Red Butt -- I mean Red Butte Garden :)

Yeah, pretty much I think I'm funny!!! ha ha he he!

Anyway, yesterday my sisters Carrie, Leisa and their kids came down and we went and walked around at Red Butte Garden. It was beautiful with a capitol B!!! I love flowers of all kinds so it was fun to see so many different ones. And the arbors they have there with vines and flowers growing all over them are so pretty! I wish I had one of those over my patio -- maybe one day!



Purple Cone Flowers, one of my all time favorites! I actually planted some seeds in one of my flower beds this year and they didn't come up. I guess they don't like me as much as I like them! Darn! :)





Aren't they so cute, I just LOVE them!!!






A cute little birthday cake made out of flowers! Happy Birthday Quinney - in September of course.

These next several pictures are of the little children's garden. This is the entrance to the sandbox in the children's garden, I want to build this in my yard too! Nothing but envy, dang it!!!


Follow the yellow brick road.....

What better way to cool off and end the day than a little splash in the fountain?

Okay, a lot of splash in the fountain.....

After we changed the kids wet clothes we went out to dinner, it was delicious! We had a fun day, thanks Leisa for the great idea, let's make it an annual thing!!! :)

~Mendon Pioneer Day Celebration~

This last weekend we headed up north for the Mendon 24th Pioneer Day Celebration. My sister Carrie and I got up early Saturday morning at 7 am (that's early to me!) to do the 2K sunrise walk. Carrie was thinking a 2K was 3 miles but after we did the walk we were thinking, gosh that didn't take us very long, were we just talking and lost track of time? Well actually a 2k is not 3 miles at all, it's more like a mile and a half. ha ha! Woops, oh well, at least we got some exercise! Later that morning my nephew Buggy and niece Beana caught bunny rabbits in the bunny chase. (Buggy and Beana are their nicknames of course!) But my sister Julie/Buggy's Mom was not too happy about that! See the bunny with pink ears on Avery's lap, cute! This was taken before Buggy had to find a new owner for it! :)

At noon we watched the parade and got tons of candy, then we were off to watch the 6th annual Great Race. My parents were in charge of one of the 4 teams, the team that actually won might I add. Of course the Great Race is always entertaining to watch but I think Craig and Gordon Jensen won it for us when they were sawing the log, pulled our team right out in front! ha ha! Oh it was great!

Next on our agenda, the Fireman's Hosedown!!!

Taysia and Avery got soaked!

We had a bit of lunch at the good ole' hamburger stand and then it was time for the kids games! Avery got a little nervous at the top of the bouncy slide so some random girl helped her out and went down with her. Not sure who she was but thanks, that was nice!

This time the random girl did not help her down.......I guess Avery was feeling a little brave! ha ha!

Quinn did awesome at this game, he won 2 prizes! Justin and I were pretty proud! He's going to be our little basketball star, look at that shot! :)

About 4:00 we headed up to my parents house for a dip in the pool to cool off after playing all the kids games. Man it felt NICE!!! Then back down to the Mendon square for dinner, Navajo tacos mmmmmmm yummy, the softball tournament and fireworks.

Hi Mom and Dad!

Avery and Quinn had a fabulous time playing with their glow balls.....


Quinn trying to copy his sister's super sweet pose! :)

We had a great time! I love love love my home town of Mendon and I get so excited to take my kids, and myself for that matter, back to the town celebrations! I know Mendon is growing rapidly but to me it still feels like a close nit small town. I hope it stays like that forever!

splash park

So for our neighborhood play date last week we went to this quaint little splash park. All the Mom's agree, we need one of these in every park in Utah!!! It is so hot here why hasn't someone already thought of that? :) All the kids had so much fun and it was a great way to cool off on a hot day. And, not to mention, it was a great time for all the Mom's to sit back, relax and chat.

fun memories

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

I got this idea from Skye's blog, what a fun idea, play along everyone!

Oh and Skye, here is the surprise memory!!!





Yeah, we're pretty much models!!! ha ha ha! :) We sure had fun growing up didn't we?

Get Ready!

For those of you who don't know, my husband Justin secretly wishes he were a bull ridin' rodeo star when summer comes around. Have any of you seen the movie "8 Seconds"? Well, Justin wants to be Lane Frost. In fact, we almost named Quinn Lane. Not exactly after the famous bull rider Lane Frost, but because Justin watches that movie 45 times a summer the name started to grow on us! :) We are going to the Ogden Rodeo tomorrow night and Justin is already gearing up for it. I'm sure that includes watching "8 Seconds" tonight and dusting off the ol' boots and cowboy hat. It's funny because Justin isn't even remotely close to being a cowboy but when Rodeo season comes along he can't help himself! It's pretty cute if you ask me!!!

Here we are, our first Cache County Rodeo as a married couple! August 2003.

The day of the Rodeo, Jason and Joey (Justin's friends from high school/college roommates), and Justin and I went to Cal Ranch looking for some cowboy gear! We all got hats, and the guys got their fantastic cowboy shirts! I'm pretty sure Jason even wore real wranglers too but after fitting on a few pairs at the D.I., Joey and Justin wouldn't even consider it they were so tight! Ha ha! They did wear their boots though, that counts for something! The guys even grew facial hair in preparation for the big night. They shaved them to look like cowboys, mustaches, go-tees and all! I know it's hard to see but it's there!!! :)

JaCee, do you remember this? You're looking mighty cute!!!

Oh how I miss the Smokehouse boys!!!!! Just to get a glimpse at how fun it was to hang out at Justin's apartment with him and his roomies, here it is.............

Yes, they got "family pictures" taken at Wal*Mart!!! SO FUNNY! There was seriously never a dull moment when we were all hanging out together, college days were the BEST!!! They found their high class sweaters at the D.I. and went and had a photo shoot done. The photographer couldn't help but laugh but by the look on her face I'm pretty sure she was secretly wondering what was wrong with these guys! ha ha! It was hilarious! I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE Jason's face (right side) and I'm not exactly sure why Justin is holding an apple on Joey's shoulder or why Joey is wearing a crown for that matter! Oh and Kasey's face (back) says Phom Phat and Oxygen all over again!!!!!! Oxygen was the name of their "boy band" and Phom Phat was Kasey's name in the band -- I told you, never a dull moment! They even made an Oxygen music video and a documentary of "a day in the life of the Oxygen boy band". Joey's Mom even embroidered "Oxygen" onto some florescent orange hats for them - it just keeps getting better doesn't it! Justin's name was Cat, Jason's name was J-Love and Joey's name was Joey - everyone knows that any good boy band has a Joey in it! ha ha ha! I love it! So now that I've explained the Oxygen thing, back to the picture..... After they got the pictures back they went home to their apartment and hung a family portrait on the wall. Even after Justin and I got married and Kasey and Joey graduated and moved out, Jason still left it up on the wall even after new roommates had moved in, now those are the ties of a real family if you ask me!!! :)

Camp Clark Chew*

We went camping at the Cinnamon Creek campground by Porcupine Dam this past weekend with my family. We got up there on Thursday evening just in time to eat fire roasted hot dogs for dinner, set up our tent before dark, roast marshmellows and then sit around the camp fire and sing. Friday morning we went on a lovely hike up to an old run down mine. It was only suppose to be 1.5 miles but it felt like at least 6 miles especially when most of the time your hauling a 22 lb. or 30 lb. packback named Quinney and Avery! :)


Avery in her fabulous necklace that Grandpa made for her out of long dandelion stems. How cute! :)



There were so many beautiful wildflowers along the trail, I LOVE flowers!



The old run down house where the miners use to live.....

In front of the mine.....

We didn't get to go very far into the mine because all the flashlights we took up with us were running out of batteries and weren't even bright enough to see 2 ft. in front of you, NICE! Oh well. When we got back to camp we headed to the river for a cool down. Avery and Taysia got soaked!

Quinn splashing his own face with the water.....

.....he thought it was great!!!

He also thought it was great when Daddy tried to take a drink of his water and he wouldn't share!

Here the two scroungers are sitting under the dutch ovens waiting for any little piece of food or splash of grease to drop so they could slurp it up!

That evening we had a delicious dinner, taco salad, fruit, and cheesy dutch oven vegtables, then smores for dessert. And of course we sat around the fire again and sang all of our traditional campfire singin' songs! This was the highlight though, a saranade from Bo and Grandpa before dinner! Whenever my Dad starts singing, Bo thinks he has to join in. My Mom said that this is Bo's only talent.....other than peeing on the floor! ha ha!:)

The next morning we ate Mountain Man Breakfast made in the dutch ovens. It has sausage, bacon, hashbrowns, eggs, green onions and cheese, Yum-O!!! I LOVE dutch oven food! I know I'm a total nerd but here are two pictues of it. You know someone REALLY loves food when they take pictues of it on a regular basis.....that would be me!!! The first one is before the cheese is spread on top. Doesn't it look good?


After breakfast the kids had fun painting their rocks they had found and doing the bubble paint that Leisa and Julie brought.


Then we packed up our stuff and headed for my parents house for a refreshing dip in the pool.....

Avery swimming all by herself! I think she's ready for swim lessons!


This is me back in my polygamy days.....rainbow bangs and all! he he!

Wow, what a great weekend!!!

*The story behind camp "clark chew" goes like this, when we were little we used to laugh at the way my Dad would clear his throat and spit. When he clears his throat it sounds like he's saying "clark", and then when he spits, it sounds like he's saying "chew". So in all of our brainstorming to come up with a great name there you have it, that's where we got the name for our annual family camp out, Camp Clark Chew! It's nerdy I know, but that's kind of how we are!!! :) Well, I guess it's our unofficial name, my Dad isn't too keen on the idea yet! :)