24th of July

Jeff had to work again on the 24th, so I went to the Ogden parade with my Family, because my brother Stirling was in it. I wasn't to excited to have to get up earlier then I do when I go to work on my day off but it was still fun. I met my dad at 7:30 to carpool to Ogden; I don't like to deal with traffic that happens after parades. We sat right in the intersection and in the shade of a tree which was nice and not to hot. The parade didn't get to us till about 9:45 so we sat around for a long time but it was worth it. Below are some pictures from the parade there was a lot but I was sick of putting the pictures on cuz it takes to long lol.


Me, Logan, and Kena


Soldiers holding flag


Budweiser horses in front of the temple I thought this was a funny picture.





Missionaries they ran around and handed out pass along cards and sang primary songs.







This car had to tow this truck because it died and when they started moving the bumper started to rip off




My mom's stakes' float, Stirling is in the red bandana with no hat










After the Parade my mom wanted to go to Costco, she has never been there before and since I have a membership I took her. I didn't think it would take to long but 2 hours later we were heading back to pick up my car. I went home to get ready and grab Jeff's change of clothes to go to my parents for a BBQ. When I was about ready to leave my dad stopped by to fix my toilet. It sounded like it was dripping and I had some other plumbing problems for him to look at. He is the best dad to come help me, it is the best having a plumber for a dad. I love my dad so much and appreciate all he does for us and what a great help he is.When he was done with my daddy to-do list, he just drove me to their house, so Jeff and I wouldn't have to drive two cars home. We had a yummy BBQ of Hamburgers and homemade Ice cream (my favorite). After it started to get dark we did fireworks. They were a blast, I think boys get way to excited to play with things that blow up!! I had to keep telling Jeff to be careful so he wouldn't blow his hand off lol I'm no fun when it comes to keeping him safe ha ha :) It was such a long and fun day!!!

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House

In less then a month the brand new Oquirrh Mountain Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints will become the 130th temple dedicated to the serve the lord. This coming Saturday (the 1st of August) will be the last day the public open houses will be going on. Because we never made it to go see the Draper Temple Open House we needed to act quick to get tickets to go see the Oquirrh Mountain temple before the open house ended. Kiera acted quick and got us tickets for the 1:20pm session on this past Monday the 27th. We also got an extra ticket for Kieras Grandma who also came with us.



We picked Kieras Grandma up around noon and we were on our way. I didn't realize how far out there the Oquirrh Mountain temple was. But it took over and hour and numerous back roads to get there. We did however have to drive thru the new Daybreak Community out there in South Jordan and we must say that that area is very pretty in and of itself. All the homes are in a retro style and it looks like such a nice little community.



As we first saw the Temple it the typical overwillming feeling hit. The spirit of the lord. Once again baring witness that this was the Lords house. I can't believe how beautiful this Temple is. Unlike the Typical White or Grey that most temple facades use this one is more of a brownish stone. Its different. But in a good way. This temple is a medium size temple which means its not as big as the large temples such as the Bountiful, Ogden, or Salt Lake. But not a small one like the Spokane and many others that dot the earth.



The only other Temple Open House I have gone to was the Nauvoo Temple back in 2002. So I was surprised with how much differently this one was done. In Nauvoo we had a tour guide give us a tour of the temple. Where this one you just walked in a line thru the temple and they had signs up explaining what goes on in each room. Both ways worked perfectly fine and got the point across. The Oquirrh Mountain Temple is Very pretty. The interior of course had the best of everything. And the spirit was so amazingly strong there. I love the feeling you get when your in the Temple. The chandeliers they had were so uniquely cool as well. They looked like stars stacked on top of each other. I noticed a lot of hints to stars as well in some of the windows and mirrors as well. The tour lasted about an hour and that included the 15 minute we watched before going in and the tour going thru pretty much every room there.



After the Temple Walk thru they have a reception tent set up where they have cookies and water for you. They also have a few displays set up telling about the church and the Missionaries are there as well to answer questions. We could then roam the temple grounds around the temple for as long as we liked.



I'm very happy we had the opportunity to attend this Open House. The Temples are so pretty and the feeling there is beyond description. Hopefully soon we will have the opportunity to go back to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to actually do work for the Lord in helping redeem those who didn't have the chance to while on Earth. When the opportunity comes again for another Temple Open House I highly recommend to everyone to do all you can to attend. Wither You are LDS or not I’m positive you will have a wonderful experience there.

Lagoon: They say its what fun is

Every year we always plan on making a couple trips to Lagoon. Last year we only went once to Frightmares (which we blogged about last October). But the year before that we made it twice and it was my first time going to Lagoon in 7 years or so. Anyways not since I was younger and had season passes have I ever gone to lagoon more then twice in a year. And this year we have already gone 3 times and that was all within 1 1/2 weeks of each other lol.



The first night we went we didn't really do much. Kiera got a call from her mom telling us it was her Grandmas stake lagoon day and wanted to know if we wanted to use her free walk in pass and take Kiera's siblings and just got walk around the park. Since we had nothing else going on and the fact that I really like taking pictures at places like Lagoon we decided what the heck. So we went and picked up Stirling and Kena as well as one of Stirling’s friends and we were off for a night in the park. Anyways going to Lagoon just to walk around isn't as fun as we thought it would be lol. With the walk in passes you get coupons for like 4 rides (Music Express, the Marry-go-round, Tilt-a-whirl, and train ride.) Lots of people must have only been there to use the walk around passes because these rides had the longest lines in the park it seemed. But that didn't stop us. We still rode all of them except the train. I got a few good pictures with the camera but nothing real special. I'd love to be able to just go and do photography there and not feel rushed sometimes.











We went again the following Monday and this was when we were originally planning on going. We bought our discount passes at Costco for $35 bucks and its during on of Lagoons bounce back time's so we would be able to go again for only $9. My brother Jake and his Girlfriend Kalee Meet up with us and we had a pretty fun time. My Mom and Kory also came and meet up with us later in the afternoon as well. We had a lot of fun and with the park not being too crowded we were able to get in the majority of the rides. Infact really the only ones we didn't do were the water rides and the ones we did the previous Thursday for the walk around night. We got 2 rides in on Wicked as well as a ride on all the other coasters, a ride on both towers of the Rocket, a terrifying ride on the Ferris wheel (well for me and Kalee anyways lol). We also went on Lagoon's two newest rides. Jumping Dragon and Odysea. Jumping dragon is pretty much the exact same ride as Music Express. Its just themed about 100x better and goes backwards as well as forwards. However you sitting in your own seats so the smashing effect you get on Music Express doesn't happen as bad on Jumping Dragon. Odysea is still the same as last year. If you remember Kiera sat on the inside of our Frightmares ride last year and got soaked. Well this year I sat on the inside so she wouldn't get wet. Well what do you expect happens. Kiera gets soaked again and I walk off nearly dry. I don't think Kiera will let me control the car anymore on that ride lol. We had some of the grilled corn on the cob in Pioneer Village but even after that snack we were pretty hungry. After a few more rides we decided we were all ready to go so we left he park at around 7:30pm. I will tell you the 8 hours on a weekday is plenty of time to do pretty much everything Lagoon has to offer. So after a "Guitar Hero Arcade" battle with Jake we validated our passes for bounchback and we all went to eat at Chopstix by my work. We had a lot of fun hanging out with Jake and Kalee as well as with Mom and hope to do more things with them soon.





















For our bounce back day the following Monday it was just Me and Kiera. We didn't bring a camera with us this time so no pictures to show. Sorry. But for this day we decided to go to Lagoon's water park Lagoon-a-Beach. This is somewhere I haven’t been in probably close to 10 years. Unfortunately I have to say that I was pretty disappointed in it. It seems like a lot of the fun was taken it out of Lagoon-a-beach. The speed slides were removed and had twists put in before a short speed fall at the bottom, the hot tubs have been filled in, and none of the waterfalls work in the pool area anymore, and there tubes seem to be too large for the most of the tube slides so they kept getting stuck. This is in addition to the water being freezing cold it felt like. I got use to the water but poor Kiera never did. Because of these reasons (and the lines for all the taller slides being long) we decided to cut our trip to Lagoon-a-beach short. Its really sad honestly. I really hope Lagoon goes in someday and makes Lagoon-a-beach better like it once was.



For the rest of the day we decided to hit some of our favorite rides. The park wasn't crowded at all this day. 2 of the 3 rides we got in on Wicked were only about a 8 minute wait. It almost seemed like we rode just as many rides this day as we did on our previous trip there. We really didn't but it felt that way lol. So after riding some of our favorites like the Rocket, Samurai, the Bat, Spider, Wicked, Colossus, and a few others we decided to call it a day.



So is Lagoon fun? Yes it is. We still have a lot of fun going there. However I think 2 times a year is pretty much my Lagoon limit. Especially within a week of one another. As I said before I recommend going on a weekday and you will be able to get in the majority of the rides there. So if you haven’t been in a while go and check it out. You might just be surprised how much you enjoy it still.

Fourth of July (late)

So.... I know this is really late, but better late then never right?!? On the 4th Jeff had to work early, so I went to the Kaysville parade with my family. It was so much fun I love the Kaysville parade with all the candy and watching the kids run and get so excited. We don't ever stay for the water part because I'm not a huge fan of getting wet unless I am swimming. After the parade we bought some fireworks and then I went to my parents because it was also Kena's(little sister)birthday. My mom and I went to pick up her cake and get her a few more presents. Kena opened her presents when we got back and she is the funniest thing you will ever see. She always has to pose with each present even if it was a bag of candy. I love her so much!! After that all my aunts and uncles from my mom's side came over for cake and ice cream. It was delicious but when is it not ;) Then we went to the Kaysville fireworks it was nice to have Jeff with me this year to watch them. Kena of course wanted to lay with us as we watched them she is a snuggle bug, I miss her. The fireworks were awesome we thought they had ended at least 3 times but they kept going. It was funny because people would get up and start packing up their stuff each time and then they would start again. When they really ended everyone stayed where they were just to make sure it was really over. I love watching fireworks! When we got back to my parents we did some fireworks of our own, they bought some good ones this year our favorite were the exploding flowers. They were like a normal flower but at the end they would explode it scared us at the end cuz we weren't expecting it. I'm glad that we can live in this free country!! It was a great Fourth of July and I can't wait till the 24th maybe I'll be more on top of things this time.




(this one was supposed to be edited to take Jeff out cuz he doesn't like his face in it, I can't figure out why lol sorry sweetheart oh and the baby is my cousin Oliva)