Camping in the basement

A couple weeks ago we decided to go camping. We have been trying to go for the last 2 months but something has always come up to stop us, so we decided that we were going to go camping no matter what. Well, Friday came and it was raining. So instead of cancelling we camped in our basement. We tried to set up our 5 man tent but there wasn't enough room so we set up our two man tent instead. Reed and Alan slept in the tent and Conner and I slept upstairs in our beds. Alan was pretty excited about the tent.
No camping trip would be complete without smores. Yum!!! I love smores. Alan liked the chocolate, he wasn't really interested in making smores, just in eating the chocolate pieces.

And to make the camping trip feel more genuine we even had an injury. Alan was helping me set up the smore stuff and he fell off the bucket he was standing on and hit his head. The picture doesn't do it justice. He had a huge bump on his forehead with a small cut on the bump. Poor guy.

All in all it was a great camping trip.

Hike up Scotts Bluff

On Saturday evening we decided to climb Scottsbluff National Monument. We thought that it would be kind of sad if we lived here for a couple of years without ever climbing the bluff that our city was named after. Here is a picture of my cool boys, all with their hats and sunglasses on.This was a funny picture. Reed told Alan to make the same face he is making. Alan's impersonation was pretty funny.

Part of the way up the hike you go through a short tunnel that goes right through the monument (it is really narrow at the top). When Alan saw the tunnel he turned to me and said "Is there a bear in there?" I said no. He wasn't convinced. One of the books he really likes right now is "We're going on a bear hunt". At the end the bear is in the tunnel. He did go through the tunnel but he was pretty nervous. The picture below shows how high up we were.

We didn't make it all the way to the top because Alan walked the whole way and he started to get tired plus it started to get dark. Alan did so good on the hike, we were surprised. In the picture below you can see the bluff in the back. We climbed to the middle ledge (not the very top, the ledge below that). Alan walked all the way up and all the way down to the flat part. Then he asked to be carried. Reed is superman so he carried both boys back to the car.

Girl's Weekend

At the beginning of August I went to Utah and met up with Reed's mom and all of his sisters and sister-in-laws. No one brought their kids (except me, I brought Conner). It was a blast!! Conner was such a good boy, as usual. He travelled really well and he loved having so much attention from all of his aunts and his grandma. Jackie took a bunch of pictures so here is a brief review.




On Friday we went to the Olympic Park. We had fun playing in the bobsleds and we all took pictures in the skier poster thing (see picture). You know the olympic event where skiers ski off a ramp and do twists and flips in the air before they land? We watched some people ski down the ramps and land in the pool. One guy went off the really big ramp: he must have gone at least 40 feet in the air and he did lots of twists and flips. It was really cool to watch.


people left to right: Jackie, Kristie, Lynn, Shelly, Me, Brenda, Mindy
After that we split into two teams. Each team went to find the silliest outfits we could find and then we took pictures of each other. Here is a picture of me and the rest of my team.

After that we tried to go to the Cheesecake Factory to eat but we got a late start and then we got lost. So we ended up eating at food court in a mall. The reason we were in a hurry was that we were going to a play that night: 7 brides for 7 brothers. The play was really good, when we first got there I wasn't expecting it to be very good but it turned out really well.

The next day we went for a hike in the Wasatch State Park. It was a very steep trail and I only made it part way up. Coming back down I slipped and fell and woke poor Conner up with a start. It was so nice to be up in the mountains again!

After that we all went to the lake and went swimming. It was a hot day so the water felt really nice.

The next day was Sunday. We took this picture after church. Lynn brought some of her journals and she let us read some of them from when her kids were young. It was really nice to talk with each other and to read about how she and her family were in the same place as some of us are now. It gave me hope that maybe my kids will turn out as good as hers did!!! Thanks again Brenda for putting the weekend together - it was a ton of fun.