Our Staycation

This year we decided to hang around Utah for our vacation. We started off the week by going to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House. Oh, it's so pretty. I can't believe that as soon as we leave our house, we can see 4 temples within a 10 minute drive. It's amazing!





Lindsay took this picture. I think she did a great job!


Jenny and Carter came into town for a few days so after the temple we went swimming at the Legacy Center. The kids had a lot of fun together.


Harry and Nathan



Lindsay, Kaelynne and Marcus




Gavin, Dan and Zane




Riley and Heidi




Jenny and Carter (Kaelynne and Lindsay were trying to get in the picture!)




Andrew, Missy and Spencer








I LOVE this picture of Nathan!




On Tuesday, July 14th, we met up at Temple Square with my mom, sisters and all our kids. Karen found a a little treasure hunt online of different things around the temple square area. There pictures of them and the kids had to try and find them, for example, a star on the Salt Lake Temple or the doorknob to the Beehive House. It was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed being with their cousins. Thanks Karen for finding that for us!


Of course, little Brooklyn slept the whole time.










All the grandkids except, Noah, Molly and Mattison.



Karen and Mom




Missy and Laurel




Jenny, Angela, Amy and Heidi



Dan and the kids slept out in the backyard in a tent on Tuesday night. They thought it was the coolest thing. It's so nice to be able to do small and simple things and the kids think it's the greatest thing.







On Wednesday, we headed up to Park City, for our annual vacation with Dan's family. We all stayed in a condo just below the Olympic Park. It was really nice. Dan's aunt Chris, and cousins Megan, Angela, Natalie, Nat's hubby, Talon and their little boy, Payson, came for a couple days too.


The Condo we all stayed in




Our own private hot tub on the deck.


On Thursday, we went to Jordanelle. It was a really nice day.











Natalie, Payson, Angela, Megan and Chris




We played lots of card games.

On Friday, we went over to the Olympic Park. It was cool to see lots of memorabilia of the 2002 Winter Olympics that were here in Utah. It brought a lot of fond memories. We also watched people training down the slopes into a pool. It was cool to watch.




Josh and Trevor




Char and Chris




Talon, Natalie and Payson




Pa and Ma




Brie and Mike




Poor Brooklyn looks headless!




Dan and Lindsay on the Alpine Slide. Dan also took Zane down and I took Gavin down but we didn't get pictures. It was really fun!




Swimming at the condo







Travis and Cassie were able to come up for the last night. Glad you two made it! It was such a fun week! We made a lot of good memories! Thanks everyone!

One month old!!!

Today Brooklyn is one month old! It has flown by way too fast! She smiled at me for the first time today! It was so sweet. She got a little fussy about a week ago but we think it's from gas. But the today she's been fine again. We did try Soy formula last night just to see if that made a difference and within 10 minutes she threw it ALL up ALL over me and her. So NO on the Soy. We'll just stick with the Similac RS where spitting up is very rare. She's still sleeping awesome at night. Her hair is getting longer on the top of her head and we hope she doesn't lose any in the back. The blanket she's laying on was made my sister in law, Cassie and her mom. Cassie said it was her first attempt at making a blanket and burp cloths and she did a great job!

Happy 4th of July!!!!

I LOVE the 4th July!!! I have many fond memories of this time of year and want our kids to love it too. We had a busy weekend, but it was so much fun!

I told the kids if they smiled really good for the other pictures we could do a GOOFY picture at the end. This is what we got!

For MANY years, my family has always gone to the Riverton Town Days Parade held on the 3rd of July. The weather was perfect this year and the kids enjoyed sitting with their cousins trying to get as much candy as possible from the floats.

Brooklyn was sweet as could be. I love her little rolls in her arms.

Chad, Missy and Andrew

Spencer and Marcus

Kelly, Memphis, Kaelynne and Lindsay

Heidi, Jeff and Riley

Me, Dan and Brooklyn

Laurel and Sam

Dad and Mom

Karen, Harry, Christian and Nathan

Melissa and Damien

Michael (Sam's nephew), Jarom, Teron, Jonah and Zane

Mary, Gavin and Bentley


On the morning of the 4th, we drove down to Great-Grandma Della and Great-Grandma Ted's with the rest of Dan's family. It was their first time meeting Brooklyn.

The kids had a fun time going 4-wheeling with Dan, Grandpa Kevin, Mike, Brie and Chris.

In the afternoon, we headed to Laurel and Sam's for a BBQ and swimming. Then we went over to Rosamond Elementary where we always have a perfect view of the Riverton fireworks.

Dan and our brother in laws have started a tradition over the past few years of doing a Slip n' Slide. They usually buy a big piece of plastic to use as their slide but didn't get a chance this year so they just used the kids' slide. They still had a blast!

Teron had so much fun squirting everyone with the hose.

Here's our little Patriotic girls. Mary just kept staring at Brooklyn and Brooklyn kept hitting Mary in the face. It was so cute!

I am so grateful for this free country and for the MANY people who died to make this freedom possible. I'm grateful for a Grandpa who loved and understood our great Constitution and conveyed that through his writings. He is one of the reasons I have such a love for this Holiday. God Bless America!