River Rafting

Every year we try to go down to the Provo River once or twice since we get to go for free with Spencer as our guide!

We took Sadie and Kate last year, but Jason, Cooper and Khyler hadn't ever been, so after a few scheduling conflicts, we finally found a day to make it work!

The day we went up it was SOOOO busy.  They had so many people wanting to go down the river, they were almost an hour behind schedule.  The kids were incredibly patient and mostly just played in the water and talked about their cool life jackets and swim suits.

The kids all took turns being in charge of rowing the boat which they thought was pretty cool (after forcing them to release their death grip on the boat and walk up to Spencer, that is)  :)

 Kate

 Khyler

 Sadie

Cooper

We had a good time floating down until the weather suddenly turned cold, windy and rainy!  Spencer had to row as hard and fast as his arms could handle to try and get us down faster so we could miss the worst of it.  Thankfully he's pretty tough  :)



The kids got a lot more brave the longer we were on the river and we had a great time!

Baby Food Fail

 Afton tried rice cereal for the first time a couple months ago but I forgot to blog about it!  

 She thought the spoon was pretty neat, but wasn't so sure about what was on it.

And don't let that smile fool you...  She HATES it. 

Bear Lake & Fishing . . .but not at the same place

As a little tradition in my family, sometime during the summer, the girls and kids all go up to Michelle's condo in Bear Lake and the boys go on a fishing trip.  

My mom and Taylor drove up to Bear Lake with me (thank heaven!) so I had someone in the back with my kids during the 3 hour drive.  We left right at Afton's nap time and she made it all the way into Logan canyon before waking up to eat and then fell back asleep for the last half hour!  Sadie was plenty entertained with her V-Smile, books, DVD player and Taylor sitting next to her.

We had a good time at the condo and we really didn't even do much!

We watched movies, played games, went to the pool, and ate and ate and ate!  We even went into town for a famous raspberry shake.  :)

 

Afton had a pretty hard time sleeping in the new environment so she wasn't the happiest camper, but thankfully she slept through the nights once I finally got her down around midnight. The trip home was a little more exciting... if that's what you call it.  Sadie got sick in Logan canyon and threw up about an hour into the trip, and my mom was feeling like throwing up the whole way home.  Poor girls.  Thankfully we made it home without any other problems.



Spencer, meanwhile, was hanging with my brothers, dad and nephews doing all sorts of boy type things.

They went on lots of hikes, caught a lot of very little fish, drove through a crazy storm that turned into a mudslide and seriously almost drove Spencer's truck off a cliff in the mud! Yikes!

It was weird not being able to even talk to Spencer for 3 straight days.  Their cabin was in the middle of nowhere and had no cell service for hours around, so it was nice for all of us to get away, but even nicer to come home.  We missed daddy and he missed his girls!

Perspective

I'm feeling particularly grateful to be a mom right now. 

Ruby was born just a couple weeks before Afton, so maybe that's why I feel so drawn to their story.  Maybe it's because they have 2 little girls, both about my kids' ages.  Maybe it's because Afton spent a few days in the hospital for RSV.  (And yes, I know that pales in comparison to the struggles they had with their sweet baby) but I know a teeny tiny bit of that pain.  The pain of helplessness.

Check out their story and say a prayer for them.  And then say one thanking God for how incredibly blessed you really are.

http://aniandmatttaylor.blogspot.com/

Oh how I love my two littles.

Grad-je-way-shun

Crystal graduated from Utah College of Massage Therapy today!

She is now Crystal McCune, LMT and she is officially the only massage therapist you should ever go see.

 receiving her diploma

Crystal was basically born to do this and we're so proud of her for sticking with it over the last year.  It's been a crazy year with lots of ups and downs, but she made it and it's all worth it!

 

Cryst with some of her instructors

She was actually voted the person in class that every other student wanted to get a massage from.  Did you read that correctly?  The ONLY PERSON that EVERY other student wanted to go see.  Remember how I said she was born to do this?

Congratulations Crystal!  We're so proud of you and can't wait to see your new career take off!

p.s. call or text me if you're interested in a massage!  She has seriously killer prices for the quality of work she does.