Nature

We sure do live in a beautiful world.

Pioneer Day

I love living in Utah in July because we get to wear our red, white and blue not once but twice!  First on the 4th and again on the 24th for Pioneer Day.  Two days to wave our flags, watch the sky light up in fireworks, parades everywhere you look, small town celebrations.  I love it all, July is right up there with December for the greatest months of the year.  It comes in a close second to the very best!

This year we chose to keep the day pretty simple by having a water party with our cousins.

We met up at Teri's house after dropping Eric off for golfing the afternoon away.

Little girls, Hallie is a good sport getting in on a picture with the two little ones.

K's wearing an 18 month swim suit here, so don't look too closely it's a little snug for this girl who fits the most happily in 3T clothes these days.

Teri had a kiddie pool, a slip slide.....and

......water fights on the tramp going all afternoon.

Mom I just liked this picture of you!

We couldn't keep up with the demand of water balloons from these little ones.

He is patiently waiting for Ash to tie him a few to go clobber Theo with.

And boy did Thiago deserve it the way he was pelting these kids with the hose.

It always makes me laugh at how it really is the simple things in life that keep kids the happiest for the longest periods of time.  They spent probably four hours out there in the hot sun.  With very minimal fights, distractions or whining.  Happy as little clams playing with each other.

Lunch of course was brought out at one point....what else but McDonald's.

And Costa Vida for the ladies.

It was such a relaxing way to spend the day under the shade of the tree's chatting away with my mom, sisters, Tam and Jill.  Thanks girls it was a much needed break from the hectic days we all have.

We then headed over to the Smith's for our annual BBQ with our other sweet cousins.

I so need to be better at pulling out the camera all day long and not just the first hour of the day.

All of the above pictures were taken in like twenty minutes then the remainder of the day I have nothing to show for it.

Except for this I was sitting chatting with my sister in laws when we noticed Grandpa had parked himself right up there in the clubhouse with the grand kids climbing all over him.

What a guy that Grandpa is we sure love him!

(Oh and look at little K's face she took a tumble head first down the cement patio stairs.

It didn't look to bad that night but wow yesterday morning it looked like she got into a major fist fight.

Poor baby I hate that feeling I couldn't get to her fast enough and just had to watch as she somersaulted her way down....so sad.)

Island Park Day 5

About ready for these trip pictures to come to an end?

Because I am.

This took me a lot longer to finish than I had intended it to.

But I couldn't leave anything out, they all make me too happy!

It was a perfect ending to a perfect trip.

Our last day in Island Park was spent rafting down the river.

I did not get any pictures of the actual rafting part of the day.

But more pictures from the dock before the rafting started part of the day.

I was to afraid to take my camera out on the water, but I am thinking next year I just might risk it.

The water is so calm, really we are talking LAZY river here.

And my aunt just put hers in a trash bag and it stayed nice and safe and dry in there.

So many times through out the day I was wishing I had brought it with me.

Next year, next year....

Not much to say about these pictures so I will just let the pictures do the talking here!

And I will be quiet for once!

Funny thing out of 41 people on the trip only two fell overboard on the remember very LAZY river.

And those two would be my two boys.

Luke. no surprise there, was diving all over the place on the raft jumping in between people, hanging off the edge.

It made perfect sense he would fall off.

But no worries we happened to be in the most shallow part of the river and it only came to his knees.

He just stood right back up and climbed on into the raft, no harm done.

Lance on the other hand was a different story.

He was not in our raft he was on another one so I am unsure of the details exactly but it went something like this.

They were in a shallow area as well.

Somehow he lost a flip flop and jumped on in after it.

Grabbed the flip flop and apparently there was a drop off in the water and he took one step too many and plunged right on down.

Thankfully my brother in law pulled him right back up and into the raft, no real danger.

But man what luck to have both my boys go overboard.

Frankly I am surprised little K managed to keep herself dry, so not like her!

And that completes the trip, just like that it's over for another year.

But my uncle just called me today discussing dates for next year.

We take this trip seriously, you gotta book that cabin way in advance, like right now for next July.

I am sure before we know it cabin days will be here again!

We can't wait!

Love you family, thanks for a great week.

Island Park Day 4

Day 4 I think was my very favorite of our trip. we headed into Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

My childhood vacation spot.

I can't even count the number of times we went there when I was a little girl.

Every summer besides maybe 2? were spent in Jackson with this very same family.

All of my grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.

The only difference is back then there wasn't 41 of us, more like 23.

I love Jackson, it's holds a special spot in my heart.

I go there and still feel like a little girl begging for jelly beans and rock collections.

A different era before hard times came and childhood was innocently happy.

It's fun to remember isn't it?

Fun and a little sad at times.

Who would think divorce is still a hard thing so many years later.

The staying up too late and early morning wake up calls from my sister to go running started catching up to me on day 4.

The majority of the 2 hour drive from Island Park to Jackson I spent snoozing in the car.

At one point about half way through we stopped because my cousins little boy was having a little motion sickness on all of those curvy roads.

He needed to swap seats with somebody.

I opened my eyes to see what was going on and why we had stopped and looked straight out my window to this view.

I think I said something intelligent like "what the heck, pass me my camera".

And then I proceeded to do this for the next ten minutes.....

Gehrig buddy I am sorry you got sick but thanks for choosing such a great stopping point cause wow I have never been so in awe of country road sides in my life.

I just kept saying "this is amazing, I can't stop taking pictures".

Gorgeous right?

If you have to get sick you might as well pick a place with spectacular scenery!

As is tradition we always stop numerous times along the way to stock up on more treats and of course little people need potty breaks.

My dad is looking particularly pleasant in this picture isn't he?

He actually really was happy...... just thinking I guess.

The nostalgic apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

I wanted this picture because I am one sappy fool and this again reminds me so much of being a little girl as he patiently waited for his three girls to finish doing whoever knows what we were doing.

Finally we made it to the Alpine slide.

I was on picture duty my favorite place to be.

But thankfully I have a lot of cousins who are more than willing to ride alongside my kids up the mountain and down the slide.

Lukey went with Grandpa for his turn.

A first timer in little K, she went with her daddy of course.

And Lancey went with Tayler.

Thanks Tay!

Back at the bottom we patiently waited for our riders to come zipping on down the mountain.

To pass the time we took pictures of course!

Sisters wasn't it just yesterday that we were the little girls all tucked into our daddies lap zipping down that mountain?

Now look at us almost 30 years old with babies of our own.

Oh okay I will stop now, I was so nostalgic on this trip!

Last time I did the Alpine Slide it was in Park City and the line was absolutely crazy.

It took almost an hour from the time you hit the ski lift to make your way down the mountain on the slide.

I thought we had oodles of time before we started seeing them come down.

So naturally I sat talking with my Grandma and was a few feet away from the ending point when I heard my uncle yell "hey this is them coming down right now".

By the time I grabbed my camera and made my way over there I had completely missed Luke and my dad who were first in line.

Shoot!

But I did get K and Eric.

And Lance and Tayler.

And here is Luke and Tayler on round 2.

So at least I got him for one of his rides.

Little K only went down once and then she joined me as a spectator for round 2.

She made for horrible company, don't let her innocence in these pictures fool you she was a little pip squeak and was determined to keep me on my feet as she tried hopping the fence numerous times to get to the ski lifts.

Teaching Drake her trouble maker ways.

Thankfully Drakey bug doesn't fold under peer pressure and stayed put just like he should.

And here she goes again.

After the slide we went into Jackson to do some shopping.

I was a little sad we only had about three hours to wander and I could have used three days!

After eating dinner we really only had time for a few favorites before we headed back home to the cabin.

But of course as is tradition we made sure and got our family picture in front of the elk horns.

Even though the family is looking a little grumpy.....Luke.

My dad and his girls for old times sake.

We still got it right dad!