Celebrating the 4th

We started our 4th of July celebration with an early morning All-Star baseball game that Carter played in.  I love watching baseball so it was the perfect all-American activity to begin the Holiday.  It was a close game, but our boys didn't come out with win.  We lost by one run, but they had fun!   

 

It was really neat to have an announcer at the game.  He announced all the players names and would give play by play comments.  It made the game just a little more special to be part of the Layton Minor League All-Star team.  Matt even got his named announced because he was part of the coaching staff and he was the 3rd base coach.  It was kind of sad moment to say that baseball season is over for Carter this year.  Then, that thought was short lived because they are putting together a Competition baseball league and try-outs are at the end of the month.  Carter is very eager to try-out for the team.  So, we will see if he is going to play year round baseball or start football in the fall. 

 

Then after the game we walked over to the parade to find our spot that we saved from the night before still available.  We basked in the hot sun (Noting to Matt's picture in collage above) to enjoy some good ol' American parade fun.  The kids and I left Matt behind to sit with some friends of ours and Matt chose to stay behind.  So, I captured this picture of him melting in the sun.  He is so funny! 
Then, we headed home to relax and enjoy some cool air
.  I then worked the night of 4th at the hospital.  We got to sneak out to view the fireworks over the Salt Lake Valley since the hospital sits on top of the East Bench hill.  We could see about 7-8 different firework shows going off.  It was great!  The kids were back home watching our cities fireworks on our house roof.  They had a blast too! 
How blessed we are to live in this country and I am very grateful and proud to be an American!

Cousins came to visit...

We were so excited to have our family from the East Coast stop and spend a few days with us in Utah during their move to the West Coast.  These kids just love to be with each other. 

We toured Temple Square and the new visitors center.

Just can't take enough pictures of these fun kids.

In front of the Salt Lake Temple.  I love this reflection pool.

 

We also spend some time at the new City Creek mall that just opened in March of this year.  It is an outdoor mall that has fun landscaping of small creeks with fish in them, fountains and nature like structures. 

The kids got a kick out of this picture board in one of the kids stores.  Their faces were hilarious!



We played at one of our favorite parks in Fruit Heights. It is called castle park.

It was once again hard to say good-bye, but the good news is that these cousins are now going to live closer and we should be able to see them more often through out the years.  We had a awesome visit with all of you and can't wait to together soon.

Adam's Canyon

We enjoyed our time hiking around Moab, so our little family took on another moderate adventure and hiked up Adam's Canyon.  The trailhead is about 15 mintues from our house.  It is a about a 7 mile hike round trip that included getting around large rocks, dirt hills and trying to stay on the right trail.  The trail runs along a small creek that put off a small cool breeze to take away some of the heat.  The best part of this trail is that it leads to a really neat waterfall. 

Hiking back down the hill was much faster that going up, but Ashlynn found it was easier to slide on her bottom because she was falling so much on the way down.  The poor girl had dirt in about every spot on her body.  She even had a dirt mustache, but she didn't care.  It was much harder going down then up because of the slick rocks and dirt.  But, we had a great time!  We completed the hike in less than 3 hours.  It is so nice to live in a place where we can explore and not have to travel far from home.

 

Our little family in front of the Adam's Canyon waterfall. 

Weekend in Moab

We planned a quick trip with some friends of ours to Moab to enjoy the desert heat of 100 degrees...well this was the only time we all could fit it in and it was well worth it!  People thought we were crazy wanting to be in the heat, but we were well prepared with lots of water, sunscreen, hand held misters, a cabin with AC and a swimming pool.  It was great! 

Our family at 'Delicate Arch'

Tanja and Brad with a amazing view of Dead Horse Point.

 This was our last stop before heading home, but it was a good way to bid good-bye to the desert heat. Dead Horse Point's look out points were so amazing.  The kids liked climbing on the rocks and doing funny things.  These pictures make it look like they were really far in the canyon, but they were surounded by easy rocks to get back to the main trail.

There was lots of lizard chasing.  Carter was determined to catch one before we left.  Those little tricky things are fast and blend into the ground so easy.  It was funny to see the older boys (Matt and Brad) get into the lizard catching action.  Matt is hanging over the cliff to catch it in the picture above.  But with all our diligant efforts we could not catch a single lizard.  Sorry Carter!

The Gemini Bridges were suggested to us by our neighbors to check out.  Now, I must add that these bridges were acessed by him by a atv not by suv.  He gave us a trail map that said the 8 mile road was well maintained and an easy trail to ride on.  I noticed as we were driving up the canyon and wondering if we should turn around because the road was very scary and not really made for a SUV that the map we were following was a atv trail.  But it was too late to turn around because it was a one way road with no where to turn around.  I think Ashlynn and I were the only nervous ones in the car.  Matt had fun driving the curvey, rocky, sand pit road and I could see small rocks falling down the mountain as we were going up.  Scary...!  We were all hanging on to anything we could in car to keep us from flying around in the car, even with our seat belts on.  Well, we did make it to more desilate desert where there was nobody in site.  It was the 6 of us and all the other things that live in the desert. (snakes)  We stood silent for a few seconds and you couldn't hear anything around you, it was dead silent.  It felt like we were standing in a sound proof room.  It was so neat!

Well, enough about the expereince.  These bridges are made from arches made in the mountain down below.  They are about 8ft wide and there is 6 foot space between the two bridges.  You get a little nervous if you step too close to the edge because it is a long way down.  You can't even get close enough to see the bottom of the canyon. 

This was our 3rd trip to Moab and we have never done this hike to the famous 'delicate' arch because the kids were too little to make the hike.  So, this was the year to complete it and we all did very well.  It is a 3 mile mostly up hill hike.  There was some flat slanted rock you had to manuver, but all in all it was pretty easy to manage.  As you got to the top there were places that we had to hang on to the kids hands to make sure they didn't fall off the edge of the mountain.  Matt had a cool mister in his water backback and it cooled you off with a slight cool mist.  Matt always has some gadget to save the day!  We also looked at other Arches in the park.

After a morning of hiking around Arches National Park we played at the campsite..pool, cards in the AC cabin and then went out for dinner in Moab because it was too hot to make a fire, or bbq.  As it cooled down at night to 80 degrees or so (I know still hot)..we were able to make a fire to roast some marshmellows and make banana boats.  We had a fun time in Moab and glad that the Dalton's were able to come along too.  Both our kids just love Brad and Tanja.  They each wanted to sit by them in the car and wanted to walk with them during our hikes.  It was kind of nice break for Matt and I. We were glad we made the trip despite others that thought we were crazy for going with it being so hot.    

Hip Hop Recital

This is Ashlynn's class.  She is the one on the right.  She was so fun to watch...she led the dance really well.  I love her dancing character. 

Carter(with the red and black shoes) waiting to start his performance because they started playing the wrong song.  So, the boys waited very patiently while everyone was cheering for them while waiting for the right song to play.  He did so good and we are very proud of him!  I think it takes a lot of courage to participate in a girl dominant activity, but he likes the things he is learning and he has awesome rhythm.  Way to go Carter!!
Also, we have to mention that Carter made it on to the All-Star baseball team.  Matt got the phone call on the way to the recital and told Carter while we were getting milk shakes after the performance.  Carter had the hugest smile on his face when he found out.  Yay for Carter!!

We love that Aunt Gail and Aunt Tracy could join in on the recital fun!  They made candy necklaces for the kids. 

 

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Ashlynn and her friend

Our little crazy family.

This is Ashlynn and Carter's dance teacher.  They have their classes on different nights but get to have the same dance teacher.  We love miss Hilary!

Our Father's Day...

We spent half of Father's Day in Moab (more pictures to come) and driving home and then when we got home we grilled some hamburgers and the kids gave their gifts to their Dad.

Ashlynn was so excited to have Matt wear the pin that came in the card.

We have been into funny t-shirts lately so the kids picked out funny shirts for Matt.

This is Carter's pick.  Very funny and a good choice.

Ashlynn's choice...Annoying Orange.

Opening the card with the button in it.

This was our last stop before we headed home.  Dead Horse Point has such beautiful views of the deserted Colorado river.  We ate lunch in our air conditioned car (because it was 99 degrees outside) and then headed home.

These two funny people wanted to pretend they were falling off the edge of the cliff. 

Matt living on the edge...

Happy Father's Day Matt! 

You are the best Dad the kids could have. You keep the humor in our family.   

Watch out! Hip Hop Dancers...

I love that each of the kids wanted to try something new this year.  They both wanted to expand their skills and take a hip hop dance class.  Carter is in all boy class...which was the requirement stated by him.  They both have learned new things like hand, head stands, kart wheels and tumbling moves likes back hand springs.  They are having so much fun with these classes.  Carter has now recruited a couple more boys to join his class.   They have a performance this week to show off their hard work. 

 

Ashlynn during dress rehearsal. 

Carter would not let me watch his dance during rehearsal because he wants it to be a surprise.  So I don't have picture with him in action. 

 

 

Can't wait to see their performance!   Love these fun kids!