Lagoon and Malan's Peak

We have been saving our money all year so we could go to Lagoon; and we finally made it!  It was our Stake Lagoon day a couple weeks ago so we decided to take advantage of it.  We were trying to go with my family, but it wasn't working out, so we invited our neighbors to go with us, so the kids would have buddies to ride with.  It worked out perfectly.  We had a spectacular day - a little on the hot side, but perfect in the evening.  We were there from 1:00-closing.  I didn't take very many pictures because we were too busy having fun.  Dallin was so cute!  He LOVED all the rides he could go on! Paige was a trooper in the stroller.  She is such a good little baby.

 Mason was a dare devil.  He rode on several big roller coaster (bambora, the bat, etc).  He wasn't afraid of anything.  Camille and Garet were very brave as well.  They both went on Wicked with me and Camille went on the Rocket with Dad.  It was a ton of fun!  Camille and Riley got to go off by themselves for a little while (they took Nanette's phone) and thought they had died and gone to heaven.  They would text me and tell me which ride they were going on next.  It was so fun for them!  What did we do before cell phones?

 Camille is just getting too big for the little kid rides, but she wanted to go with Dallin so bad:)  She was right at the max height limit.  My little girl is growing up.

 Annie and Preston

 Dallin was so funny on these cars.  He giggled and smiled the entire time and thought he was soooo big because he was driving a car.

Now to switch gears.....we (all 5 kids) hiked Malan's Peak last weekend!  I hiked it in high school from the waterfall canyon side, but have never hiked it from Taylor Canyon.  It was very steep and long for the kids, but they were troopers.  Carly & Andy and Scarlett came with us and Scarlett did awesome too.

Jared has recently got this idea that if he is going to be an Ogdenite he needs to hike the local peaks:)  and  he is trying to find some areas that he could take his scouts backpacking.  So, he was going to tell his scouts that my whole family (including a 4 year old) made it, so they could make it.

 At the beginning when everyone is fresh and ready.

 Dallin was a super trooper and hardly made a peep.  Paige did ok.  I had to get her out a couple times and carry her in front because she didn't like the backpack.  On the way down we had to feed her some little treats to keep her happy and then she finally fell asleep.  Mason probably had the hardest time.  He would find treasures (rocks, sticks, etc) that he wanted to bring home and then we would stop and he would set them down and forget to pick them up.  After a while he would realize that he left them and have a melt down.  Several times he sat down in the middle of the trail and cried because he didn't want to hike anymore.      I had to bribe him with Wendy's for lunch and shaved ice machine that was supposed to be delivered that day and anything else I could think of.  It was quite the undertaking.  I was exhausted (not so much physically) after the hike from trying to get Mason down the mountain.

 Garet was just a goer.  As long as he had some snacks he just kept truckin' right along.

 Camille did pretty well.  She fell at the top and ripped a hole in her pants and cut her knee, but she was a trooper.  (Her weird rash is finally gone).

 At the top.  We have a group photo on Carly's camera.  I'll have to get it from her...

It was an adventure!  Glad we did it, but don't think I'll be taking the kids on that hard of a hike anytime soon.

Some random Garden picts...

Dallin and Daddy weeding away.

 Mason is the finder of cool things in the garden.  He has an eye for anything.  He found a giant radish.

He thought it was pretty neat.

Everyone has a big soft spot in their heart for our sweet little Paige!  Camille took a bunch of pictures of her the other day.  She is getting so fun and starting to interact with the kids more and more.  We love her to pieces!

Summer Kickoff

We started off our summer fun with our annual Duchesne and Moab trip.  It was a very eventful trip to say the least!  We left Sunday afternoon with our truck loaded up and ready to spend three days in Duchesne and then another 4 days in Moab.  We were well on our way when we pulled off by Coalville to switch drivers and realized our big red duffle bag was gone.  It had a few important items in it....hiking shoes (mine), kids flip flops, baby blankets, swim bag, pillow pets.  Things that would make our life easier on our trip.  We decided to turn around and see if we could find it.  We drove all the way back to the mouth of Weber Canyon with no sign of the bag.  So 5 hours later we rolled into Duchesne still missing the bag.  (It's normally a 2 1/2 hour drive).  We were bummed, but still excited for our adventure.

 We spent Memorial Day visiting graves.  This is Grandpa Davies grave with Melissa, Evelyn, Taylor, Hazel, Mason, Luke, Dallin, Garet, and Camille

 Great Grandma and Grandpa Taylor

 Every year Jared's Dad's family meets at this cemetery to have doughnuts.  Quite the crew.

 Tuesday morning Camille wanted to ride the horses, so Dad went with her to catch a couple.  The calm horse, Lightning died last fall, so they caught Topaz, Shadow, and Maverick.  These horses are pretty spunky in the spring and don't get ridden hardly at all.  They are pretty wild. Jared saddled them up and turned them out into the little pasture.  He rode Topaz around for a while and he was being good.  Camille got on and rode around for 20 minutes or so and then took Dallin on a ride with her.

Dallin loves the horses too.

 Jared rode crazy Shadow around for awhile.  They wanted to go on a ride across the road so I took Dallin off and off they went.  They headed up the hill and Topaz was getting jumpy.  They came back down the hill and Topaz just wanted to go back to be with the other horse (Maverick).  I went across the road and led her back down the dirt road a little ways.  As soon as I got back to the house I heard some screaming and ran back across the road to find Camille laying on the ground with Jared holding her.  I guess Topaz started bucking and she held on for the first couple bucks, but then went off.  She landed on her arm and wouldn't move it, so we knew it was broken.  We took her to the clinic in Duchesne and they x-rayed it and she broke her right arm way up by her shoulder (again!!)  She broke her left arm 3 years ago in the very same place by falling off the monkey bars at Grandma Cable's house.  They can't cast it so she is back in a sling:)

 I took this picture when we got home.  She was so bummed that she couldn't go biking in Moab or climb on the rocks, etc.  And......the excitement doesn't end yet.  We left to go to Moab on Wednesday morning.  It is about 3 hours from Duchesne.  We were about an hour into the ride when Camille started feeling sick to her stomach.  She threw up 3 or 4 times in the car (luckily we caught it) and was feeling miserable.  She was moaning and having a really hard time.  Jared wanted to stop on I-70 to find this arch.  The map said it was only 10 or so miles on a dirt road, so we thought we could take a detour since we were going to beat our friends there anyway.  Well, to make a long story short we never found the arch, but we added another 2 hours to our trip, between the detour, sick Camille, and Paige stops.  As soon as we got to our camp, Camille sat in the shade for a little while and then was just fine the rest of the trip.  I think she was car sick.  She was sitting in the front seat of the truck with us and we were listening to Harry Potter and she was following along in her book.  It was too quick to be a virus or food poisoning.  It is a little strange that she has never been car sick before....who knows.  So on to the adventure....

 The boys were having a great time on one of our pit stops.  They are true boys/treasure hunters.

 Garet found some kind of treasure!

 When we finally made it to our camp spot (5 hours later) I was wondering if the trip could get any worse!  I was just about ready to throw in the towel and head home.  But, we got camp set up and had a great afternoon and evening.  We had quite the group this year.  The Button's and Freeman's came on Wednesday and the Madsen's, and Cable's (my bro and sis-in-law) came on Thursday.  I think it was 9 adults and 17 kids!  The kids were having a ball playing on all the rocks and sand.

The next day we hiked Cable arch (above).

 Friday we went into arches and hiked to landscape, pine tree, and another one I don't remember the name of.  Paige and Dallin were little troopers in the back packs and the other kids were rock-star hikers.

 Preston, Garet, Camille, Riley, and Addie

 Mommy and Paige, Daddy and Dall and Mas.

 We took everyone's bikes a few miles out of town and rode down the paved trail and then played on the huge sand hill that is right across from the arches entrance.

 We had to go swimming at our perfect spot.  Riley and Camille.

 They made mud balls, found cray fish, and got cooled off in the stream.

 Paige is such a good baby.  She hardly fussed and did really well without good naps.  We were so lucky it was nice and cool this year.  I don't even think it got above 80 degrees.  I was very grateful because heat + nursing + baby just don't mix very well.  I don't have a picture of it, but all the gals went for a mtn. bike ride on the slick rock trail.  We had a ball.  Nanette and Kaylyn have never really mt. biked before and they did awesome.  And.. Kaylyn is pregnant.  We had some much needed girl time and let the Dad's do the tending:)  They got to go on their ride when we got back:)  The kids got to ride on some slickrock that was close to our camp.  Garet was a crazy-man as usual.  Up and down and up and down a hundred times and still not ready to be done:)  We also rode Grandpa's 4-wheelers on some nearby trails.  The kids really liked that!

On our way back to Duchesne on Saturday we had to take a pit stop to feed Paige and the boys found a cool jeep a little ways off the road.  Mason was determined to find a way to bring it home.

We made it home about 7:30 on Saturday night, and boy did it feel spectacular!  All in all I think we drove about 16 hours....sheesh we almost drove to California and back.  We had a few rough moments when we thought we were never going to make it, but here we are talking and laughing about it now.

I took Camille to the Orthopedic Surgeon a couple days after we got home and yes sure enough it's broken ( more like a dent) and she needs to wear the sling for a few more weeks.  I've just about given up trying to get her to hold it still and keep her sling on.  We did let her take it off for Lagoon yesterday......shhhhhhh don't tell.  She says it doesn't even hurt anymore.  What do you do?!  She is quite the little lady.  She recently got some kind of weird rash on her arm/face/neck that we are trying to get rid of.  She is a strong girl that is for sure.  

Family Pictures sneak peek...

My sister Collette came and took our family pictures!!  I love how they turned out.  She sent me a couple cute ones:)

 Our cute family!