Swimming at Jerry and Darinda's

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school!!! Mallory and Hayley have been counting down the days for weeks!! They were so excited to meet their new teachers and new friends in their classes!!

Hayley's first day of kindergarten--Hayley is in Mrs. Walker's morning kindergarten class. Brittney and I went and helped out today and Hayley was ALL SMILES, ALL MORNING!! Hayley listened to Mrs. Walker read "The Kissing Hand", she ate breakfast at school and she played outside for recess!! Hayley LOVES kindergarten!!

Mallory's First Day of First Grade--Mallory is in Mrs. Hagen's class and she is excited to make new friends (most of her friends from kindergarten are in other classes!). Today Mallory made an owl book about rules at school!!

YSA Super Summer Activity at Camp LOMIA

The past few days we have been at Camp LOMIA in Logan Canyon with the Young Single Adults for their Super Summer Activity!! Our girls are in heaven every time we are with the Young Single Adults. Mallory, Hayley and Brittney were so excited to sleep upstairs in the lodge close to all their friends!!

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and helped the Wayment's get the lodge all set up, the fridge stocked and all the food put away. The Young Single Adults trickled in all afternoon and evening. We talked, played games and ate and ate and ate!!

On Friday, we ate breakfast and headed down to Bear Lake to spend the day wave runner, playing volleyball and playing in the sand. Mallory spent a great majority of the day out on our neighbor's boat with several of the YSA's. We had a great time!! When we returned to the lodge on Friday evening, Brother Naluai had come up and made a great Hawaiian chicken dinner for us!! It was delicious!! The girls had a great time with the Gardiner kids (Anna, Jackson, Alyssa, and baby Addi)!

Scott, after the kill, almost fell in the water!!


Brittney and Hayley

Hayley with the sand castle she helped the Young Single Adults build

Hayley Boo

Brittney--can you tell what I had for lunch?? Cookies mixed with a little sand!!

Brittney and her cute sunglasses



On Saturday morning, it took quite a while to get Mallory and Brittney out of bed so I could pack everything up--they were pretty tuckered out!! They stayed up way too late each night but they had a blast!! On the way home, we stopped in Logan and went bowling all together and then to a park for lunch!! WHAT A FUN ACTIVITY!!!!! Mallory the Sleepy Head

Brittney sleeping with her head up against the wall!!

Antelope Island

Today we really went exploring around Antelope Island. First, we drove over to the Fielding Garr Ranch and walked around the barns, sheds and the home there on the island. We saw a lot of old tools, sleds, bicycles, horse tackle, etc. Scott showed off his lassoing skills and did really well (he tried to have me do it--I gave it a half-hearted try and then explained to Scott that I had other talents and lassoing is NOT one of them--I couldn't even get the lasso to spin correctly over my head and there was NO WAY it was going to get around the horns of an imaginary bull!!)! Here are a few pictures we took at the Ranch.... Mallory, Brittney and Hayley checking out some OLD STUFF (Brittney had to wear her sunglasses everywhere because "The sun is so shiny")


Scott showing off--a perfect picture of him lassoing the bull

Mallory, Hayley and Brittney realized that would be too cramped in a Sheep Camp--they like our trailer a whole lot more!!

Brittney, Hayley and Erin

Mallory riding her imaginary horse

Hayley's turn

and Brittney's turn (Hey! This horse must be made in New Jersey!!)

Hayley ridin' a bull

Scott lassoing again--SHOW OFF!!!

Hayley wanted to try with the lasso too!

Brittney

Brittney, Hayley and Mallory doing laundry

After we left the Ranch, we went to lunch at the only concession stand on the island and paid a pretty penny for lunch. Scott had a Buffalo Burger and the girls and I had hamburgers-- we could have saved a few bucks and just ordered the girls a meal to share because they hardly ate a thing!! Oh well, it was all for the experience at the Buffalo Point Restaurant!! (Sorry--we didn't take any pictures of our lunch!)

After lunch, we headed over to the Visitor's Center. We looked around and watched a movie all about Antelope Island. We snapped a few pictures outside of the Visitor's Center...

We headed back to the trailer and got ready to head down and swim in the Great Salt Lake. The girls were so excited! Brittney got a shoulder ride most of the way down to the lake because the sand was really hard to walk in. The shore of the lake was a sea of tiny black flying bugs-- millions and millions of them. As soon as we got in the water, Hayley was crying and whining and wanted to go back to the trailer! She wanted all of us to get out of the water with her but she couldn't convince any of us to get out with her. Hayley finally walked to shore and sat there by herself until we were ready to leave. The water wasn't very deep. I did get a few pictures of the Scott, Mallory and Brittney in the water.

Brittney hitching a ride to the lake

Mallory, Brittney, Scott and Hayley (she's actually in the water)

After dinner we went for a ride in the truck and spotted several deer, buffalo and antelope. We went for a short hike and had a great view at sunset!!

A family self-portrait

Here is one of my talents I spoke of earlier--I can hold up the moon!!!

Antelope Island Buffalo

Here is another of our "close to home" camping trips. We decided to take the girls to Antelope Island for the weekend. Today, we came and got all set up. We went out to relax a little and all of a sudden we heard the word "Buffalo". We got up and walked to the edge of our trailer, and two buffalo were walking down the middle of the campground--like within 20 yards of us--they just sauntered through and they were gone! The kids were kind of scared to see buffalo so close up!

The girls found a great place to play in the sand!! We went for a walk and saw millions and millions of spider webs! They were everywhere--there were webs connecting every piece of sagebrush with HUGE spiders on them!!

We had a very relaxing night!

This is only the second time in my life I have been to Antelope Island and Scott's third or forth--it is someplace soo close but we've really never been here. I am looking forward to going exploring more tomorrow!

THE BUFFALO walking through the campground

Mallory, Brittney and Hayley with their sand buckets and jump ropes

The view from our campsite!!

Swimming with Cousins at Aunt Darinda's

Every Thursday all summer has been "Swimming" day at my SIL Darinda's house in Huntsville. Today was the first and only Thursday we were able to make it up there all summer (that means we have been WAY TOOOOOO BUSY this summer)! Mallory and Hayley had a blast! They were in the pool for about 3 hours straight (Brittney only stayed in the pool about 45 minutes before she was off playing with her cousins). Jerry and Darinda's pool is the best ever because it is so nice--they heat their pool through their hot tub so it is nice and warm! I was stayed in the pool talking to Darinda (my SIL), Stacie (Scott's niece) and Natalie (another niece--Stacie and Natalie have kids the same ages or close to my girls). We had a wonderful time! I am so glad we were finally able to go!! The perfect shot of Mallory jumping off the diving board into the floaty!! Mallory is quite the little fishy!! (Isn't it just gorgeous up here!! I love going to Huntsville!!)

Hayley swimming to the stairs after jumping off the diving board--she is becoming a lot more comfortable in the water!!

Mallory jumping in--goggles and all!


Hayley mid air!!

Leslie and Doug's Wedding

My sister Leslie got married today to Doug!! Everything turned out so nice! She got married in her church by her bishop. Leslie has waited 33 years for this day!! I snapped just a few pictures with my camera of this special day (sorry Doug, I only took pictures while we were helping Leslie get ready). Leslie had all the sisters and sister-in-laws come in and help do the finishing touches. I had the job to cinch up the back of her dress

Me cinching her dress--Doesn't Leslie look gorgeous!!!

ALL THE GIRLS

(Back left to right) Christine (cousin), Shayna (cousin), Tera (SIL), Becca (sis), Rachael (sis), Aleece (sis), Liz (SIL)

(Front left to right) Erin (me), Sarah (sis), Leslie (sis), Katie (Leslie's step daughter), and Mom

Katie and Leslie


It was a beautiful day and a beautiful ceremony!! We are excited to welcome Doug and his three cute children to the family - Brayden, Ryder and Katie!
CONGRATULATIONS LESLIE AND DOUG!!!

Whitney Reservoir in the Uintah's

We left for the Uintah's early (like 6 a.m. early) on Monday morning to spend the week at Whitney Reservoir! It was so pretty up there and cool and relaxing! We found a perfect little spot on top of a hill to set up camp. We had a little patch of trees surrounding a fire pit where we hung the hammocks to relax!

On Monday, we got everything set up, ate lunch and everyone took a little nap (we thought the girls would sleep on the way up but they were all wide awake--they didn't get much sleep the night before). It stormed from about 3 p.m. until we went to bed--which made it really nice because it got rid of the dust and the HUGE horseflies!

Whitney Reservoir from our campsite

The wildflowers looking to the West of our campsite

Scott woke up early in the morning and captured a beautiful picture of the sunrise--the colors are much more vibrant outside the smog of the city!!

Hayley caught the very first fish--it was a keeper!!

Mallory setting up her pole with rocks waiting for a fish to bite

Erin, Mallory, Brittney and Hayley after we hiked a ways up a steep trail--the background is actually the beginning of the Weber River Drainage

A dad has to learn that fishing with little girls is all about picking wildflowers and PINK power bait--When it came time to go home, I went to throw the flowers away and all three girls had a serious meltdown--we ended up bring the wilted, dying flowers all the way home with us!!

Everyone else had to sit on HARD rocks fishing while Brittney got a nice COMFY seat!

Brittney's first fish (she did not want to hold it for the picture!)

Our second day fishing--we were able to catch several good sized Rainbow's and large Brook Trout (which is rare)

Three sisters that really enjoy being together (most of the time)

On Thursday, we went on a long 4-wheeler ride up to Moffit Peak where Scott use to do a lot of snowmobiling (he chipped the bone in his back up here). When we returned home, we saw in the newspaper that a wolf killed a sheep dog in this area right after we left!

We are still on Moffit Peak looking east with Whitney Reservoir and another little lake to the right.

We found a patch of snow to play in. It was a very steep mountainside that dropped off over the ledge just below the rocks.

Posing in the snow on July 29th after throwing snowballs!

The "R" Scott made in the snow! This snow is in the Bear River Drainage which eventually feeds into Bear Lake. I wonder if it will be at Bear Lake when we go in a few weeks??

Brittney and Hayley showing off their new batch of wildflowers!!

The Weber River Drainage

Erin and Mallory crossing a creek that is coming out of a nearby lake. Up in the mountains, you can see the patch of snow where we made our "R" (which is not visible this far away)

Brittney standing up driving--she is learning quick how everything works and she wants to take total control of the 4 wheelers!!

Looking East into the heart of the Uintah Mountains from a 4 wheeler loop we rode on

We had a wonderful time! It was so relaxing! This was our first time camping at Whitney Reservoir--I'm sure we will be coming back here again soon! It's too bad all good things have to end sometime!!