frustrated

We've been having a few computer gliches. We thought we had them taken care of. HA! I can't get this dumb blog to load pictures. If anyone has any thoughts, feel free to share!

silver lake moose

The kids and I went up to Silver Lake today with some friends. First we did some letterboxing. Its like a treasure hunt with clues to a little box with a stamp and notebook in it. Ryan found the second one all by himself. Jacob and one of his friends dug the first one out of the bushes for us. Anyway, by the time we got 1/2 way around the lake, we looked across and saw two moose!! So awesome. By the time we got around the lake to where the moose were, they had gone back into the bushes a bit. But that's ok, you gotta be careful around those critters. The air was cool, the sun was out and a good time was had by all.

4th of july 5k

This is how it feels to finish your very first 5k!!

I guess its a family tradition now to do the local 5k on July 4th. We all completed the 5k -- Mark ran with Jacob, Jared improved his previous time by 4 minutes, Ryan got 4th in his age group (again!), and I ran with Matthew in the stroller.

baseball and bees

Jacob's baseball season officially ended while we were at Heber Valley Camp. We came home to find out that his team finished in 2nd place. That is so awesome -- love that trophy! Jacob loves baseball and what better way to celebrate summer and birthday than going to a Bees game? This is a beautiful venue for baseball -- check out those gorgeous mountains in the background.

Jacob is lovin it.

It is always exciting to meet Bumble. He drew a little bee face on Matthew's hand. Matthew is now Bumble's greatest fan!

Jacob got Bumble's autograph on his Bees ticket.

Alan, Heidi & their kids joined us for the evening and fun was had by all!

b-day boy

Jacob recently celebrated his birthday. He started the day off with waffles and choke cherry syrup. Next it was time to unwrap a table load of presents.

Just a bit of his new loot:

This Bop-It game has provided LOTS of entertainment!

The newest addition to the Lego collection, but assembled exclusively by Jacob.

After dinner, we celebrated with chocolate cake and then went to see Toy Story 3 at the movie theater.

May all your wishes and dreams come true, Jacob! Happy Birthday -- We love you!

heber valley camp

We had a fun campout with some of the Vawdreys a week or so ago up at the Heber Valley Camp. It is used as a girls camp during the week and then families can use it on the weekends. Al & Heidi cooked ups some delicious BBQ ribs, potatoes, and apple crisp in these dutch ovens. There were lots of little critters all around the camp.

What's a campfire without some guitar music?

Jacob, Katey, Rachel, and Matthew had fun "helping" bring some wood down to the fire. Mark pushed the wheelbarrow and Grandma went along to make sure no one fell out.

That's my Matthew!

We did one of the challenge courses and one of the activites involved swinging from one rope to another to cross a "sea of alligators". Matthew enjoyed the swinging.

This particular course has an awesome high swing activity! You get all strapped in and then a long rope is pulled to hoist you to the top of a tree. You let go and swing like a birdie! This is Ryan.

Matthew could hardly contain his excitement for the swing. He had been looking forward to this for days! Here he is getting harnessed up.

Swing, my boy! He LOVED it!

Love this picture of Mark enjoying the ride!

Everybody loved the swing -- even G & G!! We also had a great time rowing around on the lake, eating, playing in the fire, making s'mores, staying up way too late, talking and hanging out!

end of the trip

Yep, this really is the last post about our vacation. We had most of the day before our flight left and we had done everything we had set out to do, so we went back for a closer look at the Palmyra temple. It is so beautiful and quiet all nestled up in the trees. There's nothing else around it (like city streets, homes, traffic) and that alone sets it apart from any other temple I've visited.

We took a walk around the outside (we didn't go in) and gazed at the beautiful stained glass windows and grounds.

Next we headed up to Lock 29 on the Erie Canal. I thought the canal would be much much bigger, but it was actually rather small in my opinion. You could only use a row boat or raft for water travel at this segment of the canal. There were a bazillion ducks and a bazillion more feathers. Jacob & Sarah collected as many feathers as they could in a few minutes and then lined them up to see who had more.

In the end, Jacob was victorious. However, Sarah had to share some with Zach and so I think they ended up pretty much even in numbers.

A view of the lock. The water level behind these gates is 16 feet higher.

We said goodbye to Dave, Alicia, Sarah, and Zach. I am so glad they came with us! We still had awhile before we needed to head to the airport, so when we asked the kids which site they would like to see one more time they unanimously said "Hill Cumorah"! They had a great time running and racing up the hill and doing some rolling down as well.

We had a great time and we were ready to head home and see Matthew again. One of my friends loaned us a book that was a fabulous travel guide -- "The LDS Family Travel Guide: Sharon, Palmyra and Kirtland" by Becky Cardon Smith. It's got everything from directions, history, places to visit, sites, restaurants, accomodations, and more. If anyone takes this same trip, I highly recommend the book. Most importantly, thanks G&G Vawdrey for entertaining Matthew while we were away.