Reid Ranch

Over the July 4th weekend we had a family reunion with Larry's side of the family.  It was also a celebration for his parents 50th anniversary that they celebrated while they were in Sweden.

Grandma and Grandpa found out about a place a couple hours from here called Reid Ranch.  They usually host LDS Youth Conferences, Girls Camps and family reunions.  And all summer they are pretty busy. Except over the 4th of July.  We were the only ones there, getting the whole place to ourselves!  We could ride the boats as long as we wanted, swim whenever, ride the horses when ever and for as long as we wanted.  A especially loved that because we would walk up to the stables and the guys would take her on the big horses for long rides.  We would do that a few times a day.  They got to know her pretty well.  But of course no pictures of that.  I never had my camera with me while she was riding - I don't know why.  But here are some of the pictures I did take.

 Fun times on the lake.

Camp Fire 

Place we stayed

We all had a great time!  The kids and all their cousins ran all over and had so much fun hanging out.  And we all had such a relaxing time!  Great memories- would love to do it again, but only if we have the whole place to ourselves :)  THANKS Grandma and Grandpa!

Funny Girl

My littlest girl makes me laugh everyday.

I always say to my girls, "you are such a beauty!"  When I said that today to L she said to me,

"Your hair is beautiful, your teeth are beautiful and when you get mad  your eyes sparkle!"

I laughed out loud.  I guess I should take that as a compliment???  And I just had to write it down so I could remember the funny things she says.  She is so fun!

Some Dance And Some Pumpkins

This year L started dance at the same place A goes.  She was so excited and felt like such a big girl.  She knew exactly what she was doing since she has been there so many times to either pick up A or stay and watch her classes.

Here are some of her first classes and then the week of Halloween they could wear their costumes.

Halloween

Playing  games

Passing out treats

At the end of last school year A brought home a pumpkin plant she had planted at school.  We put it in our garden and she got 2 cute little pumpkins from it!

Halloween

Here's what the kids chose to be this year.  We had a .......

 Leopard

Cute Witch

Minion

Last year I told R he had reached the "too old" stage to go trick or treating.  But he and some friends found these costumes VERY discounted and decided they had to have them.  They said everyone would either take their picture at the door or call someone else to the door to see them.  They had a fun time!  They are really cute!!!

No telling what we will come up with next year!

Pre Halloween Activities

Well, if that post before this one wasn't a downer I don't know what is.  I guess it's part of life but I wanted to post something a little more fun so I felt better.

So...... here are some  pre - halloween activities.

Pumpkin Patch

The flash was very bright since it was totally dark.

Why is he always on his phone no matter where ever we are?  Just kidding he was calling Larry to see where he was since it was so dark and we couldn't see much.

We also went with some friends on a boat ride down the Provo river.  Not scary for the big kids but the girls were scared of the pirate that tried to get on our boat.  When he couldn't he just handed out some candy :).

 After it was totally dark and I tried to get some pictures of the kids walking down the trail.  Since I couldn't see very well we had a couple of "photo bombers" which was really funny cause I really didn't see them until the picture was taken.

 And here is a cute one of T!

 Good times with friends always makes the holidays FUN!

Maggie

I've thought about writing this for a long time, but just haven't had the heart to do it.  But I thought it time to honor our good friend.  I know some people are not dog lovers but we are.  Larry and I both grew up with dogs and we have one of our own now and she is part of our family in a big way.

While Larry's parents were in Sweden for 18 months we got to have their dog Maggie come live with us.  She was 11 years old and we hoped she would live to see our Grandma and Grandpa when they came home.  They left her knowing that might not happen but that she would be greatly loved by our kids while they were gone.

She started going down hill a few months before they were going to be home and finally 1 week, YES, just 1 week before they came home in June she got really sick and couldn't hang on any longer.  That last week of her life I cried everyday and pleaded with her to just keep going a little longer, but it wasn't meant to be. Poor girl didn't eat the last few days and finally gave it one last try and her body couldn't handle it.  I came home and found her very sick, all over the house, which was gross and I knew she had met her last day.

I called the vet and we brought both dogs in.  Sunny needed to say goodbye to her friend she'd know all her life so she came along and not one person questioned why we had her there!  T came with me after dropping off the girls at a friends house and Larry and R met us there after R's game.

Just a side note: R walked into the vet's office and showed me a baseball.  I thought he got the game ball but he said it was his home run ball!  I had missed his home run as I was trying to get A to dance, call the vet and clean up the mess at home.

We got to spend some time with Maggie at the vet's and held her and loved her while the vet gave her the shot to stop her heart and finally let her poor old sick body rest.  Many, many tears were shed that night by all of us.

Maggie and Sunny were good friends.  First picture is T's bed and that's what he got to sleep with every night.  Good thing he loved it!

Maggie loved T sooooo much!  She followed him every where and would even wait patiently while he was in the shower. After she got tired of standing, because she couldn't stand very long, she would lay on the bathroom floor and wait for him to get out.

Here are the last couple of pictures at the vet's office.  Sunny just laid right next to her good friend.

Maggie is a special dog, so kind, so friendly, so loving.  The kids liked to try and take her bone away and see her growl.  But we knew she would never hurt them, she loved them all so much.  Grandma told T  that he gave her the best 18 months of her life while she was with us.  I hope that's true.

We LOVE and miss you Mags.  Rest in peace sweet girl!!!

Summer/Fall Fun

(Finally we have some working internet connections! Our service for the last (long) while has been horrible.  Long story but we now have a working desk top computer so I feel confident about getting on, trying to do something and not getting kicked off.  So..... I  have so much to post about.  Nothing out of the ordinary, just stuff we have been doing.  And it goes way back to June.)

First we will start with a few things that T has done.  This last summer he had fun at Scout Camp.

And after having so much fun with Cross Country last fall he tried Track and Field in the spring.  He was awesome.  He got several ribbons and his favorite races to run were the 50 meter, 100 meter and the half mile.

This fall he did Cross Country again, because he decided that although he had lots of fun with Track and Field he really prefers the distance running and not being on a track.  So he again loved it and got some more ribbons.  And Herriman took home the trophy at the district meet again.  Go Mustangs!

Lastly, at the end of last school year he planted a cabbage plant at school.  We put it in our garden and this is what we ended up with.

This winter he's taking a little break to work on school and some conditioning camps and be ready for spring again!  He just brought home his report card and has done awesome at school as usual!  We love you T!!!