A much needed trip...

To Utah!!

(part 1)

Our boys were super excited as you can tell.

First stop, the Nelson residence. We were able to spend a few days at the cabin and it was perfect in every way! So fun, so relaxing, so peaceful, and soo beautiful! Just what the doctor ordered for our family.

We did a lot of exploring and walking.. It's sad that our boys don't get to do that as much as we did when we were younger.

You can't go on a "hike" without walking sticks and trust me they didn't go anywhere without them.

Us on top of a Large beaver dam.. The boys loved this.

On our way back to the cabin.. Our boys weren't use to having to "walk" so far.. so daddy had to carry them. Wow we are all really out of shape if we can't even go on a 1/4 of a mile walk!! LOL

The Tire swing..

He LOVED it!!!

One of the mornings that we were there the couples were able to go out for a ride and then shoot some things. :)

I love my sisters-in-law!!

They look soo tough!

This picture cracks me up.. What is Sam doing?! (far left)

The Lake.. Isn't it just BEAUTIFUL!!!

Lets throw some rocks..

Ammon Loved this little rock and he kept jumping off of it.. so cute!

Us on the ranger..

This is what we saw on our ride. I was in awe at how Beautiful everything looked.

Matt and I were able to stay an extra day without any kids and it was wonderful. It was nice to be alone just us two. Beside the fact that we played a little Monopoly and Matt killed me (which lead to him being in the dog house..) But my favorite part of it all was after we got the cabin all cleaned and ready to go, we sat outside on the porch swings and talked and looked at the beautiful coloring of the fall leaves that surrounded us. It was so peaceful. I couldn't of asked for a better ending to a better trip!

Summer 2011

Other than drama at the Nelsons, we have had a "decent" summer. We have had lots of new resident families move in to the area, that we love, that and help make us feel like this is home now. I'm so grateful for them and the love they have shown our family even though we don't know each other well (yet)

Back to our summer... here's some fun things that went on these last few months.

New Pet's

Ammon was in our back yard playing while I was doing some dishes. He came running in and said "Mom, there's a turtle in the back yard!" I of course did not believe him and said "you mean a bug?" He said no and continued to say it's a turtle. I didn't think he had ever seen one before so how would he really know what it looked like? Well, I finally went out there and sure enough there was a turtle in our back yard!! You don't see that every day! He lives under our porch. We have only seen him a few times but when we do the kids sure get excited.

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(If you get grossed out easily, then you might not want to read or look at the next two pictures!)

Matt had to go out of town for a few days which left my mom and I and the kids home alone. I had just had my back go out so that was why she was here. Anyway, we had a really big rain storm and it went on forever. After the storm was done I went by the pool to make sure the filter wasn't clogged with any leafs or sticks. I could tell that it was jammed packed with stuff from the storm and I needed to some how open it up and take everything out. As I looked closer to what was in it I saw a whole bunch of dead frogs! Oh, I wanted to throw up. Of course something like this is going to happen when Matt is out of town! I tried to open it but I couldn't (nor did I really want to) so I went and got my mom.. She came over and with all of her might she opened it up and reached her hand in there to pull out 6 DEAD FROGS!! I think I was screaming the whole time. Well I knew Matt wouldn't believe me when I told him what happened so I had to have proof...

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At the Susan Park with the Thornton's and the McKamey's

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The Fort building begins

Our boys LOVE building forts with their dad. It seems like they want to do it almost weekly. I think Matt enjoys it just as much as they do. :)

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Ice cream, ice cream we all scream for ice cream!!

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We had a lot of rain storms this summer and as fun as they were to watch we did Not enjoy them cause every time we had a big storm our basement would flood! It's been a pain trying to fix so for now we just roll up the carpet when there's a storm and put Lots of towels down and when its dry we put the carpet back down. haha Hopefully next year we can actually do something to fix it.

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Swimming at the Nelson's

When we first bought this house I was scared half to death to have a swimming pool in our back yard. I was terrifid that something would happen to our kids and I wanted to just rip the whole thing out. But that would just be way to much work and way too expensive. So we kept it and I'm so glad we did. It still makes me nervous with having small children but for the most part we can enjoy ourselves.

We have used it so much this summer. Lots of play groups and friends over to enjoy it with us. When Matt had his surgery his parents and two brother were here and it was so fun to go out there and play. Our boys Loved playing with them in the water. They actually made it so Ammon was no longer scared and he could go by himself in his flooty.