July begins

My sister Sarah got married July 1st in Nevada. We left our house the night before and went as far as my dad's house in Springville and spent the night there. The next day the kids loved playing on the toys and with the dog outside.

We usually go through Wendover when we go to Nevada but we decided to go the Delta way this time. I hadn't been through Delta in a very long time and I have several memories of all the trips when I was growing up. Stephen also has cousins that grew up in Delta and his aunt and uncle still live there. He has several memories of going and visiting and getting to spend time with his cousins. It was fun to drive around and see how Delta had changed and stayed the same. Of course we had to stop at the cheese factory. You would think that it wouldn't be such a big deal because there are so many cheese factories around where we live. But we have never taken our kids to watch cheese being made. They thought it was ok.


My kids liked the "squeaky cheese" the best. It was pretty good curd although we found it strange that it wasn't orange.

After it seems we had driven forever we finally made it to Nevada!

The original plan was to get everyone together to take a picture. My mom had bought everyone Fourth of July shirts. It was really hard to find time that we could get everyone together so we got the kids together right before the wedding in their t-shirts. With so many little kids it was hard to get everyone to look and smile at the same time.

We got a pretty good one of my sister Emily and her son Ryan though.

Here are the kids right after we got ready for the wedding. I love lighting in churches. I think that the rest of the photos are pretty yellow.

Two of Sarah's boys sat by the door and greeted the guests as they came in. Aren't they so cute in their outfits?

Here we are with my grandpa and grandma Hansen. I grew up next to them and have so many fond memories of playing at their house and sleepovers and shopping and so many things. I love them and loved being able to see them.

During the reception the kids were tired of being quiet and still so they needed to run. Luckily the church had grass for them to run.

Gavin loved being chased by his brothers.

All the little kids enjoying the cake at the reception at the little kids table.

More cake enjoying!

My sister Sarah with my dad, Cindy and my grandfather Walker.

I think that this is most of our side that were able to make it to the wedding. I am sure that Sarah was so grateful for everyone that could make it.

Here is my sisters and brother. We are lined up in birth order. I am the oldest, then Sarah, Emily, Heidi and Michele are twins, and then my little brother Carl. Of course, as you can see Carl may be the youngest but not the littlest anymore.

I think that everytime we get together we do a picture like this one. This time seemed like Carl was heavier but maybe it was just me. He says that I am just older and weaker. He is probably right.

It isn't a very good picture but here I am with Sarah.

Sarah posing for everyone. She is and always has been so beautiful.

Sarah and her new husband Jack right after they got married.

By this picture the kids were tired of taking pictures so my sister told them to make silly faces. It worked out really well because as you can tell Gavin is crying.

After everything the bride and groom opened their presents.

My kids were glad to get their ties and Sunday clothes off. They couldn't even wait until we got back to the hotel.

That night we went over to my mom's house and the kids had fun jumping on her tramp.

After such a long day we were glad to get to the hotel and sleep that night. The kids thought that it was funny that we had to go to jail to go to sleep.

The next morning we had a really good breakfast at my mom's house before we had to leave for home.

Although it was a really fast trip it was a lot of fun to see everyone. Love you guys!

Family visits (LOTS of pictures)

We love when we have visitors especially family. My family visited last April. It was so fun to see them and get to play. My kids love when they get to play with cousins.

The first night that they were here we just had a dinner picnic in our living room. All the kids loved it.

The next morning Hunter had a soccer game so we all crammed into our van. Luckily it was only a couple of blocks from our house.

Hunter had fun playing soccer

and loved that everyone came to watch him.

After the game we headed to the temple and walked around the grounds.

All of the grandkids by the temple doors.

A close-up of the grandkids

Grandkids in front of the Logan temple

My mom with her grandkids.

My sister Emily with her son Ryan

Everyone was getting hungry by this point so we got a delivery boy to deliver some pizzas!

We decided to go to Willow Park for lunch. I love how every time these cousins get together that they can't be away from each other for very long. I love how in this photo you can even see Devin holding Gavin's hand in the stroller. How cute!


After eating we headed into the Willow Park "Zoo".

If you have ever visited this "zoo" you will understand why I put "" around the word zoo. I remember when Stephen first told me that he wanted to take me to the Logan zoo when we were dating. I told him that I was surprised that Logan had a zoo. After we visited the zoo I understood why I had never heard of it.

Anyway, the kids had fun.

Megan and Kylan checking out some of the birds.

I thought that this bird was a cute little thing.

Ryan trying to get a better look at the animals

Hunter and Beck playing around on the rocks

A Bobcat. We were lucky to see it this time. Usually you can't see it or it is sleeping. This one wasn't doing very much but at least you could see it.

Hunter and Dillon

The kids checking out the turtles

We spent a lot of time with this cute little turtle. He was trying to escape. He could get his head and arms out but that darn shell...

He fell down between the fence and bricks while we were watching him. We watched him try and get back up.

Finally my sister Heidi helped the cute little thing up.

Gavin thought that the drinks belonged to him. I had to laugh when I turned around and saw this.

And of course we had to stop and feed the fish.

Such cute cousins

I think that they kids favorite part of the zoo was the last thing that we stopped at. What are they looking at?

These two little monkeys were wrestling. It was cute to watch them play around. And kind of reminded me of my house at times.

Thanks for coming and visiting guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lucky 13

In June Stephen and I celebrated our 13th anniversary. I can't believe that it has been 13 years. I love Stephen so much and feel so lucky to be married to him. We get along so well and see eye to eye on almost everything. He makes me laugh everyday. He is an awesome husband and a great father. Our kids absolutely adore him. I feel so blessed.

Our anniversary actually ended up on Father's Day this year. We had a picnic at the park with the Drapers for Father's Day. Here we are hanging out until everyone showed up.




We celebrated our anniversary the next weekend. First we went to a movie. We went to the dollar theater (actually more like the $3.50 theater). This theater gets the movies right before they come out on DVD. So the theater usually isn't too crowded. The funny thing is when we showed up only a few minutes before the show started we walked into an empty room. We wondered if we were going to be the only ones. A couple of minutes later I think 4 other people showed up.

Here we are waiting for the movie to start.


After the movie we decided to go miniature golfing. We were surprised at how fast we went through the course. It usually takes us a couple of hours with everyone but we made it through in 45 minutes. I didn't want to carry the camera so we just took a picture in the car after we were done.

After mini golf we headed over to the restaurant that we have eaten for the last 3 years for our anniversary. It is really good but a little on the expensive side. I didn't get a picture there but it was really good as usual.
I love you cutie! Thanks for a great 13 years!

It has been a crazy month!

It has been a really busy month. July usually is busy for us but we had a very busy month with everything that we tried to do this year. I will try and post most of what we did in the next few posts.

Hunter has been waiting for a long time to lose his teeth. He has watched as his older brother and cousins have lost teeth and has asked several times when he will be able to lose one. I think that it has some to do with actually losing one but mostly about the tooth fairy.

Well, Hunter finally got his chance. His first tooth became loose and then came out a few weeks ago. The only problem was he didn't realize that sometimes it bleeds when your teeth come out. He didn't like that part of it as you can see.

After it stopped bleeding and he calmed down he was happy that he had lost his first tooth. And was extra excited when the next morning he saw that the tooth fairy visited him.