Aug 2011 Camping trip

We went camping with some friends up one of the many beautiful canyons here.  The girls love to camp, but it is so much work for just an over night stay that I would prefer to stay a few nights.  That is exactly what we did.  It was so much fun!

Amber turned into some creature... she was super funny and was easily entertained.

 We went on several little hikes.  One of which Lindsey fell and really hurt her leg.  It was scraped up really ugly looking.  Poor thing.  She was pretty brave still though.

 Samantha had an addition to the flash lights and laterns.  She kept playing with them even when it was day time.

 Samantha had a little friend her very own size and age.... and they have the same hair too.  When we get together with this same family, I always mix the two girls up because they are alike in many ways.

 These are the earrings that one of the cute girls made me for my birthday.  Wasn't that so nice.  My birthday was the first day I think we got there.  It just so happened, they matched my shirt pErFeCtLy!  And this is the only way Samantha would nap, which wasn't very often while we camped.

 Amber is entertaining herself again, she found dirt, that was enough.  She even moved her camp chair to this little opening of trees.

 Lindsey was entertained too, her and a friend tried to make fire by using the magnifying glass.  They got it smoking a little.

 I think this was called the Devil's kitchen.  It was a hike, but it was super short.  I do love the red rocks though.

 Here is another part of the rock formations.

 One night Robert's parents came up to visit and have dinner with us.  It was fun to have them come visit.  They couldn't stay the night.  They looked and looked for a little camp trailer so they could camp with us, but it never really worked out.  Then they had a scheduling conflict.

 We drove and looked around a little bit up around the canyon.  It was beautiful, but you won't catch me looking too far over the edge or getting close even. 

 Gorgeous!!  I didn't have to get any closer to figure that out. 

 Emily was enjoying the scenery too.

 There was only a few boys compared to all the girls, but these young teenager was a very fun part of it all.  He was so good with the girls, was helpful, and the girls thought he was SOOO funny!  He was funny.  It was great to spend time with his family too. 

 Everyone is waiting around for some yummy dinner and desert too, dutch oven style.  YUM!

 Lindsey and her friend are getting smoked out... 

When we packed up from camp on our way home, we stopped to go fishing.  We saw a little deer across the way coming down for a drink.

 Lauren thought it was pretty fun to fish. 

 Lindsey was having a good time too. 

 We spotted a little chipmunk too.  He was looking for left over food.

 Samantha and Amber were okay with fishing, but since there was just one pole, and it was too big for them, they just played in the dirt.  That was fun enough.

 Emily was getting the hang of fishing too. 

 Here's a whole line up of fisherman, I don't remember anyone catching anything.  We did find a dead fish, but that one didn't really count.  Robert also accidently threw his phone in the water, he thought it was his knife.  It survived okay, luckily.

 One last time to fish before we go home.  Robert and Lindsey are trying out a different place, but still no luck. 

It was time to go home.  It was a fun camping trip, a good way to end the summer before school started back up.  The girls always ask when we can go camping again.

Getting ready for Ragnar

Okay so the first two pictures have nothing to do with the Ragnar, but they were sunsets from the beginning of July 2011.  This is looking out the front of our house.  So cool huh!  It looked so much better in person.

 For Ragnar it isn't uncommon to see crazy costumes and crazy decorated cars.  Robert was getting ready for his Ragnar race and he was looking for some good costume ideas.  He was looking for wigs and all that.  The girls were helping him with the wigs he found. 

 Robert got some cool pink sunglasses to go with the pink wig.  Then one of the girls tried out the crazy wild black hair.  She felt like a rock star!  I think Robert found some fun glasses to go with this one too. 

 Amber looks a little funny with this hat and wig combo.  You gotta love her poses.

After all that digging in the costume box, finding matching glasses at the store....  Robert forgot all about bringing it, so he didn't even use them.  Too bad, it was good stuff!  Maybe some other race time.

WA Ragnar July 2011

For the last few years Robert has been a part of the WA Ragnar team, Running on Fumes.  It is an Ultra team which means they have 6 people instead of 12 and they run basically 2x the amount.  The first year it was a huge challenge since one of the guys didn't ever show up so they were now a 5 man team running what 12 people typically run.  Most the years he enjoys it and looks forward to doing it again. 

This is at the starting line.  This is the team all ready to go.  Robert this year was runner #1, so he started the race from the start line. 

 Even though he looks all ready to go and all, he was super nervous, as he is with most of the start of his races.  I am not sure what he is ever nervous about... he always does better then he thinks he will do. 

 It kind of looks low key at the starting line compared to the starting line in Utah, so that is what I hear.  I haven't ever really been to the starting line of the one in Utah so I couldn't tell you for sure. 

He is quite a running machine! 

It's always kind of bitter sweet when he comes up for the race.  It means several things, a night usually alone with him, which is a nice little get away after a long vacation and a long time being gone/away from my hubby.  It also means that our time is just about over being in Washington with family which makes me sad and kind of lonely.  I usually also stay up North with my sisiter and brother until the race is over which is always fun.  We usually get together with our other sister that lives near by too. 

When the Ragnar is over, I have a few more days until we normally head back home.  Since we moved to the West side of the lake, it never felt like I was coming home.  This year it did feel like I was coming home.  It only took nearly 3 years to feel like it is home.  That is a nice feeling, even if I am leaving my "home" with the family I grew up with, I take my own little family back to our own home. 

Road trip from July

As we made our way up to my parents house, we stopped at a few little places along the way.  One place that was so needed was of couse a place to sleep.  It is hard having 5 kids and 2 adults all squished into one room. Some places have bigger rooms that are more of a suite with a sofa/sleeper or sometimes ever a little bedroom with an extra bed  Those are the places that work best, but they are also more expensive too.  Due to our destination and the coastal route we took, we didn't find any places like that.  There as lots of bed sharing and of course with that fighting of who got to sleep where, and with whom they got to share that space with.  All in all, it went okay and everyone was pretty tired.  Here is Amber and Emily zonked out one morning. 

 
 One morning as we left our motel, we went to a little beach.  When we first got there is was totally overcast, you couldn't even see the ocean.  As we were there, it cleared up a bit and turned out beautiful!  Wish we had time to hang out a bit longer.  We had so many more miles to travel until we got to our next destination.

This is what it looked like when we left the beach area.  What a difference huh.

The little girls enjoyed playing in the sand and didn't need much more than that.  I think they could have stayed there all day with the sand and water. 

The older girls were more into exploring things. The tide was out and they found seveal rocks that had some fun creatures on them.  The starfish were everywhere!  I had never witnessed starfish in real life that wasn't at an aquarium type place.  So fun!

The girls (and their mom) had to be pulled away when it was time to go.  It was too amazing to just look at them and the difference in textures, colors, and size of all the starfish and other marine things on the rocks.

 Off and down the road we went.  We found a dinosaur museum that my family had told me about.  We stopped and checked it out.  There was tons of fun things to do as we traveled along Hwy 101. 

 The musuem was fun but when it was over, I thought, that was it?  We just spent that much money and it is over?  OUCH!  It sure makes a difference when you have 5 kids and they are $8-10 a child and then you have 2 at the adult price.  It was still fun, and the girls really enjoyed it.

 By all the little dinos they had more information about them and also what their size ratio was compared to the real life size.   Emily was loving the mossy trees and all the plants.  She just had to get a picture of this one below.

 See how cool they were.  They did make great pictures and the kids definetly enjoyed it.

 Then down the road we went.  We also had to stop at the sea lion caves.  It is hard to see, but those are all sea lions and their babies down there by the water. 

 We then traveled down to the cave.  It was kind of fun, Robert and I visited here on our honeymoon back in 1999.  Not much has changed that I can remember.  Although when I first came, I was kind of focused on Robert and not the things in or around the cave.  I do remember how loud it was and kind of smelly too.  The sea lions were mostly outside  There wasn't too many in the cave.

 It was SOOO windy!  Check out the girls' hair.  Isn't that funny!  The girls thought it was pretty neat.  They also got to pick out a little souvinoir from the gift shop.  Samantha picked a little ceramic piggy bank, which has since broken.

Then off we went to other adventures that I hope to tell you more about soon.  Maybe by next July I will have had time to tell you all about last July!  Stay tuned, there is still more to come.... much more!!

Amber going to the Jazz game

Robert likes to go see the Utah Jazz play.  I am not a huge fan of watching sports much so it isn't something we do together much.  I don't really mind going, but I would prefer to stay home and do something like, well maybe catch up on my blog. 

Anyway.... the Jazz had a special for buy one ticket and you get a free ticket to another select game they already selected.  Robert decided it would be fun to go to a game with one of the girls, then take another girl to the other one.  Then he decided that maybe taking 2 girls at a time would be better, then everyone could go but little Sam. 

Tonight was the game.  It was Emily and Amber's turn to go with Robert.  Amber has never been to a Jazz game, or any basketball game for that matter.  When Robert asked her if she wanted to go to a Jazz game she said, "Jazz, that's basketball right?  Well I'll think about it."  Then today she decided she was going to go.  It is a good thing, because we were going to push her into it anyway. 

I was fixing her hair, which she wanted curly again, and this was her conversation.

Me: Are you excited for the game?
Amber: Yeah, will it be loud?
Me: It could be loud at times.  I think you are getting some pizza too.
Amber: Will I be watching Dad play basketball or will I get to play with him?
Me: Dad is not playing basketball, you are both watching the Jazz play.
Amber: Oh, so like we are watching TV then?
Me: No, it won't be on TV, you will watch it from your seat.  You may be on TV. 
Amber: Oh. 

She was cracking me up.  They still aren't home, but I am sure they will be soon, and I am sure she had a good time.  Spending time with Dad is always fun for them. 

This is how her air turned out... she was in love with it.  I must say, it looked pretty cute.  Emily said she looked like Shirley Temple.  I say double bonus, because it should stay in good for church tomorrow too!  Yay!

July pictures part 1, California

Okay, so this is the short version of our July events in parts, with pictures.  The very beginning of July we took off for our almost month long adventures, starting toward California for the funeral of a beloved Uncle.  Occasionally we would give the girls little suckers or something.  Samantha fell asleep with hers.  Poor baby!

 The girls also spotted a dirt devil, and they thought the salf flats were pretty cool too.  I am not sure if they have ever driven this way at all. 

 The rooms were pretty basic and small, but we seemed to make it all work okay.  As soon as we got to our rooms, my parents had already been there but were currently out visiting family.  The girls were excited to see them when they returned.  Amber loved playing "guess who" with Grandma. 

Kelly seemed to get the girls all wound up, teasing them and playing with them.  But most of the time it was in my parents room, so I didn't mind much.  I figured it was their problem. 

 One afternoon, Robert took our girls and went to a movie with them.  I went over to Aunt Phyllis' to visit with family there.  There wasn't much for my little ones to do there, nor was there any other little kids there.  It was so great for him to take them so I could visit and spend time with everyone.  I wouldn't have gone other wise.  Tracy and I rode with my parents, and you can see behind us, Lorri and the rest of the group.

One of my Aunt's who wasn't able to make it to the funeral, sent little cars for the boys (my dad's brothers) to race.  This is them trying to get ready to race their cars...  those boys are so funny!  I am not sure you could ever go wrong spending the afternoon with them!

Aunt Phyllis, Wayne's wife, was the official judge.  The boys some how cheated, so she declared a re-race.  Of course those cheating that won, didn't want to redo it.  So they lined up again to race again. 

 Then the next group was able to race, then the winner of those groups raced each other.  What a crack up it was!  We had such a fun time. 

As we left Aunt Phyllis' Lorri's car was loaded down with probably 3 too many people, but we all made it safe and sound.  It was a bit of a wet ride from the water fight that broke out in the car, but I think it all seemed to be okay.  Nothing like a good inside car wash. 

After we got back home, we walked across the street to eat at some little fast food place.  Amber and Samantha took full advantage of Aunts and Uncles that maybe would give them a ride.

The place we stayed at had a pool, but you had to have the employees unlock it before we could use it.   As Robert and I were heading up to Washington, I got this picture of my sister all ready to go swimming with the gang.  We left before anyone else did, since we had a long drive ahead of us, oh yeah and 5 more kids than anyone else was traveling with.

Most everyone left on Sunday, as did we.  My parents and Kelly stayed behind for the graveside services.   My sisters took this picture below on their way back home. 

T

We headed for Washington, the long, scenic way, up the coast.  (That will be part 2 coming soon)