Cherries Anyone?

My parents had a fabulous cherry crop this year and we've greatly been enjoying their harvest! I brought home a few buckets last week and we were up to our ears in cherries. Doug kept pitting them and we kept running out of containers to put them in.

I made cherry jam, pie filling, tarts, pies, crisps, dried, and everything else you can do think of to make with cherries. I even found a recipe for cherry chicken and might try it out. My sister in law picked some from their house yesterday and I came home with another bucket yesterday and made only a few batches of pie filling before it was to much. Thanks to my friends for willing to take some off my hands! Thanks to mom and dad too for the awesome cherry trees!

Last week our friends invited us to the city pool. We hadn't been and it was pretty fun. The girls were a little hesitant at first but did okay. Sophia was terrified of the big bucket that splashed over everything. It was fun to go to have gone so that now Sophia knows what it's all about and won't be begging to go every day.

Enjoying a sucker break during a mandatory clear the pool break. Thanks again for a fun time Abby!

More Goblins

My little bro gave me his set of pics from our Goblin Valley trip so I thought I'd post a few of them. They're in reverse order so there ya go.

Here's Lilly enjoying the hike through the slot canyon.

The slot canyon was so cool. Some parts were like this to hike through and others were like this. If you look close there's a little path of sand at the bottom Good thing I'm so strong and could hold up this whole rock wall while everyone walked through.The girls did pretty good in the tent and one of them actually slept in.

Here's a good view of the valley of the goblins. It was so amazing!

Here's a cool profile of one of the goblins.

Here's another shot of the valley. If you look close you can see my dad in the middle of the picture. This gives you a good idea of the size of the rocks and how it was easy to climb up on them.

Lilly and her favorite Jeffy. In this picture she could pretty much be his child. Maybe she'll be our gift to him and Lexie for their wedding since she fits right in.

Our little family.

Cute Beaners.

Cute Sophs.

Here's a little video of the girls dancing after playing in the valley.

Valley of the Goblins

First, I have to say I haven't forgotten to post the video of my cutest girl and her cutest daddy dancing. I'm waiting for my little bro to get it off the camera and then I'll get it on here. Until then, here's a cute picture of them before the dance. Last week I took one of my nieces and nephews to the aquarium up in Sandy. Sophia's friend Rachel got to come along too. They all had such of fun time. This was the only good picture (our camera stinks) that I got of them.

Friday we headed down to Goblin Valley for a fun weekend with family. We stopped in Capitol Reef on the way down. It was such a neat place and we're looking forward to more vacations there. Here's our princess (thanks again for the crown Grandma!) with a formation called "The Castle" in the background. The only bummer (aside from this child's face) was that the road to the pioneer registry had been washed out from all the rain so we couldn't see that stuff. Maybe next time.

Here's three cuties admiring the cool petroglyphs.

After Capitol Reef we headed to Gobling Valley. The campsites there were great. They each had a covered picnic table and the site included showers and flushable toilets. That's my kind of camping!

There were a few goblins right by our campsite. All the kids had a great time playing on them.

After everyone else joined us we had dinner and then headed to the valley to play in the goblins. It was so much fun. I am definitely looking forward to going there again.

The next day we went a few miles down the road to hike in a slot canyon. It was pretty cool but unfortunately I have no pictures. I'll post some if I get them from my little bro. It was kind of funny because we actually ran into some friends (the Teemants) from our Provo ward. What a small world.

The things they say

Sophia:
There was a postcard for me in the mail yesterday from my work wishing me a happy birthday (this coming Friday - mark your calendars). All it said on the front was "Happy Birthday". Sophia picked it up and started reading it and while pointing to the words said "I'm Brother Wilkins and I know what you need".

Lilly:
After baths tonight she was walking around with a Dora book saying "beets, beets, beets" over and over again. She brought it over to me and pointed to a picture of Boots and said "beets" again. I think someone is watching too much Dora!

Bugs!

We have had a pretty fun time going to Macey's Free Kids Stuff (you'll have to scroll down a little). They always have something fun to do and it gives us a nice little break. Yesterday they did a little bug picnic and had the kids make these little (big) bug eyes. I thought they turned out pretty cute!

P.S. Sophia is doing her dance with her daddy tonight for her recital. I'll definitely post pics and the video later!

Memorial, Jeffy's Graduation, The Zoo and The Aviary

We been havinga good time these past few weeks. On memorial day we went to Salt Lake to visit my grandpa and grandma Nicholl's grave. Here's a picture of Lilly by her namesake.
The cute recently engaged couple! We then hada fun BBQ at my brother's and overall enjoyed having Doug home for the day!A few days later we went to the zoo with Sophia's friend Rachel. The kids had a great time and we did as well. We went to the bird show and the elephant show and rode the carousel and train! It was all really fun. Sophia was definitely a lot more adventurous at this time than she was last year. She would not have anything to do with those things last year but couldn't get enough this time.Lilly however was not too sure about the carousel. She was a little nervous the whole time.She did however enjoy the elephant show!

Even though the Elephant wanted to eat her.

Most of the animals were sleeping with the exception of the bears. I'd never seen them fight before. It was pretty interesting.

Rachel and Sophia posing for some pics.

Last weekend we went to Jeffy's graduation! He graduated from Westminster in Economics. We were pretty proud of him. We were all having a great time until some guy shushed Lilly was she was singing the ABC's. Come on dude. You think we're enjoying the noise? Would you like to keep her quiet? Doug spent the remainder of the time wanding the concourse of the E-center. On the way up Sophia kept quiet by drawing all over both of her legs. She's quite the artist. Her other leg had Sophia written all over it. If you notice the sideways A on the left with the circle in it, that would be Bob from Monsters vs. Aliens. Her grandpa took her to see it almost two months ago and she hasn't stopped drawing him since.

On the way home the girls were totally spent so we rolled down the windows hoping that it would get them to stop crying. It worked! They started laughing their heads off and even though it was noisier than them crying, it kept them happy for a little while.

Last week we went to the Tracy Aviary with Rachel again (we can't get enough of Rachel in our house). You get in free the first Thursday of the month with your zoo pass so we had to take advantage. It was actually pretty cool. I hadn't been there since I was a little kid. My mom grew up right across the street and said that there were seals in the pond instead of swans and ducks when she was growing up. That would have been fun! We went to the bird show there too and had a great time.

These golden eagles were so cool. Their cage was totally not covered by anything and we thought it was amazing that they wouldn't fly away. We read later that they had been injured and couldn't fly. It was pretty cool that you could get so close to them.

Here's Rachel and Sophia seeing what birds they measure up to.

She may not look like it but she was pretty excited about the ducks. She kept screaming "guck! guck! over and over".

Cool owl from the bird show. Overall, it was a great time. If you haven't been to the Tracy Aviary you should go because it was cool and pretty cheap (even though we went for free).