the zoo

 Bridger had a birthday so we took these animals to the zoo...

The train,

the elephants,

the giraffes,

Happy Birthday Bridger, it's so great to be 3!

dippin' dots

$12.00 on ice cream,

Now it is summer...

read

so nice to walk into a room and see this...

Lets be honest, usually I find them doing things not so photogenic.

the help

the best we could afford...

 just finishing their apprentice work and will be ready for hire soon!

ice cream

We made it till the last week in July...

before scumming to the bliss, the close your eyes and take in the breeze, perfection...

 ... the ice cream truck.

cabin

We spent 24 hours here this weekend.

We did a little of this and that, Casey had to paint the bunk house.

 Gentry and her first "hotdog samwich", apparently I have never given her a bun before,  delightful!

Amazing how the mountain air can put a smile on even the most resistant faces!

While attempting to stay out of the painting, we went on a flower hunt.

 They were able to collect 18 different kinds of  "flowers", Casey said they are mostly weeds.  But we thought they were beautiful!

Over all we caught up on some wheeling time, some family love...

 with some added monkeying around.  Uncle Corey even came at the last minute.

 We love Grandpa's cabin. 

pioneer children

Our neighbor hood had a great little pioneer trek they called "the AMAZING trek".  We were to start at the church at 8:00 am, ready to go.  We were sent to listen to some of our young women who just came home from a real trek and hear some of their testimony building experiences. Then started with our first clue, which sent us to "the barn" they had horses, goats, chickens, even a yak.

The Richards family was kind enough to take everyone who wanted for a ride on the horses, let you feed the goats and even lasso a straw cow.

Gentry liked it but would show NO emotion, (-hi 19 year old...whatever!)

Then to walk on, with our next clue in hand.

We made it with only a small pit stop for the stroller, we would have never made it walking to Utah.
You could make one doll per family.  Hayli made ours for us.

 Which Gentry quickly took over.  The next clue led us to a story about how a family's Dad wasn't able to push the cart so his wife pushed his 6 foot, and 220 lbs in her hand cart she herself being only 4'11.  So we had to push our Dad in a wheelbarrow around the culdesac.  We laughed alot and almost dropped him too.  BUT we made it.

 FINALLY our last clue led us to a pancake breakfast, can you imagine we had to trek on a empty stomach?  

How spoiled we are, and grateful for the conveniences we enjoy each day.
Thanks Pioneers.

houston...

...we have a problem.

Being a grown-up is so fun.
Happy pioneer day!

genny

 I walked into the kitchen just in time to see Gentry slam into the wall with her scooter.
me..."What are you doing?"
gen.."I not making you mad, I just making me happy!"

the end

moments

I read a blog today that referred to the "glorified truth" we see in pictures and blogs. 

 It made me think of a friend who recently said to me "I read your blog, your life is perfect."

 Let me assure anyone one who might have been fooled with my "glorified truth" our life is not perfect by most standards.  Today was a hard day ... I'm not sure why the rules seemed harder today... but man even Casey got frustrated after he had only been home for a little while.

 So we ate dinner (painfully) and had scripture time.  Hayli down loaded the scriptures on to her ipod, and the glimmer of hope started.  Casey had the brilliant idea to find out who could roast the perfect marshmallow.

I have to admit I wasn't really behind it I answered "If  it was up to me the answer would be no fire and early bed time." --- It wasn't up to me.

And so our day ended playing on the tramp at dusk, smiling, laughing and loving to be together.

I choose to post about the happy time because I want to remember these moments.  Moments that, to me, are beautiful.

As my well written, pretend friend and blogger Kelle said.."glorified truth...nah.  It really happened."  And so our life might not be perfect, but it definitely has its perfect moments.

 I'll take it.

she wanted one,

Made a deal with her Dad...work hard and you can have one.

 She did work hard, she cleaned and cleaned, babysat too.

the ipod touch.