OH NO!!!! I'VE BECOME MY PARENTS......

Took the kids to Lagoon yesterday. We spent 11 HOURS there and yes, it was 100 degrees. Don't ask me what I was thinking. We actually did really good. Everyone "wilted" around 4:30 or so. That's when we left to go get drinks at the Chevron down the street. Then everyone was ready to go again. We have never stayed open to close. It was pretty fun. I'm so proud of DJ - he actually went on all the scary rides with his BFF Andrew. He was so terrified, but realized that it wasn't so bad. Does anyone remember when we were kids and we went to Lagoon with Mom and Dad? Remember how they just liked to walk around Pioneer Village, see the shows and maybe ride the train? We thought they were boring because they wouldn't ride rides with us? I AM SO THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!! What has happened to me? I'm getting old!!!

Camping

Ok, Rebecca. Since you are DYING to see my camping pictures, here they are!! : )
We didn't really get great pictures, but here are a few.

Thanks for letting us use the camper Grandpa and Grandma! We promise it is much cleaner than this now!

Good thing we bought this screen tent. We would have been eaten alive!

The two pirates sword fighting. This kept these two entertained almost the whole trip. I've never seen them play so well together for so long.

Not sure I want to know what he is thinking of doing with that ax!

Taking the dog for a walk.

We got to camp right next to the lake. Really nice spot. Did quite a bit of fishing. In four days we caught 35 fish altogether. (We catch and release - we did not eat 35 fish!!) Best fishing we have ever had. Jarod caught the very first fish. Poor Dean didn't get to fish much because all he did was re-bait the kids poles! We had a great time. Can't wait to head out again!!

Road Trip Again

Sunday we decided to take another road trip. Apparently we just can't get enough of being in the car so off we went. Drove up Parley's Canyon, through Kamas and picked up hwy 150. We were actually looking for some new places to go camping. We just about gave up because all the camp sites were kind of boring. Then we found the Provo Falls. These water falls are really cool. It almost looks like they are running down man made steps. It didn't take Jarod long to get soaked. That child!!!! First he just wanted to touch the waterfall. How cool is that to be able to get close enough to just put your hand right in. Before long he was climbing all over the place. These falls are cool because there are "steps" all around them that you can climb all over. Or just climb right in them, as a couple of guys we saw were doing. Of course, I had to just shut my eyes because I was sure Jarod was going to go right down the river, but he is a great climber! Just down the road we found some great campsites: Trial Lake, Washington Lake, Mirror Lake. We had heard of these but never knew where they were. So this week we are headed out!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple

We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house tonight. DJ had never been to a temple before because he had strep when we went the the Draper temple, so he was really excited to go.

Our guide was a sister missionary named Sister Azzaya. She is from . . . . .Ulaanbaatar!! Cool, huh. She has been here for 11 months so Mom and Dad would not have met her, but we wondered if they might know her family. They live in the new stake there in Mongolia. Look them up and tell them your daughter met their daughter. She was really cute and spoke very good english. Funny how many connections we find between here and Mongolia these days.

Cherries anyone?

We planted a cherry tree when we moved into our house seven years ago. It has never produced more than a handful of cherries, and they were kind of yucky. We decided that our tree was just for decoration, not for produce. Imagine our surprise when we returned from our trip and found a tree COVERED with beautiful red cherries! The birds haven't gotten them, no bug bites, just yummy cherries! The kids climbed up and picked these two buckets full. And that's only about the bottom 1/4 of the tree. We are going to have to get a ladder to get the rest. We have never trimmed this tree because we never expected any produce! I guess all this rain is good for something!

Day 13 - Home Sweet(?) Home

Well, arriving home wasn't quite the sweet experience we were looking for. The kids ran in the house expecting to see a very excited puppy waiting for them only to find an empty house. We looked all over - no Joey. We had been gone two weeks, and on the day we were to arrive back he decided to run away! The night was spent with tears and we were worried that the good memories of our trip would be replaced with sad ones of a lost dog. Thank goodness for happy endings. A trip to the animal shelter this morning found our little dog scared and stressed but ok. And VERY excited to see his family. If we thought we was glued to Lindsie's side before . . .

One last picture. This was taken at breakfast before the last (BORING) leg home. If I thought Day 12 was boring, man yesterday had it beat by a long shot. The beginning parts of our drive were so pretty that they just flew by. But the road home felt like forever. Not sure why Heavenly Father created Nevada. Jarod insisted that I blog this picture, so here you go. End of vacation!! We're sad that it's over, but glad to be home. Now to tackle the laundry . . . .

What do you think Rebecca? Should we have a contest to see who can finish first?

Day 12 - BLAH

Nothing to blog today. I'm sorry, Nevada just isn't pretty. Not much to take pictures of. We just sat in the car and drove and drove and drove and. . . . it was boring. All of our drives have been 5-6 hours each, but this one felt like 12 hours at least. We are sitting here in a dumpy hotel in Winnemucca (we have been spoiled getting great deals on nicer hotels) just waiting for morning so we can get home.

On a brighter note . . . you gotta love dramamine!!! I'll bet you have never had as quiet a drive as we had today! Kids were out almost the whole way. Of course, they will probably be up all night now, but that's ok cuz then they'll sleep all day tomorrow too! : )

Tomorrow . . . .HOME!! YAY!!! Vacations are great, but after two weeks of hotel hopping my bed sounds so heavenly.

Here's a picture from the Oregon coast so you can have something pretty to look at. We sure didn't today ; )