Family Fun at Thanksgiving Point!

We planned a day with all my aunts and cousins to get together at Thanksgiving Point a few months ago and the day finally came!  I took DJ and Elizabeth with me.  I don't spend as much time with them as I would like so  it was great to be with them.
I picked the kids up and got to Lehi about a half hour before everyone else got there so I  decided to take the kids to Cabela's for a bit to see the dead animals.  I told DJ we were going to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point so he was really confused when he walked into Cabela's and saw the dead animals!  They liked looking at all of them for about a minute then they were done!  So we headed to Thanksgiving Point for the family fun!
We got our tickets and got ready to go to see the animals.  DJ and Elizabeth thought this cow was pretty cool.

Elizabeth and River liked looking at the baby chicks, they were so cute!

Then we went outside.  The kids loved petting all the baby goats even though some of them did bite!

The kids loved petting the rabbits.

Branson thought this huge horse was pretty fascinating.  He was scared to touch it though.  But this horse seemed so sweet.  I love petting their soft noses!

Gavin was learning has been learning how to walk and showed off his accomplishment while we were there!

DJ really wanted to go ride the horses, so we finally made our way over there.

Branson thought it was the coolest thing ever to ride the horse.  He screamed and screamed when it was time to get off!

My uncle is one of the head chef's there so he took us on a tour of his kitchen after we were done eating at their little deli, which is delicious!  He took us in one of his huge fridges, it was so cold in there DJ was trying to show me his breath.

Then we made our way to the Children's Garden to let the kids play in the Noah's Ark splash pool and walk around the garden.  The kids loved cooling down in the water!

Hallie finally warmed up to DJ and played with him in the water.

Branson LOVED playing in the water and thought splashing was so much fun!

Getting dried off in the sun!

He was so sick of me taking pictures of him!  But I just can't resist my best buddy!

I think Gavin and Branson were wearing Jade and Brittiney out!  Jade was not happy about Josh not being there!  He didn't want to be the only guy.  I wish Josh would have come with me but he didn't want to be in the heat all day.  If we had kids of our own he definitely would have been there.

Then we walked through the garden to the Bear Cave.

Branson wanted to give the bear a kiss.

I didn't really see Elizabeth for the rest of the day.  She was hanging out with my cousin Ashlin.  Lu thought she was the coolest girl!  And Ashlin was so sweet to her!  The laid on the grass and listened to their favorite, Justin Beiber, on Ashy's iPod singing along with every word!

Everyone was beat by the time we were done so we headed home.  It made me so sad to drop the kids off at home.  I miss those 3 so much and I can't believe summer is pretty much over.  I didn't get to spend nearly as much time with them like I wanted.  But it was great to have Elizabeth and DJ for the day!  And it was so much fun spending time with my mom, my grandma and all my aunts and cousins!  

The Day Center Ladies

I used to work for Sunshine Terrace, a nursing home here in Logan, in the Adult Day Center.  Josh and I both worked there off and on in some way or another, for the first years of dating and our marriage, in fact that's where we met.  The Day Center closed in June of 2008, and we were all very sad to see it close as seen here.  I got to be very good friends with a couple of the girls I worked with, Julie being one of them.  She is the one who kind of set Josh and I up, when I thought he was not interested in me at all.  I love this lady.  Well she decided to have a BBQ with all of us girls on Wednesday night so we could catch up and see each other.
The food was so good and Julie did such a great job hostessing all of us.  It was great to catch up with everyone and see where we've all ended up.  Everyone was there except Becca.  I really missed her!
We got a group shot before everyone left.

I stayed after and helped Julie (the one in the brown shirt) clean everything up and we talked about her family and her show horses and my family, just catching up with each other.  She has had her LPN for along time now and got accepted to the RN program at USU and started this semester finally!  I'm so happy for her.

When I left her house, I called Josh to see what he was doing.  He had been over at Cody and Tara's and they all wanted to go see this movie so we went.

Leo was yummy and I loved Ellen Page and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
The movie was good, not a wise choice to go see at 10 at night when it's a 3 hour movie though!  I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I wasn't so tired!  Tara and I were both dragging at work the next day!

Larsen/Wright Family Reunion

We had a family reunion to go to on Saturday after going camping.  Josh couldn't go with me because he had too much homework to get caught up on so I went with my parents and my nephews.  There were so many people there that I didn't know.  It was my great-grandma's children and their families.  I know some of them but there were over 100 people there.  It was fun watching Branson and Gavin interact with the little kids.

Branson is OBSESSED with all things animal lately, especially Tigers and Elephants.  He loves to growl like a Tiger and loves it even more when Josh growls back at him.  So the Zoo Books that we used to get as kids have come in handy with him.  I can't believe my parent's still have some of them!  Looks like my dad was learning about the Tigers with Branson!

It was great to get together with my dad's side of the family again and to see people we haven't seen in a long time.

Enjoying God's Beauty

We went camping Friday night with the Callaway's.  We haven't been camping in so long, it was so fun!  We headed up the canyon and went to Tony's Grove first to get some family pics of Cody, Tara and the kids.  The wind was blowing so hard and it was quite chilly.  We got a couple of pictures but the gail force winds were too much so we decided to go try up Franklin Basin and find a camping spot.
A few of the outtakes:

A couple of the good ones:

The wind wasn't blowing nearly as hard at Franklin Basin and it was a lot warmer.  We got a great spot off the road and down a little hill tucked up against the mountain.  Whoever was there last left us a good supply of fire wood, too!

So we got the camp set up, Josh and I decided to sleep in the back of our Jeep instead of in a tent.

Once we got everything set up, Josh and Cody decided they needed to run to Bear Lake to get more ice because Cody was obsessed with the ice in cooler not thinking we had enough, which in the end it was a good thing he went.  While they were gone, Tara, Morgan, Atty and I decided to play in the little stream that run along our camp.  The water was freezing and our shoes never dried out so all four of us had to fashion flip flops and socks for the rest of the day, very cute!  It was fun bonding time though!

When the boys got back, got the air rifle out and shot at bottles and cans on the side of the mountain.

And Morgan convinced us to play the Skittles game.  In the Skittles game you put a bunch of Skittles in a bowl, put the bowl on your head and take 2 Skittles at a time until you get 2 of the same color.  Then you pass the bowl to the next person.  While they are getting their Skittles you can chew and swallow the Skittles you have in your mouth until they get 2 of the same color.  When they pass the bowl you HAVE to STOP chewing and swallowing, you have to hold what you have in your mouth.  Tara and I were having to push it all to the top of our mouths or we would choke!  It probably wouldn't have been so bad but we had 3 different types of Skittles, the original, tropical (or something like that) and SOUR.  I don't like sour candy so they were the worst and combined with the others was AWFUL!  Tara and I won and neither of us can stomach the thought of eating Skittles again!

Josh said there is nothing to do camping except wait to eat meals and go to bed and wait to eat again.  So it came time to eat dinner finally!  We grilled up some burgers for dinner and it was delicious!
Then after we were done eating, we decided to shoot the ketchup bottle to see who could make it explode!  I'm not into shooting guns but everybody else had lots of fun and the light was beautiful going down behind the mountains.

Once the sun went down it started getting pretty cold.  We sat around the fire and roasted marshmallows, made s'mores and watched for meteors from the meteor shower.  We were spotting the constellations and watching the shooting stars, I loved it!  I loved watching the fire, also.  It's so mesmerizing to me.

It started getting really cold and we weren't seeing many meteors, just a few shooting stars and The Big and Little Dippers so we decided to go to bed.
We slept good in the Jeep, Josh kept me warm all night but we had to turn the Jeep on at about 4:30 in the morning because it got quite cold.  We woke up at the crack of dawn because the sun comes up early in the mountains.  I noticed the fire was going again at about 6:30 so we got up and went down.  It was FREEZING!
Early morning picture with crazy, curly, frizzy bed hair!  Love my hubby, though!  He was such a good sport!

Once the sun got to us around 9 am it got warmer.  We had pancakes for breakfast and got the camp taken down to go home.
We all smelled but braved being close to each other for the family picture!

It was a great camping trip, Josh and I haven't been on one in about 6 years, so it was great fun!

Seven Years Later...And No Itch

Seven.  Seven!  Seven years ago I married my best friend and haven't looked back!  I took the day off to spend it with Josh.  We went on a drive over to Bear Lake and enjoyed the day together.  It was beautiful.

The water was so blue.  We didn't go get in because we thought it was kind of chilly.  Complete opposite of our wedding day.  It was hotter than Hades that day!

 I love you baby!  Thank you for the past 7 years!  I'm so looking forward to the next 70 years with you.  You are my sunshine, my everything.