South Ogden Days

My parents live in South Ogden and every June their city hosts South Ogden Days with parades, a small fair at the park with vendors and rides, fireworks, and other outdoor performances.  We didn't do all of that, but did hit the parade with all the kiddos and their cousins.  Dan missed out though since he had to head back to work.  They got an enormous stash of candy and other trinkets thrown at them.  I just love this kind of stuff.

I think this is all of them.  

I think they all had a lot of fun, including me.

Later that night we raided Steven and Alyssa's house to watch the fireworks from their backyard.  It was much better than fighting the crowds at the park and the kids had a ton of things to keep them busy with a trampoline, new swing set, sand box, and multiple balls and bikes to ride.  Plus more cousin time.  Thanks for letting us come invade!

On the following Sunday we ended our fun week with a slip 'n' slide in my parents' backyard.  The kids love this.  It took a minute for them to get used the freezing hose water, but once they did it got a little crazy with fun.

Pure joy.

Then we had a little creek time.

Summer never gets old for me.  I love every single minute of it and I'm so grateful my kids get to experience so much in their lives.  

Train to the Temple with Grandma

This is still part of our extended trip to visit family over the summer.  Dalin has really wanted to go see the Salt Lake Temple and they have all wanted to ride on Front Runner again.  They think it's so exciting.  And it was.  We were fortunate enough to have my mom join us.  This is what memories are made of.  Simple things that my kids talk about for weeks.

Here we are at the reflection pool at the Salt Lake Temple.  Look at those cute little boys.  I think they would've dove right in had I let them.

The next two pictures crack me up.  We go from Landon sticking his little fingers in to.....

Landon splashing like a wild man and making Braden quite indignant. 

Thanks mom for taking all the great pictures.  I love my little family.

Love this picture.  The kids really liked the temple.  Braden told me "mom, it looks like a castle. Does a king live in there?"  Sort of, haha.

Then we went to check out the visitor's center.  The kids had fun seeing everything, although it got a little nuts with the escalator and Landon started running a little wild.  I got to the point where I thought "get me outta here!"  But overall, the kids had a good time.

Dalin and Braden discovered Books of Mormon in all the different languages and spent a good deal of time looking through them.  Dalin tried to read them which I found quite amusing.  

I'm pretty sure at this point Dan was off with Landon riding the escalator over and over.

Then we went upstairs to see the best part.  I love how Braden sat there a minute and then asked "mom, did Jesus make everything in space?"  Multiple times Landon tried to run up and climb up on the statue.  I had to hold him back, but he slowly crept up there taking a couple of steps and then looking back to see what I would do.  I let him go and he finally made it up there so I went up to grab him and he was standing there touching Christ's feet.  He didn't say anything so I let him touch it for a minute.  He was so quiet and I thought it was very touching.

After the temple we stopped at The City Creek Center and let the kids run around the fountain with a bunch of other kids.  They got soaked and I hadn't thought to bring a change of clothes so on the train ride home Landon got a little chilly.  His daddy knows how to keep him warm though.

So stinkin cute.

Summer Trip to Grandma's House and Salmon River Fishing

The nice thing about summer is we get to spend some time visiting family.  We are lucky enough to have two grandparents with creeks in their yards.  The boys spend a lot of time out in the water.  Grandma Anne has fun too and the boys love it.

Dan and Ron went on a fishing trip to the Salmon River in Idaho so we girls took the boys out for an adventure.  We decided to head out to the Golden Spike Monument since Anne had never been there and neither had the boys.  We also have a deep love of trains in our household so it was perfect.  The day turned out to be beautiful.  Dalin wasn't able to join us because he got to spend a week with Dan's dad on the ranch.  

These two boys really had a lot of fun with this outing.  It was so fun to climb right up to the trains and see into them and talk about how they work.

It was really fun to imagine what it would've been like to ride these trains across the country.  

We read about the people who gave their lives to make the transcontinental railroad possible.

Leave it to Landon to find some little space and think it's the greatest thing he's ever seen.  

Of course Braden can't be left out and they insisted on my taking their picture.

Before we left we got to see the trains steam away to be put into the sheds.  They steamed and blew their whistles and I'm glad we came at the right time to see it.  I think the boys had a lot of fun.

The next day we got to go play at the playground.  This is a fun park not too far from grandma's house up in the mountains.  It's surrounded by big tall trees and a river runs right through it.

"Higher grandma, higher!"

This was a fun day spent relaxing with my two littlest boys.

Later that night Dan and Ron came home to show off their catches.  Well, Dan's catches.  Unfortunately Ron didn't catch anything, but I think he still enjoyed himself other than his car broke down around Burly, Idaho and I had to drive up there to get them and then it was quite the chore to sort out getting his car fixed and brought back to Logan.  

But it was all worth the King salmon.  This baby had a lot of meat on it.

And of course Braden and Landon thought it was amazing.

Yummy!  Or gross if you're in my shoes.  Fish are not my favorite things in the world, unless they're swimming around far away from me.

After that Dan had to go home and head out to work.  While I stayed a while longer with the boys.

Grandma always has some fun idea up her sleeve and this time she fired up the riding lawn mower and took the boys for a little ride down the road.  

Good times!  It's always so fun to visit grandma's house.