Happy Memorial Weekend!

We have a family tradition that my mom and dad started to start out our camping season over the Memorial weekend...this year was no different. We packed up our gear and headed to Pallisades! It was truly a gorgeous weekend... only poured rain 1 time for a few hours on Sunday.. of course that was just enough to make a mud mess!
We went camping with our good buddies, Cort and Misty and their 2 adorable kids Teegan and Talon..


My brother Andy and Kristi and my 5 adorable neices and nephews Breanna, Danielle, Eric, Philip, and Charlize.. My 2 younger bros. Cameron and Brayden.. and John's former boss Keven and Cheryl who saved us a spot at the campground among 500 other camping fools with motorcycle fever! It was a mad house in the pit!




We couldn't keep the kids off the 4 wheelers and motorcycles.. they just wanted to ride :) They are all doing so well on them.


Justin has been riding for quite a few years now and I think this is the first time that I've really seen him jump.. Check out the air he's catching! That's awesome!


My little brother, Brayden, has been riding for a couple years and he is just fearless. John wants to start him racing.. haha.. we will see what my mom thinks of that! But John and Cort built him a little jump to go off of and Brayden had no problem reving the engine and going for it! He's doing awesome on his bike!


Here's a look at the 2 psychos trying to climb a steep, rocky hill! Took them 3, 4, 5maybe 6 times but they finally made it up. They claim there are no hills to steep to climb! Crazy!



Makayla and Charlize found something else to do with their time.. they collected snails, snails, and more snails! They left them sitting everywhere including in our chairs so we had snails climbing all over!! Grousse!!



Teegan is making fire the old fashioned way.. by rubbing stick between hands against rock! :)


We had a good time.. but this trip definately was not without its unfortunate events either!
1. There's nothing like starting out a great camping trip with a nice black and blue bruise! I twisted my ankle after stepping in a hole.. let the bruises begin I guess!

2. Kristi was on her way up with her 5 kids and got stranded just after Ririe.. my mom's suburban engine blew! She was stuck at a rest stop with antsy kids for a couple hours waiting for us to get there to pick them all up... poor guys!
3. We had a few unfornate crashes but nobody was seriously hurt! Whew! That's good news cuz it sure could have been worse.. broken bones and all.
4. Philip, my 6 year old newphew, fell in the fire burning his hand... but he's ok!

5. A friend of the family showed up to rescue us on Monday when we couldn't pull the 4-wheeler trailer home... however, when she got there, she realized her hitch had been jacked!! Luckily we had an extra one :)
6. Of course, there's always those few extra food items that it seems no matter how many times you check the list, they still get forgotten. It was a TRAGEDY that we forgot the ice cream and whip cream for the great apple and peach cobbler!!!

Thanks to everybody who came that made our trip an eventful, but fun campout! See you all next year!... minus the tragic events hopefully!

In Rememberance of My Dad

A year ago today, my dad lost his battle with cancer and left us to fulfill his calling in heaven. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him.


It seems like there's always something, no matter how small, that triggers a memory for me of him. Simply dropping off my kids to school reminds me of him, because every chance he got, he would take them and he loved it. He used to just chuckle to himself about how he couldn't believe how small they looked next to all the other kids. One time my dad was taking them to school and he was a little bit too early so he decided to circle the block a couple times.. well, Makayla was getting this annoyed look on her face and he asked what was wrong.. Makayla said, "grandpa.. you are wasting our time!" Dad said she was so serious about it and he just laughed. He laughed about it all through his chemo treatment that day.


My dad just enjoyed the simple things in life. Taking his family camping, fishing, going to the park..


taking his grandkids to the dollar store. They had him wrapped around their little fingers.


He was so amazing with them. He read them books and ruff housed with them. He did homework with them too. He liked to just have them around.

He was a man of great integrity and raised us by his great example. He was always lending a hand wherever needed giving such great service to others.

When the flood in Blackfoot happened in '97, I decided I would sand bag for one of my laurel projects which meant, 20 hours minimum. He was right there by my side chucking those heavy sand bags along the river bank. We had so much fun.. we laughed and laughed. He especially found it funny when he would toss the sand bag to me, but it wouldn't quite make it too me, so it dropped in the water at my feet, splashing me with water and mud and making the bag 10x heavier for me to heave to the next person! My muscles were like jello after 2 straight days of tossing those bags. It was such an awesome feeling serving next to him. He taught me the greater and important things in life. I have many wonderful memories of my dad, that I will always cherish. I miss him every day. He was too young to go... Life really is too short to take anything for granted, especially the chance to make memories with your family. I'm so grateful to him that he made it so important to have our family be close to each other and to make memories with us so that now, I can reflect on it all, as I miss him so much. I have a great love for the gospel and the knowledge it brings into my life. The knowledge of knowing that I will see my dad again brings the most comfort to me. I love him and will always miss him.