God's Creations . . . More Family Time

One of the items on our list of things to do together as a family is to enjoy the great outdoors and all of God's creations. I compare the Utah mountains and the Idaho mountains and I have to tease Adam about the Utah mountains not being "real" mountains. Utah mountains are full of Quaking Aspen trees and it just doesn't feel right. It seems that the mountains in Idaho are much different than in Utah. Idaho has some really great mountains full of various types of tall, dense Pine trees. Oh, just thinking about them makes me remember camping with my family.

The only draw back to my Idaho mountains is that they are so far away. It takes a little drive from Gooding, Idaho to get to the mountains. So it's funny that I even have fond memories of camping because it seemed I was always sick because of the car ride through the mountains. It was miserable for me but once we arrived at our destination the smell of the cool, clean, fresh air, the slight wind blowing through the trees and just being in nature was worth the trip. Mom and Dad used to take us hunting for craw dads and even let me bring one home and take it to school for show and tell. That was awesome for a first grader. So even though I hold such a special place in my heart for my Idaho mountains and even though I hate to admit it, Utah is such a magnificent place to live. There are so many things to do and all of them are right at our finger tips.

One of our favorite places to go is up Payson canyon to the Grotto. It's such a beautiful walk even Eli could walk the whole way. At the end is this little waterfall and it's so beautiful. Adam and I used to go up there when we were dating and now we like to take our kids. It's perfect for them. We took our good friends the Hanson's for their first time to the Grotto and I think they had a great time.

The kids had so much fun playing in the Ice cold water.

Eli and his friend Athena. They are so cute and are such good friends. 1 year olds but still good friends. They are so cute. When we get together these two always switch moms. How silly.

Mandalyn and her friend Tabitha.

It just amazes me that Heavenly Father has created such a beautiful world. I am so grateful for the beautiful mountains we have to enjoy.

Family Time

So Adam and I decided that we would make a special effort to spend some quality time with our children. At the beginning of the summer we made a list of things we wanted to do as a family and then we cross them off our list. We started off really good but we have been so busy we haven't done as much as we would have liked to but we have done some really fun things so far.

Just like every other pre-teen little girl, Mandalyn LOVES Hannah Montana. We tried to get tickets to her concert a few months back but they sold out so quickly that we didn't even have a chance. Not to mention if we could find tickets they would cost us a fortune. So we decided that we would buy her and her cousins Brittyn and Maelie tickets to the Stadium of fire. It worked out perfectly because Annell & Ryan's family were already going to be down this way for the National Wrestling competition.

Adam & I got to the stadium early to get a spot outside the stadium for the rest of the family that wouldn't be going in. Then we brought a whole camp chef and BBQ and treats. It was a lot of fun. It turned out that The rest of the family was offered tickets so the only ones that didn't get in were Adam, Eli, My dad and Ryan.

The little girls were so excited to see Miley Cyrus . . .

Look at these sweet girls. Mandalyn and Maelie are so cute in their Hannah Montana Shirts.





Mandalyn was so funny she couldn't keep her eyes open when I took the pictures. Oh well, she's so cute you can't complain.

not a good blogger...

ok, so I'm not a very good blogger... I was so excited to get my blog set up and share with my friends. Especially to share pictures of my sweet children but in order to be a blogger I must write something... It just seems like life is so crazy. I hardly have time to get dinner made, my house cleaned & play with the kids after work. I will try to be better at this blogging stuff.