It Forward

The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a handmade gift/treat from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well. Before you leave your comment, write up a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going (or be lazy and copy and paste like I did). Then come back, let me know you're going to play and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift!Yeah, for homemade things!