Spring Trip to Utah - Logan & SLC

Back in late April/early May, I took the kids on a two week trip to Utah. Alan couldn't take vacation, so it was me and my 4 kiddos. We met up with my parents in Logan, Utah to visit my Uncle Dick and Aunt Evelyn. I wish the visit could have been longer, because we LOVE to visit them.
Aunt Evelyn gave all the kids treat bags to take with them, and Uncle Dick let them have a little trinket from Uncle Don. They were very excited!
Leilani was especially excited to see "cousin" chica.
We were able to go to the cemetary to see some of our ancestors' gravesites.

We also saw the Logan temple.
The kids were VERY excited when it started to snow as we left Logan!
Our next stop was dinner with Mark and Shauna.
They fed us a very nice meal.
Then we spent time holding and playing with Jackson...
having push up contests with Uncle Mike... (Benjamin wasn't doing push ups in the right position, and I have a VERY funny video of Uncle Mark trying to correct how he was doing them! Poor Jackson, LOL)

and pretty much just wearing Uncle Mike out! (He's ready to be a dad)
Benjamin showed everyone his burn. The poor kid spilled hot soup on him right before our trip. (So, do not put hot soup in front of your child - even if you tell them not to touch it because it is too hot)
We spent the night in Provo with Uncle Mike and Aunt Alicia.
A lot of time was spent on the Wii playing Guitar Hero. I wish I had got a video of Benjamin trying to sing "Crazy Train" and the girls trying to do "Jesse's Girl". It was so funny.
Benjamin added a black eye and some facial injuries to his wounds when he knocked Mike and Alicia's treadmill over on top of him (It was leaning against a wall and he was throwing a fit. Not a good combination). We had a good time visiting with family, though. We don't get to see them very often.

Catching Up With Cousins

We were able to see Alan's brother Paul and his family for a little while as they passed through Roseburg. They live in Kentucky, so we don't see them very often. The last time we saw them was when we were in Missouri last summer. The kids were excited to see Uncle Paul, Aunt JJ, Claire, and Rachael again, and meet new cousin Maggie.

We visited at a small park next to the Umpqua river. The kids had a good time swinging...

and playing on the playground.
Leilani loves little kids, and she had a good time playing with Rachael.
Little Maggie was full of smiles.

It was short visit, but we were glad to be able to see them. Any time spent with family is great!

The Disney Christmas Carol Train

A while back, we went to Portland and saw the Disney train. It was touring the United States to advertise the movie, Christmas Carol, which is coming out this holiday season. We drove up with the Larsen's and met Alli and her kids up there.


Everything was decorated for Christmas, which was funny since the temperature was in the 90's

They had snow machines (if you click on the picture and make it bigger, you might actually be able to see the flakes), which helped keep us cool.
This is Ben by a model of Big Ben

They had pictures of the characters and the costumes that they wore.

We also got to see a 3D preview of the movie, which was pretty neat.

We could use this as our Christmas card picture, if only Alan had gone with us.

Afterwards, we toured the train station and got some fun engineer hats. It was a fun day!

Fireworks at Grandma's House

Since we went to my brother Todd's house for 4th of July, we didn't get to do any of our own fireworks. So we did the sparklers and other fireworks at Grandma's house a few days later.
Uncle Kelly had the job of lighting sparklers and fireworks.
The kids really enjoyed the sparklers.

They liked the fireworks, but thought they were too loud sometimes!

We will not even pretend that the men practice safe behavior around fireworks. Luckily my husband doesn't participate (I don't know if he would do it if I wasn't there, or not - I hope not!), and the kids know that it is not even an option.

It is kind of funny when they get singed, in a "you know you deserve it" kind of way. LOL

We had a lot of fun, and enjoyed just being together!

4th of July

I thought I better post my 4th of July pictures before July was over :)
My girls made their own t-shirts for 4th of July, using an idea from the Family Fun magazine. I think they turned out pretty cute!

We started out the morning at the ward breakfast. The kids love to get their faces painted by the young women.

Next, we drove up to Monmouth so the kids could march in a 4th of July parade. They decorated bikes, scooters and wagons in all sorts of patriotic garb.

After marching in the parade, we settled down to watch a parade. It was fun to see the floats, get candy and see all the cars, trucks, horses, ect.

Emily made a flag cake for dessert.

The men spent the afternoon in usual style - eating and watching movies

The kids kept cool eating popcicles...
and swimming!
Later that night we went to watch fireworks in Independence.

Alan and I had matching t-shirts - he doesn't mind being silly like that :)

Leilani used the waiting time for the fireworks to learn to braid and then practice on Aunt Kim.

Dad used his new camera equipment to capture the fireworks. I dedicated my camera to all the people shots! We had a good time spending time with family and celebrating our country's birth.