Post camp activities

Just before camp ended, Joe had a birthday, he is now a big 9 year old kid! For his birthday, he wanted to go for a horseback ride with his family. So, we rode up in the mountains to a lake and had lunch. It was a beautiful day and Joe had a huge smile on his face.
Josh doubled with Dan and Luke doubled with me. Josh was pretty much doing the splits the whole way, but he loved it too.
Another big event....my nephew (the boys cousin) Parker came home from his mission to Russia. It was so much fun to see him and my boys were so excited to have him come home. (isn't he handsome?)
After camp was over, we needed a break from our summer adventures. We went up to my brothers condo in Park City and enjoyed a much deserved weekend with our family. We went boating on Jordanelle...(just a hint, NEVER go to Jordanelle on a sunny Saturday, everyone else has the same idea). It was so dang crowded we could barely turn around, but the boys had a blast tubing.
At least it was a nice day. :) The Alpine Slide was one of the big hits of the weekend. We all had races, don't ask Dan and the 3 oldest boys who won:) We had such a great time hanging out, swimming and watching the olympics. Thanks family!

They're all mine

This was the week that we had to convince Josh that he was NOT going kayaking. He was ready to go and thought that he could make it for a week on the river in his own kayak. (Almost thought about sending him:))
This is an outfit that Luke wore for weeks. He compiled it all by himself. It is kindof creepy in this picture, but the sunglasses were added when they were giving them away at the hardware store- the gloves??? Don't quite know what to say about them, but I have to love him just the same.
Potty break in the mountains on one of our many trips up to the horse camp.
Again, these are my colorful boys that are really creative at camp. Starting to worry if camp is really good for them or not. They had so much fun with their stick horses. I think that I am raising a bunch of rednecks...........
The END!

Hiking

So after our convincing Josh that he was NOT going on the backpacking trip with the campers, or the kayaking, or the horse trip, we decided that we needed to take him on a hiking trip of our own. We walked through a river up a canyon in Capitol Reef and it was a lot of fun.
The boys could float in some parts and they actually found a waterslide that was fun until Ben got his bum stuck half way down:)
Josh was one happy camper!!!

Projects at the ranch

Ya, o.k., I know, we are the reigning beauties of the ranch. Anyway, my friend Christine came down with her family for the weekend and decided to help me with a few projects. ( I will have to take pictures of the whole finished project later). We painted the t.v. room a beautiful shade of yellow......
Christine was hard at work making me a mirror to hang in the t.v. room and....
my favorite project was painting the brick behind the wood-burning stove, although this wasn't the finished color, it made a HUGE difference in that room. Thanks Chris!!! It is always nice to have friends stop by. Anyone who wants to come down and do a project or two is welcome anytime:)

SUMMER

Summer is here. We have started the summer camp craze. The weather here is really nice.
The first week Ben went Mountain Biking and Joe went backpacking, so I had the first week with my two youngest. Josh really thought that he was going on the backpacking trip. He was devestated when he realized that he couldn't go. He wore that backpack around all day with a waterbottle inside of it. He was so sad. We will have to go on a hike later on.
We did get to go to the park in Capitol Reef. We saw a ton of deer and this tree is a favorite to climb on with its roots exposed. It's nice to have a little time with the two youngest.

End of the school year

I can't believe how quickly this school year went by. Some of my favorite things are the end of the year activities. Talent shows, carnivals, parties etc. One thing that was new this year was the "4th grade recorder program". This was the first time I had heard of this. Boy, I didn't know that Ben had such talent. It was beautiful to say the least, ALMOST brought a tear to my eye. Way to go Ben!
Another thing that we did was to see "Kung Fu Panda" . Super cute show. My boys loved it. Now, the only problem is is that they all think that Karate is great to practice on each other (not so fun when they think they know all of the moves and end up hurting themselves and others).
We also had a suprise visit from a friend of ours that just had a baby boy. ALMOST makes me want another one, but way more fun to hold and look at and then know that I don't have to breast feed, get up every 3 hours, diaper etc. They named him Lucas- he is so cute!!!
We also fit in a party for my brother Steve. It was his birthday and we celebrated at our house for a barbeque. He is really amazing and we all love him.
We are now at the ranch and enjoying this first week here. It is beautiful weather and the campers will come on Sunday. I absolutely love coming down here and experiencing the different kind of beauty here. I am one lucky girl to be with my 5 boys here for the summer. We'll see everyone in August!!!

Dentist

I wish that I had this much fun when I went to the dentist. I don't ever remember being happy or excited when I saw my dentist. I always knew that I was there for some painful reason. I would end up trying to be brave and focus on the cheap toy that I would get to pick out of the toy box after my mouth was numb as I was unknowingly biting my tongue and cheek. I have to say that I love our pediadentist (sp?). My kids are actually excited when I tell them that we are going to the dentist. What's up with that? His whole office is set up for kids. All of the assistants are cute with my boys and are so nice all of the time. (Maybe they suck on the nitrus gas on their breaks- I would actually like a tank hooked up in my closet at home so that I could take small breaks during the day:). Anyway, my kids love to go because it is one time that they get to play video games (x-box orPS2?? I don't know the difference). Then, they get cool sword balloons that they can hit each other with. I wish that I could get this much enthusiasm to get them to do chores etc. Anyway, they all passed with flying colors not one cavity in 4 sugar hungry mouths! Way to go boys.