Carnival Pics...A little late

So I know Steel Days was a long time ago but I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures

Nik & Nate loved the roller coasters!

and the cotton candy
(Noah wanted nothing to do with cotton candy, he hated the texture of it! Crazy kid)


Here's Noah on the merry go round I asked him to smile so I got this

Nik & Clint on the Ferris Wheel, the boys loved being able to see each other!

I'm really glad carnival season has ended (so dirty and gross) but it is the boys favorite thing to do in the summer. When we ask Noah what he wants to do he still says almost every time "lets go to the carnival!" Good Times

Random Pics...

A couple weeks ago we went down to the PG Promenade and the boys had the time of their lives playing on the tire swing. I wish I would have got more pictures when Olivia & Audrey got on too. They had so much fun!

Here they are in the "bear cave" at Thanksgiving Point Gardens. They still get so scared of this bear sometimes, it is hilarious. I just love Noah's face in this pic!

Australia!!!

So we made it back from Australia! It was an amazing experience and it is still crazy to think that we were really there! It was so great to see Travis & Michelle & their super cute kiddos and we have to thank Travis for planning the best vacation for us! You guys are the best! We owe you BIG time!
I also want to thank My Mom, Clint's Mom, Camie & Jeff, & Kent & Kim for taking such great care of our boys while we were gone! They too had the time of their lives playing with grandma's, cousins, and aunts & uncles. You guys are the reason we were able to go and have such a great time and not have to worry about our boys being taken care of! We are so lucky to have the best families ever! We love you guys and owe all of you more than you'll ever know!

So it all started Sunday June 28th when we left home, after a VERY long layover in LA and one in Auckland we finally made it to Melbourne about 3:30 Tuesday afternoon (Monday didn't exist for us that week, wierd huh?). Travis picked us up at the airport and after going back to their house and getting cleaned up we went into downtown Melbourne. It is a beautiful city and I wish we could've spent a little more time there, it has some beautiful buildings and was really fun to see at night!
Wednesday morning we got up early and headed to the airport and flew to Sydney. We had an amazing hotel right next to the harbor so that day we walked around Circular Quay, walked around the Sydney Opera House, and then took a ferry to Darling Harbor where we went to the Sydney Aquarium and the Sydney Wildlife World (this is probably where I missed my boys the most because they would've loved, loved, loved these places) I am pretty sure I will never see another aquarium that even comes close to this one, it was amazing!
Then on Thursday we got up and went to the Sydney Temple. I'm really glad we decided to do this, it was so nice, and it's always fun for me to try to go to the temple whenever we go somewhere new. I am pretty shocked that we didn't get sick from going because I don't think I've ever heard as much coughing and nose blowing as I heard in that session! After our $100 cab fare (most expensive temple visit to date) we came back and decided to go to the Sydney Tower, it's kind of like the Stratosphere in Vegas, it was really a great way to view Sydney! Then we went on OzTrek which is a virtual reality ride across Australia, it was really fun. Later that night I went up to the roof of our hotel so I could take some pictures of the opera house at night and after I'd been up there for about 2 minutes some fireworks started going off in the harbor! It was so awesome and definitely my favorite thing in Sydney, I mean really who gets to see fireworks in the Sydney Harbor?
On Friday we woke up and went to the airport to fly to Cairns. It is so beautiful there, I wish any of my pictures did it justice. We stayed in Trinity Beach at these apartments called On The Beach, which were literally steps away from the beach. We had the most beautiful view of the ocean, it was amazing! We mostly just hung out and walked on the beach and ate that night.
Travis & Michelle met up with us in Cairns late Friday night and on Saturday we got up and headed into Cairns to go on our Great Barrier Reef boat trip. It was so amazing! You can't even imagine how beautiful the reef is. There are so many fish and coral, it was breathtaking! Clint and Travis scuba dived...Crazy! Michelle and I just opted for snorkeling. It was by far the most amazing thing we did and saw while we were in Australia! It was the 4th of July that day and guess what we actually got to see fireworks that night even though we were in another country. The US Navy was there or something so they did fireworks for them. It was really great because we thought we'd miss all the fireworks and instead I got to see them 2 nights! Crazy huh?!?
On Sunday we got up and decided to go on a Crocodile River Cruise. It was really neat. We saw quite a few crocodiles and learned alot about them. It was a lot of fun. That night Clint and I went for a walk on the beach and I'm not going to lie to you I was scared to death. I know it's supposed to be all romantic and stuff but I just kept thinking I was gonna step on something really gross or get pinched by a crab or who knows what else. My heart was beating so fast and poor Clint all he could do was laugh at me! After that we went out with Travis & Michelle and just had some fun chatting and eating!
Monday morning Clint and I got up super early and went to the beach because Clint really wanted to swim in the ocean again before we left. It was not super warm that early in the morning but he did manage to drag me in with him for a few minutes. After that we all decided to go golfing before we flew out of Cairns. It was a lot of fun, especially watching Clint who was determined to open a coconut he found on the golf course, but after only 2 or 3 holes and with only the cart and clubs he managed to get it open, and Travis actually dared to eat some of it. Gross. It was a really fun day of golfing and ocean and I was really sad to leave Cairns.
After a short layover in Brisbane we made it back to Melbourne and after a few hours sleep we got up early and stopped at the market on our way to the airport. You should've seen the produce at this market, it was craziness! I've never seen so much fruit, I wish we had something like that back here it was really neat. We had to leave for our flight before a lot of the market opened but not before we got some really great freshly made doughnuts! We left Melbourne about 10 am Tuesday morning and got to LA about 9am Tuesday morning so although we lost a Monday going there, we got 2 Tuesdays coming back!
We stayed in LA Tuesday night which was really nice we just napped, swam, and slept. Oh yeah and had a really good dinner and the best dessert ever! (One thing Australia doesn't have us beat on is good food! In my opinion anyways!) It definitely helped us to be ready for real life when we came back.

It was a really great vacation and we are so lucky to have such great friends that would let us come hang out with them in Australia before they moved back! Thank you so mcuh Travis & Michelle, you guys really are the best! And also I need to thank Clint for being the best husband ever and putting up with all my craziness! I could not make it through life without you there to calm me down. I love you more than you'll ever know!
Here are some pics from our trip. We don't really have any good ones but oh well, I guess next time we'll just have to put Kim in our suitcase so she can take some good pics for us!

First camping trip of the year!

So we finally got the tent out Friday and went camping! We just packed up the jeep and went up AF canyon. We found the best camping spot and didn't see a soul the whole time( until we headed back down anyway), it was great! We found the best place for pictures (now we just need to figure out how to get Kim there to take our family pics!) and had a really great time! The weather was so nice on Friday but on Saturday we woke up to the lovely sound of rain. We hurried and packed up the tent and fixed us a yummy breakfast (thanks Clint) and decided to go for a jeep ride. We started going up to Forest Lake but didn't get very far before we heard a lovely hissing noise, yep a whole right in the side wall of the tire, must have hit a sharp rock! Clint changed the tire (in the rain) in record time, I gotta tell you I was pretty impressed, while I stood by and watched pretending I was helping!?! After that we called it a day but it was really fun and hopefully will be the first of many camp trips this summer!

This was my try at a family photo! I almost got it!

Clint, Nate & Nik

Noah, Nik, & Clint

Cheesy Me

This is just so we have something to bribe him with later! Haha!

Nate

Noah & Nate

Noah

Noah & Nik

These are some pics from a jeep ride the week before of Nik eating a smore.
They are just so cute I have to post them!

Nothing better than a smore in the canyon! Love it!

PG Carnival

So we took the boys to the Pleasant Grove carnival Thursday! It was pretty ghetto like most carnivals are and it was crazy expensive, but the boys had a lot of fun!

Here is Nate on the Big Slide (this is their favorite thing)

Nik on the Big Slide

Noah on the Big Slide

Noah & Nik on the monster truck ride
Here is Noah going on a ride all by himself which was pretty shocking to me.
My baby is getting too brave!

I took a bottle of hand sanitizer and made them put it on every time they got off a ride or touched a gate or anything, they thought I was crazy!
Good Times!

Kennecott Copper Mine

Last Wednesday we went to the Kennecott Copper Mine with Camie & Max, Kim, Kaden, Kyler & Kolby, Jenny, Rylie, Paisley, & Hazen! When we got to the security check in it was sprinkling a little bit and the guard told us it was raining on top but hopefully it would blow over soon. So we drive up to the visitors center and it is a downpour! The parking lot was pretty much just a muddy river everywhere, ankle deep in some spots! So we ate our picnic lunches in our cars and then ran for cover in the visitors center. We looked around and watched the movie thinking it would stop raining soon, no such luck! So we went outside to look at the mine-if you haven't been there it is quite a sight to see, it is a massive whole with tons of huge dump trucks everywhere, my boys love it! You couldn't see very well this day because of all the rain but it was still fun!
This is the only pic I got of most of us. Camie & Kim ran for cover soon afterwards j/k!

My cute boys!

Only my boys and Jenny's kids wanted to brave the rain for pictures, and we paid for it. Let's just say it was a VERY wet ride home!! But they had so much fun, my boys love to play in the rain!



eThanks Camie, Kim & Jenny for a super fun day, even with the rain!

A Bike Ride & Some Dangerous Pancakes!

So Saturday was the big bike ride! For those of you who might not know I have been training for this bike ride for a while. My mom, Jenny, Katrina, Melanie & I road in the Little Red Riding Hood women only bike ride in Wellsville and it was a blast! We all rode the 38 miler (or 36, 35, 37 who really knows but I'll stick with 38!) and we all did so good! I was pretty impressed with myself because I was able to stick with Katrina the whole way, although she did pull me most of the way so I'm pretty sure she could've killed me if she wanted too! But I felt really good and I think we did an awesome job! My speedometer battery died halfway through so I don't know exactly how long it took us so that sucked but it was such a fun time and I have definitely found a new love in biking. I think I have even convinced Jenny and Mom to do the ULCER with me and I think we might even do the 100 miler!!! Guess I better get training even harder! Love it!

Here are all of us just before we started the race
Mel, Mom, Katrina, Me, Jen
I think Mel had the most interesting ride with her 911 call and all(she came upon a crash where a lady had dislocated her shoulder!) But we all had such a great time! Thanks Katrina for telling us about the ride and getting us all to do it! And especially thanks to my wonderful dad, who signed us all up and got me all set up with new tires, bike shorts (aka diaper pants), the works! He is the best bike trainer & mechanic ever and we couldn't have done it without him! Love you dad!!! Hopefully it's the start of a yearly tradition!

So about the dangerous pancakes...We had left Friday afternoon to drive to Wellsville for a luau and then we stayed in Logan at my Aunt Laurie's (thank you so much Laurie, we love you! Next year you're riding with us!) Anyways right when we got to Logan I noticed I had a picture message on my phone with no text so I open it up and this is all I see
(Clints phone takes crappy pics, but I could tell it was Noah with some big ouchie on his face!)
So I call Clint and say what happened, he then went on to explain how he was making pancakes for dinner and the boys were all sitting on the bar watching him cook them. When he told them to get down Noah somehow managed to tangle up his legs and fall face first onto the edge of the grill! He ended up burning his cheek pretty deaply, his ear, and his hand! I tell you that kid is a walking accident, we are definitely going to have to call him scarface now!
Here is what it looks like today. I guess we will be going to buy some Mederma for sure now!
Poor thing he is such a disaster! At least it's on the same side as the couch incident, so one side of his face can still be scar free(for now anyways)! Luckily it doesn't seem to bother him at all so that's good. We might have to put this kid in a bubble, but we love him to death!

To ride a bike...and play in the rain

Last year for Nik & Nate's birthday we got them some bikes, we got them pretty big so they could 'grow' into them. For a while now I have been trying to talk the boys into learning to ride their bikes without training wheels but they have not been interested in trying but on Thursday I told them I was going to take the training wheels off Noah's bike so they could learn how to ride on a little bike and they said okay so off we went! I ran with each of them up & down the street once and off they went! Both of them can start, ride, and stop themselves on Noah's bike like nobody's business but their bikes are still way too big, they can barely touch their tiptoes standing over the bar(so they didn't grow as fast as we maybe thought), but Noah really wanted his bike back so Nik got on his and I just give him a push and he rides forever. Nate is still pretty scared of his big bike he always tells me "Mom, I can't do that till I'm 6!" like I should know that already, I think he just saw Nik crash one too many times since that was the only way he could get off! But I am very proud of how fast they both took off and just wish I would've tried sooner!
This is Nate riding for the 1st time!

This is Nik's 1st ride!
I sent Clint these pics on his phone and called him up and said "It's been a pretty productive day. I mowed the lawn and taught two boys to ride bikes all before noon!" It was a good, fun day! And Nik & Nat couldn't wait to show dad when he got home from work!

On another note...A couple weeks ago the boys were outside playing when it started pouring rain! They took their little chairs out to the middle of the lawn and just sat in it. They were soaked to the bone but were having the time of their lives! Just had to post this pic it makes me smile!

Love these boys!!!