Lake Mary

We hiked to the first lake above Brighton. It was about 3 miles round trip and it was tough. The kids were tired and more whiny than usual. Ezra was carried about half the way and mooks threatened to jump out of the backpack about 10 times. There was a lot of crying and screaming and there was much rejoicing when we made it back down. Tom came with us and taught us a few interesting geology facts and let the kids look at rocks through his rock magnifying thingy. That's the scientific name for it.

Cagey is 7!!

These are the only decent pictures I got. Maybe I should use the camera instead of just my phone. Nahhh. Cagey is hilarious and random. He decided he wanted a huge cinnamon roll cake for his birthday so that is what he got. I made a hellacious mess making that thing, but it turned out pretty good. Cagey always asks for a piñata and he finally got his disc this year. I had to throw in the pic of my bro-in-law standing in his best work stance.

This post is entitled Oregon is awesome

We said goodbye to Great Grandpa- Stanly O, we'll miss you grandpa.

We swam in the hotel pool- the only thing the kids ever wanted to do.

The most awesome picnic ever- the temperature in the shade was probably 65.

I'm behind a waterfall yo.

We hiked around Silver creek falls and this was only one of the waterfalls there.

The kids behind the waterfall in the "cave"ish things. These pics turned out either way too dark or blown out.

The group- minus me.

Cagey finally lost his tooth- last night in Oregon.

Taylor playing in the shortest river. D river I think.

Jeebs- cheesy grin- but really he's right where he wants to be.

Caleb, Taylor and Cagey running from the waves.

Ezra on the coast.

This is on the way home. We went through Bend, Oregon. We went up Pilot Butte and this is the view. Those are volcanoes in the background- the cascade mountains, but I think it's cooler to call them volcanoes.

Detroit Dam- letting water over the spillway. This makes my lips numb.

Detroit- dam, this picture doesn't even come close to doing the scenery justice!

They're very health conscious in Oregon

We got Ezra a happy meal after he hurt his arm today. Hopefully, it's not broken, but he still can't use it and he says "that one hurts," every time he has to put it through a shirt. So happy meal medicine is good for it though, right? We never eat at McDonald's so this may be everywhere- but apparently momma fries and daddy fries got busy and had baby fries. That is the tiniest order of fries I've ever seen!

Great grandpa's carousel

We are in Oregon for grandpa's funeral. I only knew him a short time, but it's still never fun at funerals. We found out today that he would always take his great grand kids for rides on the carousel when they would come visit. We never got out here to visit with our kids so we joined some of the other great grand kids and went for a ride. What a great legacy he has left behind .

Hiking in the rain

Today's hike got a little wet. Ezra ended up in my extra shirt and even Cagey was being a scallywag. This was up American Fork canyon on the Timpooneke trail. We were trying to make it to scout falls. We saw a waterfall, but there was no sign soooo I have no idea if we made it or not. We did 2 and a half miles so at least we went the distance. I can't wait to go to the timpanogos cave!

My alma mater

We found ourselves on BYU campus this week. I can't believe it's been 8 years since I graduated. I'm old. It's even weirder to have my 4 children and my nephews eating in the cougar eat with us. All I kept thinking about was how all the girls at BYU say "cAHmpas" and how I was back on "cAhmpus".

Going for gusto

I let the kids grind wheat by hand on Sunday while we sang our pioneer songs. I never call on my own kids to do anything so cagey insisted on grinding wheat when we got home. Monday he wanted to make bread but we needed a lot more flour than he had already ground. Sooo he went for it and we ground all our wheat for bread by hand. Rough stuff. Cagey was super into it.

We're becoming addicts...

For fhe last night we drove up American fork canyon to cascade springs. It's a really short hike, but oh so pretty up there. We haven't been up there since the wind-y wind-y pukey pukey incident when Taylor was about 3. We went to cabellas before heading up and the kids have decided they want camelbacks. Taylor says she won't complain if she gets one.... Hmmm

Cecret lake

We hiked to cecret lake in little cottonwood canyon today. It's by far the prettiest hike we've done. The kids were promised 5 lifesavers at the end of the hike if they didn't complain- they lost 1 lifesaver per complaint. Cagey got all his lifesavers and Taylor and Ezra got 4 because they fought about something.

We got up to the lake and there was snow! The kids were so excited to see snow in July. I can't get enough of the mountains or hiking- I don't know why we didn't do this sooner.

Ripping it for 30 days

I believe today or tomorrow will be 30 days of ripped. Hoorah! Am I ripped? Not really, but I have lost 6 pounds and 1/4 to 1/2 inches off of all my measurements. Soooo i'll take it. I have to say I'm pretty sure it wasn't the workouts, it was more paying attention to every single morsel of food I put into my pie hole. Ok this is for red because I know she's watching me. Anybody else feel free to look away. First pic was taken 30 days ago and the second I think I took yesterday.

I'm watching how it's made

And I couldnt think of a title for this post so that will have to do. My kids love to watch how it's made- but this is about our fourth. We had a good time walking up to our ward breakfast and bike parade. Even though I later threw away almost a whole crockpot full of food. The kids had fun decorating their scooters for the parade and Ezra told me after I was done decorating his, "it's beautiful."

Later we had BBQ with my family and it was awesome sauce even though again I threw away a whole big bowl of potato salad because I was the only one that liked mayonnaise potato salad and alas this big bum does not need mayonnaise potato salad. That was a run on sentence kids. And yes- I know Obama- more food was thrown away than a third world country sees in a year. We ended our celebration with some rain of fire after a fountain fell over and showered us with flaming balls. Good times.

Fun and fashion

We went to boondocks today and the kids had a blast. They all got to do the bumper boats while I stayed with the mooks. Don't worry I got to drive a go kart. Jeebs said to me he always wanted a go kart. Yeah- no shiz Sherlock- we all wanted go karts growing up. Oh and this is my favorite fashion item of the moment- an infinity scarf with a cool Navajo looking print and it was only $13. Also I had purple lips today. Jeebs said I looked like I was being suffocated so I wiped it off. Sadness- I like purple lips.