A Weekend At Fish Lake

We took a little trip to Fish Lake with Grandma Brown this weekend.  We were going down to see her but she said she'd be in Fish Lake so we thought we better go camp with her then.  She was up camping with Uncle Ross, Aunt Kaye, Uncle Buzz, and Aunt Bonnie in the Mackinaw Campground.  They left the day we got up there but it was fun to see them for a little while.  It has been a little rainy and cold but it was still great to be back at Fish Lake-- one of my most favorite places on Earth.  Of course Fish Lake with Uncle Buzz wouldn't be the same if he didn't have his camera out snapping pictures of everyone.  The first three photos are a few of the pictures he took while we were there with him.

  

Since we were going to be camping all weekend and it was suppose to be raining in Heber we thought we might as well take Kia along-- Kia freaks out when it rains.  He gets super scared and so we put him in his cage in the laundry room or the garage.  If we're not home he'll dig under the fence and run away.  It turned out to be a great trip.  I was worried about the ride in the car but he just hung out in his cage and seemed just fine.  When we got to Fish Lake we just left him tied up to the trailer and he had a great time smelling the whole area.  I was nervous when we got there though because there were two unleashed dogs in the neighboring campsite and the didn't seem too keen about any of us and so I thought for sure they'd wander over and cause problems with Kia but when they started wandering close we would just bring Kia into the trailer for a little while.  Kia's favorite part was chasing the little chipmunks, squirrels, pot guts, etc.  He would bound over the sage brush chasing them.  It was so fun to watch.  

 Buzz, Jodi, Maddi, Payton, and Kylee came up for the day on Saturday and hung out with us.  We went for a walk down to the lodge, played some games, and ate dinner.  After they left the boys and I walked down to fish along the shore.  The boys ran ahead on the trail and when I came over the berm I found Cole with his drawers dropped for all the boaters to see him watering the lake.  I quickly instructed him that he should go behind a bush, tree, or rock to do that.  On with the fishing!  Kade and Clint were all set up and had their poles in the water.  I walked along the shore line a little ways to find a great spot for Cole to fish from.  The clouds became rain clouds in a matter of seconds and so we decided we should pack up and head back to the trailer before it became the downpour it was looking to be.   Cole had been skipping rocks next to Kade and Clint but he wasn't there so I immediately felt panic set in and I shouted for him.  He responded in a quiet calm voice, "I'm over here, and I need to go number two."  His voice sounded close to me but I couldn't see him, but replied that we were only about 40 yards from the trailer so we'd hurry back.   That is when I stepped around the big rock that was next to me and found Cole in a squatted position.  Ugh!  I quickly informed him that we didn't have any toilet paper and so he needed to pull up his pants and I'd run him up to the trailer.  He seemed confused and I was trying to rush to clear up his confusion so he could make it to the trailer's toilet.   Then suddenly I realized why he wasn't moving and why he was questioning my commands.  "Did you already go?" I asked.  His reply was classic, "Yep! I moved a rock so I can cover it up and everything!"  Nice.  I was looking at the ground underneath him but it wasn't until that moment that I could really see what I didn't want to see.  My mind was playing tricks on me and I couldn't even see anything before that moment.  Well there was nothing else to do at that point except find the broadest leaves I could.  "You're going to wipe me with a leaf?!."  Halfway laughing I said, "Well I don't have anything else here."  By this time we're in a total down pour.  Ah, fun memories.  We wiped, replaced the rock and ran for the trailer.  Oh the fishing story we had to tell after that; it didn't involve any fish but boy was it a great story.  Such a great trip!

WoRKin' At tHe cAR wAsH

The boys love the "wash a car" brag tag. Every time they wash the car I can't help but think about all the times I washed my parents car.  I thought I was doing a great job but now as I watch my boys and see how proud they are of the shinny car covered in soap spots, it makes me wonder how great of a job I really did.  Luckily our van is white-- doesn't show much.  Unfortunately for my parents it was a dark brown car (which we called "the boat" because it was a big old car).  It's just fun to see the boys having fun no matter what it is or the outcome. :)

Oh Park City Fun!

We love going to The Canyons on Wednesdays during the summer to ride the cabriolet and meander through the farmers market.  Today had a fun twist to it though.  We met up with the Spencers who had the Clydes with them.  Oh the looks we got--so entertaining!  Two women with nine kids in Park City-- what a sight!  We let the kids get a slurpee at the 7-11 that is next to the farmers market.  There was a couple in 7-11 that clearly couldn't get over the dynamics of our group.  The gentleman couldn't hold back and finally said to us, "We would have thought you were sister-wives if it wasn't so obvious that you are sisters."  We laughed and said, "We're actually not sisters, or sister-wives!"  You could tell he had a hard time believing that and just shook his head at us as we walked away with our 9 little ducklings.  So if you're looking for some good clean fun, just take a large group of kids to Park City and do some people watching.  

Cake Decorators!

Here are my little cake decorators.  Kade and Clint signed up for a 4H summer workshop for cake decorating.  The got to go to Days Market's bakery, learn about decorating cakes and practice what they had learned on their own cake.  They both did an awesome job and attempted to eat their cakes when they got home.  Clint ate some of the frosting and then asked if we could freeze it.  Kade scrapped off the frosting and ate a few bites of the cake and then wanted to throw it away.  I scooped the icing into my cake decorating bag and let Cole redecorate the cake.  He wasn't old enough to sign up for the workshop so he was thrilled that he still got to decorate a cake.  When they were finished with the cake mess we went to pick up the cake decorator brag tag.  Getting a brag tag was just the icing on the cake! (Sorry I couldn't resist that one.)

Not Kia's Week

THis hasn't been Kia's favorite week.  Rain, thunder, and lighting by day; and fireworks by night.  Poor dog is a nervous wreck.  Look on the bright side Kia-- you're getting in-the-house time. :)

Neighborhood Celebration

We went over to the Serre's this evening for some neighborhood fun.  We had a potluck BBQ, volleyball, bounce water slide, face painting, and fireworks.  We thought it would be fun to also throw in the candy cannon and it was a definite hit.  That group of neighbors had never seen the candy cannon before and they were fascinated by it.  Darryl was in Scotland so he didn't get to go with us; we missed him.  When it was time for fireworks everyone pooled all their stuff together and so we had quite the show.  This year was loaded with amazing firework shows.  There were three more groups in our neighborhood area that had big firework shows, plus there were a few people in the neighboring subdivisions that had awesome shows too.  We often didn't know which way to look.  There were awesome fireworks everywhere!

Scotland

Darryl got to go to a huge clay conference in Scotland this year.  The conference is only held every 4 years so I'm hoping it'll be my chance and I'll be posting in 4 years about the both of us going.  At one point I was actually going to go on the this trip.  When Darryl talked to Rhett about him going Rhett suggested that Darryl should bring me along because the additional cost would be food and flight and they were willing to cover that.  I was thrilled, but about a month later when they went to book the flights and they found that one ticket was over $2500, we decided we just couldn't expect that from the company and we just didn't feel up to it just yet financially since we just returned from the cruise.  It's the thought that counts. :)  These are a few photos Darryl shared with us while he was there July 4th-12th.  I should point out that the first one is the place that they went to get their packets for the conference-- I believe it is also the site of the conference.  Such amazing historic buildings that are still in use!  Most of the buildings they went to see were built in the 1300s.  He said the part of town called "new town" was built in 1780s.  I love it!  This was such a neat trip for Darryl.  He said he tried to keep his geeking out to a minimum for Paul's sake (Paul was the only one that went with him from Redmond Minerals).

j

YW Camp

I did something I have never done before.  I only went up for part of the week of Young Women's camp.  Things were just too crazy at home to be gone and they had plenty of leaders that were going to be there so I waited and went up the last couple days.  The first night I was there we  had an incredible speaker.  He talked about his journey, one that had two gaping extremes.  He was in trouble with gangs and drugs and while he was running from someone who was trying to murder him his life changed and he turned to God.  After that his life was much different and now he is quite Christ-like.
These were my favorite take-aways from his messages:

• You will mess up but that doesn't mean you are doomed
• There isn't a mold for a Mormon
• Everyday is a fight and we have choices as to how it is shaped, though we can't control all we do have choices

I was so excited for these girls to hear what he was sharing. I really hope they were able to absorb his messages.

Yay for Aunt Wendy!

We went up to Logan tonight to celebrate Wendy and Regan's wedding.  They eloped a couple weeks ago and they had previously planned a BBQ at their house for tonight so it became a wedding celebration.  Some of the siblings were able to make it up and some of his family came too.  We ate, built rockets, and did the candy cannon.  Then we ended the event with some volleyball at the park; so much fun!!!  Regan is such a great guy and they seem happy so we're SUPER HAPPY.  Welcome to the family Regan!

A Little Crooked

I wish I would have taken a picture of this but it's too late now-- I guess that's a good thing that it's fixed!
So Kade wanted to do a football clinic this summer.  I was a little excited for him to do it since he's really got an itch for football right now because his friends all play it.  I was hoping the clinic would teach him things he needed to know to be able to play well with his friends and I was also hoping it would help him to really know if it was something he wanted to do.  Well it started out great for the first few minutes because he ran into an old friend from our old neighborhood, but it quickly headed south.  This old friend of his actually practices with the high school football team and has done so for the past 2 years.  It may be obvious, but that kid is amazing.  Well the reason the experience went south for Kade was because he was comparing himself to this kid.  He wasn't looking around to see that most of the kids there were about at the same level as himself.  It was okay though Kade had just started questioning if he was really wanting to play this fall or not.  Well the final day of the clinic sealed the decision for him.  They were learning about tackling, at least we think that is when it happened, and Kade ended up crooked.  His head was just tilted to the side.  He didn't mention it until later that night and he just said his neck hurt.  I figured he must have pulled a muscle and so I massaged it and put some muscle relaxer ointment on his neck and told him it just needed time to loosen up.  Well for the next few days he stretched it and I massaged it and his head still sat sideways.  I wasn't until I was watching him, and I knew his mind was lost in what he was doing so he wouldn't intentionally be holding his head side ways if he could prevent it but he didn't move it.  I called the chiropractor and scheduled an appointment for the next day.  We were at the park playing and guess who happened to show up at the park????  The chiropractor.  He was blown away by Kade.  He was pretty anxious to get working on him but didn't want to mess with him at the park.  The appointment time arrived and Kade was so worried that the chiropractor would do something that would leave him paralyzed.  It took a lot of talking to try to convince him and I still think he wasn't convinced but was at least willing to go.  The chiropractor cranked on him for a while and then said he needed to have the massage therapist work on him for a while and then he'd come do some more. Kade was pretty fascinated when his back and neck would crack or when they would check the strength differences in his limbs.  Kade had never had a massage so his responses were hilarious!  She started working on him and he slurred out, "Ok.  I'm just going to take a nap now."  He's had a cough lately so at one point he told her he interrupted her massage and told her he needed to cough.  She steps back and he perks up to a sitting position and only clears his throat, lays back down and says, "Work your magic."  She lost it and so did I.  What a kid!
The chiropractor helped a little but he wanted his body to settle a little and work on him again in 2 days.  After the second appointment Kade was aligned again.  Phew.  That was a little scary.