Arches

Warning: There are a lot of pictures in this post! I put them all in here so that I can have them for a blog book in the future but feel free to either skip this post or scroll through them quickly.
Last weekend we went with Doug's parents and a few siblings to Arches National Park. I hadn't been there since I was a little kid and it was so awesome! We saw a lot of arches and did a lot of hiking. I will admit that we did not hike to delicate arch. I even forgot to include the picture we took at the overlook. It was way too hot and there was no parking at the trail head so we decided to skip it. Plus (I should probably be shot for saying this) I think that arch is a little overrated. There are plenty of way cool arches that deserve just as much attention. Just sayin. Here we are getting ready to go. Don't we all look so excited! The first thing we saw coming into the park was balanced rock. Seriously though, how has this thing not fallen over.After we got our campsite all set up we went and did some exploring. There were a lot of cool rock and fun trails to explore near our campsite.Here's me and Mabes showing our strong muscles (not!)After going back through these pictures we discovered that Lilly finally knows how to look and smile at the camera! We got so many good pictures of her on this trip.Doug really wanted to get to the top of this little crack. He seriously tried forever and finally made it. He was so proud (as was I). It's definitely called slick rock for a reason! We also did plenty of relaxing in Grandpa's hammock.We were camped right by Skyline Arch. The amphitheatre for the campground was right in front of this arch. It was pretty spectacular. We also did plenty of sitting around in the shade. It was sooooo hot!We also all got plenty dirty and ate lots of good food!Random shot of Lilly. After dinner we went on a hike to a few other arches.The first one we saw was Tunnel Arch. We also went to Pine Tree Arch. This was by far my favorite arch in the whole park. It was HUGE! It seriously took your breath away when you came to it. This picture totally does not do it justice.Another random shot of Lilly on the trail. I love this girl and how she insists on wearing skirts everywhere! I'm pretty sure she was the only one camping in a skirt in the whole park. Oh well. The pioneers wore skirts in the heat of the summer and they got along okay right? We also made it to Landscape Arch that night. This is the one that lost a huge chunk out of it about 20 years ago. They're really not sure how much longer it will be around so we had to see it. Even though it doesn't look like it in this picture, we took this picture around 9 pm. It was so dark! It actually was really cool to hike in the dark and it was definitely a lot cooler!The next day we stopped by a few more Arches on our way out of the park. The first one we went to was Sand Dune Arch. It was pretty cool as well. One of us though had kind of a hard time on the trail. It's kind of hard to see but the arch is right behind Lilly's head and to the right a little. Even though it looks like her head could fit in the arch, it was actually pretty big. Here's one of the "windows" of the Window Arches. Turret Arch. This one was Doug's favorite because he has a thing with turrets.
Sophia and I hiked up to Double Arch that was by the Cove of Caves and Parade of Elephants. I noticed this cool heart shaped cave on the way up to Double Arch. I just had to take a pic of it for Doug. Ah. How sweet. JK. Double Arch. This one was pretty cool as well. Sophia at Double Arch.Here's one of the Parade of Elephants. It actually took us awhile to see these in the rocks. This elephant is on the right side of the picture and is looking straight at the camera.This picture has three (and maybe more) elephants in it. Can you spot them all? I took this one for my sisters. It's of the Three Gossips (not that we do that). Let's just call it the Three Sisters instead. I think this is a better angle of us though. It makes us all look a lot skinnier. Here's a shot of the 2 newest and cutest Junior Rangers I've ever seen! On the way home we stopped at Dead Horse Point. That was a pretty cool place as well. The kids all wanted to hurry and do the Junior Ranger program there as well so we did plenty of this while they all worked on that. Doug had spent most of the night with a screaming Lilly and Mabel in the van so we really didn't get too much sleep. He was tired!The view at Dead Horse Point. Another shot. This place really was pretty spectacular. I guess part of Thelma and Louise was filmed here. Doug's mom said she saw a shot online of a car going over the cliff from that movie.Lilly really wanted her picture taken on this bench for some reason. She has seriously turned a corner. She used to never want her picture taken.Two cute girls and Brian Dean at Dead Horse Point.And finally a huge spider we saw there. Overall, it was a fun trip and we saw a lot of really neat things! We were definitely glad to be home to our cool house and cozy beds though!

Family Week

We are starting to wind down our summer which means and end to our weekly themes. I can't believe this is the last full week of summer! It went by way to fast!

This last week we talked about families. We did some fun things like reading these books: We also put together our own family trees.We ended the week by having a fun extended family camping trip which will come in a later post.
Yesterday we enjoyed a nice relaxing family day at home. The girls played and played which hasn't happened in awhile. They rediscovered their dress ups and had a blast. They also made these "temple necklaces". Sophia somehow got the idea in her head and wouldn't stop until it was executed.

These girls crack me up!This is random but we made these cute banners at our little card group last week. Apparently banners are in right now. It was so fun to make and I think I'm going to do another one for Halloween. So fun!

Fun with Cousins and Such

We were so lucky to have some of our cousins stick around Utah after our reunion in July. The little sweetie on the left had a birthday last week and we all celebrated in style.It was a luau party and it was so fun! We were all greeted with lei's and wonderful Hawaiian music. Her mom ordered the cutest cake ever from the most delicious bakery! I love the hula girls on the side.My SIL put those small glass pebbles in the bottom of the pool and the trick was that you had to pick them up with your toes. The kids loved it!Here's Mabes with my brother Derik (the birthday girls' dad). Apparently I caught him mid-sentence. Sorry about that Bud. The girls also got to play with cousins for a little bit at Grandma's house yesterday. They of course made sure to do their favorite thing which was feeding their neighbor's goat Blackie. We also attempted to get a shot of all 6 girls! I seriously can not get enough of that sweet Bubs and her awesome poses. This shot really is not much better. It was seriously a challenge.We finally gave up and asked them to all make a funny face. For Lilly that meant to still keep your face down.Last week Doug went to Youth Conference. We missed him a lot and were more than happy to welcome him home! I love the sign Sophia made. Here's a close up of our family on one of the pages. I love our eye colors. I especially love that Lilly has yellow eyes.On this page she did some of Doug's favorite things which apparently includes laughing. She also did nothing but dinosaurs on one of the pages because I guess those are his favorite too.Today Sophia asked if we could play Pin the Tail on the Donkey. I told her that if she could figure it out (because I'm an awesome lazy mom like that) they could play. I love what she came up with! She even drew and cut out individual tails. Finally, my mom found the CUTEST Halloween countdown calendar pattern that we just had to make. She was very very nice and kind and supplied me with the fabric by this awesome local designer named Riley Blake. I made it though and it was really fun but took A LOT of time. I love it though and can't wait until October! Halloween is absolutely one of my favorite holidays and this just might be my favorite Halloween decor item!