Turning 34

Nathan's birthday was August 3rd. The day before his birthday, he decided he wanted to take our raft back to Provo Canyon for another run down Provo River. First, we stopped at Walgreen's so I could run in to get some sunscreen. When I got back in the car, all of the kids were jumping out of their seats with excitement. They had seen a deer across the street in a parking lot. We drove over to get a better look. Sure enough, there were two deer fawns. They looked just like Bambi! Very cute. We left them to graze in the business owner's landscaping and headed to Provo. Once again, I left the camera behind to save it from getting wet. It would have come in handy, though. As we were drifting down the river, Samantha suddenly announced, "I think there's something in those bushes! Oh, wait, no there's not." Then Nathan looks closer and says, "Yes there is!" There was a MOOSE standing on the bank of the river getting a drink. She looked up and watched us slowly pass by. All we could do was smile and wave. She was only a couple of yards from us. It was sooooo cool. After the moose was out of sight, we remembered that we had our cell phones in our pockets! We were so stunned that we finally saw a moose (still not a bull moose - darn it!), we missed the photo opportunity! All in all, it was a fun day filled with water and wildlife. The next day was Nathan's birthday, and since it was Sunday, we celebrated quietly at home. He requested homemade chocolate cake. Happy Birthday Nay!

Young Chefs

Samantha and Gillian have taken an interest in cooking, especially Samantha. When I'm making dinner, she usually does most of the chopping and dicing, as well as making sauces. She follows recipes really well. Recently, she's made homemade BBQ sauce (she saw Rachael Ray do it) and a pesto in the blender. Here she is applying a cilantro rub to a roast. We cooked it and then thinly sliced it for sandwiches to take to the river the next day.

And here's Gilly helping with Cashew Chicken!

It sure is nice getting some help in the kitchen - and they're learning a new skill!

Summer Vacation

Well, it's taken me weeks, but here are our vacation pics! There were 500 total pictures, so I had to learn how to make slideshows out of them, so that they would be easier to view. What a pain! So, in mid-July, we spent three nights in Yellowstone and two nights in the Teton National Forest (just south of Yellowstone). We got to Yellowstone by driving through Idaho. I knew that Aunt Pam had recently moved to Idaho, I just wasn't sure what city. I gave her a call and found out that she lived just outside of Idaho Falls, and we were going to pass through there within an hour! We stopped by and she had a wonderful lunch prepared for us - she's fast! It was good to see her. Yellowstone and the Tetons are beautiful, with lots of wildlife and natural wonders. The kids got a little tired of all of the driving - all Henry ever said was, "I want to go back to the campsite!" The other thing he constantly said was, "I'm hungry." - except for when it was time to eat breakfast...or lunch...or dinner. We saw lots of impressive waterfalls, geysers and hot springs. We also saw plenty of elk and bison. What we were dying to get a glimpse of was a moose, or rather, a bull moose. We met dozens of people who had seen and photographed moose, but we never got so lucky. We spent hours at a certain popular lookout point as the sun set, and finally saw a girl moose out in the distance, which was cool, but still a little disappointing. Overall, we had fun and really enjoyed the gorgeous scenery.

The Perfect Rain

Saturday evening, we got some much needed rain. It was the kind of rain where the clouds are gray, the air is crisp and clean, the rain is lightly falling, but the sun is still shining. It was awesome. To top it off, we got a double rainbow at the end.

Katelyn, Brian and Cody Visit!

Well, they came for a visit after we returned from Yellowstone, but I still haven't felt like sorting though the 500 pictures we took - that blog post will have to wait! I did, however, figure out how to upload and post video from our camcorder, so I've added video to a few of our past posts. This next video is my favorite: I'm sure Katelyn has related the story of how they surprised our kids with a visit. Kate, Brian and Cody sneaked into the house and hid in the girls' room. I told them I had a surprise for them in their room. Katelyn accidentally set her cell phone on the dresser, so Samantha thought that we had finally given her a cell phone! Watch:

Too funny! The next day we went to Provo Canyon. We took our new raft and Katelyn, Brian and Cody rented tubes and we floated down the river. There was just enough rapids to excite the kids, but not scare them. The weather was perfect and the canyon was beautiful. We only have a few pics, because none of us wanted to bring our cameras on the water!

Cody kissin' his tube.

After our run down the river, we had a picnic lunch by Bridalveil Falls.

When we got back, we were completed wiped out, so we rested until dinnertime. We went to Texas Roadhouse at 6:00 pm and didn't get home until 9:30! Retarded!

On Sunday, after church, we packed up some chicken and headed to Millcreek Canyon for a BBQ. We weren't prepared for all the picnic areas being full! It took us an hour to find a picnic table that also had a grill for our chicken. But soon enough, our tummies were full and we enjoyed a game of Chickenfoot and made s'mores over a fire.

We kind of planned on going to Park City, but we discovered that the Snowbird Ski Resort in the canyon by our house also had an alpine slide - and it was 15 minutes away! So we spent the next day in Little Cottonwood Canyon (3 canyons in 3 days - only in Utah!)

What's Cody doing? I think Katelyn's wondering the same thing.

We went down the slide a few times and the adults did the zipline.

I personally thought it was most fun to go down the slide with Henry. The whole way down he yelled, "Yeeeaaahhh! All right! Faster!"

Samantha was killing us - she rode the brakes all the way down the slide! We told her it was more fun to go fast.

Finally, Cody had enough and took her down with him. One ride with Cody cured her slowness and she picked up the pace a little bit!

Last, we rode the aerial tram to the top of the mountain. Cold!

When we got home from Snowbird, our day still wasn't over. We went iceblocking on a hill right by our house.

When it was dark, we came home and did what Cody was waiting for all weekend - we lit over $100 worth of fireworks! It was quite the show!

Thanks for coming guys! We had a blast!