Oh Pioneer Day

I love little holidays (or not-so-little living in Utah). However, I love Pioneer day! The kids & I enjoyed watching the Day's of '47 Parade from the air conditioned comfort of our living room. My brother Steve had been assigned to help out with a Stake float for his stake up in Farmington. It is shown below -- he was the female gull, flapping his wings up & down (NICE ORANGE TIGHTS STEVE!)

In the evening we had my sister Christine & Dave's parents over for some bbq & fireworks. We ended up getting side tracked w/ rockband. Somehow - once that comes out, it's always quite the crowd pleaser.

I love getting together with family - especially to celebrate holidays. We were happy to have them join us :)

Camping

This past weekend we finally took our first ever family camping trip - Lame, i know... But, we had a great time. We went up about 20 minutes outside of Kamas. We had a great spot at the Duchene Tunnel campground. We had this little portion of the Provo River right in our campsite. It was great for playing around in - and hosing off the messy kids.

A few days before camping, Derek had gotten into a fight with a couple of Hornets & lost... so when we got up camping, every bug, fly, insect or piece of ash floating in the air sent him into a tissy. He'd cover his head & start crying. It wasn't until 48 hours later that he could tolerate the ants... only by telling them "Hi", and that he was bigger than them. The joys!

Here's our Family Picture :)

I worked the Dutch oven like nobody's business... which was good since the coleman stove we had was missing a part & didn't work. We had some great Peach Cobbler & breakfast pizza in the Dutch oven. YUM!
Hailey & Derk had a great time throwing rocks & sticks in the stream & splashing each other.
Derek working his magic :)



Everybody loves some s'mores :) Hailey was thrilled to do marshmellows for everyone. She especially liked doing Dave's since he doesn't care if they are scorched.

Derek didn't know how to eat this properly -- He kept licking around the sides.
FILTH! Derek couldn't stay clean - which is a lot to ask camping -- but sticking his hands in the cinders & rubbing them on his face - Oh dear!
We had to strip him down before bed & rinse him off in the river.
Dutch oven breakfast :)

The Greek Festival

We followed our friend Amber & her daughter Cambrie down to Price today to hit up the Greek Festival. I'm all about the greek food - it was SO yummy! I could have eaten 5 gyro's by myself! We went down w/ Dave's mom Linda & Derek & Dave. We had a fun time. It was just a little to-do, but always nice to get out of town for a little while.

Here dave's displaying how great the food is - and Derek is following suit - Linda's in the back.

There were little booths for the kids - Derek raked in the goodies on the golf ball/fish bowl toss. Gotta love the candy bracelets.
We traded in our tickets for snowcones. I was pretty disappointed - I'm a snowcone/shaved ice snob. But - it was cold, which was nice on such a hot day.

Where's Dave?!

So this picture totally cracks me up.... Dave went to get his camo gear for the bow hunt he's going on in September so he can "blend in". In this picture you can hardly see him! Even Mandy's wondering what the heck the deal with the outfit is! HA!

**4th of July Festivities**

Well - another 4th has come and gone. We stayed true to our recent traditions. On the third we went to Lagoon w/ my brother Steve & his family and my Sister Melanie & Her family. Fun was had by all. I particularly enjoyed floating on the lazy river (as that was the only "ride" I could go on)

Here the gang's just gearing up to hit all the rides
Hailey's favorite thing at Lagoon are all the games that you play & can win stuffed animals. She won 1 by herself, and Dave helped her score two more! Go team!!
Derek braved the Dino-Drop. It's like a mini version of the rocket. He did great on it - didn't even cry, although he did look very concerned when it dropped him!
This was more his style - driving the cars w/ cousin Abbey.

THE 4th ACTVITIES...
This is the 3rd year we've participated in the Kaysville 5k/10k run. Hailey was our family's representative - there was no way I was running! She had a good walk/run, and finished in about 50 minutes. She especially enjoyed all the otter pops she got after completing the race (she had at least 20)!
.... thankfully she shared otter pops w/ me - it was HOT! It was about 90 degrees at 9am when the race was over - thank goodness for an overcast morning!
After the race, we always head over to the Kaysville parade. They do a great job there, and end the parade w/ a water parade - all the water trucks & floats come through and just soak the people. It's a great way to stay cool! Above are my niece Brittanie, nephews Ben & Matt.
Here are all the other nieces & nephews waiting to score on the treats being hucked into the crowd by the floats.
Our family!

After the parade we went back to Steve & Jenny's house for some delicious bbq - brats, varieties of steak, hotdogs & the works! We ate a ton, then played some wiffle ball. It was so much fun! I dominated at catching everyone's ball! Nothing like getting your young nephews out! :)


Here's derek - about to crash after a long day... He was admiring the fireworks. My brother in law Bill scored a bunch of "wyoming" fireworks... Dave added in all the legals to that, and it was a great firework show - until someone's bottle rocket went array and hit me in the belly & arm! Yikes! Thankfully it didn't explode until after it bounced off my wonder-tummy! Phew!
Dave & I being patriotic!
Our yummy dessert that my niece made - Fruit pizza, it was SO good!
Dave stirring the pot - post smoke bomb ... I thought it looked like a good witches cauldron.

We had a great time playing w/ the family. The kids had so much fun! We love getting together & spending time w/ our family! Another successful 4th of July!