Hogle Zoo

A couple of weekends ago, Merlin and Lori decided to go to Hogle zoo. Melissa and the boys thought it would be fun to meet them there and make a day of it. It was a lot of fun to see The boys and to see all the baby animals. Here are a bunch of our favorite picture from the trip:


Here is our little monkey with some little monkeys.


Steven had a lot of fun feeding the birds from the boardwalk.


The Orangutan was sitting right by the window and looking at the kids. It was really cute.
Steven LOVED it.


This snake had just eaten. He is really fat, and you can see the fur from it's dinner in the lower right-hand corner of the picture.


This monkey was really interested in my camera. Every time I would hold it up to the glass, he would lean in to get a closer look. I have six or seven pics like this.


This is Steven and Grandpa with Steven's favorite animal. He looks forward to seeing the giraffe's the most.


And here is our little Sammy with the giraffe's.


The penguins were putting on a little parade.



We got a nice close up look at the rhinoceros' eating.



We got to see the baby elephant.


Sammy with the baby elephant.


Steven and Grandma with the baby elephant.


Grandma and Grandpa pushing the boys in the strollers.

Mom and Dad's Yard

A while ago I made a post about some of Merlin and Lori's flowers in their yard. I got some pictures of the rest of their yard and thought I would post those as well.


This is one of the gardens in front of the house, to the right of the porch. My dad's rose bushes grow here and they do really well. He has a yellow one and a purple one. My mom also always plants a couple of cucumber plants here every year and those do really well also.


This is the other garden in front of the house, on the other side of the porch. This garden changes from year to year. When we were really little this garden was divided into three sections and each of us kids got to have our own section and pick what we wanted to plant in it. Then it had snapdragons in it for a lot of years. this year it has a lot of moos rose, some straggling snapdragons and a good mix of a few other things.


This garden is in the park strip. Until this year, it was red lava rock. When my parents redid it cleaning up the cactus' a little and redoing the lining to keep the weeds out they swapped the lava rock for red rubber mulch. It still keeps the same look though.


On the side of the house there are always tomato plants and sometimes a pepper plant or two. they grow really well here, getting a lot of afternoon sun.


This is looking at the fence, as you enter the yard from the gate. My mom looked for an outhouse to decorate with for a long time. She got this one from the forest service. They didn't need it anymore. I think it looks good here.


This garden is in the middle of the back yard against the pond. It used to have a big willow in it, but the roots got too exposed and the willow tipped over. It fell about two weeks after I had my wedding reception back there. It took a lot of shade from the yard, so my parents planted the maple to replace it. The maple is doing really well.


This garden site in the back corner of the back yard. my mom had a hard time getting anything to grow in it because the ducks and chickens eat or dig up just about anything she plants.


This is the shed. We keep the duck feeders here and there are some bird feeders in the Russian olive trees next to it.

This is the deck and the patio.


this bleeding heart bush grows under the deck. it is HUGE. It really likes all the shade it gets under there. It almost never gets any sun! By the time the afternoon sun would hit it, it is behind the trees!

Bassett Reunion 2009

The weekend of July 24th we had our Bassett Family reunion. This is the family on Lori's side. There was a lot of good food, 4-wheelers, lots of games and fun and a ton of flies. It was held at Copenhagen Parking Lot again this year. This is a great place to camp because there are a lot of trees and lots of shade. Here are a few fun photos from our trip:



Lori reminiscing with her favorite cousin, Doyle.


When we camp, we chop wood in style: We have the circular saw, the saws-all, and the chain saw.

We also start our fires in style. None of that match crap. Bring on the butane torch....



Here Merlin and Lori are answering some of Grandpa's questions about his NUVI (GPS system). In our family, we are pretty big fans of the Garmin Nuvi.

Uncle Brian taking a nap with Samuel


Uncle Brian having crackers with Steven in the morning. Notice the toy 4-wheelers in his hands. Grandma bought them to put in her trailer, and Steven hauled them around all weekend.


Here, Doyle's wife, Kim, is helping Steven build jumps and a garage for his 4-wheelers out of the firewood.

Here Steven is lining all of grandma's trailer cars up for the night.


Merlin and Alan, Lori's other cousin, are planning out their big 4-wheeler ride.
Lot's of fun was had by all. Thanks Doyle and Kim for planning a great reunion! See you all again next year!

Pretty Flowers

Merlin and Lori always have a gorgeous yard. They work hard every year to make the lawn really green and the gardens are always full of fun flowers. Here is a little sampling of what their yard has to offer this year:

White Rocks 2009

A couple of weeks ago we had our annual White Rocks Camping trip. This trip holds a special place in all our hearts for a couple of reasons. There are some fun rocks to climb and hike on, there are fun roads to ride the 4 wheelers on, we go early enough in the year that there aren't a lot of people out there, and this is always our first trip of the year so it ushers in our camping season. This trip had a little rain mixed with sunny weather. It was nice to have it a little cool, but still warm enough to enjoy ourselves. The weekend was full of 4 wheeler rides, riding bikes, playing games, roasting hot dogs on the campfire, roasting marshmallows on the campfire, getting really really muddy, going shooting, eating really really good food, hiding from the rain under the trailer awnings, walking on stilts, and hiking to the top of the mountain. Overall, it was a great weekend and we can't wait until we get to do it again next year! Here are a few highlights from our trip:

Here is a picture of our camp taken from the top of the mountain.


Here is "Grandpa" with Steven sitting by the fire.


Brian and his friend Bonnie throwing skeets for Matt and Merlin. They had a blast shooting up all the targets they could find.



A picture of Brian's trophy shot. He brought it home and it is sitting on a sheet, hence the polka dots.


Merlin and Lori got a kids helmet so Steven could ride the 4 wheelers. It took some convincing at first, but he ended up loving the wheelers. Looks like he will be a regular off-roader.



Merlin coming back from a ride he went on with Glade. He borrowed the Razor from some of the people we were camping with. Good thing they didn't mind that it got dirty...


Brian and Steven chilling in camp. Probably eating treats of some kind...


A typical look from Brian. We never seem to get "normal" looking pictures from him...



"Grandma" with Samuel. This was Samuel's first camping trip and he came out of it like a champ. I think we have another little camper well on his way!

Easter 2009

Our Easter this year was a lot of fun. It was little Samuel's first visit to Logan. He was about two weeks old. We hung out and ran errands on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, we went out to Monte and Barb's house for our traditional family dinner and Egg hunt. Nate and Nancy came up from Ogden and we enjoyed having them there (as always). We missed Terri, Dave, Keira and Rilee, but hopefully we will catch them next year. Steven and the other kids had a blast with the egg hunt. Nancy brought some really fun eggs that were shaped like animals and things.

Steven got a really fun "basket" from Grandma and Grandpa (Lori and Merlin).



We, of course, taught him the proper way to play with his Tonka truck:



This year Merlin decided to run out to Grandma's house for dinner rather than ride in the car.


It was really great weather, so we got to eat dinner outside. Lori and Merlin eally love being able to spend time with Steven.


And the boys had to get their fill of X-Box 360. Samuel even joined in the fun (with Uncle Brian's help...