Trip to Rexburg

Borrowed the Ripsticks from the cousins and found the skate park in Rexburg. The kids were getting pretty good at it and had to take turns using the Ripstick that still had all the ball bearings. Had a great time helping each other learn.

Jaxson and I picked up donuts on our way home from an early morning trip to the skate park, LaRee had leftover pizza and we called it breakfast. This is what you get when you stay at Grandma's house. Also hit the irrigation canal to cool off after the skate park. Found lots of golf balls as a bonus and got soaking wet and cold.

Happy 11th Birthday Maggie!

Maggie turned 11 on July 24th and we had a fun filled day doing

whatever it was she wanted to do! Hit the neighborhood breakfast, then the Heritage Center, lunch at home and then swimming in the river and jumping from the rope swing. Maggie bravely swam through the very cold water with Olivia while I stayed mostly on the tube until it tipped over and dumped Jaxson, Sophie and I in the deepest spot.

We all went to the concert and fireworks at Willow Park and Maggie got to share her cupcakes and glow sticks with lots of people. She is really good at sharing and getting so grown up.

Trying to Make Ice Cream

Had this great idea to make homemade ice cream last night. Forgot that the motor burned out last time on the ice cream maker, only had 1% milk, not very much salt, nearly out of ice and ran out of sugar. Put the fixings in a two quart jar and then filled the 5 gallon bucket with the ice and last of the rock salt. Rolled it around on the trampoline, jumped and walked around for a while and then drank lumpy cold milk. We will try this again when we have the proper ingredients. Maggie didn't think it was very fun and left after about 5 minutes. Just a note of caution, the bucket full of ice hurts when it rams into your bare legs and feet.

4th of July In Blanding

We took the kids and drove to Blanding for the 4th of July. Went to the Melodrama with the cousins and had a great time trying to throw popcorn at the villan from the back row. We basically just annoyed the people in front of us.

Got in a great hike up Dry Creek and the kids loved going through the tunnel, Olivia went through 5 times helping everyone get found. Hiked out in a great thunderstorm and were soaking wet. Didn't mind the rain so much, just that soggy sandwiches are pretty low on the list of things I want to eat. But we were pretty hungry from the hike so we ate them anyway.

Did get in a lot of swimming at Dry Wash, until we got rained out both days, didn't even make it into the water after the hike it was raining so hard. But of course Blanding was nice and dry until we served dinner out on the front lawn.

Scripture Time

Our Family accepted the challenge from our Bishop to read the Book of Mormon as a family in only 80 days. We should finish the night before school starts! It takes us about thirty minutes each day to finish our assigned reading and the picture tells it all - this is how it usually ends.

Our Summer So Far

We started off the summer by having Greg and Amber stay the night that school got out for us. The kids built a fire, ate marshmallows until they couldn't eat anymore and then slept under the trampoline. They all had such a great time with the cousins and were so sad to see them head back to Nebraska. On Monday we had the Broadhead cousins come to stay two nights. Between rain storms we took a hike from 2nd Dam down to the Stokes Nature Center, then back to the car to eat cake straight out of the pan without any napkins. I think the kids thought that was the coolest idea of the summer, the entire cake disappeared and the kids were using their fingers to get the last few crumbs out of the pan.

This to me is the picture of the summer, they were all so happy and all together at one time, didn't last long, but at least I got a picture of the moment.

When We're Hiking We're Happy!

We took a group of friends and hit the trail on Memorial Day. The goal was Ephraim's grave. Made it a little over 2 miles up the trail before we had little kids ready to head back, it is 5 miles to the grave. So we will keep hiking this summer and will make another attempt on the goal later in the year. The hike was beautiful, green and we didn't lose anyone. We came back to the vehicles and pulled our watermelon out of the river! Definitely doing that again.