Sunday, July 13, 2008

My Marshmallow Kids

Brandon is my very silly boy. Glowsticks and all!!

Emily is my marshmallow girl. She could eat them everyday.


Silly as can be still lovin the marshmallows.


This is the marshmallow lover of them all. You have to love the delay of a digital camera sometimes. It can catch the funniest shots sometimes.

We arrive at the reunion

After our much needed stretch at the dinosaur museum we finally arrived in Orem, UT for the family reunion. Our reunion lasted a total of 5 days. The kids had a lot of fun hanging out with their cousins, and the adults had a blast competing against each other at Guitar Hero!! We got to go to Bridal Veil Falls. Spencer and I renamed it Procreation Falls due to all the large amounts of families there. Afterwards we had a picnic at a near by park and Brandon caught his first fish. He was so proud. Emily went fishing as well but only nibbles for her. We had a luau, a western BBQ, a birthday party for all of us since we are really together for any ones birthdays, and our first Olympics (I rocked of course). The kids got to do some fun crafts, and play a lot outside. We went to Orem Fest and saw some fireworks. We ate great food and just had fun being with each other. Thanks to Mike and Allison for hosting us all. Now if we could only catch up on all of our lost sleep.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

The vacation continues

So we packed up and left in the morning of fourth day of our adventure and headed for Orem, UT for my side of the families family reunion. On our way up we stopped at the Price, UT Dinosaur Museum. This was a great place to stop and stretch our legs. The kids thought that it was so cool to see all of the dinosaur bones. They even had little activity areas for the kids to do some hands on stuff. They had an area where the kids could excavate dinosaur bones. This kept them occupied for a while. They had an aquarium tank that had turtles and an alligator in it to represent living prehistoric animals. They had puzzles where you could create your own dinosaur, and the exhibit were fabulous. It was definitely worth the stop. We even tried to lighten our load by trying to feed the kids to the dinosaurs :0) We all had a lot of fun.

Monday, July 7, 2008

The Cliff Dwellers



Our next stop was Mesa Verde in Colorado. Four Corners wasn't to far from Mesa Verde so we went straight there after visiting Four Corners. We ended up staying 2 nights there which made it a little more relaxing. We all got showers (yeah) and had some really good meals. Exploring all the cliff dwellings was really fun too. We went to a couple of visitor centers as well. The kids were really good and even asked questions. I think they learned a lot. There were areas were we had to climb up and down ladders to gain access to the dwellings. Aubrey being the climber that she is did really great. There was even a 10 foot ladder that we all had to scale. We were a little worried that Aubrey might have trouble because they require everyone to have two hands on the ladder at all times. She had no problem with them at all, and she wasn't even two yet at the time. Everyone was very impressed. We were able to see deer and other wild life from our camp site, and the kids thought that was great. All in all it was a great choice to stay there. We all had fun and were able to relax a little. Next stop Price UT and the Dinosaur Museum.


Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Gettin' "Cheekie" in Four States

Our next stop on our trip was the Four Corners Monument. By this time deodorant and make up was on ration. We definitely were not looking or smelling our best. Making sure we didn't get too close to others, we all had a good time. Everyone got to sit in all four states at once and they all thought that was cool. Of course Spencer has to pull out his GPS and let all of us know that the monument was about 1000 feet or yards (I can't remember) off. Whatever, It was still fun. We got to look at all the Indian shops and stretch our legs. Next stop Mesa Verde, CO, and a shower.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

What a whirlwind of a trip !

So we planned on leaving the 8th of June on our 10 day summer vacation. By the time all was done we almost didn't get to leave on the 8th and our ten days extended into 22 days. As we started to get things ready to go Spencer had to take care of some of the new plants in the back yard so they wouldn't die while we were gone. He had to run some new soaker hose off the main sprinkler line. As he was searching for it he ended up hitting and that's were all our troubles began. No water for a day due to the break and all preparations for the trip at a stand still. Finally the morning of the 8th pipe was repaired and things back in motion, but we were way behind. Finally get on the road at 3:45 (we wanted to leave at about 8:00) and we start the drive. We drove 2700 miles through out our whole trip, and yes we are airing out the car as we speak. We had a DVD player installed, that was a life saver. Wireless head phones are great. The only down fall to them is that the kids feel they need to talk really loud when they are on their ears, and Aubrey just can't seem to figure out how they work yet. Our first stop was to be Big Lake in the White Mountains of Arizona. On the way there we were almost plastered by three very large buck elk (it was dark by this time) , but Spencer's defensive driving training really paid off. After our hearts stop beating out of our chests and breathing back to normal we finally arrive. Spencer and I set the tent up in about 2 minutes (it was really cold) we had all cooked and eaten in about 5 minutes (did I mention it was cold?), then all settled in for a cold night in the tent. We all got up early to try to catch some fish, but not a single bite was to be had. I think our wards scout troop that went up a week earlier caught them all, and the kids were bored in about 2 seconds. So we went back to the camp site to have breakfast, explore, play some games, and pack up to head on up to Four Corners and Mesa Verde as our next stop/ adventure.

Friday, June 20, 2008

The never ending Vacation

Ok I know that it has been forever since I put up a post, but I have been gone for forever. I am still not a t home and I won't be for another week or so, so don't expect anything exciting for a little while. I can't put my pictures up yet because I don't have my usb cable with me. I know you are all in suspence and can't wait, but you're just going tot have to be patient. We miss our bed and all of our friends. See you all soon.