Young mens

It was a pool party for the young men and young women in our Ward. Ethan had a blast...and there was an "incredibly intense game of water basketball." This is what Ethan looked like afterward. He had so much fun!

Rainy Day

One day last month Bryan picked the kids up from swim team and it was raining.  They wanted to play in the rain, so he let them.  Check out all that water gushing from the drain from the building's roof!

Just Serve

We had a service project last night for the Stake Council. We all met at the ReStore to do some painting. Courtney and I started painting stands inside the store. We had so many show up that it didn't take long to finish. The boys started spraying garbage cans and spray painting carts and things. When we finished we went outside to help them. 

We had a lot of fun. 

Pictures

Here are some pictures from cousins camp.

The cabin..

Flower girls

Ethan at the top of the climbing wall.

Crazy Boy

This is my view each morning when I pick Ethan up from mountain bike practice...

If you can't tell, he has the window down and is sticking his head out so the breeze can cool him off. 😜

He is usually really sweaty so when he runs his head there is sweat flying everywhere. Gross!! When we get home we read scriptures and Ethan is bugged because he just wants to shower so he always tries to sit really close to Bryan to share his stink. It's pretty funny!

Ethan loves mountain biking and is doing really well. They have a mock race this Saturday to learn how it all works. It will be fun to see.

Going home

The kids had fun at cousins camp. Ethan learned to fly fish, crafted, rode a horse, climbed, read and went on a zip line. Courtney crafted, rode a horse (twice), swam and had fun with grandma.

But all too soon it was time to drive back home. We went to the hospital one more time to say bye to Lisa and then we were on our way home. 

The kids were worn out and both slept on the drive. This is REALLY unusual. 

We finally got home and everyone was happy to be back in their own beds!

Time in Denver

On Wednesday, the kids packed up with grandma and grandpa and headed for their adventure. Grandma showed the girls the size of Bennett's first diaper. It was so tiny!

While the kids have been playing at the YMCA of the Rockies, I have been hanging out with Lisa and holding Bennett.

I am so grateful I was able to come. We have had some wonderful talks, shared tears and laughed quite a bit. She is doing well and progressing. And I love my cuddle time with Bennett. 😊

On the road again...

Monday we packed up and left for our last vacation of the summer. My kids are getting "vacationed out." But this one is to cousins camp with Grandma and Grandpa Pack.

We stayed in a hotel Monday nigh in Las Vegas. Bryan stayed with us. Courtney just had to try out the pool while Ethan and I relaxed.

Tuesday morning we woke up early and Bryan took us to the airport. The kids and I had a 7:05 am flight to Denver. The airport wasn't busy at all and we were able to get through security quickly.

I was impressed with myself because I checked into our flight Monday morning and got in the A boarding group in our Southwest flight. Little did I know that there were so few passengers on the flight to we were ALL in the A boarding group.  Oh well. 

Ethan picked our seats and we were off.

The flight was uneventful. We got off the plane and headed to baggage claim to meet up with Grandma.

Courtney was rocking the Valley Girl look. Ethan kept teasing her. 

We met up with Grandma and drove to the hospital to see Lisa and Bennett. He is such a cute baby!!

We got lunch and then headed for Arvada. Grandma went back to the hospital while the kids and I found things to do. Courtney played dress up and on the Wii. Ethan found an electric train and had fun putting it together...all over the store room. He was so excited when he got it all working.

This is Ethan watching it to make sure it worked on the track on the other side of the shelves.

The train!

We had frozen pizzas, which the kids love! Then they watched tv and just relaxed. 

Bryan's New Bike

Bryan got a new mountain bike from a client. Now he just has to put it together...

Ethan is thrilled because when he outgrows his bike, he may get to use this one. I am sure the two of them will be doing a lot of biking this summer/fall!!

Vacation Day 10 - Going Home

We woke up late, ate a weird continental breakfast, checked out of the sketchy motel we stayed in and started for home. We stopped in Orem quickly to drop off the lantern we had borrowed from Andrew and Jessica. Then we were on our way.

It was really windy but other than that the ride home was uneventful. We made good time and Courtney and Bryan slept part of the way. 

We are now doing laundry and replacing for our next trip. 

We had a great time on our vacation!!

Vacation Day 9 - Hill AFB and Real Salt Lake

We woke up, ate cereal and packed the car. (Are you seeing the pattern here?) We weren't in a hurry so we took our time waking up and packing up.

We drove up to Hill Air Force Base to the plane museum. 

We have been there before but it was a long time ago and the kids were much smaller. Ethan was in heaven looking at all the displays.

They had a bunch of planes outside to look at.

They also had 2 huge hangers filled with planes and info. It was really cool.

They had the same jump seat that the kids sat in last time so we had to take a picture!

We were there a couple of hours. Then we went to find a movie theater. Bryan and Ethan watched "Independence Day 2" while Courtney and I watched "The Secret Life of Pets."

We then found our hotel, went swimming and relaxed. Bryan and Courtney wanted to go to a Real Salt Lake soccer game so we went to buy the tickets. It was almost sold out but we got tickets.

It was time for dinner so we found an Olive Garden to eat. We had a couple days on our schedule where we would eat out and tonight was one of them. 

By the time we finished eating, it was time for the game. Bryan and Courtney walked from our hotel to Rio Tinto station while Ethan and I relaxed.

Ethan and I went to sleep around 9:30 and Bryan and Courtney got back from the soccer game around 10:20. RSL ties but they said the game was intense. Courtney was so happy she had gotten to go.

Vacation Day 8 - Lagoon

The KOA may have had great bathrooms but its location left much to be desired! It was right next to a train track that was really noisy and came every couple of hours. It was also next to the road and trucks were coming up and down all night. It was annoying.

We woke up early, ate cereal and packed the car. We drove to Farmington and checked into the campground at Lagoon. Bryan had to do a few hours of work so the kids and I went into Lagoon to play for a while until he could join us.

We rode the Terror Ride, Wild Mouse (I screamed and embarrassed the kids), the wooden roller coaster, the swing ride, the boat ride and did the bumper cars. There weren't a lot of people so we got right in the rides. It was great!

When Bryan got there the kids wanted to take him on the rides they liked. He rode the wild mouse, swing and boat.

We took the gondola ride across the park to do a couple more rides.

Bryan went on the Cannibal ride by himself. It was a bit too much for me. It drops and then twists and I think I would have lost my lunch but he loved it.

We rode a few more rides and then got our stuff and went to Lagoon a Beach. We rented two tubes and Bryan relaxed while the kids and I floated the river and rode the water slides. It was a lot of fun until someone stole our rented tubes!!! That put an end to our fun because we were peeved. 

We decided to get a treat and while Courtney and I stood in line, Bryan and Ethan got 2 tubes that were just sitting around and returned them as our tubes. The circle of life, I guess. 

We then went back to the campground. We were hungry so we changed and went to find a KFC so Bryan could get his chicken fix for the trip. We found one, ordered and then waited FOREVER for our food. We think they had to slaughter the chickens themselves! 

After dinner we went back into the park to ride a few more rides before we were finished with Lagoon. I was surprised that there weren't more people there. It was hot but not too bad and we walked into most of the rides. The kids had a lot of fun.

Courtney wanted to go on the train which takes you around where you see animals. It's the 2nd largest zoo in Utah.

We saw lions, camels, wart hogs, etc. When we were almost back to the station we heard someone behind us yell "stop the train, medical emergency!" The message was relayed up and we spent another 20 minutes waiting for it to be resolved. Someone had a seizure.  

By this time we were ready to go.

Lagoon was fun!

Vacation Day 7 - Lava Hot Springs, ID

We woke up, ate breakfast and packed up the car. We drove to Moose Junction and Ethan tried his hand at fishing in the river while Courtney and I went to the visitors center.

Ethan didn't catch anything and actually lost a lure so we moved on to Jenny Lake. We couldn't find any place to park so we just drove around. We finally found a turn out and took a look. It's a beautiful lake and very peaceful.

We decided to drive to Jackson Lake Dam so Ethan could do some more fishing. He was doing fine until his line twisted up and made a mess.  

At this point he decided he was done with fishing. So we got back in the can and started for Lava Hot Springs in Idaho.

On a side note: we found all but 4 license plates in the license plate game. We were pretty impressed with ourselves!

The drive was pretty and wasn't too long. We got to the KOA in Lava Hot Springs and checked in. The bathrooms are so nice! After camp was set up we went to the water park. It was fun with 4 slides and diving boards and platforms. We stayed there for an hour and then went back to grill hotdogs over the fire.

Ethan built the fire and started it with INE MATCH! He was very impressed with himself.

We ate hotdogs and smores then waited for bedtime. Courtney read while Ethan played on his phone.

Then we went to bed.

Vacation Day 6 - Yellowstone

We woke up, ate cereal and took off fr Yellowstone. We were planning on spending the entire day there so we took sandwiches and things for lunch.

We drove past the Tetons, oohing and aahing at how Bryan had climbed those once. 

We had a National Parks pass so we used that to get into the Tetons and Yellowstone. The line to get in wasn't too long. Ethan wanted to fish so we stopped at Lewis Lake for him to try his luck. It was really windy and he didn't catch anything so we loaded back up and drove on.

Ethan at Lewis Lake.

We drove into Grant Village to look around and stopped at the ranger station. We wanted to make sure Ethan didn't need a fishing license in Yellowstone. The rules say that anyone under 16 needs one. The ranger said Ethan didn't need one but the adult who would be helping him fish would. We quickly explained that we wouldn't be helping him fish at all. Ethan is the fisherman! The ranger talked with Ethan and verified that he knew the rules and regulations then said it was a "unique circumstance" and gave him a license.

We drove to the geyser near Grant Village to look around.

Then we drove to find Ethan a place to fish. He tried a few places but didn't catch any. We drove to Old Faithful and couldn't find any parking but just as we drove past the lodge....it erupted. So we drove around again so we could watch it but we didn't have to park or get out!

Then we drove toward the village near Fishing Bridge when we pulled off to let Ethan try to catch a fish. We walked down to the water, he cast into the lake...

and reeled this in...

ON HIS FIRST CAST!!

He was so excited!! It was a lake trout which is non native so you are required to kill them. So we got to keep it! It measures at about 18-20 inches with the head and tail on.

Ethan tried to catch more fish and got a couple of bites but he didn't catch anything else. He did loose 2 spinners though. 

We tried to continue up the road but there was an accident so we turned around. On our way back we saw something in the road. As we got closer we realized it was a female moose!

We bought Ethan more spinners at Grant Village.  Courtney got some ear buds.

 I found a snipe hunting kit!!

Then went to the picnic area to build a fire and cook the fish for dinner. 

Bryan told dumb tree jokes while we waited for the coals to be ready. Then it was time to cook it.

It was so yummy! The entire fish fed the 4 of us. We warned water and had hot chocolate too. It was the best dinner.

It was time to go back to Jackson. We took the scenic route past Jenny Lake and Jackson Lake. Bryan was dismayed to find out there is a dam in Jackson Lake. He thought it was natural.

Ethan kept his eyes open for potential fishing spots in the Tetons. We are going there tomorrow so he can fish and we can relax.

We got back to Jackson and treated ourselves to shakes before going to the hotel to shower and watch the Giants game.

Both Ethan and Courtney said today was a great day! And it was.