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...

Aquarium Trip

The last weekend in September, Brian came down to Herriman to visit us! (Melissa, Matt and Steven) While he was here we went to the aquarium in Sandy. It was a lot of fun, but it was smaller than I expected it to be. Steven loved all the fish and kept asking to see more. I think I would definitely take him back again but not really often. Here are some pictures from our trip:


Steven driving the boat on the "Brine Shrimp Expedition". We didn't go through the entire demonstration because a line was forming behind us and we let someone else have a turn.
This is Steven looking at an aquarium of native Utah fish. i don't remember the nae of the species though.

Brian and Steven looking at the seahorses.

Steven and Matt looking at Nemo. Nemo was Steven's favorite fish to find. Can you find Nemo in the picture?

Steven and Matt "touching" the stingrays. The water was aout two feet deep so Steven couldn't actually touch them but he liked to play in the water. I did find out something interesting about the stingrays though. They don't actually remove their stingers, the just clip them off about every three months like a dogs toenails.

Our Annual Bear Lake Trip!

Over Labor Day we took our annual trip to Bear lake. We always reserve the pavilion so we can all stay together. We used to get separate campsites, but we always spent our time in the same campsite anyway, and we got sick of hauling all our individual tables across the campground. In the pavilion, we have covered tables that are together and have built in lights so we can play games at night. This year we had a lot of fun, but it was pretty stormy all weekend. It's Bear lake so the weather will be unpredictable and it will most likely rain at least once, but this year the storm rolled in on Sunday afternoon, cold and STRONG. It got so bad that Matt, Melissa and Brian left a day early because the wind forced them to take down their tent and a lot of their stuff got wet. Actually about half of our campers went home Sunday night rather than Monday afternoon because the wind was so bad, they knew they wouldn't sleep anyway. We tried a new kind of pot luck deal that we tried this time. Usually, we do all our meals on our own in individual families, and then do one big pot luck night where we have a ton of food. This time we had each family take a night and do dinner for everyone. We really liked this because, that way you only have to cook and clean up dinner one night and you get to eat every night! It was awesome! Here are some pics from our trip:

Uncle Brian wore himself out pushing Steven around on his little toy tractor.

Having a juice box with Grandma.

We went down to the lake on Sunday afternoon. We were just getting out of the water when the storm rolled in Big Time! It actually took our inflatable raft and we had to chase it up the beach!

Sharing the Juice box with Grandpa.

Looking for cell phone reception with Uncle Brian.

We played with glow sticks and glow balls on Saturday night. And Brian got out the spotlight to shine on people up at the campground bathrooms.

Brandon was worn out after the first day...

Steven went breakfast mooching...

We had bats in our belfry

Loss of a Hat...

Brian has had a certain hat for several years. It is an old, red baseball cap that he wears to work every day. Or at least he did. Even before his mission, Mom and I have been trying to get him to throw it away. It was dirty, falling apart and it was ready to be retired in our opinion. When he went on his mission, My mom threatened to throw it away while he was gone, but she never did. It hung on his bedpost for two years waiting faithfully until he returned and started to wear it to work again. We still tried to get him to replace it and throw it away with no luck. I don't know if he didn't want to break in a new one, didn't want to go shopping for a new one or what.








As you can see, It's really dirty the fabric is no longer on the button on the top, and the fabric is peeling off of the brim.
A couple months ago, I cooked dinner at Mom's house and invited some friends over. Brian invited over one of his friends from work (the boss's daughter and the secretary). As she was leaving she and I were joking about stealing Brian's hat and throwing it away. Well She took matters into her own hands and devised a plan to get her hands on Brian's old ratty hat. With the help of a unnamed co-worker, the hat was stolen and deposited into Stacie's possession. Brian knew that they had it, but thought he would eventually get it back. Well he did...

"Brian's Hat May it Rest In Peace"
"All Good Things Must Come To an End! --Stacie--"

...he just couldn't wear it anymore. That's right folks, She burned the hat, and placed the ashes in this little "Urn"! When I heard this story I laughed SO hard! I and the rest of my family thought it was sooo funny. I even think Brian thought it was funny. However when her parents heard about it, they were mortified. They told her how she couldn't do things like that and she just told them "Yes I can."
She did replace the old hat with a couple of new ones so Brian won't be going hat-less. I just cannot get over how creative and funny this girl is. Brian might have been a little madder if she had just burned it, but the fact that she took the time to save the ashes and put them in a memorial Urn makes it worth the loss.

Happy Fourth Of July!!!!

We made our annual trip up to the USU stadium to watch Logan's Fireworks show. We try to go every year. We get there when the gates open so we can get the seats we want. We take loads of treats and some games and hang out. Some years (like last year, Ryan Shupe, Yea!) we listen to the entertainment, and other years we just put up with it. Then when it gets dark, we enjoy the fireworks. After the whole thing is over, we go to our cars and wait in the parking lot for about an hour, until the traffic clears out a little. Overall, it's a lot of fun! We can't wait until next year! Here are a few of our fun pictures!
Here we are having some snacks and hanging out.
Here is Steven playing a game with uncle Brian on Uncle Brian's phone.
Steven watching the blackhawk helicopter flyover with Grandma and GrandpaOne of the many beautiful Fireworks we enjoyed.