Britt's Blog

Smokey

Macey was in the paper with Smokey the Bear.  Does she look a little nervous?  She was.

They tried and tried to get Sawyer to be in the picture too.  He wouldn't have anything to do with that bear.  Later one of the kids asked the ranger what Smokey the Bear eats.  The ranger said, "Smokey loves to eat honey and berries".  Then I heard Sawyer say under his breath, "And PEOPLE."  No wonder he wouldn't stand by Smokey in a picture!  I laughed.

Lake Powell

Lake Powell is my favorite place on the planet.  I love it not only for the sun and water and beauty, but for the people and food and memories.  This vacation is my favorite week of the year, so you're going to have to suffer through a ton of pictures now. (And I didn't dare bring my good camera, so they're not even very good pictures.)

Here is the Milky Way - my parent's houseboat that we've been taking to Lake Powell every summer for 25 years.  It's awesome.  

Here are Macey and Noelle.  They played sweetly together all week long.  I didn't think that was even physically possible for two two year-olds, but they did it.

 

Swim.  Swim.  Swim.  That's all the kids wanted to do all day every day.  The 106 degree weather may have had something to do with that.  

Shaylin celebrated her ninth birthday on Tuesday.  We gave her a little camera, and Grandma and Grandpa gave her a compound bow.  She's wanted one for months.  (Don't ask me why.)  It's pink, and she's thrilled.

  

Cliff jumping.  We were safe and no one got hurt.  Unlike when I was young and we used to dare each other to go higher and higher until someone was bleeding or had the air completely knocked out of them.  What were we thinking!?!  

Here is Jason skiing.  He loves it.  He can't get enough.

 

King of the Mountain - this game gets very serious.  You could see 11 year-old boys getting thrown all over the place.  

The ski boat.  It was busy this year.  Lot of new skiers, wake boarding, tube riding, and long boat rides.  

 

Water balloon fights were a highlight this year.  I love this action shot.  They don't even see that second balloon coming.

Jason and me.  Aren't we cute?  

  

We brought a big box of crafts and activities for the little ones.  We hardly needed it.  They just had fun playing together.

Shaylin and Peyton were the preschool directors.  They entertained the little ones all week.

   

Sawyer was in heaven.  He loved the nonstop action, all the attention, and the no naps.  He was one happy camper.

The Captain.  I love you, Dad.

  

The boys - they had so much fun.  I hardly saw Skyler all week.  Uncle Blake and his friends taught these guys how to shoot bottle rockets, light ant hills on fire and syphon gas.  Great.

My Macey - she could have stayed on that boat forever.  Me too.

  

Ponds

Before we moved here, we used to spend our summer days at the city pool.  Now we spend them at our friends' ponds!  Sawyer thinks he's the only kid in America without a huge pond in his backyard.  He's so disadvantaged.

Do we know how to pick our friends, or what?  :)

   

Happy Fourth of July

We spent part of our weekend with our friends, the Balfours.  This was fun for several reasons.

1.  Sarah is the best cook I've ever met in real life.

2.  Brian is a fireman that knows where to buy illegal fireworks.

3.  Their kids completely entertain our kids.

Good times.

     

Cornrows

The girls got their hair braided in cornrows today in preparation for our week-long trip to Lake Powell.  Shaylin's took two hours.  Macey's took one.  Neither of them made a peep the whole time.  They were so cute.

Macey keeps calling them her "corn holes".  Hilarious.

  

Summer School

We started up our little summer school again.  We're having fun.  Each of the kids chose three things that they wanted to study this year.  

Skyler chose robots, computers and drawing cartoons.  

Shaylin chose art, cooking and making balloon animals.  

Sawyer chose sharks, dinosaurs and racing.  

Macey chose baby animals.

We begin by calling roll and doing show-and-tell (their idea, not mine).  Then the kids write in their journals, do a Math Minute worksheet, do a science experiment or craft, have P.E. and learn about the subject of the week. It only takes about an hour, but you add that to job time and it fills up our mornings. Yay.

       

Carnival

What is it about a small town carnival that's so much fun?  The food is greasy.  The rides make you sick, and the tickets cost WAY too much.  But we couldn't stay away.  We had a great time!  

Sawyer loved the train until his hat fell off.  Macey loved these race cars that I am SURE were not safe.

  

Skyler and Shaylin loved The Hang Glider.  Sawyer made the Moon Walk employees very nervous.

  

This ride made me vomit.  Macey walked past this train and said, "Oh, look!  There's Macey's ride."

  

Macey kept telling me not to touch her pony.  Jason took pictures of all the carnies.

 

You gotta love a carnival.

Cousins

We brought home some of our fun cousins from our family reunion.  They spent a week with us and we had a great time.  We played HARD!

We went to Four Corners.

 

We ate REAL Indian fry bread made by REAL Indians (sorry - Native Americans).  

The kids were quite impressed.

  

We went rock climbing and swimming at our rec center.  

  

We used our fire pit (finally) and the kids went to a movie BY THEMSELVES.  

This was a very big deal.  They all survived.

 

We went to the library summer program.  A wolf reserve brought in rescued wolves and taught us all about them.  Afterwards, the kids were able to pet the wolves and wolf dogs.  

They were very brave (except for Sawyer).

  

At home, the kids ran through sprinklers, jumped on the tramp, played Wii, chased chickens 

and spent HOURS making movies.

 

On Friday, Jason took all six big kids to the skate park and the BMX park. 

I think this was their favorite part.  Jason didn't take any pictures of this, because he was "too busy trying to keep six kids from breaking their arm".

What a fun week! 

Heber Valley Camp

We went camping with my family at the church owned Heber Valley Camp this weekend.  I use the term "camping" very loosely as there were showers, heated bathrooms, beautiful cabins and a fridge.  It was my kind of camping.

     

We had so much fun.  We played capture the flag a lot.  This got very serious when all the daddies joined in.  We painted faces, played at the lake, built sandcastles (this also got serious when all the daddies joined in), played volleyball, had evening devotionals, and just enjoyed each other.

    

 

  

    

My favorite part was doing the Challenge Courses as a family.  Check out the below post.

Challenge Course

We had to lead our blindfolded partners around in a game of tag.  Sawyer was my partner.  At one point he said, "Mom, take 62 big steps".  He wasn't the greatest leader.

Then we had to figure out how to get this antidote out of this ring without stepping in the ring or spilling the antidote.  We did it once like this,

  

and once like this.  Sawyer climbed across while his family held him up.  Neat symbolism.  He was so proud to be able to help out.  And he was the only one who could do it.

  

We next had to get our whole family from point A to point B by swinging across to these disks.  They wouldn't let us continue on to the next disk until one was "full".  At a few points, we looked like we were bowling for people.  It was pretty funny.

Then we had to cross these wires by learning to lean on each other and trust each other.  The kids had a lot of spotters, but no one could touch them unless they fell.  They did great by themselves.

  

This giant swing was the scariest part for me.  I have some height issues.  Look how high they lifted us up before we swang!   Aghh.

    

After my 93 YEAR OLD grandpa and my two year old daughter went, I decided I'd better go.  I consider it a great success because I didn't vomit OR pee my pants.

   

I love these people so much!!!