Dr. Who

If you're a teen in Utah Valley at least, and probably across the world, you are probably either aware of Dr. Who, and don't care, or you are a devoted fanatic! My kids fall into the latter category.  Dr. Who is a British Sci Fi TV series, that seems to have exploded. 

 Alyssa had a big Dr. Who party for 20 of her closest friends, and can I just say, it was a total hit!  She planned it all herself, and did a fantastic job.

We had fish sticks and custard...a Dr. Who thing, with lots of fruit and treats.

The kids watched a couple Dr. Who episodes.

These are some of my most favorite girls ever!  Years ago when we lived in Provo, I was the activity day leader and these were MY GIRLS! Now they have all graduated from HS, on to do GREAT THINGS!

Sucking the happiness...

Do you have a child that absolutely DOES NOT LIKE TO SHOP FOR CLOTHES?  

Well, I do.  (I heard that sympathetic, ooooh..."  

Thank you.  

Anyway, Parker has grown like 5 inches and totally needs new threads, not to mention he won't be wearing uniforms this year at his high school.  Oh, and EFY is coming up next week, and he needed something appropriate to wear.  So we went SHOPPING!  

Now, I LOVE TO SHOP!  I do.  It is fun, and exciting, and I thoroughly enjoy it, so I have a hard time relating, but I AM a girl...  yada yada yada.  Well Parker was somewhat compliant, but not without mumbling under his breath...

I took notes:

"This place is like a dementor, it sucks my happiness, and depletes my energy."

"I hate shopping!" he repeated this at least 10x.

"There was a booger stuck to that last pair of pants, I SAW IT!"

EWWWW!

"This is where little boy's dreams go to die..."

WHAT?

"When we get new clothes we can't do all the things we love, like climbing trees, and playing in the mud...because we'll get our new clothes dirty...and our moms will get mad."

OH...

"Goodness, I wish I was hauling hay right now!"

When we finished, and left the store, he said, "I feel like the chopped off piece of my soul finally came back.."

WELL, THAT'S GOOD I GUESS.

Let me just say, he has been wearing those awesome clothes every day this week...

MOM WINS.

Summer odds and ends...

Summer is full of lots of big family parties, and holiday celebrations which usually get more attention in a blog, but for me, my happiest memories are just the simple things that make summer great. 

We got a new sound system for our outdoor movie projector.  Fun family night, just watching a movie in our backyard, and eating popcorn.

Connor decided he wanted to play lacrosse this summer. He is still playing soccer, but his friends were playing rec lacrosse, and he joined up.  It has been SO fun! I had never even seen the sport played until a month ago, and I'm hooked!  Connor is an awesome goalie!

I can buy a huge watermelon and by the end of the day, my boys have finished it off!

This was just an impromptu family night game...we couldn't stop laughing!

They're all secretly saying, "hurry and take the picture, my back is hurting! ;)

Selling kool-aid.  The girls make pretty good money, which all gets spent at the local shaved ice shack.

Gathering nuts for the winter.  

Karl's friend was cutting down a couple large trees in his yard, and offered the wood to us.  We took it in a heartbeat!  Thank goodness for all these strong boys willing to help us load and unload.

Unloading in our backyard...

A lovely sight!

Maid Service...

Do you ever feel like a maid to your children? 

 I do...

Lake Fun!

Every year we love to go to Payson Lakes and either camp or just spend the day.  We always go with Grandma and Grandpa Baxter, and invite cousins.  Here are some of our adventures!

Doesn't this picture just make you want to whistle the theme song from "The Andy Griffeth Show?" 

 Just call him "Opie!"  :)

Discovering nature!

Doesn't he look like a GIANT in that water??

In case you're wondering what my Parker is doing...

waiting to catch a "potgut!"  (otherwise known as a Rocky Mountain Squirrel..)  

My question is "what are you going to do with it once you catch it???"

Mr. Incredible!

This year for Father's Day, we made a yummy breakfast, and ate it out on our patio.  Later that day, we hosted a "luau" in our basement and invited Lee and his family and Karl's parents.  We also showed pictures of our Ireland trip so our kids could be jealous,  uh...I mean be able to enjoy our trip with us...:)

Lemon poppy seed waffles, bacon, fruit and several different kinds of syrup.

Taylor never ceases to amaze me.  He chopped off the head of this Mr. Incredible action figure, stuck a spring in the top, and attached a picture of Karl's head, making a bobble head of him for his gift!   It was hilarious...notice Karl is wearing his "Mr. Incredible" shirt!! :)

Celebrating the dads!

Boy Scout Camp

Parker and Connor each went to their scout camps this summer, and had a blast!  Connor went to Maple Dell for a week, and Parker went down to Southern Utah; St. George, and Zion National Park.  A rattle snake slithered into Parker's camp and met his demise...Parker ended up with the tail...:)

Scout camp is NEVER without adventure!

Trek

As if we haven't had enough excitement in our lives, Karl and I took off for 3 days and became a Ma and Pa to 8 teenagers out in the HOT, DUSTY DESERT!  Would we do it again??? ABSOLUTELY! 

Parker and Connor were both old enough to go with us this year!  They weren't in our family so we didn't see them very often, but it was fun when we did cross paths.

Our stake holds a Pioneer Trek every 4 years.  We dress up like pioneers and push handcarts with all our belongings in it for 3 days, stopping to sleep, eat, share our faith in God and have fun. 

We pulled that handcart for 22 miles!

   

We all made our own flags, and stuck it on our wagon.

We totally lucked out with THE BEST kids ever!  They were kind to each other, and easy to take care of, never complaining, except when we were all grumbling a bit...:)

We added bars so that everyone could have a place to pull, and it lightened the load for the ones closest to the handcart.

Coming into the Salt Lake Valley....yipee! Actually we were out on the west side of Utah Lake, at a church owned site run by missionaries.

Our stake was the largest group they had ever had.  We had to bring in extra handcarts.

The Ragnar

Ok, so if you like to run, and haven't done a Ragnar...

you are totally missing out!  

It was one of the funnest things I've ever done!  

Of course the people you are with make 

ALL THE DIFFERENCE!

I ran with my sisters, Ryan, my bro-in-law, and my brother Jonathan, and their friends.

The course is from Logan to Park City.  200 miles of  run, drive, sleep, then do it again! 

Midnight runs are the BEST!!

My kids were so jealous of my cool medal!

Our team. I was the old lady in the bunch, but that's ok, they were nice to me anyway.;) 

Totally doing this next year!

Ireland!!

We had the incredible opportunity to go to Ireland this past month!  I know, crazy right?  

Actually the day after Alyssa graduated from High School if you can believe it...I figured I deserved a graduation trip...JK:)  Actually Karl's brother Lee and his wife Lisa invited us to go with them and we said, "absolutely!"  So we began planning and saving over a year ago. 

It was an amazing trip, we loved every minute of those 10 days!  

Everyone asked us why we were going to Ireland, and this is why...Karl's grandma is from Ireland, and so there was some interest because of her, then following his mission, Karl and Lee backpacked through Europe for a month, and absolutely LOVED Ireland, vowing to return!  

This time they brought their two cute wives!

It was about 3 hours to Chicago, with a 3 hour layover, then another 7 hours in the air to Dublin...not too bad.

Our first ruin.  This was A VERY COMMON SIGHT!

Rock of Cashel, built in the early 12th and 13th centuries.  Basically a kind of cathedral.

The landscape was picturesque everywhere we looked.

Muckross House gardens. Now there's a story, look that one up!

The coast on the Ring of Kerry.

We went horse back riding for part of a day, through some mountains, then down along the beach.  Heavenly!!

This is a typical looking town, the buildings are all so colorful.  I now understand why Karl has always wanted to paint our front door a bright blue...:)

We attended a tiny LDS branch in Tralee.  There were only about 15 members including children.  Coincidentally, there was a missionary couple serving there from our stake!

Lots and lots of cows and sheep.

Eating our "99"s.  

These ice cream cones were all over the place, but not once did we find them for .99 cents!

We took a scenic 25 mile bike ride around the Dingle Peninsula.  Probably my favorite day.

Along our route, I saw these darling children playing with the parachute canopy.  They all spoke Gaelic.  I just watched and listened to them for a bit.  I love children!

My yoga friends made me promise to take a picture of me doing a yoga pose in Ireland...Karl made me do about 10 of them!  

This guy was totally hand painting this sign. We had the most incredible weather, it didn't rain on us at all other than a few drops the first day!  So all the locals were painting up a storm...and sun bathing..:)

Kissing the Blarney Stone...when in Rome...or Ireland as the case may be...

This was a quaint little village called Kinsale.

We rented a home for the week, so we were able to cook a bit, do our laundry and have the place to ourselves.

Dublin

Oh, we missed the kiddos, but they did awesome without us!  

Next year...ITALY!