Pictures from Our Summer Adventure

The BIG Adventure

Well, we just got home (on Saturday) from our big summer trip. We were gone for 20 days (13 of which were just me and the kids), traveled about 2,400 miles and went to 3 different family reunions (plus some other visiting). Lots of fun, and now happy to be back home. Here's the condensed version of the trip:

Day 1: Drove to Flagstaff, got a flat tire on the trailer, but nothing too big. Took over 12 hours)
Day 2: Played at the Sorensen Family Reunion (kickball, building forts, line dancing, etc). Did a service project (clearing the property for more tent sites).

Day 3: Went to Wupatki Ruins (cool Indian dwellings)

Day 4: Left the Sorensen Reunion. Went to Mesa Temple. Sean met with a boss in Phoenix. Made it to Grandpa and Grandma Dick's and went swimming

Day 5: Swam and swam and swam
Day 6: Swam some more. Played Farkle.
Day 7: Went to church with Grandpa and Grandma Dick and took Sean to the airport (Nathan cried hysterically as he watched Sean walk away).
Day 8: Went to visit our favorite dentist (Grandpa). Caelan, Ben, Megan and I all got cleanings, and Caelan and Ben had some other little work done. Had a small car problem that was easily solved with a $.99 can of coke. Then swam.
Day 9: Last day of swimming. Played Farkle.
Day 10: Left Grandpa and Grandma Dick's at 5:30 AM. Traveled for 9ish hours to Brian Head, UT for the Grant Family Reunion. Had story time with my Grandma Grant.
Day 11: Went to Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks. BEAUTIFUL! Had a wonderful testimony meeting that night with the family. Stayed up until 4:15 AM chatting with Charity.

Day 12: Rode the Brian Head ski lift (had a small heart attack inside as all my kids rode too, but they loved it). Had a karaoke party that night where almost every person in the family participated. Caelan rocked her song, "Won't say I'm in Love" from Hercules.
Day 13: Left the Grant reunion. Had lunch at Chuck-O-Rama with Brittney and Porter and their girls and Charity and Coren and the Sorensen clan. Then drove up to Charity and Chad's that evening.
Day 14: Went to church with Charity and Chad (Nathan LOVED the nursery here - go figure). Had left over Cafe Rio salads from the reunion with Dan and Natalie and their family that night. YUM.
Day 15: Slowly lounged around in the morning. Took a quick trip to Walmart to get food for the last reunion. Drove up to Jordanelle Reservoir near Park City. Hung out on the lake. Took a ride on the boat.

Day 16: Played at the lake ALL day. Rode the boat. We all took a turn being pulled on the tube. The kids loved it. Moved our campsite up the hill. Had a family dinner and Family Home Evening that night.

Day 17: Played at the lake again. Rented and rode Wave Runners. Loads of fun. The kids really liked this. Wiped out only once with Kyra and Brooke. Ate fried burritos in the rain. Ate chocolate and graham crackers and marshmallows in our tent because it was too wet for a fire.
Day 18: Took down camp by 9:00 AM. Waited around with the Sorensen gang. Then headed to Jenny and Kelly's house in Layton.
Day 19: Spent the day at Jenny and Kelly's. The kids had all the fun playing in sprinklers, watching movies, dressing up, playing in the backyard and enjoying time with cousins. Ate pizza with Lani and hung out for a little while. Then started the journey home. I made it to Stateline where I got things ready to fall asleep in the van, but soon realized it was WAY too hot to sleep (even at 1:00 AM). So I drove for another half hour and then found a rest stop that was much more pleasant (going up that hill makes a huge difference). We all slept in the van until 6:45 the next morning.
Day 20: Finished the drive and got home at about noon. Lounged around for most of the day. So nice.

What a blast!

Keeping Busy

Summer is here. The kids are out of school. It is getting HOT. And we are just trying to keep busy. Here are some of the things we have been doing lately:
* Taking advantage of all the free activities in the summer: free movies at the theater (we've seen The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything and Monsters vs Aliens), the library summer program (we saw a Marionette show and a presentation from the Reptile House, and this week is a magic show), free miniature golf on Monday night (the goal was to hit your ball before Nathan came around and threw it off the course), and free entrance into the little's kids museum on Friday mornings


* Playing at the Sprinkler Park. So far the heat hasn't been too horrible, but it's finally here (105 degrees today), so we'll be taking advantage of this fun park a LOT more.


* Making fun critters with Play Dough


* Cooking with Caelan. Last week she made chicken enchiladas for dinner all by herself.


* We have a little quiet time after lunch when Nathan takes a nap and the other kids read, practice their letters, do some math pages, etc. Ben is actually reading easy words by himself. YAY!

This week we'll be getting ready for our BIG trip. We are going to three different family reunions, plus a little trip down to Sean's parents house and another few days with some family in Utah. Sean will be with us for the first week, and then it will be just me and the kids for the next two weeks. Should be fun.

Christmas every Monday

So, the collection of stuffed animals in our house is getting slightly ridiculous (and we don't ever buy any (unless the kids buy one at a garage sale with their own money) - we somehow just accumulate them). I go through the stash regularly to thin it out, and yet it just grows and grows...and each one is "special" to one of the kids (so the soft side in me can't just load a garbage bag full and toss them, as much as I would like to). So I came up with a new idea. We have plant shelves in all of the bedrooms, so I put all of their stuffed animals on their plant shelf. I let them choose a handful of animals each Monday that they want to play with that week. All the rest stay on the shelf until the next Monday, and then I pull out the ladder and they can choose new ones for that week (and put the others back). So, now I'm not constantly finding stuffed animals EVERYWHERE...plus the kids think it's Christmas time each Monday when they get to have new animals for that week. It's a WIN-WIN.

Happy Father's Day to Our Favorite Dads

Sean's Dad





My Dad







And Caelan, Ben, Megan and Nathan's Dad

WE LOVE YOU ALL!

Good Things to Come

I just saw this video and had to share.
I have a book that has this entire talk in it, and I have always loved it. About a year ago, the message spoke to me in a whole new way. Sean was without a job and was trying to learn a new business in CA. I was in Kingman taking care of things there (and this had been going on for a few months). We were a couple of weeks away from all moving to CA to temporarily stay with my family so we could all be back together for the summer. We were on our way home from Southern Utah where we had spent the Memorial Day weekend with Sean's family. In order to beat the horrific Hoover Dam traffic, we went through Laughlin to get home to Kingman. About 25 miles from home our car started to really heat up. We coasted down a hill right into the parking lot of a Maverick Gas Station where it died completely. Now, if you just knew all the other things that added up to this moment..... no work for 6 months, running really low on money, being apart for much of the past 4 months, not knowing what to do with our house in Kingman (considering the market), 2 other times in the past 2 months where one of our cars has stranded us for one reason or another and knowing that this problem with the van was going to be a BIG ONE plus so many uncertainties in our future. It was finally at this point where try as I might I could not keep the tears from coming. I stood there in that parking lot holding a baby with three other young kiddos wandering around me and cried. Seeing his usually-composed wife start to lose it, Sean came over and hugged me at which point we both shared a few tears together in the parking lot of the Maverick Gas Station as we waited for a kind friend from our ward to come and pick us up. I will NEVER forget that moment, those feelings...and it seemed on that day that I could hear the words of Elder Holland speaking directly to me, "Don't you quit! You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead. Some blessings come soon, some come late and some don't come until heaven. But for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come." And even though just a little over a year has past since that moment for us, I can testify that those blessings and that help has come for us. Despite the challenges we have faced, we have also recognized more blessings than we can count. His promises are SURE and His blessings DO come!

BALLOON BOY

This is what the kids did for Nathan yesterday morning when he woke up. I'm thinking he didn't really mind....