Canada & Primary

On Saturday we drove to Canada to attend the Cardston temple.  It didn't work out for us to take any pictures at the temple, but here are a few from our drive there:

The views in Glacier are spectacular.  Obviously, these pictures do not do them justice.

Sunday was our ward's primary program, so I snapped a picture of our kids all dressed up for it:

Domino Fun & More

Other than the boys starting school, things have been fairly uneventful around here.  But after looking at the pictures from the end of summer and the last couple weeks, I decided to do a post about all the not-so-eventful moments we've had.

First of all, Parker has had domino fever:

But some of the other things we've been up to include...

coloring:

riding big brother:

building things:

sleeping with stuffed animals:

playing dress-up:

helping Dad set up his office:

feeding the ducks:

swirling cape on the trampoline:

fixing things:

and hugging:

Cousin Reunion

Over Labor Day weekend, I traveled to southern California for a reunion with my cousins on my Dad's side.  It was really great to re-connect and have fun together.  I took very few pictures (too busy enjoying myself!), but I wanted to post some to help me remember the trip.

The beach at sunset:

My cute sisters enjoying each other's company:

My younger brother:

Playing Dominion:

My teammates in the cooking competition:

Jessie teaching her blogging class:

Whale watching (before getting drenched):

On the way back (soaking wet, but happy):

Slip-n-slide

Our next-door neighbors gave us a slip-n-slide as a gift a couple days ago and today we tried it out for the first time.

Getting excited as Dad finishes setting it up.

P testing the temperature of the splash pool at the end.

L diving in!  A kept running up to it & then running away giggling.

Hooray for Halfway

Today is the 'halfway' day in my parents' mission.  They've been gone for 9 months and have 9 months left to go!  I want to take a second to say how proud I am of them and how thankful I am for their example and sacrifice.

Took this pic this morning to celebrate:

We love you, Grandy & Grandpa Paul!

Weekend in Utah

We had a fun (although very short) trip to Utah over the weekend.  Drove to Idaho Falls Thursday night and stayed with our wonderful friends there.  Todd got to golf with T Friday morning and then we drove to South Jordan.  We went to the aquarium with Grandma and then were joined by Kelli for dinner at Red Lobster.  Saturday Todd worked, worked, worked on his mom's house and the kids and I spent the afternoon in Orem with Jessie and her kids.  Sunday we drove home.

I did not take ANY pictures on this trip, but my sweet sister just emailed some that she took while we were swimming at her in-law's pool.  Thanks, Jess!

The boys with Maren:

Parker and Jane:

And LOTS of Anndra and Kate:

Everyone had the BEST time:

Jessie, Kelli, and Me:

Dragonfly

This morning at the park Parker held a dragonfly in his hand and you would have thought it was Christmas by how excited these kids got:

Of course the moment it flew away, Parker turned to me and said, "Will you put this on your blog?!?"  How could I say no?  Another fun line from Parker a few minutes later: "I'm probably famous - I think I invented that very technique to hold a dragonfly."

Lincoln really wanted me to post a pic of him climbing the rope:

 And since we can't leave Anndra out:

She's been carrying this toy unicorn with her everywhere (including church).  It reminds me of the little girl in Despicable Me and her unicorn.