Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Weekend we headed up to Logan to spend time with the boys. It was great fun.  Devan took us on a lot of walks.  We ate great food, we shopped, played games with their friends, hiked, enjoyed a competitive soccer tournament on the new turf field on campus and Cody gave Dallen a motorcycle riding lesson.  They wore us out and we were happy to collapse in our beds when we made it back home Monday night.  Logan is such a gorgeous city - we will have to visit again soon.

Camron's Patriotic 5th Grade Program

Camron did a great job at his 5th grade Patriotic Program.  I loved hearing all the old songs that we used to sing.  He is growing up so fast, it makes me sad!  6th grade - here he comes.

Last Soccer Game this year

Isn't he HANDSOME!

Dallen is headed out the door to his last high school soccer game this year. They get to dress up nice on the day of each game.  I think he always looks so handsome!  It was a great year for him.  He didn't have hardly any injuries besides terrible shin splints. YEAH.

Dallen just purchased a full size metal soccer goal for the back yard.  Here's to him perfecting his corner shots!

Another fun trip to the Cabin

Dallen, Colton, Sierra, Devan and Camron

It was a warm gorgeous day!

We all walked out to the main gravel road and found this perfect cornice. 

Camron got a head start on the belly sliding contest.

A little after 10pm Friday night, we met up with Devan, cousin Colton and Sierra at the top of Fairview Canyon. They wanted to cross-country ski into the cabin.  It was a gorgeous warm, still night with a beautiful full moon lighting their way.  Dallen and Jory took Camron and I into the cabin on the snowmobiles and then headed back out to watch over the skiers. They made good time and arrived at the cabin a little after 1am. After chatting we all headed to bed around 2am.  We thought everyone would sleep in late but everyone was up and going by 8am (some didn't know what time it was and were quite upset to come down, look at the clock and groan that it was so early).  We enjoyed a good breakfast and played a few games before we decided to take a walk to wake ourselves back up.  It was so warm outside that the boys went in their shorts.  After all the fun they found they were wishing they had worn long pants to protect themselves from the icy snow.  We walked out to the main gravel road and then a little further off the side where the boys found a great cornice. They jumped, did back flips, slid on their bums and then belly slid down off of it.  It was all great fun.  We were feeling bad we didn't bring a sled but the snow was so icy we really didn't need one.  After heading back to the cabin for lunch the kids geared back up and started skiing back out around 2:30pm.  Camron joined them for his first try at cross-country skiing the last mile or so.  He picked it up fast and did really well keeping up with everyone.  We had a great time - hopefully everyone got a REALLY good night sleep to make up for the lack of sleep the night before!!

New Family Member

I was so thrilled to be able to babysit little Reese today.  She was adorable, talking with me and smiling.  Jenny always dresses her soooo cute! I'm so grateful that MIRACLES happened so that Jenny, Stephen and Ashley could adopt this cute, little bundle. Welcome to our crazy, fun family little Reese! We love you so much already.

Steps to becoming a 12 year old!

Heeeee'sss Back

Hip, hip, horray!!! Devan and Sierra stopped in last night to visit for a second on their way back to Logan. I squealed with delight when I saw Devan all clean shaven again (or mostly, scruffy the way I like it)!!! A roommate of Devan's left for Africa in January and challenged Devan to not shave until he got home in April. Devan always loves a challenge and began his trek to look like a mountain man. On our vacation Devan kept eating his mustache and was getting tired of it. He said two days after he got home he had had enough and shaved it off. Karson doesn't get home until this week so he will just have to trust the pictures. Devan showed us some hillarious in between pictures last night. He didn't just shave it all off at one time he had some fun with it along the way. He said he would post the pictures, I hope he does. So nice to have my handsome son back!

Saturday Project

For the last several years I've been asking for help trimming an out of control bush down. No one wanted to do it because the bush was too big and hard to get to the middle of to trim. Jory just always said we just needed to chop it down. Today while Jory and Camron were gone on a campout I offered Dallen $30 if he would help me. His idea of helping was telling me what I wanted couldn't be done - UGGGHHH. He just wanted to chop it all down as well. OKAY - ugly is ugly with an out-of-control bush or having nothing at all. We got out the saws and began hacking it down. It took awhile but now all we have are stumps. Next on my list will be trying to find a fabulous landscaper with great ideas of how to fill it back in. Any ideas on what we should do????

Hey Ya'll - last week, me and all my boys packed up and flew to visit the Butterfield's in Mississippi. We had a GREAT vacation. Because it is so expensive to fly into Memphis we flew into Little Rock Arkansas which is about a 2 1/2 hour drive to BreeAnn's - that is under normal circumstances. We grabbed our rental car which they upgraded us to a mini-van and hit the road. We drove along for about 20 miles and then we saw a sign that said the freeway was going to be closed up ahead and for us to take alternate routes. WELL there were no off ramps to take alternate routes!!!! We were stuck with ten million semi-trucks. At one point we clocked going 1 mile in 30 minutes. We were certainly grateful for the mini-van so we could all stretch out and get some sleep - all except Cody our fearless driver! After 3 hours of being on the road and knowing that we should have already arrived at BreeAnn's we had only gone 40 miles. After we were shoved off the freeway we moved along pretty quick and arrived around 11:30. We missed seeing Benson before he went to bed so when he woke up in the morning and saw people laying everywhere he got a big smile on his face. It was wonderful to see him and smoother him in kisses! We quickly learned two things about Benson: 1) he is always happy and 2) he NEVER stops eating. He will be anyone's friend as long as they feed him. He was always afraid of Devan with all his facial hair but if Devan had food he would let him hold him. On our first day we took a road trip down to Tunica, Mississippi. It was a little chilly but the sun came out and we enjoyed the outing. Afterwards we headed up to Memphis to Bret's school. The boys enjoyed playing some pool in the Rec building and then we headed off to find the dog races. Cody was excited for this one activity and the rest of us were trying to be supportive. We were riding in two cars and both of us became lost headed different ways. After some tense driving in sketchy places we arrived. We were about the only white people there plus we had a baby with us which made us really stand out!!! We watched a few races and it was quite interesting. Cody won a little money and then we decided to get while the going was good.

On our second day we toured downtown Memphis, rode the trolley cars, ate at a famous rib restaurant, took a paddle boat "turr" and then ate at Gus's another great restaurant known for their fried chicken. Poor Camron had a horrible headache this day and wasn't too perky. Fortunately, Cody had some Excedrin migraine pills with him that we gave to Camron. We were glad he started feeling better after awhile.

On Friday we hit the road again and headed to Nashville. We stopped at a plantation outside of Nashville and took another "turr" (tour). It was a beautiful old home with a lot of history. Of course we had to stop and eat some more BBQ at Corky's on our way into our hotel. Ya'll it was GOOD STUFF! On Saturday we had to switch out our rental car. Cody asked what nice cars they had and what the price would be to upgrade. I'm so cheap that I kept saying NO - the nice rental guy was on Cody's side and upgraded us to a sports car for free. Cody couldn't stop smiling. As we rode back to meet up with the other car load waiting for us at a restaurant Cody saw them sitting in the window and took advantage of the situation. He put the car in neutral and gunned the engine several times. They didn't know who it was and when they figured out it was us they couldn't believe it. Bret had to come out and put up the hood to check out the engine. That is about as close as he got to it because he was stuck driving the women (BreeAnn and I) and children around while the other guys had all the fun in the sports car! The rest of the day we spent visiting the Parathenon by Vanderbilt University, then we headed into downtown Nashville. It was a great day to visit because there was a party and fabulous music playing in every building. Later we headed over to the Opry Land Hotel. Oh my goodness it is beyond huge and has beautiful gardens, restaurants, waterfalls, and dancing water in the middle courtyards with the rooms several stories high all around it. If only we had money to stay there. It turned out to be a great day.

On Sunday we had a quiet morning and ate a great breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Afterwards we jumped in the cars again and headed up to visit some caves outside of Bowling Green Kentucky. It was a beautiful ride. These are underground caves which they say weave underground for about 400 miles. CRAZY. There are many "turrs" to take depending on what you want to see. Our "turr" entered into a man made opening and dropped down about 250 feet. The staircase was very skinny and there were about 100 people in our "turr" group, which with low ceilings and people piled in front of you and in back of you -- it was extremely claustrophobic in there!! At one point all the BBQ food was taking its tole on one of the boys and they let a silent but deadly stinker go. In such tight confines we were all stuck struggling to breathe and then we got the giggle fits. Now as a mother that has birthed 6 children I am unable to laugh and walk at the same time without bladder problems. I was holding up the whole line trying to contain my laughter and then my kids just started pushing me from the back. Devan was at the back of our group and said he heard the people behind us mention that there must be sulphur in the cave to make it smell so bad. That bad sulphur smell kept following us for several days even when we were out of the cave! After our interesting "turr" we enjoyed a nice Easter message and spiritual activity that BreeAnn had prepared. It was a wonderful day to be all together but we especially missed Jory. It just wasn't the same without him with us!! I'm so grateful that I get to be with these amazing people for all of eternity. I love my kids! Everyone got along so well and we had such a great time together. It was a wonderful vacation. On Monday we decided that we better try out the swimming pool before we went home. We had an afternoon flight so we enjoyed playing with Benson one last time. It was hard to say good-bye to the Butterfield's. We are counting the days until they move back home this summer! Love you all every day! Thanks for a great vacation! Where should we go next???

We had a fun soccer weekend. Dallen played a great game Friday night at the high school and then we went out to dinner. Saturday we woke up bright and early and headed over to the REAL soccer stadium. With our "Pass of all passes" we could get free tickets to the game which was being played at 4pm. We arrived at the stadium ticket line around 7:30am (the ticket booths open at 10am). Dallen was sad that we were about number 50 in line on the west side and there were more in line on the east side of the stadium. It didn't take long for the line to keep growing. Fortunately it wasn't too cold and we enjoyed a nice visit with those around us. Right before the ticket lines opened Devan and his friend Sierra showed up from Logan to help us pick out tickets. This time around they didn't let you choose where to sit they just handed you tickets. They turned out to be great seats. We headed off to grab some fabulous breakfast at Village Inn and then went home to play games and do some chores. The day went by too quickly before it was time to head back to the stadium. They had a record setting crowd which made it really fun and the game was good. When it was over we came back home and made a yummy dinner and played another game. Love Family!!!

Another trip into the cabin

Had another fun day trip into the cabin last Saturday. The weather was GORGEOUS. Unfortunately our sunscreen didn't work as well as we wanted and now some of us look pretty funny. Camron built a fire and we roasted up some hot dogs for lunch. It was warmer outside than inside the cabin.