Joe had a birthday, Shout Hooray

Happy Birthday my dear, sweet man!!!

Utah Trip part 4 (Lava Hot Springs)

Lava Hot Springs

Technically this is NOT Utah, but it was apart of our trip. After we were done with Utah, we travelled on over to Lava to spend the weekend with my sister, Lori and her family at their cabin. Also, my sister, Lindsay was there and my brother, Lincoln.

It was a fun, relaxing weekend. We played with fire, helped clear some of my sisters land, and rode 4-wheelers.

No accidents happened to my family, but my niece, Jules burned her finger real bad when she tried to move a hot dutch oven lid. Also, my nephew, Jonah flipped his 4-wheeler, he's okay. He was a bit shaken up about it, and almost came to tears when he told his mother, ALMOST! He's 11. He wasn't too shaken up though, because a few hours later he stranded himself up the mountain on his ATV when it ran out of gas. Thanks Jonah for teaching my kids what NOT to do.

Here is Jonah and Maggie, as we awaited fireworks.

Katie and Logan

Emily eating Aunt Lori's AWESOME homemade peanut butter with Reese's peanut butter cups ice cream!!!! YUMMMMMMMMM!

My BEAUTIFUL girl!

Sunset, looks like the hills are on fire!

Crazy kids!

Katie pushing Jules around.

The moon and the L, for Lava, obviously!

OOOOHHHH!

AAAHHHH!

When we got home from the fireworks, all the little ones were asleep. After us mom's tucked them in , we heard the men talking about a small black critter, attached to the ceiling! YUCK!

BATS!! Yes, 2 bats, in the cabin! After what seemed like an hour, the men folk persuaded 1 to vacate the cabin, the other, they got rid a slightly different way. Poor guy! May he rest in peace.

Here is the totally awesome, but slightly edited version of what we caught on tape!

Enjoy!

Man, what a memorable weekend we had! Thanks Lori and Reed for the awesome trip!

This concludes the Utah Trip posts!

Katie Bug Turned 2

My baby turned 2! I am SOOOO glad it is my last terrible 2's!

There is definetly peace in knowing I am done having kids!

Utah Trip, Part 3 (Lagoon)

Lagoon

Well, right away, we were laughing our butts off and having fun.

If any one has been to Lagoon lately, you will remember that there is a water fountain, play area right as you walk into the actual park. Well, Janet and Lilli decided to walk through it. We were all sort of hanging back thinking, "Don't they know what they are walking through? It is going to shoot water up at them any second!" It DID! And they got drenched! Lucky for
Janet, she was wearing great shorts, very light weight, and she was dry in a few hours!

HA HA HA!!! Funny Stuff!

Annabelle and Katie waiting patiently for the ride on the planes!

Okay, they were sooo cute! The whole day they took each other on rides! They gave each other support when the other didn't like the ride, and they chased each other around ride to ride! Cute cousins!

Emily would only ride the boats! She was totally freaked out by a few rides that we MADE her go on, because we were doing them as a family, so when she finally found a ride she actually enjoyed, she went on it over and over again!!

Maggie and Lilli were my little dare devils!! They loved going on the scary rides.

Maggie's scariest ride was "Colossal", the roller coaster that goes upside down, twice!!

Lilli's scariest ride was, "The Rocket, Re-Entry", the ride that takes you up sooooo freakin high, makes you wait, and then drops you, then does it again and again!

It was a bit too scary for her! She closed her eyes the whole time!

While waiting out the torrential rain, we ate snacks in the picnic area. It was NOT pleasant for those few hours! We were cold, and wet, and the baby was in need of a nap, so VERY cranky.

It got better!

This tired, happy, and still a bit wet group, had a FANTASTIC time! One not ever to forget!

THANK YOU!

Utah Trip, Part 2 (Provo)

Provo

We took our Missionary to the MTC. It was the hardest on Maggie. She loves Ben so much. They have a very special connection. When they dropped him and his stuff off, it went so fast she didn't have time to blink. A few minutes later, she lost it.

Doesn't He look so happy!

Karl and Janet, the Aunt and Uncle/Serogate Parents!!

Joe, "Supportive Big Brother"

Jeff, "Boss Man"

The Girls, Happy to NOT be in the car for a minute!

SAD!!

HAPPY!!!

The view of the Provo Temple as you walk up to it from the MTC parking lot.

PRETTY!!!

DANCING QUEEN!!!

The Most Architectually Dated Temple there is!!!

A Few LOVELY Ladies!!!

Good Luck Ben! We will miss you!

Utah Vacation, Part 1 (Balancing Rock)

Balancing Rock.

This was my 1st time ever seeing it, and it is only about 2 1/2 hours away from home! Why haven't we gone before? The cliffs and boulders looked like so much fun, but we didn't bring any of our climbing gear. Boo Hoo! Maybe we will actually do some climbing next time we roll through!

Ben took Lilli and Maggie up the trail. They decided to stop about 1/3 of the way up. It was pretty steep and they had to rely on

Ben to help them get back down. Thanks Ben!

Katie, in her usual position!

Is that a smile I see on that face?

Maggie sees every new adventure as the perfect picture opp.

Emi, "balancing" on a her own rock.

I love this shot of Kris and Jeff and Anna! What a cute family! We all went on this trip together with Karl and Janet! We had a wonderful time! We even had some nice bonding moments! Thanks for all the fun!

Elder Ben Keczmer! What a great kid! We are all so proud of him.

Pebble collecting! Sometimes I think they should have been born boys. They love dirt, rocks, being rude and gross, and some bugs! Weird girls!

My little squirts!

Green Look-alike Meter

Last year Maggie was equal to Joe and I!

Green Look-alike Meter

Last year Lilli was 4% more like Joe!

Fun in the Mud

So, my kids favorite past time, as of late, is playing in our would be garden.

They put lots of water in the dirt and get extra filthy. I don't pretend to have the cleanest kids, they usually are wearing their food on their faces and cloths, but this goes beyond any normal mess. Yes, Emily is wearing a swimming suit, just in case you can't tell.

Talk about mud bath. This girl is ready for a day spa!

What a cute messy mug!

I love this shot.... it shows the mass amount of water being poured into the mud!

Lilli was playing too, but just not as flamboyantly!

Maggie choose NOT to get messy, but sun tan instead. This is a character trait of hers, beauty before fun! She will immediatly change her cloths if they get any thing dirty on them.

We of course had a ton of fun sitting back and watching the kids! But the REALLY fun part came when I had the opportunity to hose them all off before they came in! Who knew torturing your kids could be so fun!