Summer Fun

It was a warm day here in our neighborhood. When the kidlets were done with their chores, reading and lunch they put on their bathing suits and headed to our pool.
They were having such a great time together. Belle was jumping into the pool repeatedly. Zack was giving Katie and Becky rides on their back. They even had sword fights using the broken noodles.

Daisy even seemed to be enjoying the day outside. She did her usual running around the pool and occasionally jumping up to get a better look at the kids inside. When she either I got too hot or bored, she would wander over to the sprinkler and cool

herself off.

And this is what mommy does as the kids play in the pool. I love my time sitting on the deck, listening to the kids play and getting caught up on magazine reading and the latest bookclub selection.

I think this is the kids favorite part of swimming. They LOVE laying out on the HOT concrete. I think they are pretty cute laying there, basking in the sun.

Annual Friends Camping Trip

This was the 5th year that we went on the camping trip with our friends. Originally it started with the Duves. Then we added the Nighs to the mix. And this year we convinced the Rhees to also join in on our fun.

This year we went to Lost Creek campground in the Uintahs. Steve, the kids and I arrived around noon on Friday and began setting up our camp site. Soon after the Nighs and the Rhees rolled in. Unfortunately the Duves were unable to join us due to a scheduling conflict, but we all had an enjoyable evening all the same.

The next morning after breakfast, we decided to take a hike up to the top of Bald Mountain. We were unable to make it up to the top due to snow blockage...YES...snow block!!! But from as high as we got, there was some pretty awesome views. We could even see the lake we were camped next to.


With such awesome views it was a great time to take some family photos and some individual shots of the kids and myself.



The kids got so hot from the hiking that they changed into their bathing suits and went down to the lake. As warm as the air felt...once you got into the water you realized that until a few weeks ago the water that filled the lake had been snow.

I brought down my camp chair and book and tried to read as the kids played in the water. But finally gave up on reading and took pictures of everyone enjoying themselves.


Some people took naps in the warm sun. Other played in the COLD water. And the children enjoyed paddling the canoe that Steve had brought and the raft that the Rhees provided.



By far one of the more popular activities was fishing from the shore. There were not many fish caught, but it was fun for all to just cast the line out. I even took Steve rod and gave a try at fishing.


We began to get ready for dinner. The menu consisted of hamburgers, hot dogs, fruit salad, potato salad, and pasta salad. There is a little bit of chaos as the food prep gets started, but it is so much fun to be together with friends and enjoying each others company.


Once dinner was all cooked up Sandra, Brecken and Kaitlyn brought out their guitars and led us through a sing-a-long. We sang "Hey Jude", "Country Roads", "Edelweiss", "I Am A Child of God" and many others. My favorite part was watching Katie and Becky singing "Grandma's Feather Bed" which they had learned this year in school.


What would camping be without smores?
I have to admit I roasted a few marshmallows myself, but left out the chocolate and graham crackers. In my opinion the gathering around the camp fire and roasting marshmallows completes the whole camping experience.





Before we finished packing up our camps the last day, Sandra let the kids use her water guns. One last fun activity before come home to reality

Golfing

The kids and I have been at my parent's house for the last few days.

Saturday the kids got to have some fun and went to the "DESERT WAVE POOL" in Price. The weather was perfect. It was warm, but partially cloudy. So Mom, Pop and I did not bake in the sun while the kids frolicked in the water.

Yesterday we went to church and then Katie spent the afternoon getting a sewing lesson from Grandma Sansevero. And when the lesson was all done, she had made a cute pillow.

Today was my day to have some fun. Mom, Pop and I got up and headed toMILLSITE GOLF COURSE . I have never golfed anywhere that didn't have cute buildings that you putt the ball into or windmill to have to maneuver around. So this was pretty exciting. Mom and Pop have been golfing for some years now and were pretty intimidating with their bag full of clubs. Pop bought me a pink driving glove. I think anything is fun if you can have pink accessories to go along with it. And then mom had pink balls for me to use too.

It took a while for me to get use to handling the golf clubs. Pop gave me some pointers, which I tried to implement. I just could not get all the rules I learned from this episode of I LOVE LUCY out of my head.

After a few holes mom entrusted me with the driving of the golf cart. There were not many other people out golfing, so I did not have to worry about accidentally running anyone over. It was a fun morning and a great way to spend some time with my folks.

STADIUM of FIRE

A few months ago Belle's dance teacher informed us that her dance team had been asked to perform (with 1000 other dancers) at the STADIUM OF FIRE in Provo for the Fourth of July. Soon after that it was announced that Miley Cyrus was the main performer at the event and the families of the dancer would be able to purchase tickets before they were released to the general public. Steve and I decided, it would be an incredible experience for Belle to perform at such a large venue, but also neat for the rest of the kids to go to the concert.

So, every Tuesday in June Belle spent 2 hours learning the 8 minute dance and we purchased 5 tickets for the event.

We had a quick Bar-B-Que Friday afternoon before packing up the van and driving, for the 3rd time in 3 days, to Provo. Belle needed to be there a bit early so, we got there around 4:00 pm and spent the afternoon "tail gating" in the parking lot. I brought along the strawberry shortcake I had made for us to eat while we were there and Steve made sure we brought along the camping table and chairs to make our stay more comfortable.

The kids played Gameboys and Steve and I read our books. It was actually a nice way to spend the afternoon together as a family.

About 6:00 pm I walked Belle over to the stadium where she would be meeting up with the rest of the dancers. We were early enough that we could go down to the field and just take all the decorations. Belle was pretty excited. As we looked at the large stage that Miley Cyrus wold be performing on she looked at me and said, "THIS IS SOOOOO COOL!!!"

We found some of the girls from her dance team. I took a couple of pictures and turned around and walked away. As I left, all I could think about was just how cool it was that she was getting to have this kind of an experience. So many times I have seen performances where there are a bunch of dancers and thought, ....how do people get chosen to do that... and there is my daughter about to perform in front of thousands of people.

At 8:10 pm the event kicked of with 5 skydivers landing in the stadium and bringing along the flags the represent the 4 branches of the military the 5th skydiver had a flag for the POWs. That was pretty darn awesome to watch them glide in so gracefully.

Then Glenn Beck, who was the MC for the evening, discussed what the colors of the american flag represented: RED-courage, WHITE-purity, & BLUE-loyalty. As he did banners were draped over the tops of the audience withe words written on them. Once all three colors had moved down, from the top of the bleachers to the ground level, a large flag was extended that was half the length of the football field. We then stood and said the Pledge of Allegiance.
It was then that fighter jets flew over us in formation. The kids that that was so cool and LOUD!!

Then the moment that our family had been waiting for...the STADIUM of FIRE DANCERS.

It took a couple of minutes, but I was able to spot Belle in the huge crowd.


I was so extremely proud of her. I actually teared up watch the girls dance. I know she was in a group of a thousand girls, but to me she was a star. They all did such an incredible job. The long hours of work had really paid off.
Following the dancing performance came BLUE MAN GROUP . I had never been very interested in seeing them live, but they were quite entertaining and the kids even enjoyed it.



It took a few minutes for Miley Cyrus to begin her portion of the concert. Many of tweens in the audience began to chat her name to hopefully bring her out to join us. She finally made it out. She was a mediocre performer. I think for my own little girls they were disappointed that all she dis was sing songs from her new CD. They were hoping she would do some of her Hannah Montana songs. They did enjoy the few songs that they knew, but a couple of times I looked over at them and they seemed less than impressed.




The evening ended with a pretty cool fireworks show. They were so close to us!! And beautiful. There was some cool music that played in the background. I am not usually impressed by fireworks. I actually kind avoid going out and watching them, but I thought these were pretty cool.
It took us a while and a lot of patience to get out of Provo. The traffic was horrendous!! Before we made it to the freeway, Steve looked in the backseat and found our "little star" fast asleep.