Birthday Week

This week started with an EPIC hike.  We went up Grove Creek Canyon, across the beautiful green meadows you can see on Mt Timp and then down Battle Creek for a total of 7 miles!  The best part of the hike was the great company we were with- Billy, Kris, Truman and Cynthia Hiatt!  We actually crashed their party and it was GREAT!  There is such beauty up there you can't even imagine it's there.  Thanks for letting us join you!!!

Gorgeous Green-ness!

Truman enjoying lunch!  Truman ALWAYS enjoys any eating activity.

Truman had the BEST way to travel.  Billy was a burro hauling Truman the whole way.


That night we were in for quite the Utah treat.  July 4th here is like nothing we've ever heard or seen before.  It all started just before dark.  Our neighbors began shooting off legit fireworks.  Then ALL AROUND US , 360 degrees, literal war broke out.  At least that's what it sounded like!  We headed to the top of the zip line hill and just watched for over an hour as fireworks blasted into the air.  It was spectacular!!!!!  Ya gotta be here for the 4th to believe it!

Next day was my birthday and what is the very best birthday present for someone who is turning 12? (5+7=12)...
A BIKE!!!!!

I've already ridden over 25 miles.  The trail system here is amazing!  I love being 12!!!!

And in other news.  We got to go fishing this week so for birthday week Dad had catfish to eat!  We had a great drive up American Fork Canyon, which is one of the prettiest place on earth and....

My hummingbird friends have become regular visitors. And....

We had our first harvest from our garden (snow peas, beans, yellow squash) and it was AWESOME!

Best part of the week---realizing in just over a week Charina, Tyler and Joey will be here, quickly followed by ALL OF YOU!!!!!!!

GGOOOOAAALLLLL!

After working at it for 150 days I have met my goal!  I have lost 20 lbs and weigh in at 138!  At least that's what it was when these pics were taken.  I'm now down another 1.5 lbs and will lose another 1.5 and then will work hard to figure out how to maintain it all.  So this blog may be self-serving, but what the heck, good job me!

Eliana!!!

I have ALWAYS loved girl's camp!  I still do but now for different reasons than before.  I love Girl's camp cause it means I get a whole week of bonding with grandkids!!  Dad and I LOVED our time in Tennessee.  The weather was tempered and gorgeous, Andy was a great host and best of all Eliana is the cutest little, curly headed, brown eyed imp you ever want to meet.  She is so much fun.  Here's what I learned about Eliana- She talks A LOT!!!  She loves to dance.  She loves to go on stroller rides.  She loves to sing.  She loves to play with her tea set.  She's great at counting and is super smart. She has a great sense of humor.  She knows exactly how her Mama does things and makes sure you do too.  Her Daddy is her hero.  She loves Jesus and temples.  She is a pure pleasure to hang out with!  I can't wait till she gets to play with all her cousins and we all get to be together!  Tennessee is so pretty but it's dang far away!

Now the bad news is, for some reason my computer quit recognizing my phone so I only have a few pics I took with my camera to share.  Dang technology!  But I hope you enjoy the cuteness of Eliana!

ANOTHER great week!

We got to go to Monroe this week and we hit a quintuple!!

1.  CharlyAnn had a Tball game.  She is an athlete! She wacks that ball and is always ready to field the ball.  No dandelion picking for this kid!

2.  On an adjoining field (good for the spectators) Ram had a coach pitch game.  Ram had two solid hits.  He played first base one inning and we were mesmerized by each base runner that would arrive and immediately start to punch Ram, and Ram would punch back....Coach pitch, player hit?? I think they need to clarify what they hit.

3.  Brooke and Viana had a spectacular show on the outdoor stage in the city park.  So Monrovian!  The girls sang their hearts out for their Broadway Review and totally rocked it.

4.  And Emery was as cute and talkative and inquisitive as ever.

5.  CJ planted beautiful flowers in her flower boxes and Eric was rocking the last days of school.

Before the show....

We couldn't resist playing with the camera.

Viana and Brooke were right up front!

Eric and Emery enjoying the show and the great weather!

oh, those eyes!

On the way home we detoured down to Goblin Valley State Park so we could scope it out for when Bill takes his Varsity scouts down there for their High Adventure in a few weeks.  It's really interesting and will be very hot!

Some Goblins

Then later in the week Krista and Truman came over and we hiked up Dry Creek Canyon.  We made it up to the meadow.  It was so beautiful!

Then at the end of the week I went and babysat the Linde kids so Jamie and LaDon could make a temple run.  We went park hopping and had a blast.  This is new equipment at an old park.  Trey and I were the last ones to ever play on the old park.  This new one has some of the craziest, fandangled equipment you ever want to see.  Perfect for American Ninja Warriors!

We ended the week with a BBQ and shooting at the Hiatts so it was ANOTHER great week!

Here fishy, fishy

I'm pretty sure this is the greatest place to live.  We found this house 1 year ago!  Can you believe it?

  But after the events of this past Friday, it is now one of the BEST places we ever lived.  We already knew reason #1, because we get to see grandkids WAY more often than living in Colorado.  And now reason #2, it's offical, THERE ARE FISH HERE AND YOU CAN CATCH THEM!!!

Krista said she'd take all the kids fishing and she did and she showed us how!  We caught 12 fish!!!

Dans,Als, GrandBill, Trey and Ally's friend Sadie marvel at the fish Trey hauled in!

Krista, GrandBill and Ally

It was such a beautiful day up the canyon (This is Vivian Park for those who know Utah).  Truman loved chilling in the shade and every kid got to catch a fish!  We took the 9 biggest home and had a delish fish dinner.  Thanks Kris!

Going fishing was my reward for working hard all week and getting our garden planted.  We'll see what we get...the quails have been checking it out so I'm a little worried they're snatching my seeds!

Dad was in California for 3 days so I got to do outside work and inside reading of "The Help"  Such a good book.

And just a cute pic of Als and the box she made while her parents were riding 50 miles on their bikes.  Proof of reason #1 why it's the Greatest Place to Live!

A trip to Monroe!

So I guess I'll start this week with news at the homefront before moving on to our Monroe adventures.

I'm pretty sure all of you met my pumpkin.  It sat on our spare white kitchen table from mid October until last weekend.  Pretty amazing, huh?

It was just a plain ol pumpkin but on the day it was retired it received a face so that the BB gun shooters which were it's ultimate demise could have something to aim for.  

My pumpkin lived to it's full potential and then some.  May we all be so lucky!

We headed down to Monroe this week.  We did some babysitting and some game playing and some kid entertaining and it was all a BLAST!!!

AND we got to go to CharlyAnn's dance recital.  She was a star!

She even had a special choreographed dance number with her very own Daddy (and MeeMaw since I had to fill in at the dress rehearsal, so fun!)

I asked her to pose for a picture

And man did she oblige, she started busting out the poses!

What a cutie!

I'll end with Truman, cause who can resist this cuteness!

Spring Time!

Last weekend when the Carters were here and the Linde kids were hanging with us we headed over to Thanksgiving Point's tulip festival.  Sister Griggs had told me of the splendor of the tulips and she was not wrong.  They were spectacular, all 250,000 of them!  It was a great trip!

We spent the rest of the week having fun with the Linde kiddos while Jamie and LaDon were trotting around Europe.  The kids were great inspite of several days of being couped inside because of all our spring rain (which is a good thing!)  We did manage field trips to see KungFu Panda 3 at our 25cent theater, our cute Highland library, the Curisoity Museum, Lehi Fun Center (Als and Dans made it to the top of the climbing wall twice!, and a day hanging at the utopia called Krista and Billy's house.  What's better than a creek to throw rocks in, a climbing wall and a trail being blazed by Krista herself up their mountain.  

It was a great week!  But once again I know,..parenting is best left for the young!