Fantastic Family Vacation Fun!!

This last weekend we had a chance to get away with my family for four days. It was such a blast! We had a day at Seven Peaks Water Park (no pictures, my small camera ended up having dead batteries). Of our own little family, Devon was the only one who had been there before. The boys had never been to a water park before, but they LOVED it! They loved the water slides, but of course the wave pool had a certain kind of draw, and it might have been the favorite.

Funny, odd, but true story: We took butterflies with us to Seven Peaks. We had dropped all our stuff at the cabin (where we all lodged for 3 nights) before going to Seven Peaks, and somehow the butterflies got overlooked. Dylan "earned" these butterflies for giving up his beloved Blue - a stuffed animal/blanket. The butterflies were in one of those mesh houses you see on TV that you send in a postcard and they mail you caterpillars. Back to the story, our only options seemed to be to leave the butterflies in the car to die in the heat, or bring them in with us. So, we carefully placed the house in the bottom of the stroller, and set some things around it so we didn't look too odd. It actually turned out to be no problem. No one noticed, and the butterflies survived. But I bet we are the first family to bring butterflies to a water park.

After a fun day, we all headed to the cabin. Many of us got some nice sunburns, as you will notice in the pictures.
The next day was a ride on the Heber Valley Railroad. I wasn't sure whether Ethan would be good for a 1 1/2 hour ride, but he loved it. He stayed on Devon's lap for pretty much the whole time, with the few exceptions he stood on the bench next to him, or let me hold him for a few minutes. All the kids had a blast watching everything go by. It was such a pretty ride, going past Deer Creek Reservoir, and following the river through the canyon.

The fun at the cabin included all sorts of good stuff, like cousins playing whatever games they thought of, playing Rock Band, card games, board games, and computer games (Age of Empires was the favorite this weekend).

The next day we were off to Deer Creek for a fabulous day of boating and jet skiing. All the boys had their chance on the jet skis and also on the tube behind the boat. Jayden seems to be our wild, adventurous boy, and he craved it all. He was the first one out on the jet skis, and also on the tube. He was always ready to do it again, constantly asking to go, and loving it all. Dylan did a good job at being adventurous as well, and loved it. He also loved being on the beach, throwing rocks, and playing in the sand. Ethan had to be pushed a little, but once he got going, he loved it all too. When I took him on the jet ski, I swear he fell asleep. I think it was too windy for him or something, and he closed his eyes and took a short nap. Maybe he was awake with his eyes closed, but it was for a while, and his body got really relaxed. The picture of Jayden swimming in the water is him swimming to shore from the boat. He saw the dads jumping out as we got closer to shore so they could guide the boat the rest of the way in, and keep it from getting too shallow. Jayden wanted to jump in and swim to shore, so I told him to go for it. So over the side he went, and he swam the rest of the way in.

At the end of the day the toddlers found the water spigot, and they had a lot of fun splashing and getting wet. The bottom picture makes me laugh. Ethan went the whole day without a nap, while playing in the sun and the water. He is shivering because he is soaked, and standing in a little bit of shade. Also, at this point in the day it was around 7 pm, and he usually goes to bed around 7:30, so he was exhausted. If you can tell by looking at his eyes, he is thoroughly exhausted, but he did such a good job at being happy - right up until the two minutes before he got into the car, and tripped and fell. He was asleep about 3 minutes after driving in the car.

It really was an awesome vacation. So much fun. So many good memories.

Loving it

I just love those times that my boys play well together. Its so rewarding to me as a mom to see them have fun together. Granted, it isn't all day everyday, or even all day any day, but they do play pretty well together for the most part. The other day the boys started a spontaneous game of piling on each other, and trying to do tunnels under each others legs. As they were laughing, and so was I as I watched their fun, I grabbed the camera to grab a few shots. They must have been getting ready to go somewhere, because Jayden has his socks in his hands, but I can't remember for sure.

Celebrations

We just finished a great weekend! I am totally exhausted, but we really had a lot of fun. The fun all started on Thursday with our annual block party. This is not your average block party. We have bounce houses, cotton candy, popcorn, a live band, delicious food, a row of about 15 BBQs, street races - which include the favorite riding lawn mower race, and the "Street of Fire" where boxes and boxes of fireworks are lit. We had a blast!

My sister and her family joined us last minute in all the fun. Here is Nate and Ethan having a blast in their running race. It was so cute to watch Ethan run. He kept a huge smile on his face the whole time!
Jayden didn't have the greatest luck with his races. He missed his age group for the running, so he ran in the 6 year old race with Dylan. And then for the bike races he somehow got himself in the 3 and under race. It was just him and another little boy. Jayden won, and he is quite proud of that. Of course he doesn't realize he raced a 3 year old. But what a cute kid he is!

Dylan did awesome in the bike race this year. He got third place. We had to laugh and be glad that he never crashed, though, because for probably 3/4 of the race his head was turned so he could see to the side and behind him, instead of in front of him.

We decided that it would be fun this year to catch the balloon fest this year. The only catch was that we had to get up at about 5 am to get there in time, and after staying up till about 11 pm the night before from the block party, that was no easy task. But we made it, and I think it was worth it. We had fun watching all the balloons inflate, and watch the competition once it began. Of course, only three of the balloons made it back to the field, but it was fun. Once we got home we ate more breakfast and put all the kids back to bed, including ourselves. I wasn't sure whether everyone would cooperate and get this much needed rest, but we all slept from 9:30 till nearly 1:30. That was quite the wacky nap, but it worked great for us, because then Ethan was done napping for the day, and we could go have some more fun (and wear ourselves out more). So we decided to go swimming at Devon's parents and have our own little family BBQ. We swam for almost 3 hours, enjoyed some great steak, and then came back home to crash for the night before some more fun - the next day being the 4th of July.

Our traditional 4th of July always begins with a parade with my family. The boys love it, and it is fun to be with all the cousins.

Ethan's favorite part of the parade was definitely the candy. He wasn't too obsessive collecting the candy, but ate just about every piece he got while we were still at the parade. Dylan and Jayden, on the other hand, came home each with a bag full of candy.

Oh the fun you can have passing time at a parade! Jayden, Ethan, and Nate had fun tickling Uncle David.

The part of the parade that Dylan was most looking forward to was the race cars, and the "monster trucks." These souped up Jeeps are fun to watch. They pile themselves together by rolling up on to each other's wheels. I wasn't quick enough to get a picture of that, but got one Jeep in a picture.

Following tradition again, we headed over to spend time with Devon's family with a good swim and barbecue.

Our good friends Scott and Robbie, and their kids Joshua and Kenzie gave us a call because they were in town. They lived in our ward in New York, and were among our best friends. Joshua was one of Dylan's two best buddies out there. We were soooo excited to hear from them and met up with them for some lunch, and then convinced them to come along to swim with us. We are so glad they called, and glad we got to spend some time with them.

At one point I looked up from a conversation and saw Devon throwing Jayden off the diving board. I didn't even have a chance to look through the viewfinder of my camera, I just lifted it a few inches off my lap and clicked as fast as I could. Next thing I know he's throwing Joshua, and then Dylan. All three pictures were taken with my camera just barely off my lap, and haphazardly taken. Surprisingly they all turned out great.

And to finish off the fun, we of course lit some fireworks. Uncle Brandt had lots of parachute fireworks that we let each of the kids light while we waited for it to get darker. They all had fun taking their turn, and then all the kids would chase down the parachute.