4th of July

Usually for the fourth of July, we go to the Gorge with my family, but this year we decided to go for the 24th instead. We hadn't been to visit Vance's dad yet this year, so we thought we would take this opportunity of a 3 day weekend to do so. He lives in Rock Springs, WY which is about 35 minutes away from the north end of the Gorge so we went boating all day Friday. It was a lot of fun. I can't help but laugh everytime I see his boat because it was given to him by my dad because it was our old family boat. When we gave it to him, the boat hadn't been used for a few years, and the last time we used it, I swear it was going to fall apart if it hit another wave (at least that's what it felt like!) Apparently, it wasn't in as bad of condition as I thought because it did pretty good! However, there were a lot of boats out so we hit waves like crazy, many times of which I thought for sure the boat was going to flip! It was quite scary at times. In fact it made me so nervous I refused to let go of Isaac the whole time and I made sure Vance had Mason good. (I think I was the only one who was nervous at all the entire time. It's just me. I can't help but worry too much all the time.) We went tubing for most of the time, and then attempted to go cliff diving but were unable to find a safe enough spot. I was not able to get pictures of people tubing because I was too busy watching where the boat was going and holding on to Isaac for dear life! J/K!!! This first picture is when we stopped for lunch on the shore and I laid Isaac down for a minute while we got lunch ready.

This was Mason almost the ENTIRE time on the boat (which was pretty much the whole day). He had to be in his daddy's arms or he flipped out. When Vance took his turn on the tube, Mason cried. When Vance got out to go cliff diving, Mason cried, etc... This picture was taken when we got back in the boat after lunch so he didn't quite have his life jacket on yet, but I promise both kids had life jackets on the entire time in the boat. He was also very tired and hot, so that didn't help him have a fun time at all. He was like this the entire trip though. I have NEVER seen him cry in his whole two years of life as much as he did in these 3 days of our trip. It was horrible.

Here is Vance checking the depth of the water before they jumped in. (Doesn't this look a little familiar?! Maybe he did learn something from getting the jeep stuck after all!) Unfortunately there was a shelf of rocks that came out too far so it was not very safe to jump.

I know this life jacket looks a little too big on him, but it's the only "infant" one I could find. It didn't seem as big as this picture makes it look.

On Saturday, we went for a drive up to the top of the plateau. One of my favorite parts of the trip was seeing the wild horses.

Everyone climbed to the top of Pilot Butte except me and the kids. I did not have the right shoes, and it would of been impossible to get the kids to the top and back down safely anyways.

Mason running up the hill after his daddy.

After climbing Pilot Butte we went target shooting with some 22's.

Beautiful Rock Springs!

Here is Vance fixing his dad's truck. What a hottie!!!!

Later that night, we went to the firework show. It was a whole different experience, and I loved it! Since the big fireworks are not illegal in Wyoming, everyone was lighting their own fireworks before and after the main show. So we would look across the whole valley and there were fireworks everywhere, along with right above our head from people doing it that were right by us. It lasted forever and it was way fun. Mason was in amazement the entire time and he just cuddled up to me on the blanket and didn't move until it was over. That was the one thing that entertained him the most on the trip. Sunday we woke up and went to church, got packed up, and traveled home.

Woodland Park

One Sunday after church, Vance and I were aching to get out of the house and get some fresh air. With Vance working tons of over time right now, and then coming straight home to do homework, we don't get out much anymore. Anyways, we decided to go to Woodland Park in Farmington. It ended up being the perfect spot for some great pictures. I know I post a ton of pictures, but WE LOVE PICTURES!!! Besides, I would rather have a posting that has too many pictures vs too many words. So...here we go! Here are some pictures Vance took that I thought were pretty cool! What do you think?

I ended up going back a few days later with the kids and my two sisters-in-law, Steph and Chloe. They spent a few crazy days at my house and we had a lot of fun together! Since Vance was not there to help me with the camera (we've had the thing for over a year, and I still don't know how to work most of the settings), I had to figure it out on my own. I tried taking some cool pics like Vance's but I won't bore you with that attempt. Instead I spent most of my time on my kids. It was not the best location for baby pictures so unfortunately I favored pictures of Mason, but we had fun and he was being pretty cooperative so I couldn't pass up the opportunity.Mason's pants kept falling down so he kept tripping on them. It was pretty funny!

This was the best picture I could get of them both together. By this time, Mason was done cooperating :0) I have no idea why Isaac's hair is combed over. It was not done on purpose, and it looks kind of silly :o]

Primary Activity, and Vance's Not-So Amazing and Not-So 4X4 Jeep Ride!!

A few weeks ago (on Sat. June 27th), we had a Primary water activity. The kids had a lot of fun as they made ice cream, did obstacle courses with the water toys, and had water fights with eachother, and the teachers! I was not expecting to get wet, but I got the shock of my life as I was helping kids go down the water slide. A kid in my class from last year threw a huge bucket of FREEZING COLD water on me!!!! I couldn't help but laugh and play it off - it was pretty funny! But deep inside, I was not too happy!! I am a huge woss (however you spell that), I will full out admit it! Cold water is not my thing! Anyways, overall we all had a lot of fun...especially Mason!

Later that day we went to Tooele to spend the evening with some of Vance's family. Originally, we were supposed to be going on a double date with Ben and Mal, but we were unable to find a sitter, so instead we went up the canyon by their house. We wanted to go rock climbing, but were unable to find a place safe and convenient enough so we decided to go on a hike instead. We ended up hiking along the stream up a side canyon. There were layers, and layers of waterfalls. It was gorgeous. It was a difficult climb for Vance and I since we had Isaac and Mason to carry most of the way, which made it impossible to take pictures like I wanted. We had to climb up the sides of the waterfall so it was kind of crazy, but GORGEOUS!!! We are planning on going back real soon to get family pictures done by the first set of falls. Ben and Chloe went up a litter further than the rest of us because it was just getting to hard with the kids. Me and Mal with all the kids.

After we got done with the hike, Vance decided to go hit some "puddles" before we headed off to dinner. This was the result...

Sometimes Vance likes to "think" our jeep is 4 wheel drive when it really isn't!! This is the beautiful truck that I flagged down to pull us out. It was kind of funny because an older, smaller truck was right in front of it as they passed us, and I waited for it to pass so I could flag the big truck to stop. Well, they were travelling together, so they both ended up stopping. I kind of felt bad!

He yanked us out of there so fast, the jeep almost tipped over.

Vance should of done this BEFORE he drove through the puddle instead of afterwards!! The funny thing is, is that before we went on the hike, Vance drove through a different puddle, and Chloe warned him to check the depth of puddles before you drive through them because her and Phil have gotten stuck this same way. But of course...he didn't listen!!!!

The kids entertained themselves quite well through this whole ordeal! Mason was almost as muddy as the jeep by the time it was all over!

When I first walked up and saw what Vance had done, my jaw just hit the floor. But, as things started turning around, I found it just as funny as everyone else did! Thank goodness everything turned out just fine and the jeep continued to run! Thank you to the men that generously pulled over and pulled us out!!!! Hopefully Vance learned his lesson. We'll see!!!!!!! I love you babe!!!!!!!!!!!!!