EQ Movie Night

The Elder's Quorum in our ward, in which Shad plays a fairly big role, decided to do a big movie night, to be hosted at our place. That meant we needed to clean up our backyard to look somewhat decent. Two of Shad's friends offered to help mow our yard--that's a hard offer to refuse.

So as I took pictures of the sunset,

everyone else cleaned up our yard.

The next night was showtime. Shawn prepared all the popcorn. Stacy made lemonade.

And my favorite, homemade ice cream, was also made.

Ice cream was dished out for people to enjoy while everyone mingled and got situated.

We set up a white sheet against our back patio to use as the movie screen.

And we borrowed someone's projector with which to watch the movie (which was Bolt).

I think it turned out well. I hope they do it again next year.

And thanks to everyone who came, and particularly those who helped out.

You're welcome to mow our lawn anytime.

Pioneer Day Celebration

For Pioneer Day this year, my cousin invited us to meet up with them in American Falls for the parade and festivities held there, where her husband is from.

Unlike a lot of the big cities, parades 'round these parts definitely have a small town flare to them....

...which I think is great. And the kids enjoy any excuse to collect candy.

After the parade, we headed over to the park to see what they had there. These guys are making fresh tortillas.

This is the row for french fries.

And the smoke is from the burgers. There was also tacos, pie, ice cream, etc. And all the food was free (how's that for cool?).

Drake and Graham each took their turn at the "Kids Fish Pond".

They both caught some little toy shooter things.

By far the most entertaining thing at the park was the Live Fish Catch.

They had made a big pool with logs and black tarp.

Then filled it full of nice, clean, brown water.

Then a truck pulled up hauling about 100 trout.

The guy on the truck took net after net of flip-flopping fish...

... and just threw them...

... into the pool.

He did this over and over until all the fish were swimming around in the murky, brown water.

Then they let kids get in one group at a time (by age group --- youngest first).

They had so many minutes to try and catch a fish before it was the next group's turn.

We saw several kids catch their own fish before we left.

Thanks Brynn and Matt and Lindsay and everyone else for letting us hang out with you and your family.

And thanks be to the pioneers for blazing trails across the west; for putting up with endless persecution because of a belief in something better; for all the faithful sacrifices that were made for the gospel and for families. I'm grateful to be a part of this wonderful church and for the knowledge I have because of it.

City of Rocks

We decided to venture a little further from home for a fun camping trip to City of Rocks.

They had some wagon replicas outside the visitors' center.

Driving into the area was really cool; tons of different rock formations all over... very majestic.

Shad had reserved our campsite over the phone, so we didn't know what to expect.

It ended up being one of the farthest sites away from everything else.

But it was also plenty big.

And had a great view out over the valley.

The boys cooking dinner.

After dinner we decided to hike out around our campsite for a little while.

Avery was really enjoying just walking all over the place.

If you've never taken your kids camping before, you should.

They can get as dirty as they want, and it doesn't matter, because you're camping.

At one point while lounging around, Shad was practicing his Rubix cube solving skills, which my brother taught him while they were visiting over the 4th of July. Drake showed us that he had been paying attention to Trent's lessons as well, and we had no idea.

Pioneers came through this area and left their mark on some of the rocks with axle grease from their wagon wheels. This particular rock had a lot of names on it.

And they're still there.

These were some cool birds' nests at the top of the rock.

This is me trying to get Avery to look at the camera.

This is our campsite at dusk.

Shad's parents joined us that night and it was fun to sit around the campfire and just talk.

This picture was taken from inside the car, very early in the morning, during one of the many times I was awake that night.

Graham had decided that sleeping in the tent, or rather sleeping at all, was not for him, so I brought him into the car (so everyone else could sleep), and we slept, kind of, in the front passenger seat for the night.

Come morning, when everyone else started waking up, I left him on the seat by himself, where he actually slept like this for a little while.

We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day to be out in nature.

We had muffins and scrambled eggs for breakfast. The eggs were cooked inside a ziplock bag submerged in boiling water---it works great.

After breakfast, we spent the rest of our time hiking and driving and hiking at different spots.

This was a fun water pump.

We bought these backpacks at garage sales while we were in Colorado, and we're glad we did.

It's a lot easier to haul our kids around outdoors.

Especially for me... because I didn't (on this trip).

City of Rocks is one of the best places for rock climbers to go. The parks and recreation website says "about 700 routes have been developed to date." This website can tell you more. We saw plenty of climbers while we were there.

And did a little "climbing" ourselves.

We saw a few small animals.

And a LOT of wildflowers.

Papa's shoulders were a popular place to be at one point.

This was a rock that Shad and his dad climbed up just the two of them, while me and "Nana" stayed down with the kids.

Drake was pretty disappointed that he didn't get to go with them.

Graham was too exhausted to care.

And Avery is happy no matter what is going on.

Especially when she can eat rocks.

It was a fun camping trip, even if our kids didn't stay awake for all of it. And it was even more fun because Shad's parents were there with us.

We enjoyed City of Rocks and plan to go back again next year. Anyone who wants to is welcome to join us.

And we'll let our kids get even more dirty, if it means they're having fun.

And if you never read my blog again after this ridiculously long post... I understand.