Kings Canyon and Bear Lake

In Backwards order here are our July Vacations. At the end of our Bear Lake adventure with my family our friends Dave and Aubree and Felipe and Andrea came up to spend a day on the Lake with us. We had so much fun it was a perfect day. Parker was so tired from our week festivities he fell asleep on Aubree. Isn't Will so adorable??
Nathan and Nixon.
Parker driving the boat for us!
Nixon loved being on the boat as long as it wasn't moving. Other wise he wasn't all too thrilled with it.
Gracie, Parker and Olivia helping make breakfast.
Nixon did a lot of sleeping at the beach.
My 3 boys!
The kids are wiped out after 3 long days at the beach and swimming all night, but it sure is fun fun fun!!!
From left to right Steph, Nicole, Mindi Brook, Jamie. Fun times!!
Parker loved the boat!
Nixon, Tate and Curt

Kings Canyon....
This is me trying to rock Nixon asleep in the hammock. He wasn't falling for it and it was just making me sleepy. I love the hammock!
This was part of our camping compound
From left to right Leif, Jace Zach Nathan and Brad finally making an appearance after being invited to come 20 min earlier. The boys were tired of waiting...
Blake and Parker playing with a truck
Me and Nixon on the river. It was hot there so we made a trip to the river twice a day this year.
Parker and Nathan.

Our little family.
Nixon loved the rocks. It was hard to keep him from putting them in his mouth.
Gabriel and Parker. They loved going around in the wagon.


This was how we got Parker to take a nap most days. It was good exercise riding around the camp ground.

4th of July and In the Garden

My inlaws have a great garden and the grandkids love to play it in. With only a few days left of the pea tunnels I had to snap a few pictures. Emma
Parker and Grace
Cecelia
Parker and Cecelia
Chloe
Jane
Sophie


Shannon Jane and Chloe. I'm missing Oliver but he wasn't in the garden at the time.

Also my cousins came down to see the Jonas brothers so for a few min before we had to head to our other family bbq we hung out with them. Parker LOVES having kids closer to his age to hang out with around my family. And he LOVES Gracie and Olivia
Here is Gracie!!
Parker, Olivia and Scottie. Olivia has a little crush on Scottie and Parker thinks he's pretty funny.
Parker played with the big boys during our bbq. He loved it.
Nothing says summer like parades and doughnuts.
I brought cookies to our BBQ's and this was Parker waiting for he dough to be ready to eat. We love our cookie dough at our house. I feel ya parker...

Play dates with friends

This July was crazy for us. Nathan had a huge deadline the day before we headed for our vacation so he ended up working from 8 in the morning till 12 midnight most days. Including Saturdays. We managed to keep busy with family and friends. We were able to go to the zoo with my friend Ash from high school and then we headed to Thanksgiving point to catch up with an old friend from our ward the next week. We had a lot of fun!Parker and I also took a mommy and me swimming class. He loved it. He is more comfortable in the pool now so that is great. My friend Cass and her son Bridger took it with us. Don't tell Nixon because both my friends who took it brought their kids who were his age, but I needed to make sure parker was ok with the water and it worked! This was Parker in the play jail at Thanksgiving point. They have a fun little western village for the kids to play in.

He had tons of fun at the pony rides. And was excited to have me ride on the toys at the park. Nixon was there too but he wasn't so happy to be there so my friends Cass walked with Parker while I held Nixon.

This was Nixon on the Carousel at the zoo. It wasn't his favorite.

The train ride and the elephant exhibit. Parker loved the train ride-once we got on. I was a little worried at first he wanted me to hold him because he was scared of the train line. Luckily he got over that pretty quick.

Most of you know the last few weeks have been a little rainy. But that did not stop Nathan from having the great idea of going on a hike a few weeks ago. Which then inspired us to make a goal to go hiking every Tuesday. The next tuesday I brought the camera along to document. This Tuesday we were plagued with the flu. Hopefully we will be out there again every Tuesday for the rest of the summer. Honestly it is so beautiful and Parker loves it.I think Parker loves it so much because he gets to throw rocks in the river. I guess we will be on the look out for hikes with rivers passing by them.


Nixon is getting to the age where he want to be down and crawling. This should make my summer vacations very dirty!
I love my boys!
Parker told me to be careful as we got closer to the river! He is so sweet. He also tells me to watch out for cars while I am driving. It cracks me up.
What a cute view!!

Art City Days!

We took Parker and Nixon to Art city days a few days this week. The first night we went to have a scone but once Parker saw the rides we had to promise to bring him back the next day. We LOVE the scones!!! The second day we didn't make it to the scone shack in time so we had to get a funnel cake-sorry Ryan and Jayna I hope you make it there sometime this weekend. On our way to the carnival it started to rain so we waited for it stop. By the time we got down there all the good parents had their kids in bed so Parker rode each ride all by himself. And I'm pretty sure they let him ride twice as long.
My pictures just uploaded backwards and I know how to fix them but I'm too lazy tonight. The "dragon train" was our grand finale. The worker must have let us go around 20 times . I thought it was nice but it was such a small track that I thought I was going to die around every corner. Plus my parents always told me that these carnival rides weren't as safe as big amusement Park rides so I hadn't been on one in 20 years!
Parker didn't want to sit in the first seat because the dragon was "scary". He loved every minute of the ride.
Parker wanted me to ride on the other horse but I always think of the rattlesnake in the carousel story so I wanted to watch him closely. I know I'm a nerd.
Nixon braved the cold while his brother got to enjoy all the rides. It was past his bed time so I thought he would fall asleep on the walk over but he stayed awake almost until we were home.


On the mermaid/duck ride Parker would look away from the ride operator every time he would come around to him. Once I figured out what he was doing it was funny to watch him look out of the corner of his eye to see if the guy had passed yet. I moved away from the operator so I could convince him to waive at me. Parker doesn't smile in pictures right now but I promise he was having a good time. He was just too busy concentrating on driving the carts.

PS If you went to the carnival, what do you think of the new location? We LOVED it! but don't let that influence you, I really want to know your own opinion.

PPS We really go just for the scones. If we could we would sneak in and out with only participating in eating the scone. I promise we aren't super ghetto. But hey we have kids and we have to keep them happy! And we made sure to bring the purel to disinfect when we were done