Wait JUNE, wait, Come Back!!!!!

I simply can't believe June is already over. July isn't going to go any slower either. Man, I love summer. It's so easy going. We stay up late and the kids sleep in until 9am pretty much every day. I wake up earlier, but just have lots of quiet time in the morning. It is wonderful. So far summer has been fabulous. We kicked it off with that great memorial day trip and here is some of our other adventures.

Family Reunion
This was a very extended family reunion for Grandpa Baxter's family. The kids just had a blast exploring around Mutual Dell. The highlight was this awesome zip line.




Ok, so that was fun. A few days later my kids and Nate decided to officially kill my birthday. . . by destroying my huge birthday balloon. :) I told them all that my birthday would live on as long as the balloon did. I think that balloon would have lasted until next year. So, my little family took matters into their own hand. The balloon did well until Nate got to it. Then it was over. I am still mourning the loss.




Antelope Island
What to say about Antelope Island. The first time we went was last year. I think we went on a warm spring day in April or May. It was beautiful. No smells or bugs. This year we wanted to go again but didn't get around to it until the second week of June. As we drove over the pass from the main land to the island the most atrocious smell hit. I thought I was going to barf. I held my breath over the entire pass. Now, once we got over the pass the smell was significantly better and we were able to have a pretty good time. Bugs were plentiful, but it was fairly harmless little flies. We didn't get any bug bites, although we did put on bug spray. The water does look a little gross. Lots of little floaties. I didn't mind putting my feet in it, but I did not want to touch it. Nate was less afraid and got down and dirty with the kids. He always does. I love him. :)




Nobody told the kids that fully submersing themselves in this water could be harmful to their health. We just let them play. They had a great time. . . and I learned to take my trip to Antelope Island before May is over. . . probably in late April or Early May.

Just a fun little side note trivia. At the end of June we have officially gone through 5 bags of Popsicles and about 200 otter pops. Early in the summer I decided to make Popsicles and microwave popcorn the snacks of choice. They are cheap and I don't mind feeding them to the neighborhood kids. On the down side, our yard constantly needs picking up due to hundreds of popsicle sticks and otter pop wrappers. Don't worry. The kids do it. I also make them clean their room every day. They are beginning to not like me. HAHAHA.


Waterfall Canyon
Waterfall canyon is a beautiful hike. It is fairly challenging. Mostly uphill with many large rocks to climb up. It is well worth the effort. Unfortunately for us, this is the hike that we dropped our camera in the creek. Thus, I only came out with one picture from the entire hike. I know, we are still in the parking lot. . . but I promise we made it to the top.
Miraculously, after dropping our camera in the water, it still works. I brought it home. Took the back off of it and let it dry out for almost 2 weeks. The day I decided to brave it and put it back together I prayed that it would work. Now is not the time for us to have to buy a new camera. I closed my eyes and flipped it on. I almost jumped for joy that it still worked. It doesn't have even one problem. I personally attribute this to a blessing of tithing. God is good to us. I am grateful.


Just the Boys
Nate takes Ben on a special camp out every year. I can't say enough about how much Ben looks forward to this event. This year they rented a kayak and went to a breathtaking little reservoir east of Ogden. They had such an good time. . . until they got stranded on the way home. The road was closed because of a terrible accident in which five people died. They had to wait about three hours before they could get through. Other than that though, they had a blast.



Random Ramblings
If you didn't already know, Nate scored a job in Taylorsville. He started this week and it is going well. Consequently, we have decided to move closer to the family. I think we have settled on Lehi as it is half way between family and his new job. We are hoping this job will be a longer term situation and we can settle down for a few years. We are planning on moving sometime the last week of July. Hopefully we will find a place by then or we may have to live in my parents motor home for a few weeks. :) We can't wait to be back close to our family and friends. It's really exciting. It has been 8 years since we moved away to get Nate into school. We have gone through lots of wonderful growing adventures during that time, but I am ready to move on. :) I am ready to come home. I was thinking that might never happen so I am just thrilled with these current events. I can't wait. :)

Memorial Day Weekend 2010!

A number of years ago my parents decided to buy their first motor home. They used their starter motor home for a couple of years. . . but then they moved on to a bigger motor home. Generously, they kept the first motor home and allow all of us kids to use it whenever we want. Well, we decided to take a short trip for Memorial Day Weekend to Dinosaur National Monument. Sadly, the really cool parts of the visitor center are closed right now and many of the roads around the area are closed as well, so we didn't see much in the way of Dinosaur National Monument. However, we managed to have an absolutely terrific time anyway. This is the story of our trip to Vernal, Utah. Let's Ride.

Travel in the motor home is different. Seatbelts are not required (perhaps they are but we didn't use them). It takes a bit to learn how to walk around while the motor home is moving. I made sandwiches on the road. . . going up Provo Canyon, in fact. . . I was very sick afterward and will never attempt that again. Word to the wise, large vehicle+canyon=lots of swaying and car sickness. The kids had quite the good time though, as seen below.






We stayed at a KOA in Vernal. This is not considered camping. No campfires are allowed and you are packed in like sardines. . .but it had electricity and water hookups for the motor home. I guess if we consider the motor home, then it is not really camping anyway. I have no pictures of the KOA. Sorry to disappoint

Our first order of business was to visit the Dinosaur National Monument. We thought we were going to get to see Dino tracks. . .unfortunately we only got to see fossilized fish scales. Not the easiest things to see. But this little hike was beautiful with some fun rock formations to boot. A shuttle bus takes you to this hike and it is practically the only thing you can actually reach at Dinosaur National Monument right now.


This is the beautiful flower that was growing all alone in the desert. . . that we stepped on trying to take pictures in the strange rock formation. I hope it grows back next year. I felt very bad.


Construction will be finished in about another year. . .so two years from now we will probably try again. However, do not fear, we found other great things to do in Vernal.

After our somewhat disappointing visit to Dinosaur National Monument during which we saw no Dinosaurs we headed back to Vernal. They have a very new Natural History Museum. This was great, with hands on displays for the kids and real Dinosaur bones. Yea!



This museum comes very highly recommended by our family. Our next task was swimming. The KOA had a pool. . . but it was a bit cold to swim outside. So, on we went to the brand new rec. center in Vernal. Another great spot. Emily got herself ready for the pool. Something seems to be amiss.



Now, after our huge day, we thought we would treat the kids to a big meal at Golden Corral. We got in line and paid for our meal. . . and promptly after Emily fell asleep and Ben and Nathan became ill. I won't specify the symptoms, except to say we had to leave the restaurant without eating. I convinced them to give me take out instead. I don't know if it was the pool. I hope not, because the pool was awesome. Anyway, we all slept it off and by the next day we were ready to go again.

What's that? What's that you say? You say you are getting bored and could I end this post already. . . well, just remember this is for posterity. You don't have to like it. :)
Ok, so on with the show.
If you head East of Vernal and get into the back country their is this great place to go called Josie's Cabin.

Josie lived off the land and built this cabin. She raised pigs, cattle, chickens and probably some other farm animals. She used the box canyons to create natural corrals for her animals. She was friends with many outlaws who roamed these parts back in the day. She lived here until the 1960's when she died. No running water or electricity, but beauty all around. We explored and hiked around Josie's cabin for most of the day. This was, by far, my favorite part of the trip.








Yikes, I almost forgot to include a pic of the Indian graffiti, of which there was quite a bit. That's it. That was our vacation to Vernal, Utah. I would say it gets an A+ for beauty and places of interest. It was a super fab weekend. My bum now hurts from sitting here so long. Gladly, I can now resume with my regularly scheduled life. THE END.

Why I Married a Baxter

And the Winner Is. . . .

Ben


The school called this afternoon right about the time Ben was getting out of school. In my mind I thought "Oh no." To me, a phone call from the school is never a good thing. Today, however, they called to tell me that Ben won the bike in the "Road to Success" reading program. "I couldn't believe my ears" was what Ben told me about hearing his name called as the winner of the bike. He was very surprised and excited. There were 4 bikes given away in the entire school and Ben got one. I was really excited for him. He probably read hundreds of hours this year to get that bike. . . so he deserves it! Not to mention the fact that he endured the 1st grade twice. Man am I glad this year is over. Congratulations to Ben. I love you buddy! (Funny side note. When I went to the office to pick up the bike one of the PTA women in charge was there. She told me that Ben also won a baby pool but when he went up to get it he told them he didn't want a baby pool. They couldn't even convince him to take it for a baby sister. I think the lady thought he was a little ungrateful. . . and maybe that's it. But, I think he just says what he thinks. He hasn't learned about the beauty of lying. Oh well. My child is not all politeness.)

Sing it!

Ben first grade class put on a program at the Ogden Train Station this week. I loved going. They did great. But, really, my favorite part is how important it was to Ben that I was there. As he walked in and lined up on stage I could see him searching around for me. It took him a minute, but when he finally saw me he got a huge toothless grin on his face and started pointing me out to his neighbor. :) Good job Ben. I loved all the songs and your sweet moves.

EXTRA, EXTRA, Tooth Fairy Runs Out of Money! Say "Kids, Please Stop Losing Teeth"

The First Annual Stalker Family Girls Weekend

This was such awesome fun. My mom was so generous and got us a condo for two days in Midway. We partied all weekend. Jacuzzi, Movies, eating out, shopping, and in general just having so much fun. We were all sad to leave. It was awesome. .. oh, I think I already said that. But it was. And I loved having my nieces there because they made it so I could be silly without feeling silly. One morning, my niece Sidney got up and started doing toning exercises. We all joined in on her workout while she yelled at us to get our shoulders off the ground and keep going. She is a machine and has a core of steel. I told her to put her routine on You Tube and I would make her famous. I am still waiting. Overall, GIRLS WEEKEND, highly recommended.