Playing until it hurts

We have played so much this summer that it almost hurts.  Some days I think I'm so tired that I may never recover.  One definite highlight of the summer is when Cathie and her six children come to town.  I don't know how she does it.  I get break's here and there when she goes to visit her husband, Keith's family.  She goes without sleep for weeks!!  We had some great times!

It is really convenient to have mom's house just 1 mile away.  It makes it so we can split up the throngs of people.  The cousins all like to be together and play together amazingly well!

One highlight was going to the new Family Search Discovery Center on Temple Square in SLC.  They had iPads that would sit on doc's and give you facts about your family history based on the information that was input in your family tree.  I thought this station was particularly interesting.  It shows the percentage of your ancestors that were born in each country.  This is mine.  If you look closely you can see that 25% of my ancestors were born in the US, 41% in Denmark and 32% in England.  

For my children, based on what is currently in their family history tree 30% were born in the US, 26% in Denmark, 23% in Norway, and 18% in England.

Josh's has a lot more to be filled in, but based on what they currently have, 35% were born in the US, 41% in Norway, 10% in Denmark, and 8% in Canada.  There were other fascinating stations and information.  It is incredible what technology can do!

They also had some fun little stations for the kids to play when they became uninterested in the family history.

We walked around temple square afterword and then went out to a nice dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  It may have been a little too nice for our young group, but we braved it anyway.

One night while the Coombs were away Josh's best friend from college, Mike Wilson, and his family came to stay on their way through.  I have only met him once, when we flew to San Diego to his wedding.  His wife and family were adorable.  They helped us kick off the 24 celebrations in Mendon at the parade.

Mendon has the funnest 24th parade.  One really fun thing is that they have about 5 fire trucks at the end of the parade drenching people.  The kids LOVE it!  They also throw tons of candy and other things.

Andy and Ethen were soaked to the bone.  We spent the day at the celebration mostly  helping Josh's parents with their Navajo taco stand.  We've been helping them with their taco stand since the first year we were married.  It is tons of work, mostly for Sharon and Lonn, but the kids love the tradition of being out there for the day.  It won't be long until they can spend the day helping serve food.

Another fun outing we had with the Coombs was going to Bear Lake.  We planned to meet at First Damn in Logan and just happened upon "Weeny Wednesday"  a free hotdog lunch put on by a local radio station.  With 19 people (14 children and 5 adults) we played some Plinko and won six T-Shirts.   It was a really fun way to start a fantastic day!

It was fun enough that I took the kids back to Weeny Wednesday at First Damn this week.  This week we took a little more time to enjoy the ducks and water. 

You can't go to Bear Lake without having fresh raspberry milkshakes!  The best ones, a hidden gem in Bear Lake, are at the Chevron as you come out of the canyon.  They are made from hand scooped hard Ice Cream.

We took a bunch of our neighbors Kayak's and the day was funner than we even imagined.  The kids were so busy playing in the shallow water that they didn't even think about food.  There were a few sand fights.  And a lot of happy faces and really content people!!

Cara and Emi

Danny and Ali

Ali, Johnny, Neil, Lena, Harly

Caleb, Ali, Lena, and Johnny

Dax, Emi, Danny, and Cara making something great on their private island!

Ali, Lena and Me chillaxin' in the background 

We all love Preston's Rodeo Weekend!!  The parade has more candy than any small town parade I know.  My mom always gets us tickets to the rodeo, and we all love the tradition.  It is also tradition for the kids to all get in the back of my mom's truck after the parade to go to the rodeo.  Her truck is beginning to overflow with children!!

When I was a child the rodeo seemed so long, but it goes so quickly now.  We had a few extra tickets so our dear friends, the Knights, were able to join us.  I loved sharing the tradition with them.

One other thing we did was floating the Bear River at the Oneida Narrows.  The first time we did it was in tubes.  It was a little crazy because some of the smaller kids were scared.  Johnny loved it, but Ali didn't.  Luckily my mom was there and took some out at the first stoping spot.  Josh did it again with the Knights and some older kids in kayak's before the parade and rodeo, and then Josh and I did it in a kayaks Saturday after my class reunion.  The kayaks are fun, but they sure increase the odds of tipping. They also increase the speed so that is nice.  

Corbin (with a broken arm), Caleb, Dax and Josh floating by.

Connie, Carrie, Johnny and Cara soaking up some sun!

In a nut shell . . . we are having a great summer.  We are having so much fun there is hardly time to sleep.  We are so blessed!!