Our Not-So-Fun 4th of July

If there is anything I look forward to every year it is the 4th of July! I love it! And I loved that my sister Lauren and her boyfriend decided to come up share in the fun festivities with us this year. Made me look forward to it even more!

Well, the night before the 4th we all went to bed, everyone feeling just fine...(can you guess where I'm going with this?) and all of the sudden Riley wakes up throwing up. Great. Well, it's probably just something she ate and she'll probably feel better by morning.  Well, I was wrong. WAY wrong. That was the first of 10 TIMES for just her. Then began the domino effect.  Then Landon, then Mason, then my sister Lauren and even her boyfriend. What is going on?? We all felt fine before we went to bed. It must be some sort of food poisoning from dinner we all thought.

But the parade was first thing in the morning! You just don't miss the parade! Not in our house. But thank heavens Katelyn wasn't sick because she was in the parade.  She made the Sandcreek Middle School cheer team (Woo Hoo!) and was cheering on the float. So Josh and I and the kids, minus Riley and Lauren, the sickest ones, went to the parade to cheer on Katelyn.  Even though Landon was still very sick. Not our finest parenting moment. Maybe if we just carry on as planned this will just all go away? After the parade we went to the park with the Bradshaw clan for lunch.  About that time me and Josh felt something coming on.  We left early, came home and went to bed, in a short time the rest of the house was throwing up.  By now, the entire house has been hit by some sort of plague.  It was horrible.  Of all the days for us to be sick.  And my sister and her boyfriend came all this way from Utah for this?? We spent the rest of the day in bed and the bathroom moaning and groaning.  My dad says some day we'll look back at this and laugh. I'm not there yet.

(Here's a couple pictures of Katelyn on her float. She's in the row facing the camera on the far left.)

Katelyn's 12!

I am officially a mother of a Young Woman. How did that happen? I'm not old enough for this. Turning 12 in our house brings new adventures....make-up, Young Women's at church, Girl's Camp, MIDDLE SCHOOL, and many other things she thinks she needs because all of her friends do.  For example, a cell phone.  Not happening. We'll hold off on that one for as long as I can. Not ready to go down that road of no return.

Katelyn did have a big swim party with all of her friends up at Green Canyon. This is the only picture I got before my camera went dead. Ugh!

One of the main things that Katelyn has been most excited about now that she is 12 is doing baptisms for the dead. Our Stake doesn't haven't any scheduled for awhile and she didn't want to wait. So she and her cousin Savannah went and got their recommends and Josh and I took them the week she turned 12. Josh's mom got them little baptism bags to take with them to the temple. They are so cute. The girls got to do some family names so it made the experience that much more special.

(Katelyn & Savannah with their recommends.)

The other fun thing she got to be a part of now that she is 12 is she got to participate in our Stake Pioneer Handcart Trek. A lot Stakes require you to be 14 so we felt pretty lucky that she could go. There were over 600 youth from our Stake on the Trek so it was a very large crowd. We bought the material for her skirt, apron and bonnet and helped make it. They were all asked to walk in honor of a pioneer, preferably a ancestor if you had one. She walked in honor of a pioneer ancestor on my side named Sarah Goode Marshall. She is known as "The First Lady of all the Handcarts" because she was the first person from the very first handcart company to cross over into the Salt Lake Valley. And she did it as a single mother with 6 children. She has an amazing story and it was neat for Katelyn to get to know her and have that opportunity.

So I guess this is my last year before I officially have a TEENAGER! Wow, where has time gone??

The Dirty Dash 2011

This past weekend we went to Utah for a mini vacation. We went to the zoo, hiked to the "Y", went swimming, but the main event was....THE DIRTY DASH! We registered for this months ago with Josh's family including aunts, uncles and cousins.  The adults run a 5K which includes obstacles and slides all of which is in the mud.  The kids race, The Piglet Plunge, is only a mile but still in the mud! I opted to sit this one out.  Someone had to take the pictures and watch Landon. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! His whole family is already planning on next year's race.  But as for our family, still not so sure.  We feel like it is more like an every few years thing, not so much an EVERY year kinda thing.  But we shall see.

Josh before the race...

Josh and his cousins and sister AFTER the race...

Josh ran the race with the kids too. Believe it or not, this is BEFORE the race...

Mason running in the race. He came in 2nd place of all of his cousins...

Josh and the kids AFTER the race...

Now, there is a really great reason why Emma and her cousin Jordyn (sitting up in front) in the above picture, aren't muddy. They had already showered from a race they ran hours before. When we first got to the race we had a scheduled time for the adult race for 9:40.  We got there early and the kids were playing on the jumpy toys and messing around in the mud beforehand.  Well, somehow Emma and Jordyn got separated from all of us and heard them announcing the next round of races.  (There were different heats running all throughout the day. I think every 20 minutes.) Well, Emma and Jordyn panicked and thought that was the race they were suppose to be in and quickly ran to get in it! Yes, they ran in one of the adult 5K runs!  We couldn't find them for a very long time and knew that they had to be in one of the adult races.  I was panicked because I didn't know how she was going to handle it. After a long time of searching for them, we finally found them running in the race about 3/4 of the way through.  We asked them if they wanted to stop and come out and they said that wanted to finish the race.  I was so proud!  

This is Emma when we finally found her 3/4 done with the race...

This is Emma and Jordyn after they finished their race!! Yes, Jordyn lost her shoes in the race. 

It made for fun memories and great pictures, but we'll have to see about next year. The jury is still out.

The "Y"

Hiking to the "Y" has been something we've always wanted to do. And since we had an open day on our Utah trip we knew exactly what we wanted to do with it. Josh's aunt and his cousins took us and were perfect tour guides. We opted to leave Riley and Landon with a different aunt of Josh's and we were very glad we did. Although it isn't a very long hike, it is a pretty steep hike. It got pretty hot that day but the kids were real troopers. In true BYU fashion, after the hike we took the kids to The Creamery for an ice cream cone to top off our BYU excursion. It was great fun we'd definitely do it again.

Here we all are sitting on the big "Y" gate you enter in as you start your hike...

Here we are sitting on the right side of the top of the "Y". The "Y" itself was actually pretty cold and felt so good to sit on it after that hot hike. We sat there for a good 30 minutes and munched on Sour Patch Kids and licorice.

Katelyn likes to create photo ops for herself...

Cheesy I know, but here is our family forming a "Y" on the "Y"...

Hogle Zoo 2011

Oh how my kids love the zoo. We could have stayed there all day.

This tiger was one of the highlights for us. We were literally this close to that tiger. No zoom was necesary. It was eating a leg bone from some animal right in front of us. We sat and watched him eat that for about 30 minutes. It was fascinating.

Can't wait to go back.

U2

After much anticipation, over a year to be exact, U2 FINALLY came to town! Josh and I bought tickets to their SLC show well over a year ago but it was canceled due to Bono having back surgery. And let me tell you....it was well worth the wait. As a seasoned concert-goer these days, it was the most amazing show I've ever seen. The set, the stage, the lights, the special effects, the music was all so AMAZING! For a group to sound as good as they do on the radio, LIVE, is hard to do. I know I've said this before, but there is just something about seeing a band you've loved forever, singing a song you've loved forever, LIVE. When they walk out on stage...and you see them...right THERE... it's the same reaction everytime. I get chills all over and my eyes water, just a bit (none of that crazy sobbing stuff, just enough my eyes are barely moistened) and you SCREAM! I love it!

One thing I've decided I really don't like...when a band or singer doesn't sing a song in its original tune.  I get it that you are probably sick of singing the same songs over and over and want to mix it up a bit.  But from a fan's point of view--I HATE THAT! I want to hear it the way I've always known it.  Plus, it makes it really hard to sing along.  No offense.

Anyway, now time to take a break from concerts for a bit. Until September that is....

My baby is TWO!

A couple weeks ago Landon turned two. We celebrated with family over for lunch and a party. One of Landon's my favorite things right now is SpongeBob. So it was an easy decision on what to do for his cake. And he LOVED it!

I hate to brag... but Landon has got to be the cutest little 2 year old there is. He is very smart and is saying new words every day. He says thank you for everything, even when he doesn't need to. He loves to snuggle. He loves to give hugs and kisses. He loves to greet his brother and sisters when they get home from school with a big hug. His favorite thing to say is, "Daddy stinks!" You give the kid an applesauce cup with a sippy cup of apple juice and he's a happy camper. They say at this age they hit the "Terrible 2's". But I have to admit...there is just nothing terrible about this little boy.