Demolition Derby

End of July we had a chance to go to the carnival where they had a free demoition derby.  Since I have 3 boys I thought it might be fun to take my kids to see.  Then, I got tickets for the carnival from my work.  Unfortunately, I didn't think about Braden's broken arm being an issue and they wouldn't let him ride any rides, which made him very sad and made Dalin mad.  But it was still a great day.  First, there is a group here in Vernal that has restored and remade a bunch of old WWII fighter planes.  Apparently they take people on private flights to help pay for the restorations.  They had a big spread of toy fighter planes and my boys REALLY, REALLY wanted to get one, but I wasn't willing to pay the prices they had on them.  Broken hearts again.  Dalin sat and talked with one of the guys for a good while about how his Grandma Anne's dad flew a plane in WWII.  It was amusing to see him take such an interest.  Then they were allowed to go up and look at the plane and see the cockpit.  Good way to start the day.

Then the fun began.  We sat in the stands for almost an hour before the derby started because the tickets were free we had to get seats early in order to get seats at all.  Dalin showing his impatience and attitude at not being allowed on the rides and then having to sit and wait for a derby in sight of all the fun rides.  I appeased him with a snowcone.  That's right.  Sometimes I buy my children's compliance :)

But once the action started he warmed right up.  He really enjoyed it once the fun began.

Braden had so much fun he didn't want to leave and it did make him feel better about not being able to ride any rides.  Landon was exstatic.  People around us were laughing at him because he got so excited.  I've never seen him like that.  He was screaming with joy.  I wish I could've got video or picture of it, but alas, my camera died. Stupid, cheap camera.  Dan and I also enjoyed ourselves.  Overall a pretty fun night and it cost us nothing!  (Other than the price of snowcones)

Splash Pad Fun

My blogs are a little out of order for some reason.  Not sure what I did, but I just realized this.  So this is back on July 10 while we were up in Ogden visiting family.  My in-laws had Dalin and Braden for a time so it was just me and Landon for a couple days.  We took advantage of the time and went to the splash pad.  My mom was watching my brother, Steven's kids so they came too.  Korbin and Landon had a ball together.  Neither of them are afraid of water and ran all over the place with no fear.  They were so cute together.  I think they would be good little buddies if we lived closer.  They are about 8 months apart in age and both such devious little stinkers and so cute.  It was fun to have them spend some time together.

Fireworks for Grandpa's Birthday

Have I ever mentioned that Braden is a waterdog?

He's just like his dad I guess.  Two peas in a pod.

Good thing his daddy loves to get wet too.

July 6th we celebrated Grandpa Ron's birthday by lighting some fireworks and celebrating our independence from the ruthless British.  The tyrants! :)  O.K. I have to put that in there because he is from Great Britain and I have to give him a hard time.

It was a bit windy and we had a hard time lighting the fireworks, but in the end we prevailed.

These are some serious fireworks!  I remember doing rinky dinky little ones like this when I was a kid and it was so exciting.  The same goes for my kids, they really liked them and had a lot of fun. 

Landon stuck to grandma's lap for the whole show, but we finally coaxed him into holding a sparkler.  He was very timid at first, but quickly warmed up to them.

They had fun with them .

Now there's a handsome fella, even if he is from England, we can forgive him for that. He is also the birthday boy.  

Here he is with his thousand candles.  After all, isn't that how old he is?  Maybe I should lay off a little? (I'm gonna' get it on my birthday)

I made the cake myself.  O.K. just kidding.  It was a very delicious cake though.  Make that a delicious ice-cream cake!  Who doesn't love those?

Ogden Raptors

We had a chance to go to an Ogden Raptors game with my dad and boy did they have fun.  Landon stayed home with my mom so he could sleep and Dan had gone fishing.  Boy did he miss out.  Dalin was so inquisitive and asked question after question.  By the time the game was over he knew all about baseball and Braden had determined that he definitely wanted to play next spring. 

My dad was nice enough to get the kids a treat.  Dalin choose cotton candy and Braden choose popcorn which they quickly devoured.  It was fun to go over to the wall behind third base-line underneath the scoreboard.  Dalin learned what everything on that board meant and by the end knew what the score was and how many hits and outs there were.  He really got into it.

We had a lot of fun.  These are the moments I would never trade away for anything in the world. 

The 4th of July

The first thing you always do on the 4th of July is go to a parade.  Since we were heading up north for the 4th to spend time with family, we weren't in Vernal so my brother, Ryan was nice enough to let us join him and his family at the Riverdale parade.  My kids had a ton of fun and I'm glad we were able to go.  In fact, all of my siblings were there too with their families and also my sis-in-law's sister and their family.  I have a hard time deciding which pictures to post and which ones to leave out so I usually end up posting way more than I need to.  But here they are anyways.

Landon, Leah, Dalin and Kyla waiting patiently for the parade to start.

The excitement at seeing something in the parade, but since my back was turned to take the picture I have no idea what they saw.

Korbin and Landon.

I love this picture.  All the cousins lined up together to watch the parade.  I'm pretty sure this is all 11 of them. Leah, Bailey, Dalin, Kyla, Linkin, Landon, Korbin, Daxton, Makayla, Aubree, and Braden.  I hope I spelled all their names right.

Here's a closer look.  It was so hard to get them all looking at the same time.  This is the best I could do out of 5 or 6 tries.

 Collecting candy.  They got quite the haul.

A little later, after the parade we went to my parents' house for a BBQ.  And what a fantastic idea to get out a slip'n'slide.  The small hill in my parents' backyard was perfect for giving them a little bit of an oomph, otherwise some of the younger kids wouldn't have slid very far.  They did this for at least an hour, and some of them even longer off and on.  We destroyed my dad's perfect grass.

The older kids tried going down different ways, and the younger ones would always follow their lead.  Turns out going down on your bum doesn't really work so well.

I love how they're all lined up and ready to go.  Little Makayla was so good to wait her turn patiently and all the boys would just keep crowding in and running ahead of her over and over.  Hahaha, Dalin is losing his britches in this pic.

Braden got the best hang time out of all of them.  He would fly clear off the thing over and over.

Landon kept sliding off the edge before he would reach the bottom.

Korbin was in hog heaven.

Makayla hung in there with all those boys.

I love their faces as they go down.  Priceless.

Little Aubree even went down, much to her dismay. She did not like the slide but in the end had fun in the pool.