Utah Vacation

In June we headed to Utah to attend the Wimmer Reunion in Nine Mile Canyon, a place my Dad loved and I visited often with him growing up. My grandparents were homesteaders out there.
This was my first look at a rock my Dad liked and had placed in front of his friend, Ben Mead's Bunk & Breakfast in Nine Mile Canyon. Ben spoke at my Dad's funeral in 2007 and told the story about the rock, which I'd never heard. So this was my motivation to definitely make it to the reunion this year when I learned it was to be held at Ben's Bunk & Breakfast. We also had a great visit many cousins and other relatives we don't see very often and had a delicious barbeque.

Here are some of Jack's descendants in front of what they call "Jack's Rock"...
Uncle Steve H. took us out to Huntington Reservoir for an evening of boat rides and the kids loved that but I didn't get any pictures. Bruce's part in our Utah vacation was cut drastically short as we had to drop him off at the SLC airport to fly to a conference in Massachusetts. But that didn't stop the rest of us from finding some fun. We stayed in Aunt Denette's fabulous guest suite. Dang it, if they didn't treat their guests so well we wouldn't bug them so much, hee hee. They have the most beautiful hiking trails right in their neighborhood. Denette took us on a relaxing hike where Teagan gathered a wildflower bouquet...
We did a cousin swap, we left Trent in Price and had Karli with us until we all met up at Lagoon.
The next day we went to The Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. They've had the stingers removed from some of their stingrays and they actually have a petting tank. This was fascinating for the kids and one of the highlights.
There were all kind of engaging displays at this place...
We hit Panda Express for lunch then it was on to Cowabunga Bay in Draper and was it ever a good day for it with temperatures in the mid-ninety's!
This is a new place that's great for young kids as it has a small pool, a nice lazy river, and about 8-10 different slides.
The next day when we got to Lagoon we found a nice shady spot for our lunch and the "big" kids disappeared immediately. They were headed for the cool big kid rides. No little kid rides for them, they were outta there! We hardly saw them the whole day. Karra and I hung out with Teagan, Brilee, Benjamin, and Karli.
Our theory was that it was so hot everyone would probably go to Lagoon-A-Beach so maybe the lines wouldn't be so long. At the end of the day I think we were right because lines really weren't that bad.
We had to cool off at the Log Flume. Karli, Brilee, Teagan, Ben, & me.
Aunt Karra, Karli, and Brilee in the back of the Tidal Wave. Karli decided she didn't like that ride.
We discovered that Teagan is definitely her father's daughter. She was a little queasy about some of the rides especially roller coasters. On the other hand Benjamin is definitely his mother's son. He was game to go on everything and anything and was too short for most things he wanted to go on. He did, however, convince me to take him on the Jett Star 2, and this is his first time on the Sky Ride...
Benjamin teasing Trent with the air baseball Derek had won for him...
By the end of the day we were pooped!

Tee Ball

Benjamin tried his hand at Tee Ball for the first time this summer. He was a member of the Homes West Hot Shots and he had a couple of awesome coaches. Above he is choosing a bat. Below here he is up to bat. He's my lefty.
After missing four games straight because of our vacations, we could no longer locate his team shirt. Sigh. He was pretty worried about that but luckily his coaches were cool about it. Here he is below dressed in white on 3rd base...
Here he is coming home...
Meeting with Coach Holli after the last game...
The team party was at Pizza Pie Cafe where pictures and awards were given out.
Best of all Coach Holli made baseball cupcakes! He can't wait until next season.

Moi Birthday

On my birthday I got up about 8 a.m. I roused the sleeping kids and we had devotional. Then it was split, tear, run cuz we had places to be by 9 a.m. Ben had a tee ball game and Brilee had an appointment with her favorite "tudor". Bruce worked outside all day trying to get a drip line to all his newly planted trees. I've decided he is happiest out working on his acreage. I had worked out in the yard all the day before and loved every minute of it (except the wind) so today was clean up after the kids and neighborhood friends.

Then at 1:00 I went to Chili's for lunch with three sweet friends; Kirsten, Tiffini, and Lindsey. Kirsten had arranged it and that was a lot of fun. Later I dropped the girls off at their Activity Day leaders house and I actually made it to the gym - shock! That was my gift to myself. Then I went shopping and found a lot more than I thought I would, until finally I got a text from Bruce who was wondering if I had gotten lost. Lost in the moment that's all.
When I got home Bruce had made dinner - BBQ chicken, twice baked potatoes, and orange jello. And my sweet Teagan girl had baked me this chocolate cake...
Don't you love the freckles? Teagan pointed them out to me - orange sugar - LOVE IT! After dinner I showered and Bruce and I went to a movie while the kids went to bed. Fun day!

Luscious Strawberries

I love when the price of strawberries drops. I introduced the kids to dipping them into chocolate this Spring and we did it several times. They absolutely loved it! I love that combination of flavors; sweet savory strawberries and melted milk chocolate, yu-uummmy. We also had a lot of fun with our trifle bowl this Spring (pics at bottom).
Teagan's wearing a mask she made for art at school.
My Mom and sister came up for Time Out for Women in June but sadly this is the only picture I took. T.O.F.W was sooo good this time. I loved Heidi Swinton, Brad Wilcox, and Kris Belcher, and discovered the music group, Mercy River. I had never listened to their music before but it's been the only thing in my CD player since.
Teagan and I made our guests a mixed berry trifle with cream cheese flavored pudding and vanilla pudding. It was so good. I LOVE fresh fruit, it's one of my favorite things about summer.
Teagan decorated the top of this trifle which was another of the same on a different day.
Another day we experimented with that new Jello brand chocolate mousse pudding and strawberry pudding. It was even better!

Olive Garden

We drove to the Idaho Falls Temple Visitors Center to catch Mark Mabry's Reflections of Christ display before it left. I didn't have a good feeling about it when we pulled up to find a construction project had begun out front. It turns out they closed it early that day because of the project. We were so bummed since we'd made the effort to drive over and the schedule had said it would be open. We decided to go to one of my favorite restaurants (that we don't have in our city), the Olive Garden. However, three of our four kids ordered this:
Yeah, we may as well have gone to McDonald's if all they wanted was chicken nuggets and french fries! I ordered the braised beef and tortellini and it was heavenly. It ended up being a nice drive and family evening after all.

Ben Quote of the Day

Benjamin said something last night while I was putting him to bed that made me laugh. I want to remember it so I'm going to write about it but I need to give you some background first. When we moved from ultra humid Louisiana to ultra dry Idaho something immediately happened. The younger three kids' skin threw a complete fit! Their skin became intensely dry and they would scratch until it bled. We had to go to the doctor and everyone got their own prescription strength steroid cream. Even that didn't help a ton. It was just such a complete change! In the South we would occasionally get out the hydrocortisone for Teagan's itches and that always took care of things. Nothing really seemed to do the job in Idaho. Although the girls have had their moments, Ben has suffered with it the very most.

Finally, I discovered Aquaphor and learned that if I faithfully cover Benjamin's legs with it DAILY, his exema becomes manageable. If we miss a few days they become so dry and awful looking. He can't resist scratching and then they bleed and look worse. Usually when I put him to bed and he starts itching like crazy, that's my reminder to grab the Aquaphor container and start greasing him up with it (literally)! Well, last night he came in my room to find the finger nail clippers and asked me to help him. I clipped his nails all nice and short. When he laid down in his bed he went to scratch and said, "Look Mom now I won't scratch my legs cuz my nails are too short." He knew I'd like that since I'm always telling him to not scratch, but grab the medicine instead.

Now that's a "Savage Sandwich" taken fall 2006. Benjamin turned one just a couple months after we moved here. This is one of the last pictures I got of my dad. He and mom came for a visit October 2006. Little did we know he would be gone in one short year. Seeing snow again was most exciting, but the cold weather was super drying to the skin. Man, sometimes you don't notice how much your kiddos have grown up until you take a look back...