Diamond Rio & More Hiking

Emily and I are still hiking.  This time we did a longer hike with the group and a little heavier pack.  I was really worried for the 50 miler after this hike because they weighed our packs and mine weighed 25 pounds just with water!  I didn't even have a sleeping bag, tent, food, or anything else.  We are really going to have to get creative with what we pack and how we pack it when we do the 50-miler.  The hike was amazing though.  For this hike we started in Paradise at Dawna Major's house and hiked up and over the mountain to a spot that overlooked Mantua!  The view of the Mantua lake was awesome.

We started pretty early when it was still a little dark so as we climbed, we could look back and see the beautiful sunrise over the mountains behind us.  About a mile or two from the lookout point, we dropped our heavy packs and just took smaller day packs the rest of the way.  It was nice to loose the extra weight.  At the top, as we looked over Mantua and the valley below us, we were all impressed with the scenery and the realization that we had just climbed a mountain!  We ate our lunch and snacks up there and just enjoyed the peace.  Then we headed back down to retrieve our heavy packs and get back to Dawna's house.  The hike back seemed much faster.  We all sat and ate popsicles at Dawna's when we got back and planned future hikes.  I would definitely like to do this hike again unfortunately most of the trail is through private property...

Diamond Rio came to the American West Heritage Center for a concert this week.  I did not want to miss this so I signed up to work that night so I could get into the concert for free!  I grew up listening to Diamond Rio songs and they are all great.  After checking in all of the ticket holders, I was able to go out and enjoy the concert. 

Even though the singers are getting older, their voices were still so good!  They sounded just as good now as they did in their younger years.  The concert was so good.  I think my favorite song they sang was called "In God We Still Trust."  I am glad I was able to go to the concert but I was wishing the rest of the family could have come to enjoy it as well but they were busy doing other things.

FSY-University of Utah

Colby had the opportunity to go to FSY this year.  He spent a week with his friend Jace at the University of Utah campus having fun, meeting new people, and learning a lot of new things about the gospel.  Here he is to tell us about it:

FSY was a really fun experience. I got to go with one of my friends named Jace. The first day as you can see we were very giddy and we couldn't wait for the week to start. 

The food was very good. It was an open buffet of many different delicious foods. Dinner was always good because it was such a great bonding experience for us and the people in our FSY group.

By the end of our time together we all made this big group chat for everyone in our group. As I was driving home everyone was texting each other. I ended up putting my phone down for like a hour and I came back and I found that somehow I had missed 150 different text messages. Still to this day they randomly blow up my phone with their random conversations.

It sounded like he had a good time at FSY.  He told us all about the friends he made and the funny things they did at the dances and activities.  I hope it was a good experience for him.

Day Camp, Redneck Slides, & Monster Trucks

June has been a lot of fun so far.  We have been doing a lot of different activities such as enjoying hiking, camp outs, concerts, mountain biking, day camps, ward parties, and monster trucks. 

First, let's talk about Day Camp.  Charlotte was able to attend Activity Days Day Camp up at Camp Fife.  I was able to go with her as a parent helper.  Charlotte had so much fun with her friends and was able to try many new things while she was there.  The boys and girls Activity Day groups got to go together so that was fun to be combine.

While there, Charlotte got to learn how to shoot BB guns, and do archery.  She also hung on tight as she zoomed down the long zip-line.  The rock climbing wall was a little tough but she was still able to climb about halfway up before the ledges got a little tricky.  The kids also built paper rockets at one rotation and were able to launch them into the air using a 2-liter pop bottle launcher.  Some of the rockets really soared!  We also went on a nature walk by the river and learned about some of the native plants and animals.  Finally we were able to ride the BMX bike course.  This was a favorite of the kids and Charlotte did amazing.  I think she was the only one of the girls that were able to finish the course without getting off her bike.  She just crushed the course.  Charlotte is still talking about Camp Fife and all of the fun she had while she was there.  I am glad I was able to go with her.

The summer Pops Piano recital was this month as well.  The kids have been working really hard on their songs and have liked learning these fun songs much better than their normal piano songs in the books.

Charlotte performed "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" from Frozen.  I'm pretty sure she had it memorized but still wanted the music just in case.  She did great.  Logan played the Perry the Platypus theme from Phineas and Ferb.  He loves just plunking songs out by ear so this was an easy one for him to learn because he knew what it sounded like.  Finally Colby performed "Crazy Train" by Ozzy Osbourne.  This song has been a fun one for him to learn and one that challenged him but he loved the challenge.  Rowena was really impressed with how fast he learned it especially with all of the tricky rhythms. Everyone was jamming out as he played.  Sadly, this was Colby's final recital because he has decided to stop taking piano lessons.  He much prefers to just learn the songs he wants to learn and just have fun playing the piano on his own time and not be tied to the lesson books.  He is a great player and when he finds a song he loves, he plays it to death.  I'm trying to convince him to start learning church songs now.

Our ward had a fun summer party at Little Bear Bottoms.  While we were there we got to do zip-lines, yard games, play on a giant trampoline blowup, and more.  The best part though was the redneck water-slide. This was a giant slip-n-slide that went from the top of a big hill to the bottom playing area.  It was a blast! 

Some of the bigger priest aged boys got going so fast that they flew off of the end at the other side. The slide was really fun! We all went down a bunch of times.  There was even a mini redneck slide for the kids that Brooklyn loved going down with all of her friends.  It was a fun ward party.

Russell and the boys got to attend the Logan Monster Truck Show and loved it:

"It was a fun day at the Logan Monster Truck Rally. I had a chance to pick up a stand by shift. It was cool that my BC let me take Colby and Logan with me. They had a great time with the Monster truck show. 

The end of the show was the best for them. We got to walk down below and see the trucks. Logan had the opportunity to ride in the fire truck monster truck. He was on cloud nine and loving it. After that, we walked outside the arena and found the whole crew who drove the trucks. Logan and Colby got a free shirt with all of their signatures. It is always fun to get these little perks when you have the right job." 

Baseball

Baseball and Softball season is in full swing!  Over the last few weeks, we have spent almost every night at the ball field watching Charlotte and Logan play. I love watching baseball games and the kids love playing.

This was Charlotte's second year playing coach pitch softball.  She really likes playing softball and has made quite a few friends through her team mates.

Her team this year was the Pink Monsters.  Their shirts actually said Ladies in Pink so I'm not actually sure what their real name was but they were the ones in pink... 

Charlotte played multiple positions this season but some of her favorites were catcher and first base.

She was really good at getting in front of the ball and catching it when it came to her.  She is also getting a stronger arm and is able to throw the ball farther than before.  In the end, all of the girls on the team had a great time and enjoyed every game.  I loved the low stress, have fun, attitude the coaches promoted.

This year Logan enjoyed playing baseball with his team the Texas Rangers.  His team was really good and won most of their games.  I was also impressed with his coach because he was a pretty levelheaded guy.

Logan would have like to play catcher more often this year but instead he was put in the outfield.  Though this was not his favorite position, he did really well at it.  He was able to get to the ball quickly and throw it in with his good arm.  There were even a few plays that he was able to catch pop flies and get the batters out.  The video above is one of those awesome plays.  It was two outs and the batter got up to hit.  The batter hit and the ball went straight to Logan and he caught it!  The play was so fast that Logan said he didn't even realize he had caught it until everyone started cheering.  He was pretty proud of himself.  The video was actually taken my the mom of the batter but she was cool enough to send it to me because it was an awesome pay for Logan. I thought that was really nice of her.

Way to go, Logan and Charlotte!

Hot Wheels & Hikes

Hot Wheels and Hikes! That is how we kicked off our summer.  Each year the Hyrum City puts on a car show at the beginning of June.  There are always a ton of awesome cars.  We always have the kids pick their favorite cars.  We all liked this cool red convertible.

The best car for me though was this Silver Corvette.  Our friend, Zach Checketts, had rented this car for the weekend and, just for fun, put it in the car show.  He let me sit in it and pretend to drive.  He was going to let me actually drive it but I was too scared.  Someday I will drive a Corvette but it will be on an open country road somewhere.  It was pretty awesome to sit in though!

After seeing all of the cars, we walked across the street to the Hyrum Fire Station where the fire fighters were having an open house and showing off their new ladder truck.  Fire Trucks are always a favorite so everyone loved climbing in and exploring the cab.  Then we went inside the station where there were more truck and games.

Colby liked handling the big extrication claw and playing giant Jenga with it.  He did say it was pretty heavy though.  Everyone loved spraying the fire hose and they even tried to spray us with the hose but the firefighter stopped them.  It was a pretty fun day.

We have also been enjoying the outdoors a lot more lately.  For Young Mens, Logan's deacon group headed out on a hike to the Wind Caves.

This is a short hike but a pretty strenuous one because it is 2 miles straight up hill.  Of course view from the top is pretty amazing though so it is all worth it.  The leaders said they were impressed with the boys hiking abilities.

The deacons also spent another activity camping overnight.

Everyone worked together to set up the tents and cook their own dinner.  Logan said it was a really fun camp out except he was so tired because none of the boys would go to sleep and kept talking all night long.

Emily and I have also been hiking a lot.  At the end of July, we are going on a High Adventure activity with some other girls in the Stake.  We will be hiking 50 miles through the Tetons Wilderness on a five day backpacking trip.  It should be really fun!  Because of this, we have been doing a bunch of training hikes with weighted packs.

These hikes have been quite fun because we have been getting to know the girls we will be backpacking with even more.  We have also explored some different areas around Hyrum and Paradise.  We have hiked the east hills of Paradise, Hyrum Dam, the Pea Vine Road, Baxter Hollow, and a place called "Charlieville" in Paradise.  We have only added about 20-25 pounds to our packs so far (which is mostly water) and it is heavy.  Hopefully we will continue to get stronger so that our 30-35 pound packs will not feel so bad on the real trip.