A Quick Trip to the Zoo

We ran to the zoo on Saturday, July 3rd (when the majority of the state of Utah was there...and celebrating the 4th btw).  We love being able to go whenever we feel like it, due to our season pass.  Matt's sister Rebecca and her husband Clint gave us a season pass for Christmas last year.  We've gotten a lot of use out of it, too!  We were in and out of the zoo in an hour and a half!  We weren't running, but we were also not just standing around.  We got in and got to see the things we wanted to see.  Skyler and Matt weren't with us because Skyler went to see Trent McCormick before his mission, and of course Matt had worked the night before.

Just monkey'ing around...
Ok, gorilla'ing...They wanted to try to climb on this statue, but they kept sliding off.

One of the monkey's has a stuffed animal               Just a rhino...

that it held on to the whole time. Cute! 

This Tiger was kind of funny. He was pacing back and forth by the fence through a sprinkler to keep cool. 

Brig in the lion's mouth                                 Cam in the lion's mouth

             

Cam ready to hatch                             Zack's not sure how he got in there

 Awww...give me a hug

Movie Night at the State Capitol

We went to the Utah State Capitol for a movie on the lawn.  They do this for a couple months in the summer.  This week, they had a fairly large crowd -- Matt says around 800 people.  It was pretty fun and the boys liked it.  The movie was "Sandlot".  It's a funny one, but I forgot how much the little boys swear in this movie. Oops.

After the movie, we got a personal tour of the inside of the Capitol building.  Matt has just transferred back up there (he was with protective services when he first hired on w/UHP).  It was a little eerie being in there at night, I mean, think about it...that's a pretty old building. 

This is a shot of the Rotunda.  It so much more spectacular in person!  Breath-taking!  As Matt was taking us through, we got to peek inside the Supreme Court room, the legislator's chambers and a couple others.  The elevator ride was pretty cool, too!  Then Matt got lost and couldn't find the underground hallways to get back to the security headquarters.  Lots of fun!

The Line Up.  What's Caden doing?

You don't want to mess with these guys...

The 3 Stooges.  Shooter, Captain & Happy.

Camping on the Kaibab

We went camping in June on the Kaibab in northern Arizona with my husband's family for the Cluff reunion.  It was tons of fun!  The day we got there the weather was beautiful and we were looking forward to the cool days and even cooler nights.  So day two came, and the morning started out nice, but then the clouds came...and didn't leave.  We were there two full days and it rained for a day and a half.  We were pretty soggy, but still had fun!  I wish I would have taken more pictures.  I took one of our camp, then this silly one of Cameron.  I'm not sure why he thought to pose that way, but I decided it's because he was pretending to be "deadly-armpit-hair-guy".

Here is a picture of our tent.  We just got it and were so excited to camp in it.  Matt's parents bought it for Matt's graduation present (thanks!) when he received his Bachelor's degree.  Through all the rain, our tent was about one of the only ones NOT to spring a leak.  I would recommend it to anyone looking for one.  It's a Kodiak (like a Spring-Bar) and it has basically 3 poles (one across top, one on each side) and the awning poles.  The easiest tent to raise, ever!  It was hard for us to go from being trailer campers back to tent campers, but with this tent, it is not as bad as I thought it would be!

Here is the outfitter's tent that Matt's mother purchased especially for this reunion.  It's a good thing, too, because the weather (this picture is deceiving...this is the next morning before the clouds moved in) really decided to not cooperate for most of the time.  It was a fun reunion though.  A lot of people came and the boys had a chance to ride their motorcycles.  Caden was able to ride the 125cc for his first time, and had a blast!  Zack was able to ride the 80cc, also his first time (on a motorcycle) and did excellent!  They can't wait to go to Fredonia again just so they can ride their motorcycles!  It's tough living in the city...

Cameron had so much fun. The other kids were having fun, too. They were just not always around to be photographed. Cameron is an animal...he learned these "rock on" hands from his brothers. he he he

                                           

Brigham's Baptism

I can't believe this day is finally here! 
I love Brigham so much and I am so thankful he
made such an important decision to be baptized.

Brigham asked Skyler to baptize him.  Skyler will

be entering the mission field this summer and this

was a wonderful opportunity for him to get some

practice, and to make a memory with his brother.

He is so happy!  Here is Brigham after

being baptized.

Brigham got his very own scriptures for his special

day.  He was so excited...

that he cracked his new scriptures open and started

reading them.  It was a wonderful day and I know he

will remember it the rest of his life.  Not many in our

families could attend, but the spirit was very much present.

Brig's Army Birthday Party

 

Charged and ready for action!

Let's open a few gifts first...

Tug-o-War...ready, set, GO!

Brig's team won!

They finished up with a few water games. 

The weather started getting bad right at the end,

but they all had a great time!

Off of My Blogging Hiatus...

I have been a big stinker lately. Well, it's worse than "lately" - it's been almost a year since my last post. Something I am re-committing to is to keep my blog updated. I have taken many pics that are more than blog-worthy, so be ready to be dazzled! Now that we are living away from most of our family, I feel it necessary to keep family and friends updated and in-the-know. I have received inspiration from many family and friend blogs...not that I'm stealing ideas, but rather I'm receiving direction. I think my biggest problem has been how to organize my blog and what to talk about. Well, more or less, in semi-Seinfeld fashion, this will be the "blog about nothing". No, really it will be about my family, but in a random, nonsense manner.

We took new family photos back in November and I thought I would share of few of them with you, but the disk I have will not open, soooooooo....you get to look at this one for a while until I figure out what the prob is. Enjoy!

At pack meeting last week, they had a race to see who could push an apple with their nose from one side of the gym to the other. Cameron was so excited to do it! He was the youngest to participate. At first, he didn't have an opponent. But once he was about half way across, Zack decided to jump into action and as you can see, they finished with a close tie. But Zack won and was super lightning quick with a good strategy - sliding on his belly.

Look at this mannequin's amazing likeness to Skyler.
We came upon it while shopping at Old Navy. Wow, so life-like!

"I've got you in my sights!"

"I can see you with my X-ray vision glasses.....be afraid, be very afraid."

Who is that "masked avenger"? (aka: cam cam)

Here is Matthew (at right end) shaking hands with state legislators and other UHP big wigs at UHP Awards Banquet in November. He received a Medal of Excellence for his service with the highway patrol. (Sorry, not good photo - cell phone was all I had to take it with:( )

Here is Brig (green) and Captain Cameron at our elementary school Halloween carnival. They had tons of fun swinging on this contraption.

Zack the drama king - always playing a part.

Caden is becoming pretty good on a skateboard. He dedicates

a couple hours a day to perfecting tricks.

He likes street skating the best.

Skyler OWNS this ice cream cone.

Skyler turned 17 this summer. Mr. Big for President Brigham the wise guy.