Summer Vacation

 We only went on one trip this summer, so we made it count and spent 2 weeks with family up North.  First we went to Devon's brother's house.  We went to the Museum of Natural curiosity with them.Carrie used the fruit as a phone, she is such a girl.

 Spencer really wanted to try this ropes course that is suspended over the museum, like in the ceiling.  I thought he would freak out and not really try it, I would have, but he did great.  He wasn't at all afraid to jump right in.

 Mason and Gabe joined too.

 There were a lot of fun things to do there.  It was super crowded, I really think we curse children's museums because every time we go to one it is more crowded than people have ever seen it, but it was fun once we figured out how to not lose our kids, we only lost Spencer for about 15 minutes.

 We started a new tradition this year of taking the kids out to a restaurant by themselves for their birthday- the plan is every other year.  We went to Famous Dave's in Idaho Falls because all James cared about was getting Macaroni and Cheese.

 This is Carrie eating a doughnut in the car- not the cleanest treat!

 While we were in Idaho Falls Devon had to go to a few conferences.  It was nice for me to have family help with the kids while he was gone.  This is one of the appetizers at one of his conferences, as you can see it was a real struggle to go.

 Most of my family was in IF for the 4th of July.  It was actually hot, and we didn't go early enough to get a shady spot at the parade, but the kids still enjoyed it.  We had a fun day of water fights and bubbles and fireworks.  I don't think I'll ever do a "Pistol Pete" without thinking of Jase saying  "You call that a lovely noise?"  I love to see cousins play together.  We finally got to see the amazing fireworks show, I've been talking it up to Devon for 10 years, but it did not disappoint.

 Most people went home but the kids and I stayed to go to Sceince Camp.  Spencer did a magic science class and James did and ocean one, they both loved it.  We also went to the zoo, Spencer went on a bike ride with Grandpa every morning, we went garage saleing, the boys mowed their first lawn, we played a parks and school playgrounds and just had a lot of fun.  It was lovely and cool, which I may usually complain about in the summer, but it felt really good.

 It's good to be back home.  Carrie insisted on getting all dressed up before we went outside one day.

 Can you believe how much a diaper can hold?

Today at church we sang "We are all Enlisted" and after the song Carrie started singing at the top of her voice "Happy are WE!"  I had to laugh, and then tell her to be quiet.  She loved the song, she's been singing it all day!

James Birthday

 James finally had his birthday in the end of June, he was so happy it was finally his special day.

 He has played with his new legos quite often.

His cake was Teddy Grahams on a beach.

Other May

 Devon found a bunch of May pictures after I caught up on our blog, so here is James at Kindergarten graduation- he's a cutie

 We took the cousins who could stay until Monday to the slot canyon.  Scott has been wanting to go for a while, but they always come to help us and we never get around to going, so we were glad it worked out.

 Spencer almost fell in this pool- which I'm sure doesn't surprize anyone who knows Spencer.

 The next week Scott's parents came to see MV and we took them up to Teardrop.  We decided we need to buy a Rhino- our friend calls it a 4 wheeler on steroids, it was a lot of fun.  The kids adopted a new grandma and grandpa and Devon got some cute pictures of them.

 Carrie is always trying to be like the boys, she loves her brothers.  Since our trip Carrie insists on Spencer singing to her when she takes a nap, I think it's really cute.

 Spencer got his first lego set from friends for his birthday, we have not taken it apart.

 The high school is being remodeled this summer, here is a view of the termite work in the library.

 Spencer showing off a welding mask.

 Out of order, Livy in the slot canyon.

 Apparently Devon rescued a bird, he sent me this picture on my cell phone with no explanation- I was pretty surprised.

Split Level Ruin

 So the last weekend in June we decided to try again for the Monarch Cave hike.  It was dry this time, but I saw a description that looked even more exciting, so we decided to drive a little farther and hike a little longer to Split Level ruins, it was quite worth it.  Again the wash was full of really tall grass.  Carrie did not enjoy the ride in the backpack- we need to get a frame one, this one was too hot and close. This was a really neat ruin though that had ruins on a cliff and under the overhang.  There were a ton of petroglyphs, and some rooms and a broken down kiva- and a beautiful view.

 This area was supposed to have more petroglyphs, I really looked but didn't see any, but it was the feasting place for mosquitoes.  We didn't notice until we were already eaten alive, mostly James, his poor face.

 We were able to climb into the bottom ruin, it was mostly a wall around a cave.  There were some sight holes which amazed me with how much of the canyon you could see through them.

 One of the deepest corn grinding holes I've ever seen.  There were also some sharpening spots.

 Can you see all the hands?

 I could live here, sooo pretty

At first this just looks like 2 swirls, but it's really goats.  It was a really neat, and probably last hike for a while.

Natalie visits

 We were lucky enough to have my little sister Natalie come visit us in June.  She brought her friend Jackson, somehow he escaped all he pictures, but the kids really enjoyed his wrestling.  We all enjoyed having Natalie back!  We went to teardrop.

 And the museum

 they also hiked the slot canyon, but the pictures are missing

 Then we went to a new place on Butler wash, Ballroom Cave.  It was a hot hike through a lot of brush, but it was a cool ruin, mostly fallen down inside of a cave.  The kids loved the original playground- a rock slide.

 Everyone but Carrie and I went on to another ruin, the bedroom I think.

Thanks for coming Natalie!

Wolf Man Hike

 Our first hike of June ended up being to a petrogyph panel called wolfman panel.  That wasn't our plan.  We planned to find a new place on Butler Wash (which has a ton of amazing ruin-hikes, a few of which we discover this June).  We went to the start of Monarch Cave trail, but the was was flooded so we couldn't cross.  This was the only hike on our map that didn't cross the wash, so we took it.

 We are glad to have our friend Kelsey back to join our hiking.

 We went with a bunch of senior missionary couples and our own adventures missionaries- the Whites.