Pics from Utah

Josh at Sundance Resort. Hey look, there is water in the river! You don't see that every day in Mesa.











Sundance Resort.











That is the name of Lewis Barney. His name is on the "This is the Place" memorial. He accompanied Brigham Young with the first handcart company to travel to the Utah Valley. I think that is 5 "Great' Grampa's" Right Dad?? (Dad says it is the boys 4th Great...Thanks)














Ice Cream Snack - bubble gum flavor of course!

Pics from Utah

At "This is the place" monument. The village there is like a small scale Nauvoo. Fun for the kids!












View from the Confernce Center. First time I have been to the new Tabernacle. It was huge and I was impressed with the artwork collection.















Josh and Fashionista Moose from "Chloe Lane." A boutique on Main Street, Park City, Utah.















Typical Brett and Josh picture. Josh is always trying to catch up to his big brother.

Your The Man

Okay, a couple thing about Mike. We have been to Disneyland and now Utah so basically we have been on vacation for a couple of weeks. Mike has worn this White ASU hat everyday of vacation. Lucky for him, he hasn't had to comb his hair for a couple of weeks. Wouldn't that be nice?? Of course he has to wear it backwards too, I am sure there is a reason for it, I just haven't asked. It has come in handy, whenever I have tried to find him in a crowd, he is easy to spot. He also wears ASU shirts everyday. Lucky for him he has about 8 or 9 ASU shirts to choose from. No question where his loyalties lie.
He did earn his Man of the Year award for changing a flat tire in the middle of nowhere in Utah. We didn't have cell phone coverage so it was all up to him. Mike isn't very mechanically inclined so we all said an extra prayer and since we were in Utah I think that helped too. It took about a half hour on an incline (he told me that made a difference in the level of difficulty). My job was to keep the kids from running into oncomming traffic and also warn Mike if a car came to close to the van. He finally finished the job when it started to rain. He completed this daunting task unscathed and only one swear word was heard. Yeah for Daddy!

First Mates

On our way up to Park City, we stopped by Lake Powell for a boat trip. Our neighbors invited us to join them on the lake for a day and we were happy to go. This was Brett and Josh's first time on the boat and they loved it. Josh protested at the beginning because he did not like wearing his life vest. As soon as we started the boat and began to head out he really enjoyed it. He would say,"Yeah!" as we hit some choppy water and he even fell asleep a couple of times from the motion of the boat. Brett rode the kneeboard and the innertube. He had a pretty good wipe out on the innertube though. They crossed a big wake and Brett did a cartwheel out of the innertube into the water going about 20 mph. When he got back in to the boat, he said, " That was sweet!"











The canyons are beautiful at Lake Powell. This is a picture outside the hotel at the Wahweep Marina. We were a little slow going in the morning, Mike had done a lot of waterskiing and kneeboarding so we took our time to head out for Park City. We really enjoyed our day at Lake Powell! Thank you, Laytons! 

Happy 6th B-day

One of Brett's birthday presents was to go to Build-a-Bear. This was his first time and he was so excited. I actually got a picture of a genuine smile, a nice change from a goofy face when I say the word "cheese."

For Brett's birthday he had thirteen of his neighborhood friends over for a party. Funny how I do not have any pictures of the madness, I am sure I was a little busy. Luckily, I had Mike to wrangle the kids. I would never attempt anything like this unless I had Mike. It is incredible how he can hold their attention for two hours. If anyone is interested, he is available for rent for your next kid party! 

Beach Bums

We did get some beach time before we started our Disney adventure. I love this picture of Josh's feet. This took about 6 tries to get, he kept running towards the waves and every time the tide would wash in he would say,"Oh no, Oh no, Oh no!" and run toward the beach, he did not want that surf to catch him!











Brett would never come in from the waves. He was so cold and shivering since he has no body fat. But, he stayed out until I told him we would never go to McDonald's again. It works every time.












Josh was constantly in the cooler for snacks, he would get out the cheetos and soda and offer it to the people next to us. I am sure they were happy to have a concession stand next to them. 

Been There..Done That...

...Bought the T-shirt and the Mickey hands! Disneyland can be a blast and also an endurance challenge when you have 9 kids to constantly gather and keep track of. We did lose two of the kids right after the fireworks show for about 1/2 hour. When we finally found them, they did not realize they were lost. They had just gone on a ride! They still got a talking too by a security guard who was recruited to help find them.

We spent three days at the Happiest Place on Earth and were very happy (and broke) as we headed home. We always left the hotel by 8:00-8:30 am and returned by 10:00- 10:30 pm and we still didn't do everything we wanted to do.















All of my family were able to enjoy this vacation together...Next year my parents are voting for San Diego, something a little more slower paced than Disney. This is a picture of my sisters. Cynthia (left) Karen (middle) and Me. We are all smiling because it is the beginning of the first day. Good Idea Mom!










The babies of the group were Josh and Rachel. Everyone took turns supervising them while the others got to enjoy the grown up rides. They had fun just being playmates and riding in the strollers. There time came when we visited Toon Town and Small World.