Summer Photos

 Click on the photos to see them in all their full-sized glory!

July:

Surfing

Cousins and grandparents!

So we decided to take a large family picture.  I put Jackie in charge of my camera (she did a decent job).  What with kids, poopy diapers, misbehaving husbands...you know how it goes, we were standing for far too long.  I almost passed out and had to sit on the grass for a bit.  Thus, I earned myself a chair to sit in for the rest of the photos. 

Uncle Nathan getting smiles for the photos

Siblings and parents in their natural state

August:

We had such a fun time in Utah.

Antelope Island (which also has bison!)

 We saw the antelope, bison, and a fox while we were out there, which was pretty cool.  It is so deserty.  You forget that all the trees in Utah were PLANTED by the pioneers.  Antelope island is what I imagine the entire salt lake valley looked like when the pioneers first saw it.  Pretty barren and no shade anywhere.  Have to give them some credit for deciding to stick it out with Brigham!

I have no photos (darn it!), but we did get to have dinner with Barry and Emily and that was fun.  We got to see some of the properties where Barry works (beautiful flowers!) and enjoy a tasty meal and fun conversation.  We're hoping to see more of them soon since we didn't get to spend nearly as much time with them as we would have liked.

Provo temple, just prior to dropping Hannah off at EFY

 The Provo temple has the best hills for rolling.

 One of the places we decided to visit was the Hill Aerospace Museum.  I don't know how many planes they had housed inside, maybe between 75-100, plus the 15 or so parked outside.  Pretty incredible.  The fighter planes were constantly flying overhead during the week we were in Utah.  I loved watching them.

Logan with his two buddies.

 I think we chose the best possible day for our visit to Temple Square.  It was actually not too hot.  We spent forever in the visitor's center where it was nice and cool.  When we went to the Temple itself, they had brides popping out about every 15 minutes.  Because of that, the gates were open and we were able to walk right up to the temple doors and inspect them.  The level of detail and craftsmanship is so incredible.  I have still never been inside this temple - maybe that should go on my bucket list for next time.

Temple Square

Brynne and Kennady

At the steps of the Salt Lake Temple

Conference center tour

Amazing view from the roof

 We drove home after picking Hannah up at EFY.  We had to spend the night somewhere and I'll tell you what, Nevada has really expensive hotels and none of them seemed to offer free breakfast (an important aspect when you're feeding 7 people).  We ended up buying yogurt, granola, and blueberries for breakfast and it was so tasty, it may be a new travel tradition.  Although next time we go to Utah we will probably just make the drive all in one day and save the $200 in extra hotel and food costs.

Still, it was a fun family vacation.  The kids made the entire drive without watching one single movie.  In fact, I don't think they watched any in Utah, either.  We listened to music and also checked out a bunch of audio books from the library which kept us occupied.

How we felt at the end of the trip.

Except for me.  I felt fantastic!

So there's a quick run down of our vacation.  We are now fully into back to school mode, which is a new thing for me.  And maybe I'm nesting too, because I've been making the kids do massive amounts of cleaning, organizing, and rearranging with me.  Only three months until this baby comes!  We moved Brynne back into the same room as Hannah, and put Logan in the other downstairs room.  I've been trying to make room for baby gear again and I want my family room back into a family room (Logan's been sleeping there for the past 6 months or so).

Our chickens started laying eggs two days before we left for Utah, so we are getting 3-4 eggs a day from them.  AND they are not getting out of their coop, so I think all their escapades during July were due to excited cousins who didn't know how to keep the coop closed.  It's a relief to know that they CAN stay cooped up, though.

Our cat got attacked by the three neighbor cats a couple days before we left, too.  It didn't look like she'd been hurt too bad, so we left her in the garage and I figured 10 days in solitary would help her heal from whatever bruises she'd gotten.  Not so.  Turned out they'd REALLY attacked her, so we've spent the past week trying to keep her bandaged up so she can't keep licking and re-opening her wounds.  It is super hard to bandage a cat, in case you wondered.  I think we've finally gotten it figured out with a chopped off sweatshirt sleeve to cover her entire mid-section, and an ace bandage wrapped like a harness over her shoulders and safety pinned to the sleeve so she can't wiggle out of the sweatshirt.  She's not happy, but she's finally healing.  Poor kitty!

Hannah starts seminary on Tuesday, and school for the three older kids starts next Monday.  It's going to be quite a change from years passed.  I'm excited and sad at the same time.