The Kids Reunion

Last weekend our family attended "The Kids Reunion." You're probably asking, "What is a kids reunion and why do kids need to reunite anyway?" The "kids" are the group of guys I lived with in DT my freshman year at BYU. We had a lot of fun together that year, and following our missions, but it has been quite a while since most of us have seen eachother. Ben had the idea of having a reunion at his parents house in Midway, UT and so the reunion was on. Unfortunately not everyone was able to make it, but we did get to see Ben and Stephanie Brubaker (who did all the work putting this thing together) and their 3 kids, Phontaine and Hannah Judd with their 5 soon to be 6 kids (who drove all the way from Burbank, CA with that crowd), Myron (he hates that) and Tara Tanner with their 3 kids, and Brent Reeves. (Who was a great sport putting up with everyone else's kids.)

Ben had planned some fun activities which included horseback riding, boating and playing at the lake, a barbecue dinner, and a night out for the adults complete with babysitters for all 15 kids, of whom Julia, at age 9, was the oldest.

Julia said her favorite thing was tubing on the lake, and Emma said she liked the horseback riding best. She was a little too scared to try tubing, but Matthew went with Julia and came back with a big smile on his face.

We're hoping there will be another kids reunion in a couple of years and that even more of the kids will be able to attend.

Mr. Goodsmores

During our camping trip Julia helped invent a new camping treat, or at least a new twist on an old camping treat. She calls it "Mr. Goodsmore" and if you haven't guessed yet, it's a smore made with a Mr. Goodbar candybar instead of a regular Hershey bar. The peanuts add a little something extra that make the Mr. Goodsmore the best thing to hit the camping world since sleeping bags. As Julia put it, "They're yummy!"

An online, exactly what you want, 5th Birthday.

Matthew celebrated his 5th birthday on Tuesday. He has been very excited about it ever since Emma's birthday when we told him his birthday was next in the family. Over the past few months he has frequently asked if tomorrow is his birthday. During this time he has recounted to us all of the gifts he wanted for his birthday. These included: 2 video games, a toy sword and shield, a webkinz, and a lego set. So, guess what he got for his birthday: 2 video games, a toy sword and shield, a webkinz, and a lego set. He kept changing his mind on which lego set he wanted, but he was pretty set on the rest of the stuff. Lego Star Wars and Mario Kart, were the video games he wanted, and his friend Cameron had a toy sword and shield he enjoyed playing with so he kept reminding us of that.

The interesting thing about all of these gifts is that they are kind of hard to find in stores, but we managed to find them all online. This worked great, except that every time a package would come Matthew would ask what it was, and if it was a birthday present, and if he could open it now, and most of the time he knew what it was because he had asked for it and could tell from the box size. Actually, Mom sent the webkinz so I don't know if she got it online, but it came in a package to us. She also sent a fun game called Doodle Dice that we've had fun playing. We've also been playing a lot of Lego Star Wars, I think that's Matthew's favorite so far. (Until he gets bored with it.)

Yellowsnow?!?

Our family vacation to Yellowstone National Park was postponed by a week due to snow but we had a great time and great weather this week. Katie had a little trouble with the name of the park and kept referring to it as Yellowsnow instead of Yellowstone. We did see some snow on the ground while we were there but fortunately none of the yellow variety. We saw a lot of amazing things including geysers, waterfalls, hot springs, buffalo, elk, and bears. After walking around the geysers near Old Faithful for a couple hours Matthew declared that while he liked geysers, he didn't want to see anymore for a while, especially if it meant walking to see them. Julia brought her camera, and together we managed to take over 200 pictures. I'll include some below, and hopefully there will be some more posts later this week with more details.

Old Faithful

Lower Falls

Camping Practice

Since we decided to postpone our trip we said the kids would be able to sleep one night this week in the backyard. The girls were glad that McKenna could sleepover. They didn't want Matthew to be in the same tent with them so that is why there are two tents. Of course he didn't want to be alone so Josh slept out there with them and then Katie joined in. So I had the house to myself. I watched a movie and then went to bed. It was good practice because it was about the same temperature that is forecast for Yellowstone. So we know who needs more blankets and who was too hot. The weather is supposed to be beautiful so hopefully that won't change. I will need to change out some of what was packed because I packed all pants and long sleeves but we'll need clothes for warm weather.

Ready, set......don't go!

We were all packed up and ready to go and then I did one final check of the weather forecast. Rain, snow and cold. Not at all what we want for a fun-filled trip to Yellowstone. I had been worried ever since May when some of my family members were talking about the piles of snow that were still up there. But we just hoped it would get better. We'd checked the forecast the week before and it was saying rain for the next two weeks. I was feeling a little better last Friday when we bumped into some friends from church who had been up there that week and he said it was great. It was overcast but they only got sprinkled on once. Well it looked like it was going to get a little colder but we figured we'd just be prepared for anything. Last night Josh went to pick up the trailer we were borrowing from a friend and I checked the weather and it was a lot worse. Very cold, in the low 20's at night, and 1-3 inches of snow! Anyway after much debating (we really have a hard time making decisions) we decided to see about postponing our trip. Josh was able to change our reservations this morning and they were so nice we don't have to pay any extra money or lose all of the money we paid and pay again, even though it was a very short notice cancellation. So we are set to go.......next Sunday through Thursday. The kids are disappointed but they don't want to camp in the snow either. Now what do we do with all this stuff for the next five days! (I'm thinking just leave it packed and just pull something out if we need it.)

3/4 of the way there.

Saturday I went on a 75-mile bike ride. That's 3/4 of the way to my goal of 100 miles on "The 2008 Bike MS Harmon's Best Dam Bike Ride." It is a fund-raising event to promote multiple sclerosis research. If you're interested in finding out more about that you can click here. I'm mostly interested in going on a fun bike ride, and this has given me an excuse to go on a bunch to get ready. ATK has a cycling team and they have a big get-together at this ride, so I'm hoping it will be a fun event. The ride is in cache valley, so Andrea and the kids will get to visit grandma, grandpa and some cousins while I'm on the ride. I did 75 miles yesterday, because it's the last weekend I'll have available before the ride, June 28, so hopefully I'll be ready. At least I'll be ready for adverse conditions, I had to deal with wind, rain, hills, and a hard bike seat, but I made it home after 5 hours of pedalling... and several of rest breaks.

That's a big pile of rocks!

We had a load of gravel delivered a few weeks ago which we used to fill in under the trampoline and the swing set. The kids had more fun playing on the pile of rocks than they do on either of the other things. They were also very helpful filling the wheel barrow for me to load to the backyard. It turned out pretty nice, although we ended up with more rocks than we needed so we have a small mound under the trampoline, I don't think anyone has bottomed out yet, but our kids are pretty small.

Soccer Saturdays

We had a fun although cold spring watching Julia and Emma play soccer. There were a few cold days, and a couple games got rained out, but they also had a lot of fun. Below are some pictures of the highlighs.

Blogger's Block

Andrea and I have been suffering from a newly discovered ailment known as Blogger's Block. This occurs when you have plenty of things that would be worth posting on your blog, but for various reasons are unable to actual post anything. Andrea's block stems mostly from the idea that every decent post will have at least one relevant picture with it, and she believes that she can't remember how to get the pictures from the camera to the blog. My block comes mostly from laziness. By the time I get a chance to sit down at the computer and write something, I figure I'd rather just sit and read a book, watch a movie, or best of all, go to bed.

Fortunately I've had a restful afternoon "watching" Ben Hur, so I think I'm going to be able to get a couple posts written.

We also have another option to help keep our blog up-to-date, Julia. She recently received an award in front of the whole school for being the best typist in the 3rd grade, (23 words-per-minute with no mistakes) and she is very good at using the computer. She also has her own digital camera, and I think she could learn how to get the pictures from the camera to the blog. So stay tuned for some posts from a guest blogger.