Kicked my butt!

Wednesday morning Paul woke up and proceeded to ask us what we were doing that day! This is a normal occurrence, and usually we don't have an answer for him! Well that morning he asked if we wanted to go hike to Timpanogos cave. I think that every one's first response was "NO!" , but no one voiced this except Emma! I asked him what we were going to do with Nathan and Addison, so he got online and showed me that it was a paved trail so we could take the stroller! So, I conceded and after 2 1/2 hours getting everyone ready we were off!

Well, over an hour later we were inside the National Park! We got the little newsletter as we were pulling up to park and I happened to read "no strollers!" WHAT?? I told Paul that I was NOT going to do this hike if I had to pack a kid up it! He said that he would leave if I wanted to, but he thought we could do it! I, of course, didn't want to look like a wimp, so I said that we'd do it! Well, 1 hour and 18 minutes, 1 1/2 miles and over 1,000 feet higher in elevation we made it! Now I've actually been working out regularly for the 7 weeks, so I thought I was in pretty good shape...This trail was HARD!!! It probably didn't help that I was packing either Addi or Nate the entire time or that we started the hike at 3:45pm(the HOT part of the day), or that the trail is REALLY steep! But we did it!!!

Nate was really thirsty, since he'd worked so hard! Once at the top, we had about a 20 minute wait then we got to take the cave tour! This was really cool(literally too since it's about 47* inside the mountain) since we got to tour 3 different caves all hooked together. And see really cool formations!

The tour was about 30 minutes and about 20 minutes in Addison needed to "go really bad"! And Nathan thankfully fell asleep! We got to see the "Heart of Timpanogos" Which is this huge stalactite that they put a red light behind and really does look like a heart! Once we got out of the caves Paul and Addi headed off to the "emergency potty" and thankfully it was just in time! Oh the fun of trying to potty train Addison!! Once we were back at the van, Kassidy told me that the hike was worth it after we got to see the caves! Emma wasn't as sure, but she did like the cave. Nate was happy to have his bottle, and Addi was happy to be off the trail! Over all we agreed that the tour made our hard work worth it!

Don't they look happy? Fun family times!!

Wow! I'm so bad!

Summer is almost over and yet, I've posted NOTHING this whole summer! I know I should have been sooo much better, but...

So here are some highlights from our summer so far...
We started the summer with a trip to Moab on the first weekend in June! We went with the Lucas family(Paul works with Tim, the dad), and Stretch(Paul also works with him). We had lots of fun...

Can't you see how much fun Kassidy was having! This was as we started up the trail called "Hell's Revenge" which is known as an extreme trail, but isn't too bad if you sit back and just enjoy the ride! Addi was also having so much fun she had to go to sleep! But Kassidy ditched us and rode with the others in our group and decided that Moab trails weren't too bad if she didn't have to ride with her parents! Poor girl!

Next was Addison's birthday...

I still can't believe this girl is 3! Kass seemed so"big" when she was 3 and Em was just so tiny, but grown-up, but Addi May is just still so little! But she tries to be big when she wants to!

We had a nice family party out under the carport, and of course Auntie Sonja made the cake that was requested!

Addi decided months before her birthday that she wanted a "care bear" birthday so luckily Sonja came through(again)!! Addi loved having family here to help her celebrate and is thankful to her uncle Royal for putting her princess scooter together(her daddy was on the phone with the Sunday school president at the time)! Great job, Roys! Later that night Paul took Kassidy and Emma to the Mormon Miracle Pageant! They got eaten by bugs, Emma fell asleep 1/2 way through, and got a little cold...BUT over all they enjoyed it! And they actually made it home a little before midnight!

And to end the month off just right, we got a puppy! Dagney is the newest member of our family! She is a black lab, who likes to chew on little girls and stuffed animals! We LOVE her!

Now onto July...

Here are the cuties waiting for the "Mammoth" parade on the 4th! Woo Hoo! Got loads of taffy and Nana got a T-Shirt(actually Dan got it, but Angie told him to give it to her Mom)!

After the parade, it was on to the park to have fun at the carnival! They did it better this year, just big items like the all famous 25' water slide! Addi was all for it, until she got to the top, then she started screaming and crying for me and I was NOT about to climb up there and get her! I know that doesn't make me the BEST mom, but oh well! So I sent Emma back up there and she had to literally PUSH Addison down the water slide! Needless to say, she didn't want to go back up! Then after the carnival, we went to Royal and Janielle's for more fun and games and yummy dinner! Then we were all set to watch the city fireworks, but it started raining and blowing so they were cancelled! Oh well!

The weekend of the 10th we had a family reunion! It was just for the day at a park in Draper(can we say WIND), and lunch was catered...this is the way to do family reunions! I, of course, didn't take ANY pictures! But it was great fun! And the kids had even more fun, since they went to Sonja's house on Friday afternoon and didn't come home until Monday afternoon! Lucky kids, Sonja was in for a REAL adventure since my cousin and her 5 kids also stayed with Sonja! I'm so sorry I missed all the fun!

Then on the weekend of the 24th we were back in Moab! Yes, we understood that it was MOAB in JULY, but we were all feeling adventurous! We took a day and did a trail called "elephant hill" that took us through the needles district of Canyonlands! It was fun and Frank got a good dose of whiplash! Jamie and Ryan rented a Jeep and went with us! Great Fun!Then the next day we went to Dead horse point and Arches! It was warm, but fun all around!

Then Paul and I finished the month with trip to Park City. Our anniversary is on the 8th of August, but Paul has to work then! So we took last weekend to celebrate! The girls stayed with Grandma and Nate got to stay with Sonja and Frank! With Frank giving him crawling lessons! And I missed it!!