Bryce Canyon

 

Our oldest son loves to do anything scouts and Bryce Canyon was having an annual Astronomy festival last weekend; we decided to take him down so he could get his Astronomy merit badge earned and enjoy a little family vacation too. I remember going to Bryce Canyon as a kid, but it has been years since I have been there.  We have some very beautiful places in Utah and are very lucky to be able to visit them without driving very far. 

One of my favorite pictures of all 3 kids while we were hiking to Queen Victoria's Garden.                    

 They have a place they call Old Bryce Town. They have some little shops and these fun little things to take pictures. The funniest was when Tyler decided to get in the head pictures and didn't realize he was in the head of the lady.

Cory & Tyler

Don & Joslyn

One of the hoodoos that reminded me of prairie dogs.

When we had gone to a little hike the night before we went on this hike, the park Ranger told the kids that the hoodoos were formed from people being greedy and a coyote turned them to stone. The whole time we were hiking down in Joslyn was worried that we might see the coyote and she would be turned to stone.

 The kids were also able to build model rockets and get to shoot them off. They had fun watching the rockets. Tyler's flew into the trees behind where we were and had to go searching. I packed Don's parachute too tight so it didn't come out when it should have. Joslyn's parachute came off in flight, but luckily her rocket survived the landing.

Another Owlz Game

My husband's friend had given us tickets for Saturday's game awhile back. Last time we went the boys couldn't get any autographs from the players. My husband found out from calling, you can go to batting practice at 5:30 and the kids can take any of the balls hit over the fence.

Joslyn with Hootz

We also discovered the players will give your kids autographs before the game and be very polite.

The kids waiting for autographs, Ty talking to

one of the players

My Tyler is usually very shy and will not talk to anyone. My oldest Don will talk to anyone. Not this night. The roles were very reversed. Tyler was going to get the players autographs. He likes one of the players named Tyler Mann, since they have the same name. He waited all night to get his autograph.

Ty about falling in the dugout

He was one of the last players to come out and Tyler was hanging out over the dugout watching for him. When he came out he started yelling "Tyler Mann," several times. One of the other players had taken Tyler's ball for him and sat it in the dugout for Mann to sign. He couldn't find it so he went out on the field to find the player and ask where his ball was. He asked Tyler if he wanted to have the other players in the dugout sign the ball too. He was very cute with our son. I loved how sweet the players were to our kids.

Tyler Mann

Tyler Mann getting Ty's ball signed for him

Tyler so proud of his signed baseball that he got

from batting practice

They made a definite fan out of me and my kids.

Fiesta Days Rodeo

I have always loved rodeo's. I don't know if it is because I grew up in a small town and played on my neigbors farm and ate their cow's salt licks or what. Ever since I was young I have loved horses and to go to rodeo's.

My little girl's favorite part is always at the beginning when the royalty rides or (pretty girls) as she calls them. Although she did get into the barrel racing this year. It was fun to watch.

Muffin watching the rodeo

When we moved back to Utah we started going to the rodeo once a year and now it has become tradition. My 2nd son did mutton busting last year and wanted to do it again, except I forgot the deadline and we didn't get him signed up.

I love to watch how these men can stay on their horses and the people always there ready to rescue if needed, or just lend a hand getting down.

This was the entertainment after mutton busting. This guy has 2 brahma bulls trained to do several things, like jump through a burning hoop. It was amazing. Probably my farm neighbors again, but I remember them having them in their field when we would go play. We were scared to death of their bulls. Their kids were scared of them so I guess we were too. It was amazing to see bulls doing those things and a guy riding one like a horse.

My kids love to watch the rodeo clowns and always get a kick out of them. This is a picture of my oldest laughing his guts out at this crazy clown. It is fun when they get into it.

This poor girl's horse got hurt while she was barrel racing. It was very sad. Once the vet came to get her horse she ran off crying. You could tell she was pretty freaked out. At the end they said they thought it would be okay. It was just a sprain or small fracture.

We had a great night. It was a lot of fun to see how much my kids got into it this year. They are starting to understand the events a little more too.

4th of July

We decided to take the kids to Stadium of Fire this year. It is at the BYU stadium. My kids found out that the Jonas Brothers were performing and all 3 of them love them. Since we weren't going on vacation or anything we decided to take them.

They always have what they call the stadium of fire dancers. It is a bunch of dance groups from around the state that perform together. These girls and guys on the stage were very good.

The mlitary always flies over. This year they had the F16's like they usually do. They were too fast to capture. Later in the show they also had military helicopter's fly over.

My 2 boys don't get into the dancing and the fun of the concerts. Joslyn was loving it. She was clapping at the end of songs and she let me dance with her. My oldest was a little embarassed by us.

Although he did sing the songs. When the Jonas Brother's first came on our little girl just sat there and stared for a minute. She was in awe that she could see them. I wish we would have had a little better seats, even the cheap seats cost a lot. These were the best pictures we could get with our zoom lense on our camera.

In between the concert and before they started the fireworks, they retired the huge flag that has been hanging in the stadium for a long time. They had the 388th division from Hill Air Force Base help with it. They just barely returned home 2 weeks ago. It was a very neat experience for my kids to witness the retiring of the flag. It was so big they had to put it into that big incinerator you can see and wrap it around more than once.

Then they had the usual fireworks show. It is always fun for the kids to see them. They are very loud and the stadium is usually covered in smoke by the time they are done.

It was a fun 4th of July with the family. It is fun when all of your kids can go and enjoy the fun things.

Our Day at the Lake

On Monday, my husband had the day off so both of us got the bright idea to go to the lake since we haven't taken our boat out of the driveway the whole summer.

We got to the lake and our battery was dead. Luckily the lake was close to a town and we were able to go buy a new one.

We finally got ready to put the boat in the water and it decided not to go into reverse. We just pushed it off of the trailer and I could turn around going forward.

We picked my husband up off of the dock and we started on our way. It was running smooth for being the first time out. We were going up on plane if you know what that means. Just at the faster speed and next thing I know the engine started to just rev up and the boat quit going fast.

We ended up just swimming by the boat. No water skiing or tubing. The tube got too hot and got a hole in it too. We couldn't have done that even if the boat was running.

I went to drop my husband off at the dock to go get the car. Nothing annoys me more than people lounging on the boat docks when people are trying to get there boats in. Because of the reverse issue, I was just going to do a drive by slowly and he was going to jump off. I got too close to the dock and ran up on it a bit(no reverse). The people sitting there were a little freaked out.

I told my husband I chipped a piece off of the dock. He started laughing and told me it was off of the boat. I hit so hard I chipped off the words of what our boat is and part of the top rail.

I am not good at the trailer either and right when I got to the trailer, the boat died on me. The reverse comes in handy when trailering. We had to just pull the boat in with the tie on strap. There wasn't a second chance that day.

We let the kids play on the beach for awhile. No mishaps with my kids happened. Some other lady let her kids in the water without life jackets and one about my 4 year olds age got out too far and started panicking. I was glad I was standing there. I had to grab her and pull her back out.

The kids playing by the beach

Mom and the kids

Dad and his little girl and Ty

It made for quite an eventful day at the lake for us.