Diamond Mountain

In July we headed up to Diamond Mountain for my Grandpa Jude's 80th birthday party. We had a great time up at the cabin...but I might stay in Vernal from now on. :)
We arrived LATE Friday night and found that we weren't alone. A guy and his daughter that were working up there were staying there also, AWKWARD. Right when we finally go inside Ryker pukes all over. FUN!! After getting him cleaned up I headed outside to get the luggage. Well, I grabbed one load and brough it in then came back out and realized how much easier it would be if I backed the car in. I got the car in reverse and revved the engine because we were in gravel and it wasn't moving that great. Well, as I was going I look and see my dad yelling at me to stop. I had run over his bag that was set behind the car. GREAT! Luckily nothing was ruined and a book that also took the brunt of my backing skills was still readable. No problem. We got the kids in bed and my mom went around looking for her suitcase. We couldn't find it anywhere. Wait a second...I walked over to my car and looked underneath and sure enough there is was! After tugging and pulling my dad finally got is dislodged from underneath my car and this time the suitcase was ruined, a few of my moms shirts were shredded and some jewelry was done for. NOT SO GREAT! Oops...Sorry mom!
Well, after this whole fiasco we were just looking at each other and laughing because we finally felt like we were over with the worst of it. We're almost in bed when we hear YELP YELP. And then more and more by the second. Well, my cousin has hound dogs--seriously about thirty I swear, in cages by the side of the cabin. What we were hearing was little hounds puppies that had gotten loose and were not yelping for us outside the cabin and they are NOT quiet. We figured the only thing we could do was go outside, grab the dogs, throw them in the back of my dads truck, drive them to the cages and get them inside. After a little while--mission accomplished!! Yeah! Finally we were able to get to bed!
The next day our fam drove to the fish hatchery before the party and the kids thought it was great. They loved seeing all the baby fish. That night was the party for my grandpa and it was quite the affair. My dad cooked up some dutch oven and we had a feast. We topped the night off playing the annual cousins soccer game and some card games. It was so fun to be together with all my family from Vernal. We don't see them a ton, but when we do we have a great time. Thanks guys!

Bear Lake

We spent July 24th in Bear Lake with family. I'm normally not one to get cold...but I was wrapped up in towels the whole time we were at the lake. It wasn't really freezing, but it was windy. While we were at the lake we got in trouble for parking too close to the water so we had to move our cars. It was supposed to be a $350 ticket but he let us off, and he let us know it. Well, we were far away and we had a ton of stuff to haul home so Bill (father-in-law) decided that we would pack everything up in a pile and someone would hurry and drive up, throw it in the car and then leave. Well, I left to take some of the kids back up to the cabin and I heard what happened when Brad called. This is how the conversation went:
Brad: "Where are you?"
Me: "Back up at the cabin, why?"
Brad: "Well, dad got the car stuck in the sand picking up the stuff."
Me: Thinking in my head how I don't want to but saying, "Do you need me to come down?"
Brad: "No, we'll figure it out."
All I could think of was that ranger that told us how he let us off by not giving us a ticket. I was sure he was pulling up right then to the car, once again too close to the water. Turns out another ranger came and told them that the car better be moved before he gets back. A man parked next to us on the beach kindly pulled the car out and they were on their way. I figured we got pretty lucky that day!

Carol pushing the kids on the swings.



This is what we call Ryker's stink face. He pulls it all the time. :)

Bye Hayden!

My nephew Hayden left for his mission in July and these are some pics we took at his farewell dinner.

Coop & Ryk were not happy to see him go...




Poor Hayden is supposed to be heading to Mexico but will instead spend the next month of his mission in Albuquerque...we were told he is excited about it and can believe it because he is such a positive, happy guy. Good luck Hayden!

Boating

It seemed like we were so busy this summer but we did make it out a couple times to go boating. My mom was with us for a few days so we decided to head out to Utah lake. The water wasn't the greatest, but we still had fun!

Playgroup

This summer a few of us continued playgroup and the boys had such a great time. I put out the slide for them to swim and they all loved it with the exception of Cooper who yelled whenever I turned the water on..Don't you love when you buy something thinking how much your child will love it...only to be disappointed? I think I buy things sometimes thinking how much I would've loved it when I was that age not taking into account the fact that my child HATES water on his face. Oh well. Maybe Ryker will love it. If not, in the meantime there are plenty of kids in our neighborhood who enjoy it. At least I can feel like I got my moneys worth.

Starvation

I have a lot of catching up to do! In July we headed to Starvation Reservoir with the Allreds. I have NO idea why we decided to go there, but we had a good time. It was really windy and dusty at our campsite and we were glad to only spend one night. I did realized on this trip that Ryker is still too young to go camping. I'm lucky if I got even a full hour of sleep that night with Ryker crying and the wind shaking our tent. I'm sure you can imagine. :)