Fall Leaves & Salmon

Fall in Cache Valley is seriously the prettiest time of the year.  I love seeing all of the fall leaves in their many colors.  You do not have to drive too far to see all the beauty.

We decided to take a Sunday drive up to Porcupine Reservoir to see the fall leaves and also see if the salmon were running.  We definitely saw some beautiful leaves along the drive.  We even decided to get out and take a few family pictures with the leaves as our backdrop.

We continued up the canyon to the reservoir and saw some even prettier views as we drove around the lake.  I especially like this first picture taken at the top of the dam looking back down the valley.

As we got closer to the river, we noticed that there were a few cars parked near the stream. This gave us hope that the salmon were still running.  As we parked and walked down to the river, we did see the salmon swimming up stream to their spawning grounds.

The ground was really muddy and slick from the recent rains we have had so we told the kids to be careful.  Of course though at least one of them slipped and fell straight in the mud.  Gotta love washing machines...  Anyway the salmon were running but we could tell that we were a little late in getting to see them.  There were not as many in the stream as there have been in the past when we have come to see them.  They were still cool to see though and we walked up stream quite a ways to just watch them.  The kids kept telling Dad to try and catch one with his hands because the fish were so close to the shore.  He tried to catch one quite a few times but the fish were always too fast.  Finally he was able to grab one and pick it up.  We had just enough time to snap a picture and scream with excitement before the fish flipped around and slipped out of Dad's hands.  It was a pretty ugly looking fish but the kids were excited to catch him.

We love enjoying the fall leaves and seeing the salmon.  It has become a great family tradition.

Emily's 11th Birthday

Emily just celebrated her 11th birthday!!  There is no way that we have a tween in our house now!

Emily is such a good girl.  She is always trying to do her best and wants to please everyone.  Emily is always concerned with things that are happening and wants to keep everyone safe.  She is aware of others needs and is willing to include everyone.  Her teacher at school recently told me that she is always so kind and helpful to everyone in her class and is a great example to others.  I totally agree.  She loves playing with Charlotte and always wants to play with the boys as well.  There are times when her tween attitude comes out and we have to step back and tell her to chill.  She also likes to fight with her brothers and they fight with her as well.  But I think all siblings do that.  She recently expressed that she is now old enough to have her own room and wants to move downstairs to have her own space.  This was a big step because she used to be afraid to even go downstairs alone.  So we will be working on that move soon.

For her birthday party, Emily wanted a Spa Party.  Mostly she just wanted her and her friends to paint their nails together.  Then we expanded to do the whole spa experience.

For the spa themed cake, I made a cake that looked like a bottle of nail polish.  I think it turned out really cute and Emily loved it!

Before the party, Emily helped plan the whole thing.  She picked out the activities, who to invite, and how we were going to do it.  She even talked to our friend, Shaylyn Maxfield, and asked her to come and do every one's nails. I put the finishing touches on the food preparation and we were all set.

Emily wanted healthy snacks because we were at a spa.  We had fruits, vegetables, pretzels and popcorn.  Then to add to some sweetness, we made these cute little nail polish marshmallows. (They were pure sugar.)  We set the room up for facials, manicures, and pedicures and then waited for the guests to arrive.

When everyone arrived, we started the party off by making our own bath bombs.  The girls liked stirring the powder around and forming it into balls.  I had never made bath bombs before so I was hoping they would work out.  Luckily Callie, one of Emily's friends, was a pro at making bath bombs so she walked us through and told me we were doing it right.  I was glad she was there to help.  One thing we did learn though is that Jasmine scented essential oils have a very strong smell.  Our noses were all going crazy.  It smelled really good but really strong.  As soon as the boys smelled these bath bombs they were begging us to let them go play with friends.  They did not want to be in the same house with all these girls and their smelly perfumes.  We told them to go ahead and go.  I wouldn't let Russell leave even though he wanted to as well.  He was the designated photographer and runner.  Anyway, we put the powder into the molds and let them set up during the rest of the party.  At the end, the girls were able to take them home.

Next we moved on to facials.  Each girl was given a little bit of a homemade avocado, honey, and yogurt face mask to use as a cleanse for their skin.  This was probably the funniest thing to watch.  The girls were such good sports and had a blast rubbing this stuff all over their faces.  Some of them did not like the texture at all and one almost gagged but they all put it on.  They could not stop laughing at each other when they saw how funny they looked.  Everyone had green skin but huge smiles.

Then it was time for the pedicures.

While they sat and relaxed, they soaked their feet in warm water.  We could not forget the cucumbers on their eyes.  It was all part of the relaxation and facial.  This was also a funny thing to watch because they were trying so hard to balance the cucumbers on their eyes so that they would stay in place.

Shaylyn was awesome enough to come over and bring all of her nail supplies and do the girls' nails.  She gave all the girls manicures and even used her shellac nail polish to make it last longer.  I was so glad to have her help; she was a lifesaver!  While she did everybody's fingernails, I worked on painting their toenails.  The toenails were not as pretty as the fingernails but the girls didn't seem to mind.

As we waited for our toenails to dry, we ate the snacks. 

These girls can definitely eat and talk!  They liked everything except the carrots...  While they ate, Emily opened her presents.

It seemed like everything she received was related to girly smelly-good stuff.  She got nail polish, a bath bomb kit, body wash and lotion, and other fun things.  She also got some decor for her new room from us.  She has been begging us to go to Hobby Lobby to look at ways to decorate her room and she picked out some pretty cute things.  

When the presents were open, we brought out the cake.

We all sang "Happy Birthday" and she blew out the candles.  I think the girls were full from the spa snacks because some of them did not want cake.  They were all so happy for Emily on her birthday though.  Some of them did not want to go home when their parents came to get them.  We extended the party for another half hour so that they could keep playing.  It was so much fun. 

Everybody's nails turned out so good and they were all excited to wear the funny pedicure flip flops home.  It was such a great party.  I am so glad the girls had fun and it was a hit.

Shaylyn was so awesome to come and help.  She loves Emily and told us she would do anything for her especially come help her celebrate her birthday!  We are so glad Shaylyn is our friend.

The next day, Emily wanted to go out to eat for her birthday.  She really wanted to go to Angie's and Clean The Sink.  So that is what we did.

We have always heard about people Cleaning the Sink at Angie's and we knew it would be big but we had no idea it would be this big!  That thing was huge!!!  Even with all six of us, we could only eat less than half of it.  We tried to call in Calen and Rochelle in as reinforcements but they were not feeling well.  We tried and we tried to eat more but we just could not do it.  Finally we had to give up and get to-go bowls to take it home.  We felt like failures but we just couldn't eat another bite.  We filled six to-go bowl full of ice cream just to give you an idea of how much was left.  So now we have ice cream for another day.  (That is if we can ever look at ice cream the same again.)  It was such a fun thing to do as a family though.  The kids had a blast and their eyes were so huge as they looked at all that ice cream.  We thought we would just take our defeat and go home but Logan was insistent that we needed a bumper sticker.  I told him we couldn't get one because we hadn't finished the sink.  He was not getting it and wanted the sticker.  The cashier was nice enough to give us the sticker even though we didn't finish.  Logan was so happy.  We are framing that sticker because we did our best to get it!  The bumper sticker says, "I Cleaned the Sink at Angie's!"  And yes we did.  It might have taken us a few days but it did get emptied. 

Well I don't think we will eat ice cream again anytime soon but it was fun to try.  We might do it again when the kids are older maybe in like 7 years...

Happy Birthday Emily!!!

St. George Trip

Every year about this time, we take a trip to St. George for some fun in the sun and time with family.  This year we went down for more wedding celebrations for Tyler and Great Grandma's birthday.  

The St. George Marathon is just a few weeks away so while I was down in St. George I took advantage of my time and went and ran part of the course.  A few weeks ago I found out that my best childhood friend, Trista, had signed up for the marathon as well and would be running with me.  I told her to come down and run with me this weekend and she did.

Together we ran the last 13 miles of the marathon or the last half.  We started at Diamond Valley and ran to the finish line at Vernon Worthin Park.  Running with a buddy is so much easier and more fun than running alone.  We just chatted the whole time about anything and everything and before we knew it, we were done.  It was a good run and it really gave me more hope and enthusiasm for the Marathon.

That afternoon we met up with the Farnsworth clan for a birthday party at the park.  There are a lot of people in the family that have birthdays in September so we got together to celebrate that.  We had pizza and just played.

The kids especially had fun being with cousins and playing in the dirt.  They were so filthy afterward but also so happy.

We also got to meet out newest little nephew and cousin, Ezra Lee Cardon.

Ezra is Traci and Sean's newest little baby boy.  He was born on August 20, 2019.  He is so adorable with his full head of red hair.  I kept telling Johnathan that I was going to keep Ezra for my own but he told me, "No! He's my baby!"  You can tell that he loves his little brother.

At Grandma Farnsworth's house, all of the girl cousins got together to show off their girl power.  They are starting to get overrun with boy cousins but these four sure can hold their own.

After getting cleaned up from the park and the dirt, it was time to head over the Tyler and Ashley's wedding open house.  Because the reception was in Provo, they wanted to have something in St. George as well in order for all of their St. George friends to celebrate with them.

This time we got a picture of all of the cousins except Paul... One day we will get all of them.  We wished Tyler and Ashley the best before heading over to Great Grandma's birthday party.  We decided to divide and conquer so Russell stayed at the wedding to represent us while I took the kids to the birthday party.

We sure love our Grandma Morwood.  She is now 101 years old and doing so well.  She is still living on her own and taking care of herself.  During the party we watched a fun video Janet had put together about everything Grandma does in a day.  It was called "A Day in the Life of a 101 Year Old."  It showed Grandma going to church, making dinner, vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, watching her shows, getting the mail, and finally taking a nap.  It was actually quite funny; we all had a good laugh.  Grandma was kind of mad though because she didn't know why Janet had to follow her around with a video camera all day long.  It was funny to hear her talk about it.  We sure love her and miss living next door to her.  We really need to go visit her more often.

This was such a fun and busy weekend in St. George.  It seems like we never really get to relax while we are down there because we try to cram so many things into one trip.  Oh well it is still fun to go.

Tyler & Ashley's Wedding

What a happy day for these two amazing people. I am so proud of my little brother for finding the lady he will be able to spend eternity with and be happy. I cannot believe my little brother has grown up so fast and is now married to his best friend. It is crazy to think he is still my little brother but not so little any more. 

So Tyler and Ashley tied the knot in the Provo City Center Temple and they looked so happy the whole day. It was an early day for all of us to travel to Provo that morning. The sealing was at 10 AM and of course the whole day was planned after the wedding. It was great to see the family and friends who came from all over. The whole day was a blast. 

After the sealing, we all waited outside for the bride and groom to come out of the temple.  While we were waiting for the two love birds, it was fun to see all of the little cousins play around. It was such a great morning and the weather was perfect. 

Here are the newlyweds coming out and everyone hugging them and congratulating them. It was fun to see my brother grinning from ear to ear. He told us multiple times that day that he was the luckiest man there. We all agreed with him and were so happy for him.

After the sealing, there was a lot of picture taking like all weddings and once we left the bride and groom stayed after for their moment in the spot light.

 This wedding seemed different to us because the majority of the weddings we go to are in St. George and we are use to having pictures on the East staircases of that temple. This was not St. George; however, there were still stairs to take pictures on. I can't believe how big our family has grown in just a few years. Now it is Tyler and Ashley's turn to add to the family with their little ones in the future.

Look how good we look as a family. Of course the newlyweds wanted pictures of all their favorite nieces and nephews. What would the world be without the favorite Uncle Tyler and Aunt Ashley!

Years ago when Tiff and I got married, I asked Tyler to be my best man. He was only about 10 years old but it was awesome to have him be there for me. Before Tyler got married, he asked me to be his best man and of course I said yes! Tyler and I can never have a serious picture and if they are serious then we have to try really hard to smile.

These two had a really big wedding line.  Tiff was one of the bridesmaids along with Jen and Traci and Ashley's sisters and friends.  Then I was a groomsman along with Sean and Rick and Ashley's brother and some of Tyler's friends.  We took a ton of pictures and most of them were crazy, especially the one's with Tyler and me...

While pictures were going on, we tried to keep the cousins occupied.  They loved to run around the temple grounds and climb on the planter boxes and stairs.  We did manage to snap a few pictures of them in their nice wedding attire.  We got one picture of all of the Farnsworth grandkids except for Johnathan because he wanted nothing to do with pictures at all.

When pictures were finally done, we all headed to the wedding luncheon for some delicious brick oven cooked pizza.  This is Tyler and Ashley's favorite food.

Awesome story time. When Tiff and I were having our little luncheon/breakfast, it was the best man's job to do a toast for the bride and groom. I did not know what to expect from a 10 year old, but what he did was awesome. With the help of Traci, Tyler made this heart-shaped toast. He stood up and said, "I would like to give a toast to the bride and groom." We both laughed.  Since that day, I made a promise to myself that when he got married I would do the same for him and his wife.

 So here we are 13 years later and now it is his turn to accept a toast from his older brother.  So I gave the newlyweds some advice and told them how much we love them. Leading up to the toast, I was suppose to have it before we left Hyrum, but I forgot. We had to go to Mom and Dad's hotel and ask the front desk if we could have some bread and jam. The front desk lady was confused at first, but we explained what we were doing and then she relaxed a bit. The luncheon was fun. It was held at a cool little nursery that had a barn-like house. 

After the luncheon, it was time to set up for the reception that night.  They held the reception at the same place as the luncheon and it was a really nice venue.  For snacks at the reception they served specialty drinks and cookies similar to Swig. Everyone talked, danced and had fun. 

The drinks were a big hit especially with the kids.  I think Charlotte and Kari had at least two each.  The carbonation really kept them wired the whole night.  Colby and Logan thought the drinks were the best things ever and sat and sipped theirs the whole time.  I think we all ate way too many cookies but boy were they good.

Once the cool stuff was done, it was off to the truck decorating.  I was worried about this part. I thought his friends were doing this but when I asked them, they hadn't even thought about it. Once I knew this, I sent Chase to the store to get markers and we went and got some other things... 

We had Oreos, bananas, confetti (lots of confetti!), lots of birth control packets and paint makers. We put the confetti all over the truck and in their clothes and shoes.  We had the help of the whole family to decorate the truck.  All of the nieces, nephews, and cousins put their own personal touch on the truck.  It was so fun to decorate.  We were laughing the whole time.  The whole truck was well decorated when we got done. We were all proud of what we accomplished. 

When the truck was thoroughly decked out, we returned to the party.  While we were decorating the truck, we missed the cake cutting which was a shame because that was where the funny stuff happened.  The wedding cake was set up on a table near a large tree.  While Tyler and Ashley were cutting the cake and everyone was surrounding them, Johnathan decided that he needed to go to the bathroom and proceeded to pee on the tree by the wedding cake.  Everyone was laughing so hard and Traci was so embarrassed.  She had been feeding Ezra at the time so she hadn't seen what Johnathan was doing.  Jen rushed in and grabbed Johnathan and took him away.  The funny thing was that he had no idea why everyone was laughing at him.  We were sad that we missed that because we would have laughed so hard.

Emily was the lucky girl to catch the bouquet and the scary thing about it is she just might be the next girl to get married in our family!  She was pretty excited about the bouquet.  I can't remember exactly who caught the garter.  It might have been Paul or Alex.  Next was the dancing.  We all loved watching the mother/son and daddy/daughter dances as well as the couples first dance together.  The best though was watching the kids dance together.  Charlotte was a dancing queen.  She was out there the whole time just shaking a leg.  She especially loved dancing with Uncle Tyler.

As it got dark, the happy couple decided to call it a night had head out for their honeymoon.

As they exited, we all cheered for them and threw lavender and blew bubbles.  Everyone loved how we had decorated the truck.  Well, I don't know if Tyler and Ashley liked it but we didn't care about that.  Tyler helped his bride into the truck and they drove away as husband and wife.

We are all so happy for Tyler and Ashley and excited for their new life together.  Congratulations Mr. & Mrs. Farnsworth!!