What Happens in Cottonwood Heights... Stays in Cottonwood Heights

We had the pleasure of hosting the youngest of the Turley cousins for a week! Morgan and Miran turned out to be excellent house guests and even quite helpful kids to have around. I decided that since they needed a place to hang out for a week while their parents were at home working in Vegas, that I would make the week into a fun packed vacation for them and stay-cation for my kids. We definitely lived up to that plan and packed in the fun.

First on the list was a restful Sunday filled with church and legos, and a great walk to the ravine near our house to run around and throw rocks in the creek. It was my first adventure out of the house with all of the kids.

 

The next day, I still had to go to work, but we started the day with swimming lessons and then the kids got to be lazy and hang out with my great babysitter and get their fix of the backyard and video gaming.

Tuesday, we headed to swimming lessons again and then went straight to see "Croods" at the summer movie clubhouse. Then we headed home for a picnic of Chik-fil-a was some friends. After a couple hours of rest we headed to the pool, where Morgan took advantage of being the only 10 year old in the group and the fact that his age made him able to jump off the diving platforms. He probably jumped about 15 times while we were there. 

Wednesday, we met up with the Willardsen boys (and Caryn) and checked out Red Butte Gardens. It was a beautiful day, and fun to run around on the trails and then spend most of our time by the pond feeding the ducks and trying not to fall in. There was plenty of racing around and trying to find things to climb. After the Gardens we headed to the pool again for more diving and plenty of time of the slides. The day ended with Pack Meeting for Gavin and him receiving plenty of awards.

The day ended with Pack Meeting for Gavin and him receiving plenty of awards.

Thursday more great friends joined in to help me take this crew around and after more swimming lessons, we went to the Discovery Children's Museum with Anne. It was great to have Katy and Skyler around to help keep an eye on everyone.

The big finale for our week was meant to be an overnight at the Spruces Campground in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We got everything ready in an hour after getting home from the museum and headed up the canyon. We were in two cars, since Caleb and Finn didn't plan to spend the night, and there were some dark clouds that had been lurking around for a few hours, producing nothing, but wind.

We got to the campground and Miran and I drove around until we found a picturesque stop. Then we all start to lay out the tent and get set up. Almost immediately rain drops started to fall... after 15 minutes it stopped and we got the tent all the way up and the camp chairs unpacked as the Willardsens arrive to join the fun. That was when the real rain started. We all go under a large pine tree and stayed dry for awhile, until the lightning and thunder started... we rushed everyone into the cars, and decided to leave Caleb and the truck to wait out the rain and take down the tent. By this time there was a nice river running directly under the tent and into the camp site. 

Needless to say, we ended up at home safely, and threw our food on the grill and had a nice BBQ followed by a giant slumber party on the family room floor with a movie. There were no smores, but the night was still a success, even if it took 2 days to dry out the tent.

The last day before Schatzy arrived to put up her kids, we did some house cleaning in the morning with my wonderful amount of child labor and then the kids relaxed until we went to the zoo for our final afternoon. With ice cream and a stop at the gift shop, our last big outing was a success.

My kids were so lonely after the weekend ended, luckily we got together with our cousins in town for a couple shorter visits to keep up our cousin fix. We missed the Turleys all week though.

Turning 35 on Father's Day

My kids are so lucky to have such a great Dad. Sometimes, we all call him a "Candy Nazi", but when that is the biggest complaint that kids have about their dad... I would say things are pretty good. He gets to be the fun one that takes them on adventures where their mom would otherwise be concerned with injury, and he still manages to do a great job of keeping them safe. He also is great at listening to them and teaching them so many of the things that they need to learn so that they can be great Dads some day too. We love him.

This year I shared my birthday with him on Father's Day, and it was a great day, though not without some excitement. We went outside to leave for church and discovered that the stroller had been stolen from the back of the truck while I was shopping the day before. Then while walking to church, without a stroller, Finn stopped walking and threw up in the middle of the street. So Caleb and I split the time at church to do the things we needed to, and got Finn home to rest. Things calmed down until after dinner when Finn gagged on some meat and started throwing up all over the kitchen, and continued to throw up until there was a gigantic mess. No exactly an ideal day, but at least we were both around to work together on the messes and still manage to get some time to relax.

 Gavin took this great candle blowing action shot to mark the occasion.

Olympus Basketball Camp

Gavin and Henry got to attend a fun basketball camp the week after school got out, and the best part was that they went with some fun friends. It was a great kick off to summer and they both seemed to learn a lot and have a lot of fun.

Gavin also said he was going to pretend that it was basketball camp at Mount Olympus (home of the Greek Gods) rather than just Olympus High School.

We love to play dirty! Dirty Dash 2014

The Dirty Dash was such a good time this year. The adults ran it with a great group of family and friends, and that of course meant cousins and friends to run with the kids.

We had a lot of great swag, so we had to put some on before the race.

Caleb's pre-race hair style had nothing to do with swag, but it was awesome nonetheless.

The course changes every year, and this year included a lot of wading through large muddy swamps... which meant plenty of falling down in the same muddy water. The weather was pretty perfect, and we had the blessing of having older cousins and friends to help keep all of the little kids happy and safe while their parents were running. It was nice to be up there and have fun as a family.

Our DBNTax team... Callors, Cardons, Cardons, Royblers and Oylers

Caleb ended the most nasty of the group.

These three ready to plunge in to the finish line.

 The super strong and dirty kids.

Even the kids that didn't do the race managed to get pretty dirty.

Last Day of School 2014

What a wonderful and crazy year it has been. These boys were so ready to be out of school for the summer, though I know they will miss all of their friends, and have already spent some time complaining about the plan to do school work when school is out. It has been so fun for me to watch them learn and see how fast they develop new skills, but also we are ready to party! Summer fun coming our way.

They did all at least decide to spend some time using their brains in the first week anyway.

Orange Crush soccer season

Gavin was on a great soccer team this last fall and spring. He has such great coaches and made some great friends. It has been pretty amazing to watch him develop news skills and start to really learn the game.

 He loved to play goalie, and even score a couple of goals himself this season.

A bundle of fun

These two boys are really just so funny. Most of the time they get along so well. There are they occassional moments of Finn screeching "WYYAATT, do that!" Which in translation means that Wyatt should stop whatever he is doing, but other than that, it amazes me how much fun they have being together. Just a few of my favorite shots of their crazy antics before the older two boys got out of school for the summer.