Famous Preston Parade & Carnival

My sister in law has started selling Usborne books and had a booth up at the sidewalk sale for the Famous Preston Rodeo weekend.  I was going to babysit the boys on Friday after I got off work but they all got sick with a nasty stomach bug so she didn't go Thursday or Friday.  They started feeling better on Saturday so she asked if I would come up on Saturday instead.
I had so much fun spending time with them.  We watched 101 Dalmatians and played and played.  Gavin was feeling fine but Branson still wasn't feeling very good so he didn't eat very well.  We met Brit in time to watch the parade in front of where her booth was on Main St.  I hadn't been up to that parade, carnival or rodeo since I was just out of high school...a long time ago.  So it was kind of bizarre to be back up there and see how much the town has NOT changed.
When we got to the booth, she had 2 bags of cotton candy for the boys.  Gavin devoured his in seconds, he loved it!

Our valley regular, Brent, was there.  He is always out riding his bike, honking his horn and waving to everyone no matter the season.  Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall he's out there making people smile.

 Then the parade started.

All the kids went crazy for the candy and rushed the streets.

Chelsie and I were on candy patrol for the kids and caught Gavin a Nut n Honey.  He loved eating it.

And then this came down the road and I had no words.

The parade got over and Gavin was so excited to finally see his mom.  He just wanted to touch her.

About half way through the parade I looked down and saw something down the back of Gavin's back.  I thought it was candy slobber from Branson but then figured out it was vomit.  Apparently Branson wasn't feeling very well.  We wanted to go to the carnival with the boys afterward so we had to go back to Franklin to change Branson.  In the madness of getting the boys back in the car and getting out of town I put my camera on the top of my Jeep.  I didn't realize I left it up there until after we got back to Brittiney's and felt in my pockets for my keys and felt my lens cap.  Then the immediate thought of "where is my camera? oh my gosh, i left it on top of the jeep!" came to my mind.  I almost had a heart attack.  I ran outside and by the grace of God, it was still on my roof up against the luggage rack.  I don't know how it stayed up there going 65 mph down the highway but it did.  It scared me so bad!  I would have been inconsolably devastated.  My camera is my most prized possession.  It's kind of become part of my identity that I see of myself, camera always in hand.  I would be lost without it.
After we got the camera off the roof, we took the boys back up to the carnival.  Brittiney decided to let them ride the monkey train.  Gavin started crying before he even got on the ride, he was not a fan.  Branson wasn't so sure of what to think either.  Gavin was reaching for Brittiney with big tears just streaming down his face.

After we succeeded in traumatizing the boys, we walked around, got a hamburger and a drink before we headed home.
I had to go home and tell Josh what I did to the camera.  He was just as shocked as I was that it stayed on the car.  I don't know what I would have done if it fell off.  I just imagined where we pulled away in Preston and my camera falling and shattering on the ground or falling off the roof going 65 mph down the highway and it bouncing and breaking down the road.  Other than that little mishap, it was so fun to experience the parade and carnival with my nephews!

Nephews At The Park

My mom was watching Branson and Gavin while Jade and Brittiney went to the Katy Perry concert so I asked if she wanted to bring them down to Logan and we could take them to the park or something.  We decided to take them to Wendy's to eat some lunch before we went to the park.  They did really well eating their lunch for the first 20 minutes or so, then it was a 3 ring circus.  Gavin thought it was so funny to have his fries dipped in ketchup, he giggled every time.  Branson is not a good eater but did pretty well through the first little bit then it was time to go to the park.  He just couldn't wait to get there.  We went to the park by our house.  I don't know why the people who design the parks think it's a good idea to put bark down under all the toys and to not have any shade on the playground, none.  It was so dang hot!  We lasted at the park for about 15 minutes before we couldn't handle the heat anymore.

Branson was so proud of himself for climbing and going down the big slide.

So we moved to another park looking for some shade.  We didn't find very much of it, but there was a cool dinosaur fossil underneath the playset!  Branson is very into dinosaurs and loved this!

Branson played on this caterpillar part of the playground and didn't want any help climbing it until he had to climb up.  He did fall once but did pretty good for a little guy.

We played on the playground for a little bit longer before the heat got to be too much.  But it was fun to spend the day with them and my mom.

Family Fun on the 24th

There was a family reunion for Josh's Grandpa Jolley's side of the family on Sunday.  And since we hadn't seen Harry Potter 7 pt 2 yet, we decided to go see it at Jordan Commons in Sandy on the way down to the reunion.  I love that movie theater and really miss going to movies there when we lived in Sandy.  We got there just in time to get our lunch of cheese burgers and shakes (yeah, you can eat food INSIDE the theater!) then went into the movie.  It was so good.  I'm so sad the movies are over.  I loved the books the most, the books are always better, but the movies were great.

Josh doesn't know any of those relatives really and it was the first time we ever went to that reunion so we didn't know what to expect.  It was up Cobble Creek Canyon in Springville at the Jolley Ranch (apparently no relation).  It was really pretty up there.  They had just got done eating lunch and taking the family photo when we got there.  We were nervous and didn't have any cell service so we didn't know where Rosie was.  We didn't want to just walk up to the pavilion without knowing anyone so it took us a while to get out of the car, we're awkward.  We did find Rosie and felt more comfortable.  They started playing family bingo, which we did not play so we played with Raedyn instead.

We hung out for a little bit and got some family pictures taken, we were just missing Shane and his family.

It was fun to see our family and to spend time with them.

Porter Family Camping Weekend of Fun: Day 2

We got up the next morning and it was our turn to make the meal.  We chose to make blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, turkey bacon and sausage.  The eggs looked a little weird after being cooked in the bacon and sausage grease but they tasted good!

After breakfast we got washed up and cleaned up the best we could with baby wipes.  We look pretty!

Since Jade and Brit weren't there and the mosquitoes were terrible, we decided to take a trip to Bear Lake for a few hours.  My dad stayed behind to take a nap with Roxy since you can't have dogs on North Beach.  As we were on our way down off the mountain, we ran into Jade and Brit.  They came back for the day so Josh and I decided to go to Minnetonka Caves with them instead of Bear Lake.  We got up to the caves at 1:30 and it was so crowded they were selling tickets for the 4:00 tour, not gonna happen.  So Josh and I went for a drive around Bear Lake.

I really wanted a fresh raspberry shake so we stopped for one.  After I ordered it, they pulled raspberries out of the freezer in a Wal Mart bag.  I was disappointed but the shake was good.  The lake is so high this year.  My mom, Chelsie and Brian tried to go to North Beach but they wouldn't let them on the beach because they said it was at capacity, never heard that before!  People were pulled over on the side of the road on the little pull-offs playing in the water.

We went back to camp to meet up with everyone.  My mom, dad and I decided to go for a walk with Branson to take him to the ice cave.

Branson is really into "Up" right now and he always talks about "the mean man" from the movie.  Well on our walk we found a tree that Branson thought would belong to the mean man so we had to stop and look at it.

 Branson thought the cave was so cool.  He thought that is where the dragons live and was trying to find baby dragons everywhere.  It was really neat in there.  It was actually the one place where there were no mosquitoes since it was so cold in there.

We went back to camp to start making dinner.  It was Mom and Dad's turn and they made yummy dutch oven chicken (for me) and ribs (for everyone else) and potatoes.

The boys played and got more dirty and Gavin used Josh as a jungle gym again.

yep, those bumps all over his forehead are mosquito bites, poor kid

 Roxy was on guard all weekend.  When my Mom and Dad got back to their house, they said she slept for hours and hours finally relaxed.

Dinner was delicious.  Jade and Brit packed all that they could fit in their car to go home that night and the rest of us would take what was left home in the morning.  Josh went home with them.  He is not much of a camper, or is just a 1-night camper.  The rest of us all sat around the fire for the rest of the night, scaring ourselves.  When we went to bed, I pointed my flashlight out into the woods to check on things and there was a big buck and a doe circling our camp.  We watched them make their way down the road and then went to bed.  I was scared sleeping by myself in the Jeep.  My mind is really bad at scaring me and I can't shut it off.  My iPod was just about dead so I listened to music until it died and I finally fell asleep.  We got up in the morning and got everything packed up to go home.
It was such a fun weekend to spend with my family, totally disconnected for 3days.  I loved it and can't wait for next year.

Porter Family Camping Weekend of Fun: Day 1

We planned a weekend of camping with all of my family.  Everyone was able to get work off and it would be the first time my nephews went camping.  My dad wanted to take us to Bloomington Lake were we went last year for a day trip.  Since it got warm late this year, there was still snow up there so we had to come up with a plan B.  We decided to go up Paris Canyon.  My parents went up a few days before we were to set out on the camping trip to find us a good spot.  They found a great spot but told us to bring mosquito spray.  We got up there Friday morning and could not believe the amount of mosquitoes up there.  I've never seen anything like it.  We had fogger that we sprayed Friday night and we were constantly spraying ourselves with bug spray for 3 days.

Here's how Josh dealt with the mosquitoes.  The poor guy swells up so big when he gets bit by one.

We got up to camp and got everything set up.  Josh and I slept in the back of our Jeep.  We don't tent camp much anymore since we can fit back there, plus we can turn the heat on during the night when we get cold.

Branson and Gavin loved it!  Branson was excited to sleep in a tent at night with him mom and dad.

My mom and I took Branson for a little hike to see what was around us.  He found a big rock that he fell in love with.  He thought he was the coolest thing standing up on top of it.

Gavin is a crazy baby and into every.thing.  Constantly.  And he loves loves loves to hang on Josh.

He is so cute.

My dad was so cute and found Branson some "dinosaur" bones.  The kid is obsessed with dinosaurs and dragons.  He showed everyone his bone that Papa found him.

My dad got the fire going to try to get the mosquitoes to go away and to get dinner going.  We roasted hot dogs Friday night.  Dad has lots of helpers to get the fire going!

After we ate, the boys got changed into their jammies and we all sat around the fire.  Gavin went out pretty quickly.

Branson thought it was time to make "Bamma" be a monkey.  It was hilarious!  She had to go cross-eyed and make monkey sounds.  We tried to teach him how to make the sounds, too.  We had to do monkey motions with our arms, which apparently I didn't get right according to Branson.

 As it got later, the fire got bigger.  I love sitting around a campfire in the dark, it's hypnotizing.

My dad, brother and Brian decided that it would be a good idea to go walking down to the Ice Caves...in the dark.  We sat around the fire for a little while waiting for them to come back.  Then we started hearing what sounded like wolves howling but we knew it was them, still made me nervous though.  They finally got back and Josh and I went to bed.  We got woken up at about 1:30 in the morning to Jade and Brittiney's car doors opening and closing since they were right by us.  The boys were crying and were cold in their tent so they took them home.