Goblin Valley Camping Trip

This last weekend we went camping as a family down to Goblin Valley with Mick's brother Dave and his wife Ginger and their kids and our friends Brett and Andrea Ostler and their family. It was the best weather and probably the best trip I have ever had down there. It was sunny and warm during the day and only needed a sweatshirt at night. Sat we hiked the Little Wildhorse Canyon. Ty, Bet and Wyatt went on the 9 mile loop around to Bell Canyon with me. They did AWESOME! Bet wanted to go and I told her she could only come along if there was absolutely NO complaining... and she didn't.

Sunday we went over to the actual Valley of the Goblins. Mick and I and the kids divided into teams and played steal the flag. It was a blast.

For some unknown reason, Ty and Spencer decided to wrap their shirts around their heads. ??? They could be brothers - they have very similar personalities and I even got Spencer confused with Ty a couple of times.

Lucky Bet, she got to go camping with one of her really good friends. They had a "sleepover" in our trailer both nights.

Emma was Wyatt's little buddy and liked to hang out with him.

Too freaking cute to leave off this post.

Wyatt took this pic of our family. Way to go man! I just told him where to stand and zoomed it in and he did the rest.

So Brett told me he didn't think I could get up here. Well of course I had to prove him wrong. Andrea told me that they hadn't brought their I.V. equipment with them and there wasn't enough room to land a chopper. Brett took this shot once I got up there. I had an escape plan if it broke off.... JUMP!

Bethany and her cousin Gavin.

Brett and Andrea and their family.

Dave and Ginger and their family.

This rock formation looked like Gary the snail off of SpongeBob. The kids had to ride on top of him!

Mom's Birthday

Kristen and Mark
Mom always has so much help opening her presents.

I got to see my nephew for the first time. Ty was sick with the flu when he was born and so we didn't go to see him because we didn't want the baby to get sick. Then I was never able to go up when they were at home. He was a month old when I finally got to love him!

Emma was so excited to be able to help feed Clark. She told me the next day that she wants a little sister...

Halloween

Kristen put together a party for the employees at Xpress Bill Pay and their families for lunch on Friday. She gets this wild idea to make me a princess... Me a princess??? Yeah right. She pulls out her dresses - let's just say I could hardly breathe in this dress!!! :)

Kristen was a little kitty cat.

I have no idea what in the world Mick was. He and Kristen went to Walmart earlier in the day and a guy that was stocking shelves said "excuse me man" and Mick asked him if he said man or mam and the guy said "hey man, whatever". Kristen said he got the weirdest looks.

Ty and his friend Bailey were zombies. They were CHOMPING AT THE BIT to get out there and get trick or treating. Notice the huge pillowcase for his bag. They got the whole neighborhood done in one night and he was set. He came home and emptied it all into his drawer and is set for the next few months!

Now this is the cutest little dr. that I ever did see. She was a "SCARY" one though - thus the paint on her face.

Bet and Ariana didn't want to be just regular princesses, they wanted to be DEAD princesses.

It was only a minute before they all had everything dumped out on the counter or the table checking out all their goods.

If she looks hard enough, maybe she'll find some more in there!

Going to the Zoo

One thing that my grandma Johansen was always good at was spending time with the grandkids and doing fun things with us. My mom wants to be like that and one of the things she wanted to do was take us to the zoo. Considering it was Aug, it was amazingly cool and we had a great time. Not only did Mom pay for us all to get in, but she paid for the train and merry go round rides as well.


Brian called mom while we were getting on the train. All the kids were yelling hi to Uncle Brian.

So after walking around all afternoon, everyone is looking just a little tired! Right after we took this picture Emma wondered off while we were all looking at something and it took us a while to find her. Talk about give her mama a heart attack!!

Being on the merry go round is not exactly my favorite thing because I get so dizzy. But the kids made it fun because they were so excited. I couldn't help but laugh and have a good time myself.

Ty shares my excitement for going round and round and didn't want to go for a ride.

So intent on that gorilla. What is he saying Lucious?

First kiss Bethany?

Thanks mom for taking us all to the zoo. We really all had a good time. My favorite part was watching the baby giraffe. He was so dang cute!

Homemade Waterslide!

We went up to the Resevoir in Spanish Fork with Mick's family. The fun thing is, we put a piece of vinyl up on the side and Mick's dad throws water up on it to keep it slick and we slide down it on tubes.

What's with the pout Lucious? . . . Probably not getting her way...

Poor Hana. She actually got on one of the rafts with me and we ate it when we hit the water. But we both sat and laughed and laughed, that is once I could catch my breath - that water is COLD!