4th of July Weekend Fun.....

Well, I certainly hope all of you enjoyed your 4th of July weekend as much as we did. This is fast becoming a favorite holiday for me....there is something about BBQ's with friends and family, fireworks, summer heat, and remembering why we celebrate this holiday that makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. In the famous words of Lee Greenwood "I'm Proud to be an American"..... I love this picture of my little Evan. It was taken 7-4-05 in Las Vegas and has become my yearly '4th' picture.

We started our weekend on Friday because Denver had the day off. He woke up early and cleaned out the garage which was a wonderful way to start the day! It looks great.... I left him to do the hard work by himself and headed off for my personal training session with Surba. It was a good one for sure. My legs are still hurting from it (in a good way). After this we decided it was time to teach our boys how to ride their bikes....

Yes, they are 8 years old and havent learned but you know now days kids prefer scooters and skateboards. I didnt see any reason to pressure them.... it only took an hour and they were riding like pro's. Now they are finding any excuse at all to ride the bike. It was a lot of fun and very hot. I think Evan had a little heatstroke afterward as he laid down and took a long nap, complaining of a stomache ache.

Even mom and dad participated and hopped on a mountain bike for a turn around the parking lot. I got brave and took the bike down a set of stairs...it brought back lots of memories from a time where I was a little crazy on a mountain bike...stairs, mountains, slick rock...and all without a helmet. Ah, youth.

Addison decided to dress herself on this morning....she came out in a hoodie and snow boots. Very en vogue! Her new thing is to "pose" for pictures...she likes to lay down and put her chin in her hand. Its really hilarious. She is going to start dance lessons next month and I cant wait to see how this goes!

Saturday, we got up reeeaaaallly early to head over to our church for the annual pancake breakfast. Nothing like free food cooked by someone else! Its always a good time and nice to visit with people outside of the stuffy confines of church meetings. The kids always love an excuse to run around the church grounds without the parents getting after them. I had to stay and help wash dishes so we didnt get home until almost noon. Also, Ian was recruited to play football during the breakfast. I have actually contemplated registering him for this for a year or so (I know...crazy).... Last year he expressed interest so I looked into it but decided against for 2 reasons; Cost and the fact that Ian would be "X'd" because of his size. I have seen the signs around the neighborhood for this new season and again, thought about it but just shrugged it off. Turns out the Gremiln coach is in our ward (church) and his son, who happens to be friends with Ian is on the team also. He took one look at Ian and came right on over to our table to "recruit" him for the team. I think we may go ahead and let him try it out. Considering Ian knows nothing about football and the fact that they will practice 4 days a week, Im not sure exactly how much he will like it....but it could be fun. I think it will be good for him to be a bit more active. Video games have become a little too important lately....

Later that evening we headed over to the Fowles for a BBQ. We had hamburgers, corn on the cob, chips/salsa, watermelon and fruit pizza for dessert. It was so good...especially after a week of only protein and veggies for me and Denver. Although I lost 3 pounds this week, I may have put it all back on yesterday! We really enjoyed hanging out with them and are very sad that they will be moving back East in August. They have 3 boys all the same ages as each of our children.....what a fun family that we will miss a lot! We set off a few little fireworks for the kids and then headed down to Sugarhouse Park for the "big show"..... this is always a great firework show and compeltely free. Unfortunately, due to the countries lovely economic situation, the budget was cut and this was the last year that the park will put on the fireworks. We are so dissapointed...... In our hurry to get to the show, I forgot the camera. I hate it when I do that.

Today we have relaxed and enjoyed just laying around. I cant believe we are already halfway through the Summer....time flies! Here is a slideshow of our busy weekend! Hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July weekend

Welcome July....I think.....

I cannot believe it is July already! The time is flying by. This is good for some things and not so good for others. We have a busy July but not with anything really fun. Lots of Doctor appointments....appointments for school stuff...and thats about it. The weather is hot but we are about to get more rain which will be nice. I enjoy rain in the summer when it is HOT outside. The one good thing about Utah is that it can be 95 degrees during the day but as soon as the sun starts setting, it cools off nicely. On Monday my good friend Linda made the trek up to SLC from Provo to spend a day at the park with us. It was a good time and although it was a little hot, the kids really had fun together. Here are some pics from the day...Linda has 4 boys and her oldest is about to enter the 5th grade! I can remember the day he was born....time has truely flown by.

Discovered Treasures.....

You know how exciting it is when you discover money in a purse that you havent used in a long time...or in the dryer....? Well, I made a discovery not too long ago but it wasnt money, it was better. It was a roll of undeveloped film. I havent used a 'film' camera in a while so I couldnt imagine what I might find when I had it developed. Today I found out and here are the little gems I discovered.....

Addie kept saying....."where me? where me? " ... she couldnt understand why she wasnt in any of the pictures. Evan was only 2 and Ian was 4 in these pics! So much fun....

Exciting News for Vanessa...

Two things that I am so very excited about....

1. I have enrolled to sing with We Also Sing again...this is the choir that I sang with in the Tabernacle last year. We get to sing this year on the night that they light Temple Square with all the Christmas lights, which also means we get to sing Christmas music this year!! I can hardly wait until September to start singing again.

2. I have been officially admitted to the University of Utah for school this Fall. This is scary and exciting at the same time....I have to have an orientation first and then I can register for my classes!

Just wanted to share my news with everyone....have a GREAT day!

Our Fathers Day Weekend.....

OK, I didn't get a tribute in time for Fathers Day so I will just a few things here. First of all Denver is a wonderful father to our children. He loves them so much and does everything he can for them. I am thankful for the love and devotion that he shows to them and for putting them first.

Second, my own dad.....I love him so much and wish that we could live closer to him. He is always there to offer support and advice and he is a wonderful Grandpa to my kids, love you Dad. Last, but certainly not least is my father in law Don who is missed every day. This man loved everything about family and was happiest when everyone was around him. He has left a big hole in our hearts and we look forward to seeing him again one day.

Now, for Fathers Day this year Denver's wish was to go fishing in Idaho. He wanted to go back to a private pond that he had fished at earlier this year. We got permission and that was that. We left Saturday morning and traveled 3 hours to Twin Falls, Idaho. The pond was another 20 minutes or so outside of Twin Falls in a little town called Hagerman. The whole drive up there it rained and rained and I thought for sure we were going to have to wait to fish on Sunday. However, once we got to the pond it had stopped and we didn't get rained on! What we did do was catch a whole lotta fish! I had forgotten how much fun it is to actually catch fish! The boys had so much fun. This was their first experience catching their own fish and they were beside themselves.....All 3 of the boys were a little timid at first with touching the fish or holding them. By the end of the day Alec was unhooking his own fish like a pro. Ian and Evan....still a little timid but did agree to at least touch the fish! We fished for about 3 hours and probably caught about 50 fish between us all.

We finally left and headed back to Twin Falls to check into our hotel and grab lunch. I have to say that my experience with Idaho up until this weekend had been limited to Preston, Idaho and the quick drive thru we made in college on our way to Jackson Hole. I must say I have gained a new appreciation for this state. It is absolutely beautiful. We stopped at the Snake River Gorge visitor center and took some great pictures. We even were able to witness 3 men "base jump" off of the Perrine bridge that crosses the gorge. Scary stuff but very cool....I got video of it that I posted at the bottom of the post. After the gorge, we made our way to Shoshone Falls.....the "Niagara Falls of the West". Amazingly beautiful...pictures don't do it justice! As we were coming into Twin Falls, I noticed a huge white church in the distance. I told Denver to look at it because it almost looked like an LDS Temple....by accident, on the way back from the falls, we stumbled upon the building and lo and behold, it was indeed an LDS Temple. Who knew!? I didn't realize they had one in Twin Falls. The grounds were closed for maintenance unfortunately so I just took a picture of the outside front. It was really pretty.

We also realized why they call it Twin Falls, everywhere we looked there were waterfalls coming out of the walls of the gorge. It was so beautiful.....

We went back to the hotel so the kids could swim. Actually all of us swam despite the chilly water temperature. It seems to me that Idaho ought to have heated pools....I'm just sayin. After dinner we called it a day and slept, rather uncomfortably in our queen sized hotel bed. I have come to really appreciate my comfy California king sized bed!! Sunday we checked out and were supposed to go on home but decided to head back to the pond for a little more fishing. It was so much fun and this time we kept about 15 fish....we caught another 50 fish and ended up staying a lot longer than planned. If a huge windy storm had not blown in, we might just still be there! It was a really fun weekend and I would love to go back and see more. I think Denver really enjoyed his Fathers Day weekend and the boys have certainly gained a new love for fishing...... Hope you all had a wonderful Fathers Day too! Here is our slideshow of pictures and below that are 2 videos to watch!!

Here is Evan catching his first fish of the day......





Here is video of one of the crazy jumpers!!!

Weekend Update....

Ok, I know Fathers Day has passed with no post but I am working on it. We had a pretty full weekend and I tool A LOT of pictures! I will be working on the post with the slideshow all day today....stay tuned.