The First of MANY!

With three boys in our family, we are going to become seasoned at Pinewood Derbies. Derek and Dave cut and assembled his first Pinewood Derby car together. And he designed and painted the car all on his own...with very minor help from me. I wanted this to be his own creation. I think he did an amazing job! The competition was fierce!

Part of Derek's cheering section. (The other part was behind the camera. :)

I imagined the track to be an old wooden homemade thing, but this was a very high-tech computerized track.

It was a lot of fun to watch all the boys race.

Derek won the award for the "Most College Spirit". Oh yeah, That's right!

Taylor's 7th Birthday!

Taylor is 7? What?! Where does time go? Yep, the boy just turned 7. He had a choice between a family and a friend party and he chose a family party. After his first first morning of swim lessons, he opened his presents, went out to dinner, and we all went miniature golfing at Trafalga.

Finally, he got his dolphin "Pillow Pet".

Happy Birthday, Taylor! You are such a sweet brother to your brothers and sister. I love how you want to help others and make them happy. We love you, Tay Dawg!

Day at the Park

Nelson Grove Park in Provo is one of our family's favorite parks. It has a playground, water fountains, duck pond, and a fun swing thing. Here are some pics from a recent trip there: (Yes, Stephanie...we "hitched up the wagon and went into town") :)

I think Dave "super boost"ed McKenna a little too hard.

School's Out for Summer!

I started a tradition a couple years ago but the kids seem to forget about it each year. So why do I keep doing it if they don't look forward to it?? Guilt. Surprisingly, my kids weren't too thrilled about school ending. Any change is hard I guess. Derek didn't want to participate in the annual "tearing of the sign", so Taylor will be the star of this post.

Scenery from Zion

I just know my kids will have memories of waiting and waiting for mom to take pictures on vacation....but I don't care! However, in order to ease Derek's grumpiness I did give him the camera and let him take some pictures. He loved it and it improved his mood. (I didn't post any of his shots.) So maybe he'll share in my love for photography and the rest of the family can wait for the two of us. :)

St. George - Day 2

The next morning we visited Zion National Park. This place is so beautiful! Utah is full of these pockets of gorgeous scenery. However, this beauty was wasted on my kids. They just wanted to swim...again. But I am determined to give them these life experiences. I love that while growing up my family took a road trip every year, which exposed me to different parts of the west. Yes, many memories were made on those trips...mostly good, but very many bad (i.e. saltine crackers blown out of brother's mouth onto your face and family proceeds to make fun of victim for the entire drive, getting car sick and no one except your mother believes you...you get the front seat to ease the sickness and siblings proceed to make fun of victim saying that "You were pretending to be sick to get the front seat". I was actually sick and it did actually help, but if I were pretending...can you blame me?!) Sorry...tangent. :) Derek was dissppointed. The brochure showed pictures of all the animals that live in the park which he thought he'd see while there. He was imagining another Yellowstone adventure. Major let down for him when we "only" saw one deer.
Our family at the end of a typical family road trip. :)

St. George - Day 1

Dave attended a CME conference down in St. George so naturally we all came with him...come on, free hotel stay! While he was listening to a boring lecture we were soakin' in the sun. Seriously, we ate breakfast and then spent 5 hours in the pool. Why would we do anything else? The kids were happy and I was relaxing with this view:
Everyone knows that palm trees are my favorite. If you see one it usually means you are on vacation!

Once Dave returned from his conference, we ate some Cafe Rio and drove to a cool park. It is located on the top of one of the hills surrounding the city. It's just a natural park where you can climb the red rocks and enjoy the views. Dave and I loved it...the kids...not so much. All they wanted to do was go swimming again. A storm blew in so we headed back to the hotel.

See what I mean...grumpy explorers.

The view was awesome!

Because the rain ended our trip early, we had time for, yes, more swimming! Much more fun with Daddy though!