They learn so young!

It seems like it doesn't take kids long to learn how to use new technology. At age 2 Aubrey can navigate the ipod quite well.  

Brynli's Baptism

Brynli turned eight in February, and was baptized the first weekend in March.  She was so excited for her Baptism!  I just love Baptisms. The spirit is so strong.  My parents and sisters all came out to support Brynli on her special day.  It was a great weekend!

Moab in January

I've been horrible at updating my blog. I think that it is because I get so far behind and think I need to catch up. I also think I have a problem thinking that I have to include all of my photos.  Well I am not going to catch up, but I will still add lots of photos.  

We went to Moab last weekend. Derek had a swim meet there, so it was a great excuse to take a short little weekend vacation. We had a great time. Derek did well at his swim meet. He took one 1st place, two 2nd place, and one 8th place. He's really doing well with his swimming.  After the swim meet we got to go play. We wanted to be sure and see Delicate Arch so that was the first thing we did. The weather cooperated pretty good Saturday afternoon, and it was just right for a 3 mile hike. There were about 5 families from Vernal that all hiked together. All the kids did great and Delicate Arch was as beautiful as ever! 

 I love how Brynli is trying to make Aubrey smile in this picture.

 Oh, what a cute family I have.

The weather was a little cold on Sunday, but we still wanted to do some hiking and see more of Arches National Park. We only played for about half the day before the kids were cold and ready to go home. We had a great time, even if it was cold. I just love Moab and Arches National Park. I think it is beautiful and a lot of fun. Here are some pictures from the rest of our trip.

 I couldn't resist taking this picture. Do you think she wants to be a plumber when she grows up?

 Landscape Arch 

 Derek and Sterling Merrell found these cool "walking sticks". They were pretty proud of themselves. Yeah, we made them leave the sticks.

 All that hiking completely wore out the little ones. Aubrey slept like that for almost a mile. 

Great Family Memories!

Temple Square

Kamryn had soccer games in Ogden and Salt Lake last weekend. We had a little time between games so we decided to take the kids to Temple Square.  We had told the kids that we were going to do something fun between games, but we didn't tell them what we were going to do. When we passed Lagoon the kids of course wanted to go there. When we first got to Temple Square they were so excited and even said that it was as fun as Lagoon, just in a different way. I think it was the first time that my girls had been there. How sad! We live 3 hours away and we are in Salt Lake quite frequently but we don't make it to Temple Square. We had such a great time, we are going to plan to go more often. 

We first went to the Lion House for lunch. It was delicious and the kids thought it was great to be able to pick out there own food. The only problem is they thought they needed everything.  After lunch we walked around the temple grounds.  They all loved the reflection pool. Aubrey couldn't get enough of the water.

Then they wanted to touch the temple, so we let them touch the temple. Wyatt told them they would get special powers if they touched the temple. He got in trouble with one of the missionaries for fibbing on temple grounds.

Next we went to the Tabernacle, and then to the North Visitor Center.  I think seeing the statue of Christ was everyone's favorite part (I know it was mine). It was so neat to see how excited my kids were, especially my little kids. When we walked up to where the statue is Sadie just stopped and said "That is awesome!" Aubrey saw the statue of Christ and ran to it pointing and saying "Jesus!, Jesus!" She didn't use a quiet, reverent voice, but it was so neat to see how she recognized Christ and wanted to go to him. She really couldn't get close enough.  She stepped on the platform and reached up to Christ. We took pictures of the kids by the statue and then we sat down with them to just admire it.

 Aubrey would not just sit. She kept running up to the statue of Christ. The spirit was strong, and I could tell that all of my kids felt it. What an awesome experience!

Then we went downstairs in the visitor center and saw all the other displays. There was a display about all the prophets from Bible times to Book of Mormon times, to our modern prophet. As I looked at this display the spirit testified to me that our modern prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, is a prophet of God just like the prophets of old.  Another great experience. 

After this we went to the Conference Center. We were running out of time, so we just took a short tour of the roof. What an amazing building. Then our time was up and we had to go to Kamryn's second soccer game.  I am so glad that we took our kids to Temple Square. It was a great experience for everyone. Brynli said the other day that she wants to marry someone who will marry her in the Salt Lake Temple.  That is a great goal she has set. We will definitely plan more visits to Temple Square.

Our vacation to Lake Powell

Back in June we took a family vacation to Lake Powell with the Harding family. We did the hotel thing this time, instead of renting a houseboat. We missed the houseboat, but still had a wonderful time. The water was a little choppy, so we did a lot of exploring, and cliff jumping. Lake Powell is beautiful! It was great to just enjoy the beautiful scenery. 

Here is a picture of us at Rainbow Bridge.

Because the water was high this year, it made the hike to Rainbow Bridge quite short, which was a good thing because I don’t think we could have gotten the kids to go any further. They were so hot it was all we could do to get them to stay and let us take a picture. They just wanted to get back in the water. As soon as we could we stopped the boats, and let them have a swim break and jump off the cliffs.

One day we found this fun little cove. The kids had a blast swimming, dancing, jumping off cliffs, and trying to catch lizards.

We had lots of swim breaks throughout the week.

We also made sure each day to stop at one of the marinas and get ice cream. It was so hot, that cold ice cream tasted great (but, when does ice cream not taste great).  One of the marinas had a nice little swim place for the kids. They loved it and had fun swimming there.

Although it was a little choppy, we still got plenty of time to play behind the boat. There was one night when the water was even good enough to slalom ski. Everyone got a chance to play behind the boat. Even Sadie & Aubrey

We stayed on the lake late each night. Our third day there as we were coming home late we hit a rock with our boat (or at least our propeller). I guess the lake wasn’t high enough to cover all the rocks. The rock wasn’t marked and with the sun setting in our eyes we couldn’t see it. We were close to a marina (not the one we put our boats in at) so we parked our boat at the marina, Wyatt & Randy took the Harding’s boat to get the vehicles, and Tari and I took the kids to the restaurant at the marina to eat. It was a long night, but we finally made it back to the hotel. All part of the adventure.

Wyatt found someone to fix the propeller, but our boat would be in the shop for a day. We didn’t let that stop us from having fun. We let the kids play at the hotel pool for a little while, and then we all piled into the Harding’s boat. 

I thought this picture was funny. Wyatt was teaching the kids to dive right next to the "no diving" sign. 

Once on the lake we found a great beach to play on. The kids were having a great time, until a tour boat went by and the waves nearly washed away our little ones. We packed up in a hurry and decided to stay on the boat until dinner.  We found a better beach to BBQ on, but it was so windy we ended up having sand hotdogs, sand sausage, sand salad, and sand fruit. 

Although it was a little crowded to have all 13 of us on the same boat, the kids thought it was great. A big party. They turned on the music and danced for us all. Even Sadie, and Aubrey joined in.

The next day we had our boat back. Yeah! We found a slalom course that Wyatt and Randy were dying to try. We asked the houseboat next to it if they could try it. It belonged to a 70 year old man who was happy to take Wyatt and Randy out to try it. It was the highlight of their trip. This man and his wife come to Powell for a couple of weeks each summer, set up their course, and do 40 runs a day. Wow! He became Wyatt’s new hero. I guess I better improve my slalom skiing skills if he wants us to do that when we are 70. 

We must have wore the kids out everyday, because I had a lot of sleeping pictures on the boat. We just played hard everyday. 

Here are some other random pictures I took of the kids on the boat. Aubrey did pretty good on the boat all day, as long as you were feeding her. She really enjoyed the sweedish fish.