Bryce Canyon

So we took a little trip with the kids this past weekend to Bryce Canyon. It was amazing and everyone had a great time. The first day, we hiked the Navajo Loop. It was a 1.3 mile hike half of it steep down and half of it steep uphill. I was impressed with how great all the kids did. The scenery was beautiful and these pictures don't even do it justice.Here is our little Presto overlooking this awesome canyon.

Here we are hiking down the canyon. We had fun looking at all the rock formations and telling each other what we thought we saw. The colors were breathtaking.


Taking a little break.


Can you say "Mini Justin"?


We made it!

The next day we set out for Calf Creek Falls. All I kept thinking this day was... "The things I do for love".  I would never choose to do something like this on my own and certainly not with 5 kids but Justin talked me into it and I did it for him and the kids. We hiked @ 7 miles round trip. Talk about troopers, our kids did awesome. It only took about 5.5 hours to accomplish this amazing feat. But well worth every step.

Dane found a little lizard before we started the hike and thought it was cool when the tail came off and wiggled around in his hand.

Our little hikers. We only carried Preston and Emma for maybe a mile of the trip they did the rest on their own and even had enough energy to run some of the way.

Rest Stop

Another rest stop.

The Falls. The water was a little bit chilly, but it certainly didn't stop these kids from getting in and splashing around.

Right before the hike back to the car.

The last day of our trip, we headed over to Zions National Park. Another amazing sight.

We decided to do a shorter hike this day only about 2 miles up the river to the Narrows. Once we got to the end of the trail, Justin took the three older kids and hiked another mile in the river. I waited with Emma and Preston and almost got attacked by the psycho squirrel that was determined to get into our backpack and eat our easy cheese and crackers. It honestly would not leave us alone. The kids thought it was funny when it started chewing a hole in the backpack. 

Sadly after this hike, our trip came to an end. The kids begged to stay one more day, but school and work beckoned us back. We all had a really fun time (I know I can't believe I said that but I actually did enjoy myself). 

The enterance to the park.


Here's Dane just testing out the waters. This boy has Justin blood running through his veins. Next stop Aconcagua.
The kids hiking up the river. The girls did pretty good not getting wet, but when Dane came back, he was soaked head to toe. He just couldn't resist the adventure.

Timpanogos Cave

So we decided to send the summer off with a bang. We took our last Saturday and hiked up to Timplanogos Cave. It is about a 1.5 mile hike up and an elevation gain of about 1000 feet. I didn't know if I could make it and I especially didn't think my little ones would make it, but to my great surprise we all took the hike very well. There was some complaining, but for the most part they all did awesome. It was well worth the hike. The cave was so cool. I had been there once before when I was a teenager, but didn't remember much. It was fun to see the kids enjoy it so much. We all had a really good time.


So School in back in session. Yeah! Need I say more.

Aspen Grove Family Camp

We just spent a week at Aspen Grove family Camp up the Provo Canyon. This is something we do about every other year and look forward to every time. The kids absolutely love it. There are so many fun activities and we are with all our cousins. It is a week full of fun and almost no rules. They go where they want when the want, eat all the junk they want, stay up until midnight. Its a week long craziness. 

We go with my dad, all my siblings and their families, and some of my cousins from my dads side and their families. Of course there are always a few extra a long for the ride. I think this year we had almost 70 so you can imagine the fun.

Some highlights from the week. We had major thunderstorms about 3 nights and the kids loved playing and getting wet in the rain. We had our first Huish Music recital where many of the kids performed and a few of the adults too. Justin played "Campfire song song" (from SpongeBob) on the guitar and had about 15 kids sing along. It was sweet. Of course we love the late night games of signs and Mofia. This year we also did a craft day which was really fun. A few highlights for me were making it to the pool in the morning to swim a mile and climbing the rock wall which I did 20 years ago and never thought I would make it to the top now. I almost turned back but with the encouragement of my husband and many family members, I made it to the top. One of the most physically difficult things I have ever done. Yeah me.

Anyway, we really had a fun time and now that I have finally finished the laundry, I am able to write a little bit about it. 
Maggie and Lindsey playing in the rain.

Preston and Emma splashing in the pool.

Here I am on my way up and wanting so bad just to come back down.

I love this picture

We also had a Family Dutch Oven Dinner night at our house. I am the Enrichment leader in our ward and once a month we do a dinner group. Some of our nights have been "Dinner and a Movie", Fondue, Basic Grilling Instruction, and Recipe Exchanges. This month in celebration of summer and pioneer day, we did a dutch oven night. We usually only invite the women, but this time we invited families. We had a great turn out about 70 people. I think we had about 10 dutch ovens cooking. The food was delish! Then we topped it off with s'mores. It was awesome.

Yesterday I got to go spend time with my cousin Joy. She is absolutely amazing. We did some planning. We are headed off to Aspen Grove this weekend for the much anticipated Huish Family reunion and Joy and I got craft projects together for the moms and girls to do while we are there. She has so many cool ideas and so fun to hang out with. Everytime I leave her, I wonder why we don't hang out more. Here is one the crafts we are working on for next week. The Halloween banner. I made one for Maggies birthday and now have to make one for every holiday. Love 'em.

We've had a pretty busy week. I went with my Mom and my kids and some of our cousins to a new little fun center here in Lehi called Liberty Land. I have to say I actually enjoyed it. It was very kid friendly. It just recently opened and it wasn't too crowded. It's small and not a lot of places that kids could get lost. There weren't a lot of height restrictions except that parents weren't aloud to go on some things, the kids could do everything. At one point, I had the older boys on the rock wall and my mom had the girls and Preston, when I went to meet up with them, I asked where Preston was she pointed to the side. When I didn't see him and walked over to the roller coaster where the girls were and low and behold he was on it with them. No height restrictions. I don't think he liked it too much he didn't want to go again. We really had fun and I think it is a place that I might actually take my kids to alone, that says alot.

Preston was lovin the merry go round.Oh, the many faces of Emma.Indiana Dane scaled the rock wall with great ease (about 10 times)Maggie is such a good little helper, especially with this one. She loves her little Pesto.

What is my deal? I am having so much fun with this stupid thing I can't get off my computer and go to bed. It's a good thing Justin is on his scout campout, he would be having a fit if he knew I was up this late making scrapbooks and blogging. I was just looking at all my pictures and saw these great ones from the 4th and just had to make a fun little scrapbook.  We spent the forth all over the place. First to the annual Astle bike parade then off to the Yarros big celebration, and then back to our ward activity for watermelon and fireworks. I just love the forth. I honestly think it is my favorite holiday, and oh how blessed we are to be living in this amazing country. I still can't sing the star spangled banner with out getting tears in my eyes.  Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook