Lagoon

This year we celebrated Caeden's 8th birthday early and we went to Lagoon (thank you KSL Classifieds for the uber-cheap tickets!). He's wanted to go for about the last three years and we finally decided that this was a good time to take him. He and Tanner were in heaven all day! (Weston was at the babysitters).

Mike riding one of the kiddie rides.......


What a dork....

Tanner and I just got drenched under the waterfall of Rattlesnake Rapids......

Caeden's favorite ride was the log ride.........

The boys must have rode the Dragon Rollercoaster at least 10 times. It gave Mike and I a chance to sit for a little while and let our stomachs settle.....we're getting old!

Yeah....we can't take much of this anymore, but the boys had NO problems.....

Tanner was so funny. Since we went in October Lagoon was doing Frightmares and they had different Haunted Houses set up throughout the park. He would beg and beg and beg to go through one, hate every minute while we were walking through, leave the building crying (literally) and then start begging to go to another one as soon as he calmed down. We would try to talk him out of it, but he would insist that the Haunted Houses were his favorite part of Lagoon. So funny!

Fun at the Park!

We spent a Family Home Evening at the park trying to catch one of the last warm days of the summer.......

Weston LOVED the slide. Mike must have stood there and caught him going down at least 20 minutes!

Utah State Fair

Yep. I'm a dork. But I LOVE the fair! This year I had my nieces staying with me during fair week. Yikes! Do I dare take 5 kids (4 of them were under the age of 5!)? Grandma came to help out and we had a great (but exhausting) time.

Riding their farm tractors.......

Take a look at her face.....I'd stay out of the way if I were you!

Planting "seeds". They had the cutest Little Hands on the Farm exhibit.......

Picking apples from the orchard.....

Taking corn to feed the cows....

The farm animals are always fun. They got to pet a calf....

Sweet little Lexie-girlfriend was so in love with this poor goat. Everytime he stuck his head out of the bars she immediately put him in a very smothering lovey headlock and the goat couldn't pull free. She was giggling and loving every animal she could touch. Sooooo cute!

Caeden loved petting the goats, until it got ahold of his jacket and tried to eat it.....

Grandma treated all the kids to sticky yummy chocolate covered marshmallows. She and I both got Caramel-Chocolate-Toffee Covered Apples ..........oh my! Gooey sweet chocolatey heaven!

Happy Retirement Daddy!

I think my dad has been talking about his retirement for the last 10 years. All that waiting and planning has finally paid off because this July he got to retire! We wanted to do a special friend and family party for him, but trying to pin him down long enough to put something together was a challenge! I don't think he's going to be using much of his new found freedom to stay at home and relax! It was a suprise and we had a great turnout of friends and family.



I wish I would have had the time to take more pictures, but I didn't. We had a Safari theme and I had hung large green paper leaves and animal print balloons all over the house. We also had signs with sayings like "300 Miles to Zumbawi", "Do Not Feed The Monkeys", "Warning: Elephant Crossing". The house looked pretty cute!



The kids favorite part was the cake (I know, big suprise).....

You can't tell, but Mike and I are in Safari getup........

Cherie and her beautiful girls.......

Jeff, my brother, and Nicole......

My great Aunt Linda & Uncle Ross......

My great Aunt Sharon & Quinn.....

The guest of honor and his lovely wife.....

I know this is something he's looked forward to for a long time and I'm so happy for him!

Everyone made a guess as to what he would do with all his free time during retirement. Some of the suggestions were:

Get a tattoo and wear a muscle shirt - Mike

Start a daycare for delinquent children - Tanner's idea....with some help from mom

Spend more time with your Aunt Linda -Linda

Spend lots of time with your grandkids - Ross

Travel the world, discover a new bird and name it after yourself: The red-tailed, blue featheres, dumb-dumb bird - Shauna

Take bongo drum lessons -Jeff

Sleep over at my house. Watch Pokemon with me. Play Pokemon cards with me - Caeden

Spend as much time with kids and grandkids as possible. Aside from that, skydiving, bunge-jump, and paintballing. And maybe some much needed rest and time with your beautiful wife. -Kimber

Do a triatholon. Take some cookies classes and then invite us over for dinner. Try belly dancing. Your Favorite Daughter - Cherie

Do nothing - ?

See the world - ?

Bear Lake

I love love love Bear Lake, but we haven't been up for a couple of years. We finally squeezed a trip in this Sept. I was worried about it being too cold, but it was perfect weather! It was also nice, because the beach wasn't full of the summer crowds.

Weston kept chasing after seagulls....

Love this pic with sand on him bum, such a cute stink!

Caeden and Tanner adore swimming.....

Look at that background view! No wonder they call Bear Lake the "Caribbean of the Rockies"!Mike building a sand castle with the boys.......

Weston had so much fun there! The novelty of water and sand could have kept him entertained for days.

We forgot our camera, but Mike and I got the opportunity (thanks to some wonderful granparents) to do the 50 mile bike ride around Bear Lake. It was so nice. We spent the whole 4 1/2 hours talking and enjoying each others company. The ride was beautiful. The leaves were changing colors, we kept seeing lots of wildlife: deer, rabbits, an owl, fish, ducks, and even some mountain goats. I felt great for most of the ride, but the last 10 miles were tough. I've done that ride once before, but we got rained on and the temps dropped so it made for a pretty miserable time. This ride couldn't have been more perfect! The weather was perfect, the scenery was perfect and the company was perfect! Afterwards the pancake breakfast, shower, nap, famous Bear Lake shakes, playing on the beach, and then eating Papas campfire apple pies made for a perfect day!