Temple Openhouse

We decided to venture out to the temple open house on this day. I specifically got tickets for later in the month, on a weekday night, thinking that it wouldn't be so crowded. When we went to the Draper temple open house we went on a Saturday afternoon and it was packed. We arrived at the church to start at 3:30 and didn't get back to our car until 7:30. Imagine how fun that was with 5 kids and no food! So, it wasn't AS crowded this night, but still pretty crowded. We had a much more pleasant experience here because it didn't take as long and I fed the kids right before we went in. There were a couple of really cute comments that Moses made that night. When we were going up the grand staircase he said that we were walking up to Heaven. Then, when we walked into the Celestial room he said, "This is where we come back to life." So sweet. He spent the rest of the time counting all of the Jesus paintings. I think we got up to 19, but missed a few. All in all it was a great night and a great opportunity for the kids to see the inside of the temple. I know that they can feel the spirit there and know of it's great importance!

Fun with Cousins

We met up with Kelli and her kids, and my cousin Kellianne and her kids. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of all of the cousins. But we had a good time hanging out at the Dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point and a brand new splash pad in Highland. I wish they had those around here, it was really fun and a great way to cool off for free! Here is the kids' 2-headed dinosaur creation. They spent a long time getting all of the pieces just right.

Here are the kids at the splash pad. It was really fun. They had a fountain area similar to the Gateway and this little stream with rocks around to climb on. The kids had a really fun time!

Annual Neighborhood Camping Trip

We had an amazing time at our annual camping trip with a few friends from our neighborhood. We try to choose a different place every year. There are a few stipulations in the process. It has to be fairly close and has to have water. In years previous we've had a lot of fun at various places. We went to Trial Lake, but it got down to freezing at night, and we've been to Bear Lake, but the mosquitoes were out of control. This year we went to Hyrum Reservoir and had a blast. There was a beach not to far from the camp grounds. The only thing missing, we all decided, was a boat! Here are Grace and Miles on the beach. I'm so proud of my kids this year because they're actually enjoying the water more. It has taken many years and many water trips for them to become comfortable. I have had a hard time with this because I'm such a fish!

Nate packed Moses up pretty well. At least he had a pillow!

The kids had fun with this tube for hours. Ella especially liked it. She loved to push people around in it.

Here is Ella wanting to get in the tent. She had to come a get a closer look to see who was inside.

This tent story is pretty funny. I asked Nate to go through all of our tent stuff on our garage shelf. For a family who hardly goes camping, we have inherited a lot. Nate thought that he grabbed our two man tent for the boys, and our mid-size tent for the rest of us, along with a tarp. When we started unpacking the tarp we found this amazing huge tent (shown above). We were thrilled that we had such a big tent, but have no idea where it came from. So, we showed up to the camp ground with 3 tents! We set up this big one for all of the big kids, and then Nate and I slept in the mid-sizer with Ella.

Whoops! It got pretty windy up at the lake. That would be my only complaint about the place. The first night I couldn't sleep because I was afraid our tent would collapse. Well the big huge tent made it through the first night, but during the next day while we were at the beach the wind finally toppled the tent. Shown here is the broken rod. So, the second and third nights Isaiah and Miles slept in the two-man tent and the rest of us were in the mid-size tent. We'll have to get the rod replaced for next year because we LOVE this big tent!

Let's just say that this didn't end well.

Here are the men being ultra-competitive, as usual. Here they were playing a "friendly" game of 500 with a football.

YUMMO (as Rachel Ray would say)! We love our s'mores. One bummer was the individual campsites didn't have camp fire pits. The campground had 2 community ones and we snagged one up on our last night for some marshmallow roasting.Every year we get a photo of all of the kids and one of all of the adults. It is kind of fun to see how they have grown up year after year. I think this was the fourth year in a row that we all went. Well, we actually missed last year because Nate's brother decided to get married on the same weekend. But here is the kids with their strong pose. I love Ella's the best! Grace's is pretty sassy too!

This was my favorite of the adults! It was our funny faces. There are some pretty good ones here! Thanks to the Baileys, the Phillips, the Steadmans, and the Trommlitzs for a great time. Thanks to the Phillips for being our professional photographers too!

The Concert

The parade that we were in was at the very beginning of the show. We were able to change our clothes pretty quickly and then went to our great seats for the fireworks show and the concert. We sat on the field and had a pretty good view of everything. I think all of our kids were so tired. I was looking around at all the families around us and they were all happy and dancing around and enjoying themselves. I looked around at my family and practically every child had a crying breakdown at some point. Maybe we just outdid ourselves that day! Here are the Jonas Brothers! They gave a great show!

Here is our sweet Miles. He really did enjoy himself that night. He must have gotten his sleep. He looks so happy here.

Here is Nate with a very tired little girl. She did end up falling asleep at some point during the night. The fireworks woke her up later though.

This was how Isaiah looked all night. I can't remember why he was in such a bad mood. I was hoping he would have enjoyed himself more! Maybe he was thinking that the Jonas Brothers was for girls!

Here is how I was all night. All of the kids took turns laying on me. No wonder I have to go the chiropractor weekly for the rest of my life! Notice that Ella is knocked out.

Here is Grace trying to stay warm under the American flags. It got kind of cool later on in the evening.

Moses fell asleep during the concert. He stayed asleep during the fireworks and all the way being carried to the car. He must have been really tired. It is really uncomfortable to lay on that scratchy AstroTurf!

Stadium of Fire

We had the opportunity to be involved in the Stadium of Fire 4th of July celebration this year. We were all really excited to see Glenn Beck and of course The Jonas Brothers! Nate's brother's girlfriend's sister-in-law was in charge of a little parade of families representing different era's during the July 4th holiday. We were chosen to represent the WWII era. We were fortunate to have the Hale Center Theater outfit us with costumes and that was a real treat. If I'm being honest, we didn't really have the best time. Moses and Ella were extremely cranky and I thought the whole time that we should have just stayed home! Looking back I think that it was a good experience for the kiddos. Hopefully they'll remember something positive from it!Here are the kids all ready to go. There was a lot of waiting around and they were getting pretty impatient. Moses was upset because he couldn't have a gun to mess around with.

Here is Isaiah as a WWII cowboy! They loved playing with those wooden guns!

Grace was enamoured by this whole event. You know my kids goal in life is to someday "be famous!" They thought that since a whole stadium of people were watching us, we had become just that!

Here is sweet Ella holding a flag. She really wasn't being sweet this night, but in her defense she was cutting all of the 6 teeth that she has at that time. I just didn't know that yet so I wasn't very patient.

Here is our tough little sailor! Moses was really upset the entire night because he got a silly little toy that he didn't like to play with. He wanted the big boy props that his brothers got. Little things like that can really set him off for hours!

Here is our scout! Miles really enjoyed his costume because he is so excited to start up Cub Scouts when he turns 8. I think he felt like a really big boy that night. He was actually the only child that loved every minute of the night. He just took everything in and really enjoyed himself!

Here is our policeman taking care of business. There was a little sailor who went around trying to steal other kids guns!

Here is Grandma Pack with the kids!

Here is the whole family. Don't we look so happy? We have learned to fake it really good for pictures! No, we had a great experience that night and thanks to Diana for making it all possible!