A Summer Must Have...

Summer just doesn't feel complete until we have

made it to the B.E. County Fair.

Most people would just spend a few hours one day checking out what the fair has to offer.

Nope, not us.

We spend time out there all 4 days and still feel sad when it's over.

A week later and Kyler is still asking if we can go to the fair.

Sorry buddy, you'll have to wait a whole another year:(



Wednesday:

We kick things off with the parade and riding rides at the carnival.

(that's the only night we can afford them. What a rip off). 

Thursday:

It's family night at the rodeo.

We get a must have rodeo hamburger. 

Friday:

We usually go out and watch Annie in the horse show and walk around the booths,

since they are less crowded. This year Kyler decided last minute to be in the

 horse show with Annie. So uncle Todd got a horse ready and Aunt Megan fixed up

her cowboy hat for Kyler to wear(nothing like a little toilet paper to make it fit). And both

kids rode around the arena.

Kyler was pretty excited about his medal and $5.00. 

Saturday:

We walked around one last time, visited the goat barn for the thousandth time, played on

the tractors, and made sure that we had eaten everything on our Fair Food Checklist.

Summer Bucket LIst...Hill Air Force

 

One of the things on our summer bucket list

was to visit Hill Air Force Museum.

Ever since Kyler went on his first airplane ride last spring he has had a fascination with planes.

We thought this would be a fun way to spend a few hours

and the best part was it is free to visit!!! 

 

I think we might have a military kid on our hands.

He loves planes and guns.

When you put them together he thinks it's the coolest thing ever. 

I would recommend this activity for anyone with little boys.

I only wish that Kyler was more the type to walk around these places and learn cool

new facts, instead he wants to be able to get inside and touch everything.

Even though we weren't able to sit in the planes I think everyone still had a enjoyable time:) 

Weekend Words...

Weekend Words...

 Went to the FAIR. Rode carnival rides on dollar night.

Ate too many deep fried foods. Fed the animals.

Cousin time. Horse Show.

Bought 3 guns with money earned from swimming lessons.

Rodeo.

 Exhausted!!!

Outgrew nap time. Late nights.

 

Friday night date. First football game of the season.

Sunsets. Sunday dinner with family.



Swimming Lessons...

This Summer I signed Kyler up for swimming lessons

thinking that it would be a fun 2 weeks for

him and a nice 45 minute break for me each day:)

We showed up the first day all excited and ready to learn that is until they told Kyler to get in the water. Kyler is a very stubborn child and likes to do things at his own pace. Once he makes up his mind about something it is almost impossible to get him to change it.

Monday: He stood by the edge of the pool for the first 30 minutes until they started playing a game.

He then decided he wanted to join in.

Tuesday: We had talked about it all morning and I thought I had him excited to go. Once we

got to the pool he changed his mind and starting crying and running off from me. I was so frustrated that we ended up leaving about 20 minutes later.

Wednesday: He did a little better, but still refused to do anything that the teachers asked him to do.

Thursday: I decided I would give him an incentive if he would go and do everything that the teachers asked him to do. So 5 days later and 5 dollars richer he finished level 1 of swimming class.



His favorite teacher Jessica. 

Of course every morning this week he wakes up wondering

if he has swim lessons:)



Weekend Words

One of my favorite blogs to read does a

"Weekend Words"

post every Monday. I thought that would be a simple way to

journal about our weekend.

(After all one of the main reasons for me to blog is so I have some sort of journal).

Weekend Words:

Friday morning yard work. Broken lawn mower. Cousin Clay's wedding reception. Date night with my boys. Lots of tantrums. Even more time outs:( Grover family reunion.

 Tattoos & Balloon creations.

Hill Air Force Museum. Short attention span. Young Women's lesson. Prayer in primary.
 Sunday naps. Evening walks.

Dinner at grandma's & grandpa's. Picking tomatoes.

Making plans for the upcoming fair week.

Pioneer Trek

Jason and I were asked to be in charge of our

Youth Conference this year.

After much thought and many idea's we decided to do a trek with our youth.

Our stake/ward doesn't put on a trek for the youth so we thought this would be an awesome experience for them. We did some research and decided to do at

This Is The Place.

Saturday morning we met at the church at 5:00 A.M. and headed for Salt Lake.

We couldn't have asked for better weather. Although it is August and extremely hot, we were lucky to have had some cloud coverage during the day to keep it a little cooler.



Throughout the day we were able to hear different stories of real pioneers.

We started the day hearing Joseph and Hyrum's story.

After which they were taken away by the angry mobs. 

We divided into family units.

We ended up with an awesome group of kids.

The hike ended up being 2 1/2 miles up and 2 1/2 miles down.

Since it was only a day trek they decided to make it extremely hard on us.

It was up steep hills most of the time.

I'm not sure which was worse pulling the hand cart up the hill or trying to

hold it back when we came back down the hill. 

We ended up being combined with another ward from West Valley since both of our

groups were kind of small. I was so impressed with our group of kids. There is defiantly something to be said about being raised in the country and knowing how to work hard.

We were constantly stopping and waiting for them to catch up with us. 

For lunch we were surprised to see that we would be eating an authentic Pioneer lunch.

They provided us a loaf of wheat bread, honey, apples, and trail mix.

We were all hot and tired by this point so it ended up tasting pretty good. 

After lunch us girls were given a chance to see how strong we were.

We were told the story of Lucy Smith and how she was forced to continue on with her

family without any help from the other's in her company. They told us of all the struggles she faced, but how she was strong and was blessed for her efforts.

We then did the women's pull since all of the men were off fighting the Mormon Battalion.

The picture doesn't really show how steep or how far we had to pull the hand cart, but it was so hard!!

Once at the top of the mountain we were able to stand in the same place that

 Brigham Young stood and said, "This is the Place." 

It was an amazing day and we learned so much about our pioneer ancestors.

We were able to have a testimony meeting and share our thoughts with each other.

Even though it was extremely hard, I think our youth had a enjoyable time and felt the spirit.

We all walked away with a greater appreciation for our pioneer ancestors and what they did for us.