Morwood Reunion on Cove Mountain

Chad and Roxanne's family was in charge of the Morwood reunion this year.  The reunion was held over the 24th of July at their property on Cove Mountain.  This mountain is in between Richfield and Koosharem.  The reunion was a lot of fun and we enjoyed seeing everyone and the kids loved finding new cousins to play with.  

We arrived on the mountain Wednesday, July 23.  It seemed to take forever to get settled into a place to camp.  First we had to find a place level enough for the trailer.  This was difficult because everything was on a hill.  At one point in the leveling process of rising and lowering the trailer, our trailer jack broke!  Yes we were stuck we could not raise the trailer off the truck because the jack would not work.  This caused somewhat of a problem... and a little stress... oh and it was dark outside.... Finally after Russell had cooled off and thought of a solution, we were able to find a more level spot, use our 2-ton jack to raise the trailer off the truck hitch and use logs and other boards to prop it up so that it would sit level off the jack.  Thanks Terral for feeding my kids (and us).

Thursday, July 24th was when the rest of the family came.  We had a pretty relaxed day of visiting with relatives, and playing with cousins.  That afternoon Colby wanted to go fishing so we did.  We drove a couple miles down the road to Big Lake.  While we drove, we listened to our new "favorite" songs, "It's Raining Tacos" and "Tony Chestnut." (Thank you Hughes!).  We had a great time fishing and not catching. 

The kids got a little bored holding their poles so they made up their own fun by throwing rocks:

Jumping off rocks.  Logan even decided to swimming:

I think this kid was meant to be a fish because anything wet or water just calls his name.  I told him to stay out of the water so what does he do?  He goes as close to the edge as he can and then when he thought I wasn't looking, he stepped right in the lake.  When I went to get him out, he sat down right in the water and mud.  Well there was nothing I could do about that so I just took him out of the water and let him play.  As you can see, he was covered in mud pretty quick.  But he was happy...

Russell decided to wade out into the water too to see if he could get a better angle on the fishing.  Well rather than catching a fish, Russell got splashed by a bunch of rocks.  As soon as he got out in the water, the kids started throwing rocks at his feet trying to splash him.  Jacee and Chrislyn were successful.

And as a result, Jacee got the brunt of it.  She lost her hat in the water and was scared that Russell was going to drop her in the water too.  It was so funny.  After that, Emily and Colby wanted to go out in the water too so Russell took them out on a big rock in the lake.

They loved it and thought they were so cool.

The next day, Friday July 25th, was a four wheeling day.  That morning I ran 2.5 miles along the four wheeling trails.  It was such a nice run through the mountains and meadows with the deer but the altitude killed me.  I am used to St. George running so when you add 8,000 feet well lets just say it was a little hard to breath.  That afternoon, we all went on a big four-wheeler ride through the mountains.  The ride was awesome until it started raining.  Yeah it was sunny the whole time we were camping except for the couple hours we were out on the four wheeler!

Well our four-wheeler had a little bit of a hard time with the altitude too.  We were driving along fine until we tried to go up this big hill.  Then the four wheeler just started bogging down and finally quit.  We finally got it running again but we were worried we would have to walk home.  I guess we should get that looked at before we go riding again.  Well when we got to the top of the hill, we were at this amazing look out point:

We could see the whole valley of Richfield, Monroe, Joseph and Annabelle.  It was cool and I love the patchwork quilt look of the area.  Emily is not in the picture with us because she was riding with Tami and they had gone back to camp while we were trying to get the four wheeler to work.  Emily had fun playing checkers with Jess and Cole back at camp.  

We continued our ride to Deep Lake.  We put Colby on with Lacie to take some weight off the four wheeler to get it up the hill and then he did not want to get back on with us.  Here Colby and Lacie are going down a really steep hill at Deep Lake.  Colby thought he was so cool!

After the ride, we came back to camp and made Camp Doughnuts.  These thing are the best doughnuts ever, well except maybe Krispy Kreme but close.  

Colby said he was guarding the doughnuts but I think his real scheme was to steal tastes when no one was looking.  Here I caught both Colby and Grandpa sneaking a doughnut before dinner!  Caught Ya!

Tami also made homemade ice cream and we each took turns cranking the ice cream maker.  Logan loved turning the crank.  He and Cole were the only ones that wanted to crank the handle it seemed like.  They had fun.

Cole and Logan became even better friends on this camping trip.  I think they loved having some one their size to play with.  Here they are holding hands while walking through the camp.  It was so cute!

Look at these cute knot heads!  They are really good friends but they both are very spoiled!  They like to fight over toys because one kid wants the toy but the other kid saw it first and they cannot share so they play tug o' war while squawking at each other.  It is really quite funny but probably shouldn't laugh.  For the most part though these two are good friends.

Saturday, July 26 was the big family dinner.  It was nice to get together with the entire family for a dinner.  There were about 100 plus people at the reunion this year.  I was glad we were able to go and see everyone.  After dinner we headed home so we could be home for church the next day.  On our way to the truck, we passed Chad's loader and grader.  Colby loves big trucks so he wanted his picture taken inside the loader bucket.

When Colby got in the bucket, he said "Look Mom, we are dirt!"  It was so funny and as you can see, after camping all weekend, they looked like dirt too!  Logan loved playing in the bucket too and was so mad when we had to leave.  

Coming up the mountain was hard because the road was steep but going down the mountain was even more difficult.  The road down was very steep and windy.  Even in the lowest gear it seemed like Russell had to ride the brakes a lot.  I was glad I was not driving. 

On the way down, Russell and I were on the look out for a special tree.  The last time we were up on Cove Mountain was 8 years ago right before we got married.  During that camping trip we carved our names in a tree to be there for all time.  We were looking for  that tree and guess what?  We found it!

There you have it: R.F. + T.F. '06.  We were so happy we found this tree.  It was so cool to see it after so many years.  Russell and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this year.  It is so nice to have my best friend with me through all of the thick and thin things, helping me and loving me along the way.  Happy Anniversary Russell.  I love you!

Well that was our fun family reunion.  We got home at midnight, in bed by one, and then back up for church meetings at five.  Needless to say I am exhausted.  But it was fun. Oh and good news, Russell and my dad were able to fix our trailer jack and our trailer brakes so they work great now. Yeah!

Happy Birthday Russell

We celebrated Russell's 31st birthday this year.  The kids had fun making cards for him.  Unfortunately we didn't do anything real exciting because Russell had a PHTLS certification class all day and then our ward Pine Valley picnic that night.  During the hour we were all home though we did have cake and ice cream!

The kids had a lot of fun helping me make this "camouflage" cake for Dad.  They all thought I was the coolest mom ever!  Russell was quite impressed too.  I had seen these camouflage cake mixes at the store and was finally going to break down and send the extra money to buy one until I read the instructions for how to make it.  The directions were so easy I put the mix back and got a dollar mix and made my own camouflage (or in this case rainbow) cake.  Anyway Emily and Colby loved helping me mix the colors and Logan loved tasting the cake batter saying "Thas goo!" (That's good!)  

After spoiling our dinner by eating cake first, we headed up to Pine Valley for our ward picnic/dinner.  The night was so fun.  I love our ward and it is so nice because we finally feel like we know everyone in our ward.  We have never felt this way in the other wards we have been in.  At the picnic, the Bishop Olsen announced that it was Russell's birthday and the whole ward sang "Happy Birthday" to him.  It was so funny.

So Russell was kind of bummed today though.  Not because of lack of celebration but because he missed a huge structure fire!  So during the middle of his PHTLS class his fire pager went crazy calling all available units to a trailer park in town.  Russell was a little antsy so he asked Shanna (the instructor) is he could go.  She said "Sure but you won't get your cert."  Knowing how much money we were saving by getting this class for free and also knowing this cert was essential for his job he decided to stay.  All the while banging his head on the desk wishing he was at the fire.  More pages went out for more manpower and still more head banging from Russell.  By the time the class was out and the certification was earned, Russell raced to the fire only to find it all ready out and the clean up crews cleaning.  Russell was so mad.  This fire was huge it took five mobile homes but luckily no one was hurt.  So needless to say, fighting this fire would have made a great birthday present but he missed it so he was sad.  Sorry Russell maybe next time...  In all though I hope he had a good birthday.

Happy 31st Birthday, Daddy!

Summer Fun with Friends

This summer we have been having so much fun with our neighborhood and ward friends.  A newer lady in the ward, McCall Carson, came up with a great suggestion at the beginning of the summer.  She said that they used to do this in her old ward in Las Vegas.  During the summer, the moms would plan fun little play date/activities for their kids and the neighborhood kids to do and they would each take an activity to be in charge of and just let everyone know when it was.  Well at the beginning of June, we all got calenders of the fun activities that were planned.  We have absolutely loved going to these fun activities.  There have been park days, hikes, water balloons and Popsicles, pancakes and pajama parties, trips to the fire station, library days, and more.  It has been so fun.  

One activity the kids really liked was seeing the baby chicks at the Lay's house.

Jason and Hanna Lay and their cute boys Braxton and Easton, have chickens in there back yard that give them eggs.  Well they ordered some more eggs to hatch and they finally hatched.  They invited all the kids (and parents) over to see their baby chicks.  They taught us how the chick develop in the eggs, how they incubate the eggs so they will grow and ultimately hatch and they they showed us how their chickens have sort of adopted these new babies as their own.  We were able to hold and pet the baby chicks too.  The kids loved it and still talk about holding and seeing the baby chicks at Braxton's house.  

Another fun activity was this week.  It was a water party at Sister Gough's house.  Russell took the kids to this while I was at work and they all had a great time splashing in the pool and spraying everyone with the water blasters.

Colby told me a funny story about the water party when I got home.  He told me that he sprayed Sister Gough with the water gun and then ran away really super fast when she tried to get him.  It was so funny I could just see him doing something like that to her and then laughing as he ran away.

Sister Gough is a lady about my mom's age so she doesn't have any kids at home but she is one of those cool ladies that wants to be involved and you love having around.  She is my Sunbeam teacher and she loves little kids.  She kept seeing all of the pictures of our summer activities we posted on Facebook and she said we were having too much fun without her and she wanted to come too.  We told her to come along.  So she found a day that her grandkids would be at her house and invited all of the neighborhood kids to join them for this water party.  Ask any of the kids and they will tell you how fun this party was.

We have had fun playing with friends this summer.  We still have a few more weeks of summer before school starts so we are trying to cram in as much fun as we can before then.

Paul's Baptism

June 12th was Paul's baptism day.  Of course we did not want to miss this very important and special day so we travelled up to Salt Lake to be there with the Stewart's.  The baptism was at 10 so we had to leave St. George at 4 am to get there in time but it was worth the drive to witness this special ordinance.

Jen and Rick and their ward put on a great program for Paul's baptism.  Tyler and Traci gave great talks on the importance of Baptism and the Holy Ghost.  Rick also sang a beautiful rendition of "When I Am Baptized."  I had no idea he was such a great singer.  The baptism and confirmation were amazing too.  You could really tell that Paul was excited and that he knew this was the right thing to do.  When the bishopric member excused us to go to the baptismal font, little Annalynn got really excited too and said, "You're going to get baptized!!!"  It was so cute.  A few weeks ago Paul broke his arm doing whatever it is boys do and had to get a cast.  We all wondered if they would have to move the baptismal date or just what because he could not get the cast wet.  Well they didn't move the date but Tyler and Rick wrapped Paul's arm in a plastic bag and duct taped it all up so that water could not get in.  Because of this, Paul was able to get properly baptized, by immersion, cast and all!

After the baptism, we all headed back to the Stewart's house for a luncheon and visiting and playing with cousins:

It was so nice to get together and see this part of the family that we don't see often enough.  The kids had so much fun playing on the swings with Paul, Alex, and Annalynn and the Gardner cousins all day.  Emily and Traci also practiced their singing abilities on Frozen songs.  Logan loved spending time with Grandpa getting his nose.  Colby just had a blast running around playing with all the boys.

At around 2:00, we decided to take a picnic up to Bridal Veil Falls and play in the water.  However, on the way, there was a really bad wreck of a jackknifed camp trailer and truck so we were stuck in traffic for an hour or more.  When we finally passed the wreck, we were all like "Oh man..." and had a little moment of silence for that poor family.  I hope everyone was all right.  By this time there was no way we could make it to Bridal Veil Falls and then home at a decent hour so we all stopped at Thanksgiving Point instead to have our picnic.

While there, LeeAnn announced that all of our family was there together so we took this rare moment to snap a family picture. (Despite the grumbling from Keith...).  Aren't we a good looking bunch!

It was then time for us to head home.  The rest of the group was staying another night so they, along with the Gardner's, went up to the Bridal Veil Falls and had a good time.  This was a really quick up and back trip but totally worth the driving.  We had a great time and we love supporting our family in important events like this.  Congratulations Paul for deciding to be baptized and becoming a member of the true church.

Happy 4th and My Last Birthday

Happy 4th of July!  I think this is one of my favorite holidays.  I love the parades, the fireworks, the barbecues, the family time and, oh yeah, it is also my birthday!!  Russell and I decided to stay in town this year because I am still trying to recover from our South Dakota trip and it is my month for sharing time.  So we had a stay-cation instead.  

Our first adventure started at 6:00 am on the 4th.  Russell, Traci, and I participated in the Uncle Sam 5K.

This was a really fun race.  We ran through down town St. George from the Sun Bowl to the old Woodward and back.  I am happy to report that we did much better this race than the last 5K. Russell finished in like 25 minutes and Traci and I crossed the finish line in 28:30.  This was 4 minutes faster than my last race but still not as fast as I would like.  Oh well at least I am improving.  Any way the race goodies bags were very interesting this time.  We got our free shirts obviously, but we also got these "awesome" Uncle Sam hats and white beards!  Don't we look so patriotic!  Russell was a little crazy with his beard and wore it for a long time.  I could only wear that beard for like two seconds while we took a picture than I tore it off because I was getting claustrophobic.  The hats however were pretty cool.  Russell and Traci wore their hat during the race but then about half way, they both tore them off because they were so hot.  Yeah running with a wool hat in the middle of the St. George summer is probably not the best idea.  Even though the race was at 6:30 in the morning, it was still really hot.  While we were running, Traci and I were sweating so bad.  Then we saw the sprinklers were on watering the grass in front of one of the businesses along the route.  We both both made a beeline for the sprinklers, ran through them, and then got back on course.  The water felt so good.  

I have been enjoying getting back into running.  I feel so much better about myself after I have been running and it really helps me start my day.  I have been running with a few of the ladies in my neighborhood and that has also been fun.  

After the race, LeeAnn brought the kids into town and we met them for the city parade.  As you can see, Russell still has that beard on.  He was talking to some our old neighbors and their kids kept asking him if he was Santa Claus and if he was Santa Claus how come he wasn't fat.  We all laughed as Russell tried to explain that one.   

These kids just love parades.  They loved all of the floats.  Emily loved the princess floats, Colby loved the cars (especially this yellow Camero that looked like Bumblebee), and Logan loved the horses (or the YEEHAWS!)  

But more than anything, they all LOVE getting candy.  They each came home with a bag full of parade candy.  Logan was very observant.  He was sitting on my lap just watching Emily and Colby run out to get the candy.  Then he had figured it out and he got right off my lap and ran out to the road to get his own candy.  He did not sit down the rest of the time.  We did have to watch him though because before we knew it, he was running down the street after more candy.  He did this multiple times so we had to keep chasing him.  He was getting quick too because he would sometimes beat Emily and Colby to the candy.

After the parade, we went home to just relax.  It was too hot to go outside and we were tired from getting up so early so we just spent the day chilling.  That night we had a barbecue and family dinner with the Farnsworth's.  It was fun to get together.

After dinner, we drove up to the old airport hill to see the city's firework show.  Well the entire city of St. George had the same idea as we did so everyone was up on the airport road.  We finally found a place to park thanks to Russell and the fire department.  Then we sat in between the motel and the motel's swimming pool in a little alley way and had a perfect view of the fireworks set off at the Sun Bowl and the Red Hill.  The ones shot off at the airport were behind a wall so we couldn't see them but we sure could hear them.  We had a "blast" watching the fireworks.  My kids are afraid of the big booming ones which is sad because those ones are my favorite!  The firework show was really cool.  Here are a few pictures:

After the city fireworks it took as an hour to get home due to the traffic.  Then we went to watch Tyler's and his friends' firework show.  As you can see, Logan and Colby were amazed by Tyler's fireworks.  They loved watching them.

The next day was of course my birthday!  I am 29 now!  I can't believe how old am....  I decide this was my last birthday.  From now on, I am either going to go in reverse or just have anniversaries of my 29th birthday.  So next year I will either be 28 again or it will be the first anniversary of my 29th birthday.  I haven't decided which one yet but I am not going to be 30! I did have a good birthday though.  We kind of celebrated it on the 4th while with the family.  Uncle Ron made this really good chocolate cake.  It was so good I had to stop myself from eating too much.  On my birthday, Russell and the kids made me another birthday cake and sang to me.  I loved it!  For my birthday,  I was able to get candy from the kids, a new pedometer from Russell, and running clothes, watch, and also new running shoes.  I am set for marathon training (well maybe half marathon training...).  My shoes are actually like professional running shoes.  They were actually fitted by a professional runner from the Running Center.  I am excited to try them out.  The guy said that the reason my IT band and knee was hurting was because my old shoes were shot.  I have been doing hip strengthening workouts that have helped but I hope these shoes help out too.  

Sunday night we had another firework show in honor of the 4th and my birthday:

The fun thing about it was it turning into a neighborhood firework party.  We started lighting a few fireworks, then the Valks from across the street came out to watch bringing a big bowl of watermelon to share.  A little bit later,  the Webbs from down the street came with the Alldredge and Gunnell kids.  They brought their own bag of fireworks to add to ours.  We also had LeeAnn, Tyler, Traci, and Traci's friend, Shawn, there too.  Our house was definitely the happening place. We had so much fun watching the boys light the fireworks.  One firework did go a little crazy though and we thought we started the neighbors oleanders on fire but luckily we didn't!  We were all in shock as it went off and was shooting sparks and fireballs everywhere! After that we went to more conservative things like Sparklers...

One day I will figure out the ISO and shutter speed on my camera and get some really good sparkler pictures but until then, we will have fun practicing.  I think Sparklers are my favorite fireworks.  They are fun for everyone.

Happy 4th of July!