Weekend in Cedar

So for the 24th of July we decided to get out of town and head down to Cedar City. When my dad heard we were coming down he asked if we would be interested in being in the parade again. About three or four years ago all my brothers and sister and all our children decided it would be fun to be in the parade that Cedar City holds on the 24th. We had a blast that time and I thought the kids would enjoy it again this year. Well, it wasn't until I arrived in Cedar that I found out we weren't going to be in the Cedar City parade but we were going to be in the Enoch parade. Enoch is the very small town just North of Cedar. Oh well, it still would be fun for the kids and that was why we were doing it in the first place.
Anyways, we will get to the parade in a moment, first we had to celebrate Luke's birthday.
Luke was so excited to be able to spend his birthday with his cousins and Nana and Papa. We had everyone over for dinner including my Aunt JoAnne and Uncle Kenny (my mother's brother) and my Nana Ora, who is 98 years old. We had a great time catching up and spending time with each other. But, Luke was getting impatient with us and just wanted his cake and presents.

We lit the candles, sang Happy Birthday to him and let him dig into his cake!

Next, Luke tore into all his presents. My Aunt was so impressed because after opening each present Luke would pick up all the wrapping paper and throw it into the trash bag. What can I say, I have trained him right!

After the night of wild partying, Clay decided he wanted to take the kids to Enterprise Reservoir for some fishing and 4 wheeling. I had just had surgery on Monday and wasn't feeling up for the trip so Clay took the 4 younger kids and they were gone for most of the day. Jessica and I stayed home and went and saw the Harry Potter movie.
This is so Brittany. She really isn't the outdoors kind of girl, but she finds something to keep her busy. This time it was a good book.

Cody enjoyed chasing all the cattle around while on the 4 wheeler.

Savannah and Luke really wanted to catch a fish. But it wasn't meant to be this time. Sorry kids!

The next morning was the 24th and the day of the big parade. My dad and I spent the morning getting everything ready for the parade. Here are all the grand kids that were going to be in the parade.

Jessica opted out of riding in the trailer and decided it would be more fun to drive the 4 wheeler herself.

Brittany and Savannah were on water gun duty.

The rest of the grand kids either threw candy or had water guns of their own.

After the parade we ended at the park in downtown Enoch where there were exciting activities for all the kids. We even got to watch Tom's band play and entertain us while we ate dinner at the park.

Jack and Luke fought their way to the front of the line so that they could get on the "Polaris express". Yes, they totally cut through the long line and even pushed a teenage girl out of the way in order to get on the train!

My girls enjoyed dancing to Tom's fabulous music!

I don't know if I should be proud or disgusted that Cody won the pie eating contest!

Luke was a little obsessed with the face painting station. He ended up getting paintings on both sides of his face and on both arms. Should I be worried about tattoos in his future?

Cody and his cousin Issac spent most of their time at the dunking station. I can't blame them, it was hot and even I thought it looked like a good way to stay cool!

So on our last day in Cedar my dad suggest we take the 4 wheelers to Kolob reservoir, which is about a 60 mile ride. I knew my kids would love it so we packed them all up and took off for the day.

This was our first pit stop. We stopped for snacks and to check out our new dusty bodies.

I thought I was dusty then, but just wait until the ride home!

When we finally arrived at the lake we ate our lunches and then headed down to fish.

Luke told me he really wanted to catch a fish. I asked him why, he said "so I can keep it as my pet. All you have to do is buy a fish bowl and I could keep it".

Cody trying to teach Luke how to throw out the line.

Savannah could of spent the entire day fishing. She was actually mad when we told her it was time to head home and she still hadn't caught a fish.

Brittany, Jessica and Clay were content with sitting on the edge of the lake and talking.

So here is all of us after the drive back. My dad took us home a different way and it was so much more dusty on the ride home, we were completely covered in dirt and dust from head to toe and every where in between!

This was our final stop of the trip. It's the look out from the "C" mountain, over looking the entire city of Cedar City.
We had such a fun weekend with my parents. My dad is already talking about anything 4 wheeling trip he wants to take us on. If it is half as fun as the last one we would do it again in a heart beat.

Happy Birthday Luke!

First, I have to say thank you to my sister Melinda for my birthday post last week. That was very sweet of her to do and I want her to know how much I love and appreciate her!

But this week it's my youngest birthday and he is turning 7! When Luke woke up this morning the first thing he asked me was if he looked any different. He said "do I still look 6 or do I look 7"? I told him he looked older and totally like a 7 year old.
Luke was one of our 2 surprise pregnancies in our family. Savannah definitely takes the prize for being our biggest surprise, but we weren't really expecting Luke either. The day I found out I was pregnant with Luke was actually the morning after Thanksgiving. Every that knows me knows I love to start my Christmas shopping that morning. That morning I went out with my sister Melinda and my mother. We were almost done with our shopping when out of the blue the thought came into my mind that I was late and could possibly be pregnant. Up until that morning I hadn't even thought of it. I didn't want to say anything to my family, in case I wasn't pregnant so I quietly put in a pregnancy test into the big pile of toys I was buying. When I got home I went upstairs and took the test. When it came back positive I about feel over. I put the test on the back of the toilet and went downstairs and told Clay that I had a surprise for him upstairs in the bathroom. Now my sister and mother had come back home with me so I didn't really want to tell them yet before Clay knew so he went upstairs while I stayed downstairs with my family. Clay came walking back downstairs and we both looked at each other and just smiled, this kind of shocking smile at each other and didn't say anything else about it until every one left. Well about 7 1/2 months later we had ourselves this cute little boy! Luke came out screaming when he was born and he really never stopped. Ask my mother, he really didn't stop!
But he still was such a blessing to our family! I never found out what I was having when I was pregnant with Luke, but I always knew we would have a boy!
When we lived in So. California a few years back we took the kids to Disneyland every chance we had. Luke was obsessed with Whinny the Pooh back then and we literally went on that Pooh ride about 100 times that year.
Luke is my crazy kid and will do anything and everything he likes. I do Yoga and Luke loves to copy me and this is what I get....Luke doing a Yoga move on our hike.
Just so you know, I don't hold my fingers that way, don't ask me where he copied that from!
We love you Luke and are so happy you came to complete our family! Have a great birthday!

Happy Birthday Stephanie

Hello all, this is not Steph in this post, this is her sister Melinda who hijacked her blog. Today is Steph's birthday and I just wanted to wish her a great day. Steph is a great sister and is always willing to help out when she can. Just last Friday, I called to meet up with her for lunch since we were coming out her way for Ashley's bday and she patiently waited 45 mins for us to show up. I think most of us would have just left. She was nice enough to wait and we were able to have a great time together.


Steph and her family are staunch U of U fans and Blake thought it would be funny to put our BYU hitch cover on her car. He was just thinking of Cody, but Steph wasn't to thrilled with it.

Stephanie is a really good mom to her kids. She is always doing things for them, taking them to their activities, games or what ever they have going on. When Savannah was diagnosed with Diabetes, she researched and learned everything thing on it so that she could really take good care of her. Clay and the kids are so lucky to have Steph for their wife and mom.


Steph, I hope you have a fabulous bday. You really are so great and I am glad we live close enough to be able to get together and do things. I always have a fun time with you and your family. I love you!

Savannah

I had to find an example of Savannah's practical jokes just so you understand how planned and precise they are. Her Beehive leader sent these to me after girls camp this year.

Here is a pretty innocent picture of Savannah, Brittany and their friend Annie.

Look more closely and you will see the joke!

Yes, Savannah once again pulled a fast one on her friends!

Poor Brittany, she is usually the receiver of her sister's jokes!

Especially for Youth

My cute Brittany just returned from her first year of going to Especially For Youth. She and her friend from down the street decided they would go up together and be room mates and also requested that they go to BYU Idaho. Jessica went to Rexburg last year for EFY and loved it, so I'm sure that had some part in why they decided to go there instead of staying around these parts. Of course they came home telling us they wanted to go next year to either Alaska or Hawaii. We told them to start saving their money!

This is Brittany with Katie her room mate.

These are some of the people in their company. A few days before they left Brittany and Katie asked if they could go shopping for some clothes for EFY. We asked them where they wanted to go and they told us, "the DI". We were so surpised and happy about this. They found really cute dresses that they are wearing in this picture. Brittany is the one in the blue polka dotted dress and Katie is in the purple polka dotted dress, both dresses were purchased at the DI and were under $10 for both dresses and belts!

Savannah is my funny kid. She loves to play pratical jokes on people and pretend to be something she isn't. Last night for fun, her and her friends decided to make a movie. Savannah played the "goth" girl in the movie! The parents of her friend thought she was so funny they sent me this picture. That's my Savannah!

4th of July Weekend

The 4th of July is always a great weekend for us to get together with family or friends and celebrate a great holiday. This year we were lucky enough to have lots of family around us. My brother Dave and his family, Becky, Hannah and Cate came up from Cedar City to stay with us. On the first night they arrived we met up with my sisters Melinda and Libby (who also came up but was staying with Melinda) at PF Changs for dinner. After dinner Dave and his family spent the evening hanging out with us in our backyard, making smores around the fire pit, jumping on the tramp and playing a terrible game of basketball.
On the 4th we kicked back most of the day, letting the kids play some more in the backyard, eating lunch at JCW's, Dave even took Brittany, Savannah and Cody to the mall to do some birthday shopping for Becky. Of course all I saw was the things the kids ended up buying for themselves, I hope Dave bought something for his wife for her birthday!!
Later on that evening we headed down to Payson to spend the rest of the day with Melinda and Libby and their families.
Before dinner the kids swam in Melinda's hot tube, while the older kids played some rock band.

After all that, the kids worked up a big appetite and were in need of some yummy nourishment !


We still had some daylight to kill before starting the fireworks show, so the Taylor's broke out the bikes and 4 wheelers and let the kids go crazy! Of course the adults wanted to have some fun as well.



Finally it was dark enough, thanks to the black rain clouds, so we quickly fired up the big show and got things going before we all got soaked!
Thanks again to Melinda and Jason for letting us all come down and use their home as our play ground for the evening. We really had a great 4th of July and hope to be able to spend every 4th of July with our families!