Richmond Reunion at the Rodeo

The only thing good about saying our goodbyes in Richmond was knowing that we would be able to see the Gibbons and Hones in Utah! In fact Danielle and I just avoided saying Goodbye all together before this! ha! 

I can't even express how wonderful it was to see our friends. It was like a breath of fresh air! It had only been 3 weeks or so but it was so good to reunite with our best buds! 

When Will pulled up he and Lucy ran to each other yelling each others names and immediately embraced! 

I almost teared up right on the spot! :( 

These two are just two cute! 

Lucy missed him so much! 

We had a little BBQ at my parents house and let the kids play around and then we went and gave them to family to babysit and the adults headed to the Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days Rodeo! 

It was awesome! I love Rodeos and I couldn't have asked for better company! 

These people are like family to us and it was so great to spend one night with them! 

Goodbyes were hard again but I know we will make this a tradition and get to see each other next year!

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

We love this park by my parents house. One morning we decided to take a run there, fly a kite and play at the park. It was a pretty perfect moment. I love the little things with kids, they just fill our lives with so much joy! There is something so magical about flying a kite! It was a great morning with my little family I love so much! 

Fun at Nana's and Papa's

We weren't ALWAYS on the go. Sometimes we did just hang at Nana and Papa's house and had a grand ole time! 

This was within the first few hours of arriving. 

Already hitting up the sprinkler and slip and slide! 

 Family Night of Croquet and S'mores! 

Nana has the best Popsicles! 

Our favorite game! :) Celestial Pursuit. Useless Mormon Trivia that you will never know. We mainly play it for laughs and that chance that you take a wild guess and guess correctly that James E Talmage's favorite beverage is Root Beer!? Although playing with my Dad is no fun because he gets everything right! 

Sister date to Panda! 

Visits from friends like the Skanchy's! Love them! 

I wish Lucy and James lived next door and could play every day!

Ok really I just wish I could play everyday with Lyndsey! ;) 

Countless games of Hide and Seek. 

Slip and Slide...Lucy's way-nice and easy! 

Lucy Sprinkler! haha! They all loved this! 

Snowcone night! YUM! 

Trips to the dollar store and coming home with treasures like these! 

Playing very unusual dress up! 

Noah and Jake

My brother Noah leaves on his Mission to serve and preach the Gospel to the people of Denmark in August. 

While we were in Utah he and our Cousin Jake who will be leaving also to serve in Paraguay went through the Temple for the first time to take out there Endowments. 

If you would like to know more about Mormon temples watch this short clip. It's wonderful! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLXYxmaHWQs

After we went to the Simpsons house for a BBQ and Lauren made this awesome cake! 

We are so excited for these two to serve. 

They are both amazing boys who are a wonderful example to me of righteous sons of God. 

They truly are great and will do great things on their missions! 

Golf Date

 I love the stage my family is in right now. 

It really is perfect for me and I am not sure I ever want it to change! 

 I have a little brother and sister to entertain Lucy. I have one married sibling which is great for more grandkids to be friends with my kid and just a married couple to relate to. I love having a SIL. Danielle is perfect for Nate and fits wonderfully in our family. 

Then I have my brothers who are adult(ish) and able to hang with us and entertain us. I love watching them date and go through life but I am just not ready for Noah to go on a mission. I feel like he will come back get married and then Brig will go quick, come back, get married and life as we know it will be very very different. 

Don't get me wrong, I am excited for more SIL and grandkids but I just can see how that makes life more complicated and harder to all be together. Kids make it harder, its harder to all stay at the same place, no more late nights playing games together because you have to put kids to bed, you have to work around a million more schedules! It just changes things! Right now I don't have to share Noah and Brigham with anyone...well friends but I usually win over them. ;) All I am trying to say is I love this stage we are in and am scared for it to end. 

But this summer gave me a glimmer of hope! My brother may kill me for posting this but...this hope came in the form of Noah's girlfriend Torrey.

This crazy girl won me over! She hung with our family a lot this summer and we bonded almost immediately! It made me think, Wow if Noah marries a girl like this we will be A OK! It will just keep getting more and more fun! This triple date (plus Brigham) was a really, really fun night! Thinking about these people I love so much just makes me smile! I love my family! 

(oh and the reason the picture of Torrey alone- she got a hole in one! Her first ever, I believe) 

Noah's went in the water and his hand was stained a nasty blue! 

Erik's hole in one face

And Nate joined the club! 

I love these crazy kids! 

Knudsen Knoll

This is my Cabin. 

It's not your typical modern Cabin. It has no AC, one tiny bathroom, no dishwasher, retro 70's decor and there really is not a whole lot to do up here. 

And that's why I love it! It really is one of my favorite places on earth. 

I love that you can't get cell service up there, no internet and virtually no electronics. 

Its a whole week stuck with my Mom's side of the family! 

I just love it! Isn't it charming? 

My great Grandparents and there adult children (my grandpa) built it with there own two hands. 

It really is a special place! 

The back deck view

I am really bad at taking panoramas on my phone...but you get the gist. 

The kiddie playset 

The big kid swings! 

Right off the bat we did one of our favorite puzzles! 

I was brave and went on a hike with Brig and Erik. 

I immediately regretted it when we were walking on some tall grass and 3 snakes were slithering all over the place! We kept seeing more and on the way back over that grass I made Erik carry me! ;) 

Amusing side story that strangely comes back into play later in the vacation:  Whenever I go on a hike or am out in nature I look around and I start to feel that eerie feeling. Like who knows what's out there. I re play scenes of various animals jumping out and attacking me. Bears, Moose, Mountain Lions, big foot, you name it!  I just like thinking about what I would do, or better yet, what I should do. I like to have a plan. So I brought this up with Erik and Brigham and they mocked me a bit and then I pushed them on it, like really guys, what would be the plan? Play dead? fight back with a stick? Run fast all in the same direction? ( I don't like this plan since I am the slowest) Run all in different directions? Or, do we sacrifice someone? 

That's the plan the boys decided would be best. So who? It was debated a bit and first all decided on Brigham. You know, the kids got no one to live for! ;) Then Erik boldly fought that really, I could re marry and Erik and I are sealed so we would always have each other and Brigham still needed to serve a mission and get married and really it would be better for Erik to die. So that made me even more anxious and we hurried our little nature walk along and all made it home safe and sound. I just love that they amused me and played out my scenario with a legit plan. It was decided- Erik was the sacrifice. 

I wish all these girls lived with me! 

Constant entertainment for Lu. 

They were so good to her all week and let her follow them around and she just adored them all! 

The "Rock Slide" 

We walk here every time we come without fail. When I was little we loved to climb to the top. It's quite the climb on all those rocks. 

(no makeup is a requirement for cabin week...sorry to your eyes!) 

That's about as high as we let Lucy go! 

Girls Club!! 

Playing Horseshoes

Someone to constantly push her on the swings. 

We could both get used to this. 

Until next time Knudsen Knoll! 

Nationals in Oregon

We sure didn't waste any time. We arrived in Utah around 11:00am got Lucy settled (which was pretty easy since she ran to play with Isaac and Gracie and never looked back) re packed smaller bags and were on the road to Oregon by 5:00pm.

My brother Nathan runs for his college Southern Utah University. He is really good and qualified in Outdoor Track to go to the NCAA Championship race in Eugene Oregon.  Erik, me and both my parents made the 14 hour drive each way to be in Eugene for less than 24 hours to watch him run. Erik and I almost didn't go at the thought of a long drive but boy am I glad we did.

We got to spend great quality time with my parents which we wouldn't have gotten to do otherwise. We also got to see the beautiful state of Oregon, a first for me. And I loved watching and cheering my brother on at such a big event. We are so proud of him and all his hard work and were happy to get to be there with him.

He came in 11th place in the Nation! That makes him a 2nd all American Collegiate Runner! (whew!) 

All decked out in Red!! GO SUU! 

Love this boy!