Happy 4th of July!!!

Happy 4th of July everyone! Hope you had a great day! We went to our ward breakfast at our stake center in the morning and then went to a Bee's Baseball game in the evening. We wondered how much we would be enjoying ourselves when we pulled up to the stadium and our thermometer read 102 degrees. It did eventually cool and and we had a great time!
We bought general admission tickets and sat on the grass with hundreds of other families. It was a busy night at the ballpark. They gave the kids these wackie thingies that make a lot of noise when you hit them together. I'm sure there is a a technical term for them but I don't know it. Well I thought "how fun" when we first blew them up but my opinion changed when I heard the noise that came from them. The kids played sword fight, baseball, and ninja with their "bats and swords". If one thing positive was to be said about them is that it kept them busy and the kids loved them.
Madilyn spent some her time just chillin' out on the blanket. Ethan on the other hand was a total riot! He got so excited when the crowd cheered and well sometimes, even when they didn't. He'd grunt YEAH! AWESOME! GO!! and he'd throw out his little arm with his hand in a fist. He also was jumping around everywhere cheering on his team. It was so fun to watch him and he kept our blanket neighbors laughing.
There was a firework show at the end of the night and again Ethan was hilarious. He saw a few fireworks in the area before our show started and he got so excited. He was yelling FIREWORKS! and he'd grab my attention by poking me and smiling and yelling FIREWORKS! When the show started, he was just on cloud nine, excited at each blast. It was great. Our night of fun wore the kids out and this is a picture of them on the way home from Salt Lake. Ethan dragged that bag of popcorn all the way out of the stadium and to the car. He woke up once when the bag slipped from his hands. He cried for me to pick it up and after I handed it to him, he fell back asleep. So sweet!

Aunt Michelle came for a visit!!

I love my little sister Michelle! She came out to visit us last weekend and we had a total blast with her. She is getting ready to be married in September to her fiance Brad who she loves and adores and who I harass for taking my sister back to her home in Hermosa Beach. I keep suggesting that after they get married, they move to Utah but I don't think it's working (for some reason). The kids had a blast with Michelle. They spent a lot of quality time with her. We went swimming, flew kites, blew bubbles, made art projects, did lunch, had a movie night, and went shopping. It was a busy several days and we sent her home with a gift. Ethan's cold. Sorry Michelle! We love you and can't wait to see you in September!

So I havn't been that great at remembering to bring out my camera. These pictures of them flying kites are the only pictures I took the whole time she was here. I promise to get better!

No longer a 2nd Grader!

Madilyn finished up school last week and because we are on year round schedule, she starts the 3rd grade in just a few weeks. It's CRAZY, I know. Every year I pick her up on the last day of school knowing that she is going to be SO sad to say goodbye to her teacher. Mrs. Ostler has been wonderful and it is sad that they have to say goodbye to someone they love when they have spent so much of the last year with them. I also have to add, only because I'm a proud mom who thinks her kid is pretty great;), that she had a perfect report card.

The kids went to the Red Butte Gardens for a field trip the week before school got out. Madilyn's allergies were horrible and her eyes were killing her. We are still waiting for her appt with the allergist.

Dad's Fishing Trip

Dad went on his yearly fly fishing trip to the Green River with the guys this past weekend. He had a great time, despite some nastly weather the first day of the trip, and very high flows out of the Flaming Gorge Dam. The flows actually went from 800 cfs to 4200 cfs and stayed at 4200 cfs throughout the trip.....that's a lot. However, once the boys found out what the fish were keyed in on, the fish started to get caught. The guys always do a fun contest to keep the fishing a little interesting ( although fishing the Green is always a great experience). This year they had a prize going to the first to catch a fish on a nymph, streamer and dry fly. Who would have thought the dry fly would be the fly to get. Four of the five guys went into the last day tied and wouldn't you know it, nobody got the last fly. Chris couldn't get that dry fly on. He caught a brute on a Rainbow imitation Streamer pattern, and all others where on the classic size 20 and smaller BWO Barr's emerger. Even though the Cicadas were out in force. Had to be the high flows out of the dam. All in all, it was a fantastic trip, with lots of laughs, amazing views, and probably the best fishing in Utah.

PS.....I had to hijack my wifes blog to post this trip, as I highly doubt I was going to get a featured post with pictures of Fish. Heather will probably catch this post tonight and either laugh, smack me....or just delete it. If you see this blog before it's gone, please feel free to send encouragements for approval on another trip for Dad next year.....

PSS...I have the best wife in the world for letting me go on a 4 day fishing tip, leaving her at home with 3 kids, one of which you've most certainly seen in previous posts is...not such a good boy all the time.

Do you recognize any of these people?

So a few weeks ago I got together with my friend Nancy who I haven't seen or talked to in about 10 years. We got in contact again thanks to blogging. It was great to see her and catch up on life. Here is a picture of us back in the day. Nancy is on the bottom right. Can you figure out the people with the red arrows pointing to them?This was actually a picture from the trip to Utah where I first got to know Chris about 11 years ago. Yikes!!!!

This is a picture of me, Tanya, and Nancy. The guys framed this for us as a gift. We just realized that Nancy and I both named our first boys Andrew and Tanya(middle) named her first son Andy after her husbands best friend Andrew. Isn't that a crazy coincidence!This is us now. Nancy has two cute boys Andrew and Josh and her husband just graduated from med school. She is incredibly busy with her boys and her church activities. I always admired Nancy for a few reasons. She is incredibly smart (I wasn't suprised she married a smart guy) and strong in her faith. I remember her being a leader, especially in her family and I just really remember her being so kind and easy to like.
So a trip to Thanksgiving Pointe or anywhere else for that matter wouldn't be complete unless Ethan found something to get into. What's on his face you ask? It's MUD! He ran through a puddle and did it over and over again until he finally fell in it. Boys will be boys we kept saying. After awhile he was covered head to toe in mud. I think his cute little face says "take that moma, and you thought you could stop me"!
It was great to see you Nancy and we'll have to get together soon!!

Moab Family Vacation

This last weekend we took off for Moab Utah. Saying that we had an awesome trip wouldn't even give it justice. The kids and Chris and I loved it! I brought the trusty Fabreeze to spray down the beds before we put our bedding down. Chris laughed at me and told me I was not a camper. He also told me that I couldn't bring a blow dryer and make up. We were really roughing it.

We told the kids we would give them 5 dollars if they could catch a lizard. Ethan is playing with a little metal sculpture of one here. The kids were unsuccessful and I'm not out any money. Those lizards were so stinkin fast but that didn't stop the kids from trying. They were so fascinated by all the little creatures in the park. This is Balanced Rock and it was the first thing we saw. The kids were so excited to be in Arches National Park. When we entered the park, the attendant gave each of the kids their own map. Madilyn became our guide. She told us where to go and circled everywhere we'd been. She was our little tour guide.
We got to climb and stand in many of the arches. This is the North Windows Arch. We had so much fun hiking and climbing on the rocks. It was an absolutely beautiful weekend in beautiful surroundings. So cool! Andrew ran everywhere we went so we think he hiked twice as much as we did. He'd run ahead and then run back to us and run ahead again.
Is this kid cute or what? Our little trouble maker Ethan chillin on the rocks! Ethan did great on the first day in Arches but the second day, Chris spent most of the time holding him as we hiked. It also got pretty hot that day. Chris got quite a work out.

Moab Family Vacation Continued

This was my favorite arch, a cool arch with some fun rock climbing to get to it. Adventurous but safe for the kids. It was huge!!! Here's Chris and Ethan standing in it.
Here's are the kids in front of Skyline Arch. This was another favorite of mine.
Here is Chris and the kids standing in a cave they climbed up to.
The kids all wanted a turn turning the key to get into the cabin. Sometimes it's suprising how easily entertained the kids can be. We did have a fun action packed weekend. We hiked, climbed, swam, played life sized checkers, tetherball, blew bubbles, played on the playground, threw frisbees and balls, saw many ancient Indian writings, cool dinosaur tracks from an Allosaurus, went to the coolest rock store, and BBQ'd. And a Sparks family vacation wouldn't be complete unless somebody got sick. It was Andrew's turn a few minutes after we left for the drive home. Poor guy. He's ok now, we think he may have gotten heat exhaustion. All in all we had a wonderful time and plan on going again next year.