Zion National Park

We spent a long weekend. with our good friends the Milam's, in Zion National Park.  We camped in Springdale and shuttled our way to the park everyday.  We hiked in beautiful landscapes, sang songs on the bus and roasted marshmallows.  We attempted to roast my homemade marshmallows, but we did not have success.  They sort of melted of the stick.  I did buy some sugar free marshmallows online that roasted quite nicely. Between the two families there were 12 children and 4 adults.  We got a lot of comments and looks.  One guy thought they were all mine.  Phew!  Can you imagine having that many so close together?  I have a deep respect for my mother in law and the Dugger family.

The Milam's used to be our some what neighbors here in Utah.  We got to know them through our homeschool group and ended up spending a lot of time with them.  While I was going through my 2 years of struggle (hard pregnancy and care giving for Melissa while she had cancer) Sonya Milam really took care of me and the kids.  She would show up at my house with her big van, come in my house and say "who wants to go to my house?!"  Of course all the kids took off running and were in the car before I could say "would you like to go?".  All of our kids get a long like a dream and have so much fun together.  They eventually made their way to Colorado.  It was so nice to be with them last week.  We had a grand time.

 This is the second hike we did called Angles Landing.  It was very steep, but so amazing.  Aaron took Aiden to the very top, while I stayed behind with the others at the first stop.  To get to the very top, you had to go through a series of chain led narrow paths with steep drop offs.  Aiden was very excited that he got to go.

Aaron hiking with Eva to Angles Landing

This picture is a little bit of an optical illusion.  I'm standing at the top of this trail and taking a picture looking down.  You can't see the whole trail.  Do you get an idea of how steep this was?

Looking out from the top

Here is Aiden along the Narrows trail.  We did not do the entire Narrows.  It's a hike that requires a permit because of the difficulty. We just hiked the mile to the beginning.

 Here are all of our kids together, minus Eva, she was asleep on Aaron's back as seen below.

The kids checking out the Virgin River.

Me and Aaron on the Hidden Canyon East Rim trail.

 The canyons were amazing.

This picture turned out a little blurry, but all the kids were looking at the camera!

Sonya was the only adult that could keep up with the kids.  Here she is with all the kids trailing behind her.

Before we all drove away toward home, we took some pictures with our buddies.

Here are Tanner, Sierra and Robyn.

Sierra and Robyn

Sophia, Emma and Savannah

Aiden and Henry

Mosiah and Eva

 

Sonya and me

Looks like we missed a picture of Aaron and Tom...

WAY TOO LONG!!

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since April!  Where have I been?!  Well I could tell you.  It might take a few posts.  We have had visitors and have been working really hard in our yard though you probably couldn't tell just by looking at it. 

My amazing sister, Gwen and her wonderful family came to visit for a whole week!  It was wonderful to have them around and be with family. While they were here we went to Park city to ride on the Alpine Slides and for the fourth we ran in the Freedom run marathon.  Nate did the 10K while the rest of us did the 1 mile fun run.  I know, only a mile you ask...I did it with Eva on my back and little people trailing behind.  Does that count?  If not, it doesn't matter, we had a great time!

During that time, my dear friend's son, Josh, came to live with us for a few weeks before he shipped off to boot camp this summer.  I can't believe I used to babysit him when he was a small fry and now he is all grown up!!  He helped us in the yard and gave Aiden a temporary big brother.  Aiden was (and is) so sad to see him go. 

Before he left we picked up another friend's niece who is from France.  Carole came here to practice her English and to help with the kids.  She was so nice to have around as well and was a lot of fun.  We took her all over the Salt Lake Valley. 

I also went on a weekend trip to Washington to attend the spreading of ashes of my dear friend Melissa.  It played on my emotions as we drove through the beautiful scenery of the Western Washington country side and into the beautiful Lake Chelan region where, as children, Melissa and I spent a lot of time camping and swimming with her family.  So many memories flooded into my memory and reminded me how much our friendship meant to me. 

I've also been madly working on a few flower girl dresses for my sister in law Sharon's wedding coming up (pictures will be posted soon, they turned out so cute!!).  Now I'm painting Aiden's/ the guest rooms only to host another set of people.  Aaron's brother Steve and his family are coming to stay with us for the wedding.  I'm so excited to have them come to get a chance to know them a little more.  They got married after we moved to Utah so I haven't had the chance to get to know them as a couple.

Not to mention trying to keep up with the schooling. I am so glad that I am well enough to keep up with all this!!

Aiden with his cousin Max getting ready to brave the slide down the mountain.

Here we are with Josh (next to Aaron) after our first marathon at Freedom days in Provo.

My kids with their Boyack cousins

With Carole at Stewart Falls 

Yes, I know, but Carole really needed an American experience 

Here  I am with my family!! Tim (aka Dad), Dan, Erik, Ron, myself, Gwen and Helen (aka Mom).  I got to be with ALL of them while I was there for a weekend in July

Myself with the Waller family at Melissa and Mary's (Melissa's mom who died and had her ashes spread in the same location) spot on Lake Chelan.

Sewing strike...ya right!

So I told myself about 2 months ago that I was going on a "sewing strike" because I did so much sewing I found myself really not liking it at all. HAHA, well it worked for about 2 months give or take a few days. I'm starting to feel the sewing fire building under my creative soul after going to a few quilt shops with my mom last week. My favorite shop for ideas is a little nook of a shop in Gardener village called Pine Needles. They have a lovely array of adorable patterns along with the best selection of fabric I have seen. They don't have a lot of fabric, but I would use pretty much any fabric from that store. With Christmas fastly approaching, I am getting the desire to make home made gifts for everyone, but then I remember that I have 5 kids and I am homeschooling them and we might possibly be moving in October and have all the other tasks a mother has and so my list of sewing begins to shrink.

I did have a lovely time visiting with my mother for a week. We had many great conversations about life, religion and family stories. We went to the Salt Lake cemetery, pioneer museum, we went thrift and fabric shopping, to the Utah State Fair, we went on a fun bike ride through our little town, my mom had more energy than myself (for those of you who have known me since childhood would know that my energy was a little on the high end so this is saying a lot for my mom) I'm so proud of my mom and am so grateful for the loving kind woman she is. For all that she taught me and loving me when I wasn't a lovable person.

Alyssa

After the reunion we had our niece Alyssa stay with us for a week. We made a quilt, did some school and took a tour of the conference center. It was great to have her with us :)

Aiden, Robyn, Gwen and I on the roof of the conference center.

Alyssa and Robyn on the roof of the conference center
Trying to get a picture of the etched art on marble. It's really wonderful how you can see your reflection with all the people. It makes the quote personal. I don't know the red head...he got in the way, oh well. :)

Liz, Jake and Maeve

Every June my good friend Liz brings her kids for the Suzuki Violin camp held at the school behind my house. I used to babysit her kids when they were babies and now they are so grown up! Here's some pictures...

Jake, Maeve, Robyn, Aiden and Emma

Jake, Robyn, Aiden, Maeve holding Gwen, Emma