The BIG 6-0!!

September 23, 2012.... My dad turned the big 6-0!!

And what a fun celebration we had too!

                           Kayson and Brooklyn blowing horns for the big day!

Dad with his girls (minus Alyson)

                                           

 We celebrated with family up the Nebo Loop in Bear Canyon.  This has always been a family tradition to go up there for my grandma Betty's and dad's birthdays in September.  It was absolutely beautiful!  I think Coby may or may not have gotten sick of me saying, "wow, look how pretty" or "whoa, look at those colors" around every corner and turn.  I just love the mountains and don't get anything out in Delta. 

 After lunch, we started up a rousing game of softball!  It was a blast.  Everyone played, including my grandparents who are 74 and 82!

 Here's some of our heavy hitters! Grandpa Smith, Dad, Aunt Gay and Aunt Ellen

 Aunt Annie was our star pitcher!  And here's Grandpa Smith, stealing bases I believe :)

                                             My amazing dad!!

 Grandma and Grandpa Smith with Kaden (look at the beautiful colors inthe back)

 Look at my 82 year old Grandpa go!  So glad he jumped in on the game! Sure do love ya Grandpa Smith

Enjoying our little camp site and cheetos! :)

 Here's my little hiking man.... suddenly he's in to hiking all the big hills and will grunt or squawk until someone joins him!

                     Meg and Aunt Gay, some of our All-Star defenders!



And here's grandpa Brad, doing what he does best... always reading to the grandkids. 

I'm sure he would have rather spent his birthday, not making a fuss about things and napping or watching movies... but he always humors all us girls and lets us throw parties.  He is such a great great dad and grandpa.  He has been through so much in the last few years and we are so blessed to have him with us today.  We had a moment on his birthday where we were talking about how exciting it was to be 60 and he said, "well a year ago this time, I didn't think I'd be here for 60!"  He got choked up and of course we all started bawling. I couldn't help but realize how truly blessed and grateful we all are for our dad!  I couldn't imagine life without him.  He truly is the rock of our family!

Happy 60th Dad!

We love you!

(And here's to many more birthdays)

Summer Wind-Up

I cannot believe that summer is over and fall is vastly approaching us! I decided I better quickly update about the remainder of our summer and the fun happenings involved!

In August I bought my mom and I tickets to WICKED at Capitol Theatre!!

 I loved everything about it!  We went to dinner at Olive Garden and then the production and I must say... it was FABULOUS! I would recommend it to anyone.  The singers were phenomenal and the whole story itself was absolutely brillant.  We loved it!

                                  Such a fun date with my mom!

 End of August-first of September our family went camping up to Strawberry with the Olsen's.  We had such a good time and hope to make this a yearly tradition.  We love spending time with these cousins and always have so much fun.  It's also fun with all the little kids being very close in age. 

We went fourwheeling up Horse Creek which was so beautiful. Leave it to Coby and Brandon to make things more interesting!  They decided to go through all of the big mud puddles.  Everyone around was laughing so hard watching these two!  They are crazy but always know how to have fun.

 And here is my little man, although sleeping, caught with his hand in the treat bag! :) 

           We've had a lot more fun advertures this summer, including:

                                           Making forts

                           Swimming in Nephi (along with many other places)

 Going to the zoo again for a special date with Grandma and Grandpa Madsen

 And of course playing with and tormenting our cat!  This is the big cat we tried to get rid of, but it always kept coming back.  It's way more mellow now and always lets Kayson pester it.  He loves feeding it every day.... but sometimes likes to play with and take the kitty's food as well.

 In August, we also were able to have Reid and Analee come out to Delta and spend the weekend with us.  We ventured futher out west and made our way to Lehman's Cave.

 It was really neat inside of the cave and such a fun little adventure!

 Kayson was a champ and was so good the entire trip.  He enjoyed the cave too. 

Due to the hour time difference (of which we completely spaced) we had plenty of time to hang out in the area, so we picnic'd up the mountains near the cave.  It was so pretty and felt so good to be in the mountains. 

 Just this last weekend (Sept 21-22) we were able to spend time in Mayfield and went up the mountain for dinner and cobbler with Reid and Analee.  It was so so pretty up there with all of the leaves changing.  We haven't made it up the mountains or camping nearly enough this year or nearly as much as we would have liked to. 

 After getting burned by a crackling on our last camping adventure in March, Kayson has slowly learned to like fires again.  He is very cautious and doesn't like to get to close or hot.  

 Grandma Analee was such a sport to go hiking several times with Kayson!

 We were also able to go to the Manti temple with one of Coby's best friends, Holly Edwards, for her to recieve her endowments.  It was so neat and so fun to be among all of our friends there. 

August and September were awesome and we had such a good rest of our summer. 

I am so excited for fall though and all of the upcoming festivities :) 

Eddie Johnson

 Coby's grandpa Eddie Johnson passed away September 8, 2012. 

The funeral was such a nice service and we learned so much about Coby's grandpa. 

We weren't as close with him and never got to spend as much time with him as we would have liked, but after hearing so much about him at the funeral, I realized that my husband posesses some of the many qualities that Eddie himself had.  It's too bad that we need reminders like this of what truly is important and how important family is.  Also of who we are and where we came from (yes that sounds really churchy, but I mean it more of our ancestry and family-line)

 It was a really special day and nice to be with family



Girls Weekend...

July 27-29: This last weekend we had a little get away.... also known as a GIRLS WEEKEND!!

We celebrated my mom's birthday by heading down to St. George and spending the weekend.

Friday night before Tuacahn/Dinner, we had a little time to spare, so we headed up to the famous Dixie 'Crack' by the Dixie Rock.   Amanda and Jenny went right through, but my mom and I wussed out!! We still had fun taking pictures though :) 

 Jenny ~ Me ~ Amanda

That night we all went to Aladdin at Tuacahn!!

FABULOUS

It was so good and so much fun!! 

And such a fun way to celebrate my mom's birthday!  

 Alyson was unable to come with us, due to Dr's orders and being so far along pregnant,  so our cousin Josie was able to come with us!! Jos is one of us anyways! :) 

 We spent the next day with a lot of shopping, eating, swimming, and relaxing and watching olympics! As Amanda called it.... "this was not a skinny girl weekend" :) 

 Our last day there, Amanda and Jenny couldn't handle the fact that my mom and I didn't do the "crack", so we went back.....

 Now, when I say "crack", that is exactly what it is..... A SMALL crack in the rock that you wedge yourself between and shimmy about the equivalent of half a block or so!  And for those of us who are claustrophobic... it is terrifying!!  My mom attempted twice but had a panic attack, freaked out and headed back out!  I was so stubborn and said I wouldn't do it.... which is so not like me to back down to something, but I was freaking out.  After just a little bit of coaxing and a small amount of waiting [I won't mention how long it really took to finally get us to go through :) ] I finally just "cowboy'd-up" and did it!! You literally have to just squeeze through some parts!

 Mom made her debut shortly after... with a little more coaxing and a few foreigners just walking right up to it and walking right through without hesitation :)   We were all so proud!

                            In the crack!!! Look at this awesome mom and grandma go!!

                                              We did it!!! :) 

What a fun girls weekend we had!  Lots of laughing, food, hanging out, BATMAN, shopping, and sun....we had a blast!!

Sure do love my mom and sisters! Can't wait for our next girls adventure!!