back to school

Jared & Ryan -- they are both in the same school this year!

Jacob, ready to go to school without brothers for the first time!
The summer heat has finally decided to kick in and our schools do not have air conditioning! The boys are loaded with frozen water bottles and ice drinks in their lunch boxes. The next couple weeks will probably be next to unbearable as classroom temps get into the 80's. Poor kids. Maybe we should have postponed the beginning of school...

goatville

I was highly disappointed in the petting zoo at the county fair this year. It was mostly goats -- little hungry annoying goats. We bought the overpriced cup of carrot slices and headed into the corral. The goats were all over Jacob, holder of the carrot cup.

Matthew found the miniature horse and gave him a pat.

Jacob still patiently dealing with the pesky goats.

Matthew finally got brave and fed a goat.

And another one. When the carrots were gone, so were we.

ryan has a birthday

Ryan recently celebrated his birthday. All my kids have warm weather birthdays and Ryan has the last birthday of the season, so it is ALWAYS a highly anticipated occasion! This year he requested donuts instead of cake. Its a good thing we went with donuts from Dicks (they're big) so that all his candles would fit. He's getting very old these days! We spread his celebration over a couple of days and this was round #1 -- celebrated at the end of Lagoon day when all the cousins could be with us.

This has become a favorite shirt -- thanks, Grandma V!

This child loves Reeses & money!

Mark & I made Ryan wait until his actual birthday to give him his gift. We debated and debated on whether to give him what he actually has been asking for, or try something different. In the end, we decided to grant his wish (along with a few rules). He really didn't think we'd come through with it, so he was VERY surprised when he opened the package to discover his very own itouch! I LOVE the expression on his face!

We substituted donuts for cake, and so naturally we had to substitute the ice cream for Fat Boys!

Happy Birthday, Ryan!! We love you!!

lagoon

It was Vawdrey family day at Lagoon! A very much anticipated day by several of the kids. The excitement was contagious and we all had a fun day -- even grumpy Grandpa, who pretty much hates Lagoon. Matthew has been looking forward to riding airplanes for a whole year! He especially enjoys the ones that have guns attached so he can shoot AND go in circles!
Matthew & Zach testing their driving skillz.
Totally HATE waiting in line for a ride!
We stood in line FOREVER to ride the log ride, the kids loved it. We even managed to keep Zach's shirt dry (by removing it for the ride) -- he detests being wet and tends to strip off clothes, no matter where he is!
A smaller version of the Tidalwave ride -- perfect for Zach, me, and Matthew.
The new Bombora ride turned out to be a favorite. Notice that even Grandpa enjoyed the ride with Matthew. Me & Zach are right behind them.
The scrambler -- one of my favorites! Matthew liked it too!
Matthew & I were good lagoon day buddies. I managed to ride The Bat with the big boys, but they spent 99% of their day riding the exciting rides with Mark, David, Ethan, and/or Eric (rides in which I am a big chicken) . Somehow I totally missed riding anything with Jacob - sad - but he had loads of fun with Sarah and Rachel. Hopefully, they rode all the rides that Sarah had made a list of -- funny girl! Days like this are what good memories are made of and what makes us want to spend time together again.

fishing at trial lake

This is Trial Lake in the Uinta mountains. We headed up there with Eric to do some fishing. Unfortunately, the fishing wasn't that great on this trip -- everyone managed to catch at least one fish, but the ones we caught were small, so we threw them back in the lake. We spent a lot of time waiting for a bite.



Finally! Jacob landed a fish big enough to keep! David helped him get it off the hook.
Wahoo -- proud fisher boy!
David and Sarah took Jacob's fish and put it on the stringer and then left it down in the water with some rocks holding the stringer in place. Sometime during the next half hour or so, the fish came back to life and managed to get itself, with the stringer still attached, back out into the lake! We saw it out there swimming around and it refused to be caught a second time. Yep, the big one that got away! Jacob was a bit disappointed, but it makes a great little story.

Mark helped Matthew hold the fishing pole for awhile and then...
ta-da! He caught a little fish!
Mark also helped Zach take a turn with the pole.
What a day for relaxing on the rocks hoping for a nibble.
Eric provided the kids with Airheads.
Jared managed to reel in this little guy. He tried to throw the fishy back, but he didn't want to live, so Jared decided to use him to complete his fishing merit badge requirements.

Yes, gut the thing to prepare him for cooking & eating.
After fishing, we stopped at Provo River Falls to have lunch before heading home.

Its too bad the fishing wasn't better, but it was a really fun day anyway!

a visit to the fire station

A group of moms & kids from our ward visited the fire station. It was cool to see the fire engines and ambulances, but I think they could have done a much better job teaching the kids what its all about and being entertaining. I was a bit disappointed to say the least. Apparently better tours are given in October when its fire prevention month. I'll keep that in mind, if we try this activity again. Oh well, I got a couple fun pictures anyway. Everyone got a turn to sit in the passenger seat inside one of the fire engines.

Matthew with his friends Weston & Taya, and below is Jacob taking his turn in the passenger seat.