Boys Monthly Letters

The boys have posted their monthly letters to their blogs. Just click on their pictures to the right ->

Donut Falls

Our Saturday adventure today was a hike up Donut Falls.

Kyle RAN the entire way UP and DOWN. That kid can hike!!

A Wonderful Weekend at the Cabin!

We had such a wonderful weekend at the cabin! Grandpa Clark and Grandma Chris came up and spent the weekend with us and it was so much fun!

Aunt Kimberly was up at her cabin and her daughter Diana and her three kids were there as well this weekend and so the kids loved playing with their cousins. Kimberly set up a "golf course" for the kids to play and they loved it. We discovered that Eric has a really really great golf swing, even though he was swinging righty!

We roasted some "mush-mellows" as Eric calls them. Kyle loved getting to do it by himself!

Dave took the boys fishing which is something that we don't do much of. The boys were in HEAVEN!! Well the two older boys that is. Brandon caught a good sized fish and Dave being the great dad that he is stayed out for HOURS until Eric caught a fish of equal size! The boys were so proud of themselves!

Grandpa Clark suggested that we find a swimming hole to cool off in during the hot afternoon, something that I honestly had never thought of doing up there. So the boys stripped down to their undies and did a little swimming!

Next time we will all have swimming suits up there! :)

We also enjoyed a nice hike around Bridger Lake. It was beautiful! Clark took a lot of beautiful scenery photos which I can't wait to see.

It was a great weekend. We are very blessed to be able to enjoy such a beautiful area!

Best Friends

My best friend Rachel is so good to me that she has provided each of my boys with their best friend. Brandon & Jace are inseparable. Eric & Kade love to play together and Kyle & Alex have lots of fun together as well. What a wonderful friend! :)

Today was Jace's 7th birthday ... happy birthday Jace!

Rachel and I have sort of adopted each other as surrogate sisters since most of both of our families live elsewhere so I helped her out with Jace's party today. And luckily, Eric was invited to come along as well. Kyle and Alex stayed at Rachel's house with a babysitter while the rest of us went to Mulligan's to party!

Rachel gets the award for the worlds best mom. Look at the Light saber Twinkie cake she made! Yeah, I could definitely do better on my kids birthday cakes. :)

The kids all got to mini-golf at Mulligan's and they had SO MUCH FUN!!

Triple Digit Heat

Yesterday we hit our first 100 degrees of the summer and today wasn't any better. Dave and I just LOVE the heat so we got up first thing this morning, loaded up the boys and headed for the hills! We went up and hiked around Silver Lake which is one of our favorite outings. It was so beautiful up there and so much cooler!

We were even lucky enough to see two yearling moose! They were incredible!

Then we went into Brighton to see the car show they hold up there every July. It was cool! The boys especially love all the cars with flames on them. Brandon was trying to talk dad into either getting a cooler car OR painting flames on the van! :) Kyle walked around saying "I like this one" about every car. Dave's favorite, as always is the Chevelle Super Sport.

It was a really nice way to spend a hot summer day and to escape the heat.

Chocolate Syrup

Kyle has found his new favorite food. Guess I had better keep a closer eye on the little stinker! :)

Vacation in Yellowstone & Montana

We just returned from a WONDERFUL vacation with my dad and my sisters and their families. We started out in Yellowstone Park. We camped in Canyon Campground which was beautiful!

We had so much fun exploring Yellowstone. We went to the Falls, the Visitor Center and were able to see some areas in the north end of the park that even Dave hadn't seen before. We will have to spend more time up there next time.

After two nights in Yellowstone we went up to Billings to Ed & Kathleen's house where we all got showers (YEAH!) and the kids spent the next few days outside playing with their cousins. They had so much fun! Brandon & Eric actually spent a lot of their time up in the trees. :)

Aunt Kathleen spoiled us all rotten! The first night she got out the chocolate fountain which the kids were SO excited about. And the next night they were all covered in chocolate again, this time ice cream. Aunt Kathleen definitely made her mark and my boys will never forget Aunt Kathleen and her chocolate fountain! :)

We had two firework shows. The first was on Saturday night at Kathleen's home. It was put on and financed by the dads and Grant and Craig ... the kids loved it!!! Nothing like firecrackers to make little kids squeal with delight! Then on Sunday night we went to Laurel and got to see what was the best firework show that we have ever seen. It was AMAZING!!!

And what might have been the highlight of the trip and something that I am sure will become a family tradition for years to come ... the races!!

The kids LOVED racing and raced over and over again. There were kids races, sisters races, and of course the most highly anticipated race ERIN vs. DAVE!

It was a wonderful trip. I love my sisters and was so happy to have this time with them and my dad. Hopefully the next time I see my sisters, my brothers and their families will be there as well.