More Summer Fun

The summer is going by way too fast this year! Now that I've had more time at home it seems to be going by even faster. Kaycee went to Clear Creek for 5th grade camp and had a blast! She came back healthier and happier than ever! While she was gone I took the opportunity to paint my 70's style old piano. I had been wanting to do it for a while and since Kaycee was gone all week it worked out perfectly because she didn't need to practice. After looking around I decided that I wanted to make my piano really pop out in the room so I decided to paint it avocado green and then I sanded up the edges and finished it off with danish oil. I love how it turned out! I really needed some color in my front room and it was perfect!!! We have the craziest weather ever! I feel like I live in Florida or Hawaii the way it's really hot and humid and rains a little bit every day. I love the rain but could definitely do without the humidity. One family night after a huge rain storm we hiked the Y with our friends, the Earls. John and I have not hiked it in years and it was as awesome as ever! The storm and the clouds made the view even more breathtaking! Kaycee and Luke loved it and they did really well. It's not a super easy hike but not one of the kids complained. We looked it up and it said it's about 2.4 miles round trip. We hiked to the very top of the Y, to the middle and to the very bottom. It was cool!



The day after we hiked the Y I was able to go to day camp with Kaycee and the activity day girls at Camp Jeremiah. It was a lot of fun. The girls all had fun and I was amazed at how well organized it was considering it is run by boy and girl scouts. I was impressed! The girls were able to shoot slingshots, bb guns, and bow and arrows. They also made awesome bracelets, had gutter boat races, climbed rock walls, learned how to tie knots and also how to properly handle the flag. I know one of Kaycee's favorite parts was shopping at the trading post. It was a great day and I was lucky to get to spend it with Kayc!








We had a great time celebrating the 24th of July. The morning started at 7:30 am with our ward breakfast, pioneer games and bike parade. John was nice enough to take the kids over and participate. They had a lot of fun! Kaycee and I decided to be patriotic (I love the 4th and 24th of July holidays!) and we even got all matchey, matchey in our DownEast denim skirts. Then we drove down to Spanish Fork to meet up with Brooke's family for some fiesta day fun. I was amazed at all the free activities there were to do. The kids even got their faces painted! Tyler and Raliegh are so cute and funny. We had slushees at Loni's. They are famous for their yums and they were delicious! We finished the afternoon and evening at Janell's house. Earlier in the month John's dad, Eric, had a massive heart attack and had a triple bypass. It was scary and we are so glad everything went well. He was even at the barbecue! Now he just needs to learn how to follow the "take it easy" rule and he'll be doing good.:) All of the kids had fun swimming in their huge, above the ground, pool and the adults enjoyed relaxing, talking, and goofing off. We had a barbecue involving Matt's yummy mountain dew chicken. The boys spent seriously like 5+ hours getting the evening's fireworks ready. It was the most amazing fireworks show I've ever seen! Way better than the stadium of fire. The finale was incredible! Thank you Utah for legalizing some pretty awesome fireworks! I can't wait to see how they top it next year!!! And by the way - fireworks are way too hard to photograph!

Our CRAZY June!

We've known for a few months how busy our June would be. So we geared ourselves up ahead of time and I think we handled it pretty well. It started with the last days of school, Luke's baptism and Kaycee's piano recital. Then John went with his YM to scuba dive at Sand Hollow. He was tired and sunburnt by the time he got home but he had a lot of fun and very interesting experiences. John volunteered himself to come up with all the meals and do all the shopping for everyone for the whole trip. So of course that meant that I had to get involved and help him shop. It was a big job! 4 hours of grocery shopping and a couple of hours of picking up the rental van and getting everything packed and John was finally ready to go. They camped in tents and had campfires. It was really hot and there were ginormous scorpions everywhere. One of the leaders brought a black light so they glowed in the dark. John put his tent in the perfect spot. That night they found 20 scorpions around his tent! Yuck!

It was a beautiful place. The water was warm until you got past 10 feet and then it was cold and murky.

Apparently Sand Hollow is a popular spot for visitors.

On one of the days they hiked up to the top of Angels Landing in Zions Park. It is a very steep and dangerous hike. There are signs posted everywhere warning that several people had fallen and died hiking up to the top.

It was pretty crazy being in charge of all the priests at such a dangerous place.

This is it! If you look super close you can see the people hiking up.

John was smart enough to not go too close to the edge.

Some of the boys thought otherwise and liked living on the edge. CRAZY!

Beautiful country!

Nothing but a chain to keep from falling.

With John being gone it gave us the perfect opportunity to make him this awesome candy bar poster for Father's Day. He absolutely loved it and Kaycee, Luke and I felt so proud! For some reason this picture would only download sideways for the blog. Maybe it's too long or something.

John came home the Saturday before Father's Day and I left the following Monday for Heber Valley Camp to spend the week with my YW at girls camp. It was a blast! The Stake theme was LENGTHEN YOUR STRIDE.

Our ward theme was OUT OF THIS WORLD and we had fun decorating our cabin with stars, moons and lights.

We did a lot of fun stuff. Like playing Minute- to -Win it games.

Don't my eyes look so scary?

Since my parents are on a mission at HVC I was lucky enough to see them and hang out with them a few times. They even helped us out with the use of their care once. They work in the maintenance building (my mom in the office and my dad is mostly building roads and stuff) and they live in this cute, cozy, cabin,

Our sunset hike took us down by the lake to see this beautiful sight.

We got to ride in the canoes (leaders in paddleboats) and we decided to hook on to each other to make a line and then a unity circle.

Not sure what was up with our paddleboat but me and Denise ended up with some wet bum bums.

We put on a pampered palace for the girls where they were able to get their hair done (french braids and jedi braids)

And also they got manicures and pedicures with real foot soaks and everything.

We also had a ward skit night where each group got a bag of props to work with. They were hilarious to watch.

The girls were very creative.

Beware of uneven ground. Sam was pleasantly sitting one minute when the next she went down! Thank heavens she wasn't hurt.

Oh Pascal the bear!

This picture of Felicia the thief is one of my favorites.

Love these girls!

The girls thought they were pretty funny!

We had such a great experience that we totally had to write a big thank you to the stake leaders.

PJS (prayer, journal, scripture)

Lots of fun arts and crafts to do.

The weekend I got home from girls camp we went to the Lehi Parade and Rodeo and it was a good time like always. One of our favorite family traditions!

June also meant the beginning of machine pitch baseball for Luke. He is so good! I love how cute he looks in his Rangers uniform. He loves it too!

Every time he bats the helmet he has to wear cracks me up because it's like it's 10 sizes too big for him.

Almost one week to the day that I returned home from Heber Valley Camp we went back up with my side of the family to celebrate the 4th of July with all the missionary families. We had a lot of fun and I loved taking my family up to see how beautiful and fun of a place it is. My brother Cole, and his family, Melody, Hailey, Kate and Jake stayed with us a couple of nights and it was great to have them. I got kind of attached to cute baby Jake. He is the best baby ever and he's so fun to play with!

It was great because my grandma was able to come down to my house for the afternoon and evening and we were lucky to get to spend some time with her. These little nuts had a lot of fun too.

Up at HVC there is a ton of wildlife. It's worth a trip up just to see the animals. They know they are protected up there and they are not afraid of people. It's fun to see them wandering all over the place. We thought this deer was hilarious. It stayed in the shade of this truck all day long.

We had a mama moose and a baby moose come into our camp. We were careful to not get too close.

Tons of cute baby ducks too.

On Sunday we had sacrament meeting with all of the missionaries and their families at the Hinckley Pavilion. It was a testimony meeting and it was really cool to have it outside.

Kool Aid Fizz's are the best.

There are several trails all over HVC and we went on some wonderful hikes.

On the 4th of July we were able to have lake time and do 2 challenge courses. Rule number one is always safety 1st. The helmets were my personal favorite.

Challenge Course 5 is the swing that we did at girls camp and it is definetly a favorite. They harness you in, pull you up on a big cable and then you let go of the rope and swing up into mother nature. It's great!

Who's afraid?

John is too school for cool and never shows any sign of emotion - happy, fun, scared, nervous. Nothing.

We were able to ride in the canoes and paddleboats. It was great going up on missionary family weekend because the rules are a little less strict.

They even had smaller paddleboats the kids could take out on their own. You get a great leg workout.

Brooke is pregnant and poor Blake broke his collarbone so they weren't able to do any of the challenge courses. They were good cheerleaders though.

Challenge Course 3 was scarier than the first one in my opinion. I didn't think I was that scared of heights until my legs started shaking as I was climbing up the rope ladder. You climb up 40 feet in the air on the rope ladder, walk across a horizontal ladder, go around the big wooden pole and then zipline back down to the bottom. You are harnessed in so you are totally safe. You just have to trust the people helping you. The missionaries who run the courses amaze me. They are so limber.

Suprisingly Luke wanted to be the first one to go. He was really fast and did a good job. Even my 4 year old neice and cousin's daughter did it. It was amazing.

John went up super fast. Kaycee and I took our time.

Apparently we have the same concentration face. The hardest part was getting off the rope ladder onto the horizontal wooden ladder. Even my parents did it!

This will be one June I will never forget and I am grateful for all the wonderful memories. Summer please slow down.