Swimming Hole

I think that one thing every good camping spot needs is a swimming hole, especially when it's hot outside! This year we all piled on quads and rode down to the creek, set up some camp chairs, stuck our feet in the water and let the kids play. It was a very pretty spot with a lot of green trees, clean water and places for the kids to explore. It wasn't too deep either so I was able to relax while the kids splashed around with everyone. The girls tried to find pretty rocks and built structures with the bigger rocks they found while the boys tried to make splashes throwing big rocks and sticks into the water.

I had gone upstream for a little walk and to take some pictures and when I returned I noticed that the boys were missing. They weren't playing in or near the water anymore and I was pointed in the direction of the quad path. I walked up a little ways and saw these boys scavenging the ground under a lean-too. The boys explained that they were finding paint balls and each of them showed me their stash.
Meanwhile, just down stream, the girls were still searching for rocks and building little tables. When they completed one little table they just started looking for big flat rocks so they could build another. They spent so much time making the one table and some of them became a little upset when it was time to leave because the tables had to stay. Boys and girls are just so different.

When I walked upstream a little bit I just couldn't capture how pretty everything was. I tried but it just didn't look quite the same!

Friday = Fun Day

I don't even know where to start with all the fun we had today. The weather was amazing right from the start of the day. The kids woke up and were ready to play. The boys were on their bikes riding around and I loved watching Brayden ride with some other people who were at his riding level. It also gave him a good opportunity to use his new gear he got last year for his birthday!

There was a nice loop for the boys and their dirt bikes that went around a group of trees and met back up at the campsite. It even had a little hill that they go up or try to use as a jump. It was perfect and they would just hop on their bikes when they wanted to ride and parked them off to the side when they were done.
Those that weren't on the bikes seemed to enjoy watching and waiting for them to come around the corner or just had a good time playing in the long grass. Uncle Dustin seemed to always be willing to take them for a ride in the Ranger and they thought that was super fun. Madison seemed only a little worried that they got stuck once and it took a while for them to get out. Sydney had later told me that we should always have a cell phone with us in case we stuck while riding on something. I'm glad to see it was a safe learning experience for them!

Ryan took a bunch of kids on his dirt bike with him for little rides and Madison is a huge fan of dirt biking with dad. I just wish we knew how to motivate her to learn how to ride a bike because the whole "you can't ride your own dirt bike until you ride a pedal bike" thing is not working for us. Any ideas?
We had a bunch of other things going on as well. Ryan was face painting, a few of the kids were playing pass and Derek set up a badminton net and got a game going there. Sydney seemed to love the affection her little cousin Claire was giving her and did a good job following her around making sure she stayed somewhat out of trouble. Claire never stops so it's a hard task following her around. Her hugs and big smiles make it worth it though, 100%.

It was obvious to me early in the afternoon that this reunion was going to be a success. How can you tell? By the amount of dirt going on and the lack of people caring about it!

Face Painting Ryan

While we were at the Calgary Stampede earlier this summer we stood in this outrageously long line just so the kids could get their faces painted. I should clarify that by faces I mean part of one cheek. It was crazy. THEN, maybe an hour later we were in a different section of the stampede and they were doing face painting in the 30*C heat and my kids turned to us and asked if they could stand in that line for more face painting!
Ryan decided that he was going to start painting their faces at home so that when we would go out to places like this our kids wouldn't feel compelled to stand in long lines in extreme heat for a picture that Ryan could do better. This was his start:

I think that they all look absolutely amazing but there was the one that was super freaky. I'm not sure Brayden agreed to it but it is really cool in it's own way .... cool but creepy.

Beattie Reunion Time

It's that time of year again: Beattie reunion time. We get to spend an entire fun filled weekend together as a big crew. Hopefully everyone is ready for each other!

Wilmot Reunion

We went down to Lethbridge this weekend to celebrate Ryans Granmothers birthday. Every single one of her grandchildren was there for her party on Saturday and I think they mentioned that the last time that happened was 11 1/2 years ago ago at Ryans sisters wedding. That's a pretty big deal!
A fantastic bouncy castle was rented for the afternoon which did a perfect job at tiring out children, the girls tried on old dresses, and the adult cousins got to catch up. There were a few people missing and they were missed. I've considered super imposing them into the family picture but figured that would be weird.
Happy Birthday Grandma, I hope the day was perfect for you!

Fire Balls

Some of the missionaries that serve for our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) celebrate their half way mark by burning an article of clothing. One of the sets of Elders was interested in burning their shirt using Ryan's giant magnifying glass and the sun but Ryan had a better idea. He made a big potato gun and thought it would be fun to launch a burning shirt out of the gun! Well, it was fun. So much fun that a few days later we got a call that a different Eldr wanted to come over and burn his shirt the same way. Of course it had to be a little more dramatic then the first and Ryan rose to the occasion. They launched a gasoline soaked burning shirt onto a gasoline soaked target and ignited that (a pool table) into a big ball of flames.
Success.

Love Me Some Summer Vacation!

We've been on summer vacation less then a week and multiple times each day Brayden asks to go to the skate park with his mountain bike. I had planned to go with the kids today and was pleasantly surprised when Ryan made it home early from work and was able to join us. Brayden took his bike and the two girls took their little scooters and off we went.
The skate park is in a perfect spot, it's sort of like a child's dream. On top of the skate park there is a splash park, a playground, baseball diamond, basketball courts and now they have beach volleyball courts as well. There is a lot of grass for families to sit with their families and have a picnic or you can rent the kitchen area and use their big BBQ for group parties. The only bummer about this place is how busy it gets in the summer but the kids never seem to notice.
Brayden did his thing with his bike for a bit while the girls played at the park until Brayd was done and we just played for a bit before we headed up to the volley ball courts. The girls thought it was great fun to play in the sand, it was like we were at the beach. I covered Madison up which turned into a row of happy kids all covered in the sand.
Summer is the best.

Canada Day

Another Canada Day! I can't believe how fast the year has gone. We made it to our second Airdrie Canada Day parade with Banks. Last year he was still such a puppy and he was so curious about every dog that he didn't calm down until he got over heated. This year he was perfect. He just walked with us and when we stopped, he stopped. He didn't freak out for a sniff of another dogs bum when they were a block away and he enjoyed the best seat in the house!
After the parade we had about 50 people stop by the house for a BBQ. We set up a volleyball net, had a slip n' slide, water guns and a huge zombie foam target. Kids were just running around laughing while the adults got to relax and chat. It was such a hot day, perfect for the kids in their bathing suits, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. It was so great to be surrounded by so many wonderful people. Fills my heart.

Color Me Rad

Today was the day, the day of the race I didn't train for and so I made sure the kids came with me so I would have an excuse to walk part of the way. Joke was on me. No one cared. This was the most laid back, enjoyable run and perfect for the kids.
First of all, I totally slept in. What sucked the most about that was that I was my friends ride. Oops. Thankfully the race is so easy going that no one even care who ran when or if you ran it more then once. We just sort of wandered when we got there until we found ourselves at the start line running with the second heat of the day. What a relief it was that I hadn't caused us all to miss the race.
There were 6 of us in total; my friend and I and then we each brought our oldest 2 children to run with us. We all started out together but quickly the two boys separated themselves from the group and ran on ahead. Sydney and I stuck together and she is quite the runner. I was so impressed with her. We had caught up to the boys but when they saw us they quickly ran ahead and disappeared into the crowd. The next time we saw the two of them we snuck around them through the crowds of people and off we went. She hardly walked at all, even up the ginormous ski hill, Sydney was a powerhouse!

We all met up near to the finish line and everyone had as much fun as I did. The kids loved it, it didn't seem like there was any hard core runners that were getting annoyed with the walkers or the younger families. Everyone just seemed happy to be there.

We were all finished by 10am but I felt pretty accomplished having run a very hilly 5km, gotten covered in colour bombs and socialized! Brayden popped my little bubble while we walking back to the van when Brayd asked "What fun thing are we going to do today mom?"

Morning Versus Night

Sometimes I look out the window and I can't believe we live where we live. Today was amazing, I woke up to rainbows and ended the day with the most beautiful sunset. Doesn't get better then this.

My Joy School Graduate

How cute is this group of kids. These are Madisons Joy School class mates and tonight we celebrated their gradation from the Joy School Preschool program. What a great year it was for Maddy, she really loved Joy School and the new friends she made because of it. The moms of these kids are amazing and I was so fortunate to meet each of them and get to know their little preschoolers. I'm excited for summer and for my baby to move on but it's a bitter sweet sort of feeling. I can't believe Madison will be kindergarten this coming September. Crazy.

Keeping Busy in Salt Lake

One of our Filipino family members got married over the weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah. After months and months applying for VISA's and dealing with all that fun immigration stuff everything worked out and she was able to move to Utah in March and a wedding deadline of 3 months. Of course we had to go for the wedding, no questions, and that is all in a different post but this post is all about the non-wedding fun stuff we did while we were there.
We arrived Wednesday and checked into our hotel which was maybe two blocks from temple square. We all needed some time out of the car, using our legs, so we quickly dumped our stuff in the hotel room and walked to temple square. It was hot, sunny and beautiful. I always love walking around temple square. They keep it so perfectly landscaped and clean. There weren't too many people there and maybe because it was a Wednesday close to dinner time but it was perfect because I could let the kids run a little bit and not worry about them running into people. It also gave me the perfect opportunity to take a picture of them by the water in front of the temple without a bride in the background.

Thursday morning we got to see Christabel and Gabe. It was so great to see her and it's crazy one of my young women from good old Magsungay Ward in Bacolod was getting married in the temple and I was going to be able to witness it. Christabel and Gabe were getting there wedding pictures done Thursday for a few different reasons so I was able to help her get into dress, do her hair and make up before going over with them to temple square for pictures.
When pictures were finished we all went out for lunch and spent some time getting to know Gabe better and making sure he was good enough for our Christabel.
After we went out separate ways we made our way to the temple Visitors' Center and let the kids watch some Book of Mormon movies. We had also never ventured into the South Visitors' Center before and so we checked that out as well. That center focuses on families and the Temple. They actually had a miniature replica of the Salt Lake Temple that you could look in and see what was inside other then the rooms we've been in. It was pretty cool!

Friday was the day of the sealing and I was able to do Christabels' nails, her hair and makeup before we made our way over for the sealing. After the sealing we were able to join Gabes' family at his parents house for a delicious authentic Mexican meal. It was such a great day. Ryan was also able to meet up with a friend who he used to work with at Focus and we hadn't seen him in a few years and we appreciated him coming to our hotel to visit with us.
Saturday was a day for us and we weren't too sure what we were going to do to fill it. We all got ready for the day, got into the car and Ryan decided that we should check out a few things we haven't done before. The first stop was and we were not prepared. It's not a hard hike or anything but the girls and I were in sandals and skirts so although it was doable we probably screamed tourists. The view from the top was amazing and worth the time.From there we went to This Is The Place Heritage Park which is where Brigham Young first entered the Valley. They had huge monuments which told the stories that were a part of the start of Salt Lake. Inside there was a little museum that told the story of the pioneers and all they went through to get to the valley and also told about the Mormon Battalion. It was really interesting and maybe next time we'll actually pay money to do more then just check out the monument and gift shop/museum.
Ryan took us for a trip down memory lane and showed us a bunch of different areas from his mission, which he served in South Salt Lake. He told us some fun stories and bragged about the wheelies he could perform on his bike that were blocks long, parade worthy in fact.
We spent our afternoon at Chuck e Cheese and let the kids go wild with tokens. It was amazing and I know they loved it. Dreams just might come true at Chuck e Cheese. We had a couple other errands to run and made our way to Target and the grocery store to stock up for dinners and went back to the hotel where the kids had a swim. It turned out to be a full day.

Sunday was spent packing up before meeting with a Focus friend for church in Bountiful and heading north to Roy for the wedding reception and then starting our drive home.
It was a busy, fun time but man, that drive kills me. I must be getting old.

Newly Weds

Look at these two, don't they look perfect? The reason we took our trip to Utah was to be there to see Christabel get married. She was one of my young women/seminary students when we lived in the Philippines and it's crazy to say but we've watched her grow up. She must have been 12 or 13 when we met her and now she is a married woman. Unreal.
Anyway, Thursday Christabel and Gabe were getting some professional pictures taken at the Salt Lake City Temple and they had come to our hotel room early to get ready. Not only are there way less brides to share the photo ops with but the weekly rate is a way better deal then the weekend photographer rate. We walked over and followed them around while the photographer did his thing. The kids helped Christabel with the train of her dress and watched as the camera guy posed them and took his pictures. It was fun to watch the girls fuss a little bit over Christabel because she deserved to be fussed over and she didn't have her mom or sisters there to do those things. She just got here in March and unfortunately she only had an Aunt that was able to make it from her side since the flights from the Philippines are ridiculously expensive. Thankfully her in-laws seem to be amazing and were willing to help out a lot. With that being said, I was happy we were there to follow them around and act as her side of the family.

The photographer came up to me and got upset when he caught me taking pictures of my kids with Christabel and told me that I would have to put my camera away while we was there. I was a little ticked off but snuck a couple pictures anyway because it wasn't like I was stealing his poses and they are my children after all and every other wedding I've been to I know a lot of other cameras taking pictures of little moments happening on the side lines. Meh.

Friday was the day of the actual sealing and we were fortunate enough to be invited to watch it. Ryan was one of the witnesses and I got to accompany Christabel into the brides room and help her get ready. The brides room in the Salt Lake City Temple was beautiful and huge. Christabel didn't wear her wedding dress so we weren't able to gape at it as she stood over the big vent that poofs it up but there was something amazing about her in the simple temple dress, she looked beautiful.
The sealing was small which was nice and intimate. The sealer did a great job and after he was done in english he repeated everything in Spanish for Gabes' grandparents (he's Mexican) so we kind of got an encore.
After the sealing I took a few pictures of the newly married couple before we went to Gabes' parents house to eat with his family. The meal was amazing and a real authentic Mexican meal. A lot Gabes' family was there and they were all super nice people. I was so happy to feel that I knew Christabel would be taken care of while she was adjusting to living in the USA and being married all at the same time.
Sunday Christabel and Gabe had a ring ceremony and wedding reception. Ryan walked her down the aisle and gave her away to Gabe. It was touching and she looked beautiful, of course.

Christabel had an entourage help her get ready for the ring ceremony/reception which was so nice. I was able to take some pictures of her getting ready and of her dress, pictures that I wasn't able to take a few days earlier at the temple.

Her ring ceremony was nice and simple and the reception was fun. We had Mexican again and the venue was really pretty. The food and toasts (which I rocked) were done upstairs in a loft area and then we all went downstairs for the cake and dance.

It was such a great few days and I was extremely grateful that we had been able to make the trip and be a part of this wedding. They are going to be a great pair, I could tell. Congratulations you two!