Pioneer Day Parade

We celebrated the 24th of July with Chuck running the Ivins 5 mile fun run, attending the Ivins City parade, taking a trip to Pine Valley, playing at the splash park and lighting fireworks. The morning began early for Chuck who had to be at the starting line by 5:45 a.m., especially since Isaac was up until 1:00 a.m. crying the night before. The race circled through Kayenta so Amber and Samuel were out to cheer daddy on as he passed by our home. There weren’t many participants so Chuck took first, second and thrid in his age category. Chuck knew once he entered the older age division he would improve his finish!

All of us at the parade.

There was candy mayhem in front of us when the guys on St. George’s football team dumped a whole bag of candy right in the middle of the street. All the kids ran into the street causing the parade to come to a stand still as they gathered all the candy. Somehow Samuel managed to come back with only peppermints. (I guess he must like them or no one else did!)

Samuel loved the firetrucks and was especially excited to see Smokey Bear. When we were at Fish Lake he got a comic book about forest fires and Smokey Bear. He loves us to read this to him.

Bella’s favorite part of the parade was seeing the horses. She got very excited and would point and wave whenever a horse passed by.

Pioneer Day - Pine Valley and Splash Park

After the parade we drove to Pine Valley - escape from the heat. We thought about fishing and hiking, but just ended up having a picinic and playing in the stream near the little waterfall we like to go to. The water was really cold, so the kids didn't spend much time in the stream. They were excited to see a potgut and were following it all around.

(We tried at least 5 different times to get a shot of all of us on this rock by the little waterfall. It was too difficult for me to hold all three kids on this rock and keep them from falling in so Chuck would push the button on the camera, run up the little hill, grab Bella from the bank and try to make it in the picture. The last try I finally got a firm hold on all three so it should have been easy, but wouldn't you know Chuck fell out of the picture into the stream. I was laughing and we just gave it up!)







We also went to the splash park later in the afternoon. It was a really hot day so this was a great activity to cool off. Chuck kept saying he couldn’t believe that he could be cold when it was around 107 degrees outside, but the slight breeze was freezing him and poor Bella was just shivering! (Yes, we really are desert rats!)

Pioneer Day - Fireworks

Later that evening we set off the remainder of the fireworks. Samuel was excited for the smoke bombs, probably because they make no noise.

Chuck set off one firework that we’re not sure how it could have been legal! It was like a big ball of flame and was still burning after the sparks stopped.

All three were in tears after the noise. The kids moved indoors and watched the last couple of fireworks with the door closed to muffle the noise. It was an eventful day and we all had a great time!

Kids Update

Isaac holding his head up so good.

My only baby that hasn't taken a binkie. I've tried to get him hooked on the binkie, but he likes his thumb. Unfortunately when he's really upset he forgets about his thumb and just cries.

This week he started bringing toys to his mouth and sampling their taste. I just have to watch the other kids because they like to give him things to "eat".




It rained a couple of evenings this week. Chuck always hates it when it rains - and especially doesn't like to hear anyone in church praying for rain! The problem is everytime it rains here in Ivins there is flooding and big problems. Ivins seems to make the news everytime we get a little rainstorm. The city is working on getting a new stormdrain in, but it isn't quite done yet, so the flooding continues. Just look at that nice red dirt!

The cloudy day made for some good photography practice. Samuel is my little guinea pig as long as I reward him afterward with some treat.

The beautiful long eyelashes - why do the boys get them!



I had to take this picture of Bella with her curly hair done. She only looks like this for about 5 minutes each day and the rest of the day she is my little rag muffin. She pulls her bows out, messes up her hair and constantly has dirt on her face. I just can't keep her put together!

We had these bug traps behind our toliet and yes, Bella managed to get her hand stuck to it. Don't ask me what she was doing playing around behind the toliet!

Bella has been really interested in going potty lately. The other day she did not want me to put her diaper back on and was throwing a giant fit. The funny thing is that she has learned to go potty by watching Samuel and is slightly confused about the difference between girls and boys! She tries to push down a body part she doesn't have and gets pee pee on her hand everytime.

This is what Bella did to herself while we were trying to get ready for church. She found the markers and wrote all over herself. She was in the spare bedroom and thankfully she just wrote on herself and not on my beautiful bedspread!


Play Time

Samuel loves building big towers. Bella likes to get in on the action, but can really make Samuel mad when she knocks the tower down.

Samuel and Bella played in this big box for about 1/2 hour without having any fights - which is a miracle! Samuel is really bossy and Bella tires of him telling her what to do rather quickly. Then Samuel gets upset because Bella won't do what he says and pretty soon everyone is upset. But despite the strong personalities they still enjoy playing together!

Samuel discovered that the magneatos could stick to Bella's hairclip and thought it was so funny to hang one from her head.

Fun With Fireworks

These are some neat pictures I took while having Chuck write our names with a sparkler. I checked out a photography book from the library that got me excited about trying some new things. This was one of my photographic experiments. Good thing Chuck is talented with the sparklers!





When we came in from doing our sparkler experiment I was walking across the kitchen floor and almost stepped on this little guy. We had the sliding glass door open and he just came on inside. It is amazing how well he blends with the concrete floor. We were sad the kids weren't awake because they would have loved seeing a frog in the house! The funny thing is I told Samuel the next morning that a frog had come in our house and he looked at me and said, "How did he come in, did he open the door?"

Fish Lake Vacation

We spent a week at Fish Lake with Grandpa Clayton, Grandma Jerri Lynn, Wes, Trina and baby Kambree.

We rented a cabin with two bedrooms and a loft (a huge improvement from the last time we stayed in a cabin at Fish Lake – who could forget the mice running around!). The only bad thing about the cabin was the steep death stairs to the loft. They were so steep we didn’t dare let the kids climb them by themselves, especially Bella.






Samuel loved being on the boat, driving with Grandpa, helping catch fish, eating treats and squirting all of us with Grandma’s cooling fan. He was so sad when we had to leave for home!

As usual, we didn’t catch the big one, but had fun catching a few small perch. One day we loaded up the boat and drove to Otter Creek because Grandpa had heard good stories of great fishing. The wind was really blowing so it made fishing hard, but Grandpa managed to catch one nice rainbow.



The first night Bella loved the boat, but was making us all nervous by hanging over the edges. By the end of the week she was crying when we boarded the boat and everytime we talked about getting on the boat she would say NO! She just didn’t like wearing the lifejacket!


Dad, Trina and I bushwacked it through the undergrowth to get a picture of a moose in the lake. We actually got quite a bit closer than this, but then the moose started heading for shore so Trina and I got moving.

Isaac's Baby Blessing - July 6th

Celebrating Isaac's special day!