Summer Group Part 3!

For our next activity we went up to Bingham Copper Mine. I haven't been there since I was about 8 years old. It was fun and interesting. We wandered around the visitors center and watched a film explaining how the Bingham mining settlement came to be and how they extract the copper from the rock. The kids favorite part? No suprise.....the huge trucks!

Like my fingernail in this shot? That's some impressive photography skills right there!

Summer Group Part 2!

Our next activity was a smaller group (the year-round kids were still in school), but we had a great time anyway. We hiked up to Donut Falls. The run-off was so high that we didn't make it all the way to the falls, but the weather was perfect and we enjoyed being in the great outdoors.

I'm thinking Weston wants Tanner's cookie.....

Summer Group Part 1

Over the summer I decided to do a Summer Fun Activity Group. Each Wed. we picked a different fun thing to go do with all the kids. We had such a good time and it got my kiddos out of the house. I left it open to whoever wanted to come so we ended up having a different group of people at almost every activity. We tried to keep things as inexpensive as possible and it worked out great. Most activities didn't cost a thing except a sack lunch and we carpooled to save on gas. I had a huge list of things to do, but we didn't get to all of them so I'm tucking it away and saving some for next Summer. Doing these activities really gave me appreciation for this great area we live in. There is so much to do around here! Aside from our Wednesday activities we also went over to the Summer Days Dollar Movies on Tuesdays. Top that off with going camping almost every weekend and it made for one crazy-busy-fun-filled summer break! No wonder my kids didn't want to go back to school!

For our first activity we toured the Sweet's candy factory. It's a lot of fun for both adults and kids. It's interesting to actually watch the candy being made. You know how they clean the chocolate coating machines? With chocolate. They can't use water because if any is left in the machine the chocolate will seize up so they heat up a batch of chocolate to really high temps and "scour" the machine with it.....pretty cool. My boys and I had done it once before and they always wanted to go back. The best part would be all the free samples they hand out along the way.

I had to get a picture of all of us in our stylin' hair caps. Look at that group of boys! It was complete coincidence, but the only mom's that came on this activity were all-boy moms. After dragging 9 rowdy boys through the factory I'm suprised we left it still standing!

GNO!

I don't know if you've ever been to the Cake Wrecks blog, but it is hee-lar-ious!

In her own words (her being the famous Jen, of course):

"A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it! A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected sugar-filled places."

Who would have thought that a blog about funky cakes could be so amusing? When I heard that they were coming here for a book signing I was determined to go.

It was awesome! They do a side-splittingly-funny slide show and people bring little mini replicas of the Wrecks from their website. My mom and sister joined me, so we had a night of laughter, girlie fun, and free cake.

Cake!

It doesn't get better than that.

This is one of my all-time favorite Wrecks from the blog. The "Poop Dog"....

This cupcake sized replica was made by my sister's friend. It's the "No Sexual Harrassment Cake" from the blog. Ha ha ha.

Yes, I did buy the book. Jen asked me what I'd like her to write when she signed it, I said "Just whatever. I'm easy." This is what I got......

If you know the cake that started it all this makes perfect sense......

Curtis Famiy Reunion 2010

Mike has this huge awesome tight-knit extended family. They still get together for reunions every year. I love it. My extended family has never been that close. There's a couple of them I see at Christmas, but I have cousins out there that I've never even met. The Curtis family just grows and grows, but no matter who "joins" they just extend their arms and envelope you right into the clan like you've always been a member. This year we went up to Indian Creek. It was a beautiful campsite high up above Joe's Valley. It was a long drive, but it was worth it.

The annual talent show/auction. Sadly some of us don't posses enough talent to participate, but we enjoy watching those who do have it. This isn't even half the group.....
One of my best memories from this year's trip was going out for a 4 mile run by myself. I don't get the opportunity to trail run very much, but I love it. It's so peaceful to be out there running through the beautiful scenery. My heart just swells with gratitude for this amazing place we live in. I was out running and I happened to look back in the trees and see something.....later I took the cousins out there to show them. It was a tepee made of sticks!

Where is this baby's mother? Would somebody please feed him? The poor child is eating bark for heaven's sake....bark!

Mike's sister Mellinda...

More cute boys....

Some wonderful person brought up pinatas for the kids to break. They had a blast!

Tanner had such a swing on him! He was in the younger age group and he was the only from that group who could make a dent in the pinata without parental help. I wasn't suprised at all....he's an expert at breaking things!

We took a short drive up to Potter's Ponds to canoe and fish.

Seriously! Where is this baby's mother? Every picture of him he's putting something dirty in his mouth!

Mike took Caeden out for some one-on-one fishing time and Caeden caught an Albino Trout. He was so excited! His daddy caught a rainbow trout, but Caeden kept saying that the Albino's were the hardest fish of all to catch. I wish I would have got a picture. It was a pretty big moment for him.
I think they might have had TOO MUCH FUN! It sure made for a nice drive home though.

A Weekend of Bliss!

This is one of those "catch-up" posts I warned about. We actually took this trip in June, but our summer has been so busy and so packed with fun stuff I didn't get most of it blogged. My wonderful younger sister took our 3 boys for a whole weekend and Mike and I got to go on a trip just the two of us. We went up to Causey Reservoir (love it there!). There's nothing more romantic than paddling across a lake in the twilight. It's so peaceful and quite. The fish jump, the night sounds are beautiful, the stars are amazing!

We were so wrapped up in being with each other that we didn't take very many pics, but the day we were headed home we decided to go on a "short" 6 mile hike up to Mt. Lewis Peak. I used to hike it growing up and I hadn't been up there in years. It wasn't too long before we realized that it was 6 miles up and 6 miles back....not 6 miles round-trip. We're in pretty decent shape right now (not trying to brag) so the distance wasn't a problem, we even ran quite a bit of it, but we got back lots later than we had planned (we also hadn't packed a lunch! I was soooo hungry!)

This view was worth the 12 miles!

Mike said I had to get a picture of the canoe strapped to the vehicle to prove that we did in fact canoe. I love having pictures from my trips, but I also don't always mind when we're having too much FUN to take many pictures!

I love having time to reconnect as a couple. We come back feeling like newlyweds. We hold hands more, tease each other, flirt, laugh, and remember how much we love each other. I'm already thinking of trip ideas for next year. Shhh! I might be planning a suprise that has to do with:

1- a labyrinth

2- complete isolation

3- and a guide book by Thomas G. Rampton

Primary Bike Parade

I just had to post a couple of pictures from this great Primary activity. The kids loved it, but the best part is this guy.....

see that smile?

He just barely (finally!) got the hang of riding his bike without training wheels and he's had his bum in the saddle almost non-stop ever since.

And this one......

is a speedy terror on his scooter, watch out!

Sweet rewards!