Poor Minnie!!

Madelynn is the worst Minnie torturer of the bunch!! But the dog still likes her?!??!!

We have been watching my parents dog for a few weeks while they are in Alaska. What an experience that has been!! The poor dog has been bugged and chased and chased some more! I bet when Minnie (dog) goes home she will sleep for days!!! She is often found hiding under beds or in my closet or wants out-away from all of our craziness!! She is use to sleeping alot and it being quiet and no kids to bug her. I REALLY feel for the poor tortured dog. My kids have been wanting a dog for years-I don't think so!!! I am so glad she is such a good dog-no accidents, no biting (trust me I would bite) and very little barking. So Mom, although we truly enjoyed having Minnie I am so glad you will be home to relieve her of my children!!!! LOL

Just Playing Around..................................

We have had a great Summer!! I can't believe it is half over-in fact it makes me sad!! I love laid back lazy summer days!! It has been a little crazy around here lately!! Jake just got back from Youth Conference and had a Great time-He even had to speak about it in sacrament Sunday! I must say he gave a great talk and everyone told him what a good leader he is!! (the secret is out-Jake is a GREAT guy!!) Today he is off to Zions to hike the Narrows with his Teachers! Then he will be back Saturday and Matthew is leaving Monday for a week long Scout Camp at Maple Dell. Then we will be headed out camping over the weekend-does it ever end?? But really I can't wait!! I am excited for Matthew and nervous all at the same time- a whole week away what will we do without him??? I know he will have a great time! OOHHH he is growing up!! Anyway for the 4th we went camping and had a blast-we had a a big crowd-13 children and a bunch of adults. We ate and fished, and 4-wheeled and hiked, shot BB Guns, sat around the camp fire until 1 am and ate some more and took afternoon naps-it was fun! My favorite way to spent the fourth-away from all the craziness and with my Amazing family and friends!! I love our Country and appreciate all the sacrifices for our freedom!! Happy fourth!

Chasing the Goblins!

A few more pictures of our Adventure!

Chasing the Goblins!

Valley Of Goblins

Mckay was unbelievable-he would run from one to

the other climbing every high peak he could. We counted

his blisters he had 10 total on his feet!! That is some serious

climbing!!

I wouldn't say spoiled-just well loved!!

This shows how narrow some of the canyons were

Mckay is standing between the walls of the slots.

This last weekend we took a 4 day trip to Goblin Valley. I can't believe I have lived in Utah my whole life and have camped and hiked and 4-wheeled literally EVERY WERE........But have never been to Goblin Valley! It was a blast-We will definitely be going back! It is by Green River and Hanksville and is about 3 hours away from our house. We took our trailer and camped. Goblin Valley is the huge valley of Mushroom shaped rocks you can climb all over them. They kids could not get enough! We spent hours in the valley chasing and watching the kids-I am tired just thinking about it again! We heard about this awesome "slot Canyon" hike in Goblin Valley called Little Wild Horse that is the main reason we went was to hike. On Saturday we did the hike it was so beautiful!! It is one of the best hikes I have ever been on! (I have actually hiked all over Utah when I was a kid with my family-and HATED it!!) It was Slot Canyons- these narrow canyons and as far up as you can see is Rock-it was AMAZING to us and the kids! It was Canyon after Canyon. These pictures don't even begin to capture how great it was-some of the slots were so narrow we could bearly fit threw them. The hike was 5 1/2 miles long and I am proud to say we all did it! Even Madelynn was a trooper-she only had a hard time the last mile or so! We had a fun time-the only down fall was the heat-it was nearly 90 degrees. I think next time we will go in April or October when it is cooler. We were going to head to Arches which is 45 miles away and hike the "Natural Bridge" (the arch on the Utah license plate) but we were so tired of the heat we headed for cooler ground! We ended up by Scofield and spent our last night in the 70 degree weather. We had such a great time and I am so proud of our little family that we did that! We are planning another one of our "Adventures" for August-more to come!

Moab Spring 2010

I love this Picture! It's Matthew and my brother Rob sitting
on a rock-they are great buddies and like to hang out together!

Yep that's Matthew! My brother Rob brought his 2 little dirt

bikes so he could teach Matthew how to ride. Matthew LOVED

it and had fun learning to drive a dirt bike!

They boys did there annual Moab trip this spring! Jake, Matthew, Mckay and Marcus all went this year and had a great time. My dad, both of my brothers and my sister-in law all went with them. A good time was had by all!!! They climbed trails and even got stuck in the middle of the dessert until 2 in the morning. As my brother Rob says "It just would not be Moab if you don't get stranded for hours in the heat!" Craig's Jeep broke down and they had to drive the other one back into town to get parts-this has happened before. They were stuck for hours and still had a great time. I think the trip to Denny's at 3 am was one of the highlights! They were all starving after being stuck thank goodness for all night Denny's!! They always have a good time! As for me and Madelynn we (of course) went shopping!! Me and my mom ate Chinese and had a great time hanging out for the weekend!

Hogle Zoo Fun

Matthew is getting so tall-He is almost as tall as me!! Yikes!

I am always telling Mckay to stop acting like a monkey!!

During Spring break we went to the Zoo. We have never taken Madelynn so it had been a few years since we had been. We had a good time-we went with the Johnston Cousins. We got to ride the Carousel and the train and see all the wild animals-What a Fun time!

Seven is great!

On April 12 Marcus turned 7 years old! He is such a sweetheart! For his Birthday we opened presents and had cake and ice cream and he got to pick were we could go for dinner. He picked Carl's Junior-not my pick but he wanted to go play at the indoor playground so we did! I can't believe how fast he is growing up! Marcus is such a fun little boy, he is VERY social (like Matthew) and has lots of friends. Marcus has such a contagious little laugh which is something I love about him! He is in the 1st grad this year and seems to enjoy it. However he has a very hard time waking up in the morning to get off to school!(I think he gets that from his dad!!) He ALWAYS has a smile and is fun to be around! Happy Birthday Marcus-We Love You!!

Madelynn Is 3!!

Happy Birthday to my girl Madelynn!! It was Madelynn's Birthday on April 2-what a big girl she is now!! She is such a blessing for our family. We celebrated her Birthday by opening some presents and then we went to grandma Boren's house for an Easter Party. Madelynn thought the whole party was just for her-and we let her think that because it was her special day. We got her a PINK Scooter which is what she has been wanting ever since she seen it at the store! She loves to ride her scooter and is really fast at it-just the other day I chased her down the middle of the road and could not keep up!! This girl is a BUSY one!! She loves to ride her scooter around the block with her brothers-she thinks she is so so BIG! Another exciting thing that Madelynn has been doing is (finally) going potty!! Yeah-no more diapers! She is doing really well and is constantly telling me she is such a big girl! We love you girl-and you are becoming such a "Big Girl!"

A Quick Update

Here are a bunch of posts! We have been pretty busy and this is what we have all been up to lately!

Abe Lincoln And Basketball

It has been a busy couple of months for us! Matthew has been pretty busy-he has had basketball, science fair, wax museum, and scouting pow-wow's. He loved playing basketball and was even more excited that he got to be on his best friends team. It was alot of fun-this is the first year he tried basketball and he liked it better then baseball. We will definatley be doing that again. He was a pretty good player-being one of the tallest helped with that!! LOL He also had to do the Wax Museum. That was alot of fun! He had to pick a Historical figure and memorise a 2 minute speech about that person and then dress up like him. He chose good old "Honest Abe". I took a few pictures of him and his friend Zach who was Bill Clinton. Parents were invited to come see all the kids and listen to there speech. It was alot of fun! Good job Matthew!!

Mighty Marcus

Marcus had a school play the other day-it was so cute!! He got to be a Dragon which he loved and even had a small speaking part. He was very excited and did such a great job. It was the cutest play I have ever been to- one of those "Priceless" moments I enjoy with my children!! Good job Marcus!

Sleeping Beauty

One evening I lost Madelynn........................were or were could she be???????? I looked EVERYWHERE and was starting to feel a little panic. I thought what if she got outside and is half-way across the neighborhood (needless to say she has done that before!!)thank goodness I have patient neighbors! There was a large lump in my bed and that is were I found her after 20 minutes of looking...................my very own Sleeping Beauty! She did not have a nap that day and apparently needed one! I had to take a quick picture it was cute-she finds herself many a nights in my bed-unfortunately for me!! What a silly girl I have!!

Smarty Pants Mckay!

I had to put a picture of Mckay in here somewhere!! What a GREAT boy he is!! He is very smart and very kind. He did basketball but it was "Mickey Mouse" basketball. They just taught them how to play and then they got to play two games. He loved it and can't wait to play "REAL" basketball next year!! Mckay is very competitive and loves to try new things. I did not take any pictures of him playing (mostly because I was a slacker and Jake went go to all his practices with him) Next year I will get some!!

Jake's Fabulous Winter Campout!

Jake took his Priests on a GREAT winter camp out!! I say that because afterward they decided not to do that again!! Jake HATES being cold-it was 8 degrees when they woke up. His partner and him agreed not to do a repeat unless they are required to!! Pretty funny! They had a good time- as much fun as you can have in VERY cold weather-here are a few pictures: Can you believe the snow height? They actually slept in those "Snow Caves."

Birthday Time!

Happy Birthday to Jake!! It's Birthday time at our house it all starts with Jake then Me then Madelynn and then Marcus. So here is a quick Birhtday post for Jake! Hope you have a good Birthday we all love you-you are one of the BEST parts of our family!! Love You!