Adventures in Utah

Somewhere over the rainbow.... We saw this awesome rainbow as we were leaving Fillmore on our drive up to Utah. We were in Utah from June 11-16th. We had a great time!

We took the truck up this time and Peter had just climbed out to put our bags in to trash bags because it was raining. It stopped not even 10 minutes later.

Soooo HAPPY to be finally going to Grandma's house. We had a countdown chain and everything because Jon asked everyday if today was the day we were going to grandma's house.

Wednesday night we stayed at Peter's parents house. Art City Days was going on so we headed to the fair that was being held just down the street from their house this year. Bad picture because our boys are the next car back. We did a few rides and of course bought a scone.

Thursday, we headed to Thanksgiving Point first thing in the morning. It was a good thing too because we finished just before it rained, and it really rained. The manhole cover acutally popped up because the drains were so overwhelmed. This peacock was really strutting his stuff.

Arabella had a great time riding around in the stroller and seeing the animals. You can not help but fall in love with that face and oh those eyes!

Joey adored the horse ride so much that Grandma let him ride again. He was on the big horse and thought he was all that and a bag of chips!

Jon enjoyed the horse ride too but had more fun running around with Liam. Jon is also sporting his new favorite shirt in this picture (yes, that is Wolverine and he does a great impression).

Friday morning we headed as soon as we were loaded up to Vernal with Grandma and Grandpa Rabner and Lindsay and Brady for some camping adn dinosaur bone hunting. We set up camp and what do little boys do but dig while the grown ups are setting up camp. They were looking for bones of course.

We did find bones, but we had to hike to find them and they are marked by white paint spots on the mountain. Thank heavens for big strong daddy's that can lift little boys up to see the bones up close and personal.

Joey's turn!
Aunt Lindsay and Uncle Brady were wonderful camping and hiking buddies. We were so glad they could come with us.

She does not usually get this messy at home when she eats but you can tell she was loving it. What is that saying, "If it does not get all over the place it doesn't belong in your face."

More digging! Their hole was about 12-18 inches deep. This about when the mosquitos started to appear and they must have been having a family reunion because there were tons. We were told that all of the rain had led to an increased number of mosquitos. The river was very high as was the reservoir.

This was the attempt at fishing but the bug were too bad. Also due to the rain the water was really swift moving and very murky. Thursday night I fell asleep, with the window open to our room at Peter's parents house and I listened to Peter and his dad visit while they hunted for nightcrawlers. Peter says that was the first time he remembered doing that with his dad. He had a great time visiting with his dad, thanks Max!

Jon and Grandma making eggs for breakfast!

Joey, Lindsay, and Brady working on cutting up fruit!

The cooks! Peter has these great new sourdough pancakes he got from a guy at Wood Badge (go scouting!). This kind man (Scott) gave us a start and they are absolutely delicious. I had started out helping with the pancakes but ended up on hot chocolate detail. I was entrusted with the eggs eventually.

The visitor's center at Dinosaur National Monument is closed for renovations because the building is structurally unsound. They had pictures and it was bad, cracked beams and foundations. Anyway they have a temporary visitor's center set up but there are not any walls of bones in the rock to see. They have recently found a new quarry and the weekend we were there they decided to let people go up there, with a ranger. It was a short but steep and rocky hike but we made it and it was more than worth it. At one point Jon was hitting what I thought were two rocks together but the ranger pointed out they were actually pieces of fossils that had broken off! It was really fun to see all of these bones everywhere in the rock. They believe they may have found evidence of a new dinosaur and are anxious waiting to get some more bones excavated to prove it.

Reasonable family photo, too bad we are covering up all of the bones. Well there is one that looks like it is sticking staight up from Peter's head.

Arabella did this both times we went hiking.

Joey and Jon completed some little booklets to earn their Junior Ranger and Junior Paleontologist pins. They thought they were pretty neat stuff.

In Vernal, there is a really cool museum that I don't think has been open all that long. There were several hands on exhibits and a lot of great information. We love the giant dinosaurs outside though! Joey is uncovering some bones.

Jon posing with a replica.

Who is that rugged sexy couple?!

Check out that mammoth model! It has hemp for fur that gets replaced every few years because the birds take it for their nests.

I am not a great photographer but the windows made this picture tricky. That is a scale model fo the dinosaur and it was so long. The tail went on forever.

Grandma and Grandpa in the gardens with Arabella. On one side of the building there is a short trail you can walk and there are dinosaurs and benches and a pond. It was beautiful!

They are doing triceratop horns.

Aren't they fierce?!

We spent until Sunday night with Peter's family and then headed to my parent's for some time with my family! It was great to see how all of the kids just keep getting bigger. My niece Calee is going to be taller than me any day now, I am sure of it!

We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House and then had family pictures on Monday night. I loved the colors we wore: black, white, and bright blue obviously. I have such a good looking family!

Grandpa's bug matched the colors so we pulled it out onto the lawn and piled the grandkids in.

Arabella and I were waiting for the other kids to get settled before we placed the babies like her in. Joey held her and did a great job.

We brought Peter's go cart back home with us but we found out that Joey thought it was Grandpa's bug we were bringing home. We have let Joey drive the go cart a few times now and so he is not disappointed anymore.

My sister-in-law Tammy took some adorable pictures of Arabella with these flowers. Tammy has a great eye and a nice camera. Arabella just wanted to eat them.

This last picture was because it was too cute. Brooklyn had worked to load Katelyn, Breesa, and Sadie adn it was quite the workout pulling it on the grass. They looked so cute with their flowers and black and white dresses on.

It was beyond wonderful to get away! We were sad to head back so soon. Peter has been applying to jobs everywhere and Utah is still a possibility. We would love being closer to family but have realized how much we would miss our "family" in Las Vegas. I am hoping to get caught up with life sometime soon so that I will get back to blogging once a week. We are on our countdown to our Nauvoo trip-13 days to go counting the day we fly out! So much to do! I think this is the biggest adventure Peter and I have had since going to Peru and this time we have 3 kids so that alone is an adventure!

Are the onions making you cry?

This is the cute question Joey asked me tonight as I was feeling overwhelmed with life, lack of sleep and was crying while making dinner. Peter was still at the church counting tithing and the boys came into the kitchen and saw that I was crying. They asked why and I told them I was sad that daddy did not have a job so that I had to work more and could not be at home with them as much, which is pretty much the underlying jest of all of my frustrations. Joey offered encouragement by telling me about the job daddy had applied for in California and that we could live there and I could find a new hospital to go to and help people (this was after the onions question). Jon then told me he could make me happy because they had learned about feelings in primary today and that being sad was not a good feeling. He sang me the frowny face song. My problems had not disappeared but it was wonderful to feel so much love from my sweet children and they wanted so badly to make me happy; I could not help but smile. Jon even made a silly face for me. They both asked what they could do to help me and so they set the table and did a great job! I am grateful that I can provide for my family by working and I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for manifesting his love to me through the sweet spirits he entrusted me with. Maybe daddy really will get that job in California but if not maybe one somewhere else. The Lord is working on answering our prayers for that job and it may be a while yet but he answered my prayers so quickly this afternoon and it reminds me of his great power and love.

The other kids

Since the last two posts were about Joey here are a few cute pictures of our other kids what were there names oh Jon and Arabella. Jon has been so funny lately. He is all about spelling his name for people and is getting pretty good at writing it. The n seems to give him some trouble. He is trying to learn how to spell Joey's name. We are going to Utah next week and he asks every time we get in the car if we are going to grandma and grandpa's house. We finally made a countdown chain this morning. Jon is in gymnastics and loving it, he calls it his balance beams. Arabella, is loving to eat real food and is filling out nicely. She had a well check last week and she weigh 17 pounds even and was 26 inches long. She was a trooper with her shots and really did not get too grumpy or sick (except throwing up all of her dinner the first night when I had left the kitchen and did not find it for a few minutes, extra mess!). In the one picture of her in the stroller she has figured out that she can pull herself up and suck on the tray, don't get too close to her she might suck on your face. Yea, she puts everything in her mouth. We love her!

Two Wheels

This is how we spent some of our time yesterday morning. Yes, that is Joey taking off his training wheels and learning to ride a two wheeler.

I don't have pictures of it but this morning when we went out for a ride Joey zipped off. He needed just a little help getting started and then he was off. He gets a little nervous and seems to forget to steer sometimes but we are again so proud of our little Joey!

I am so excited that this video loaded. I have had a terrible time getting videos to load lately so there have not been any.

Proud Preschool Graduate

Joey had preschool graduation last Friday afternoon! Here is our amazing little graduate before graduation.
Don't they look adorable in their caps and sashes.

Joey suprised us by being the one to lead the pledge of allegiance. He did a great job, he spoke loud and clear and held the flag just right! We were so proud, what can I say!

This is Joey with his teacher Miss Sheree and his year end book. They keep all of their homework and class papers and compile them in a folder. It is wonderful! He had so much fun looking through it with us and showing us his favorite papers!

The kids sang two songs for us with actions!

Joey with his whole class. He had a great class and loved playing with his classmates. I hope we will see some of them in Kindergarten in the fall.

Joey had to have one more with Miss Sheree. We let Joey choose how we celebrated and so we went to "the ice cream store" (Coldstone). They were pointing to all different flavors saying they wanted all of them but gratefully choosing the mix in was a little easier. The girl that served us said that most kids don't get so excited. What can I say, our boys enjoy things to the fullest and are not afraid to share and show it!