10 Days of Fun....

We had a whirlwind 10 days of fun a couple of weeks ago that was so much fun, it took me awhile to slow down and get the pictures all loaded and ready to blog.

Gormus Family Visits

Tripp's sister Elizabeth and her family came to visit. We spent three fun days with them bowling, swimming, playing games, visiting the Bellagio art gallery, go cart racing, coloring, seeing the Lion King and watching the final Harry Potter. We were having so much fun that I forgot to take photos.

Salt Lake City

On Saturday morning, Elizabeth and her family left with MamaThom & PapaThom for California and we headed out to Utah for the Marz Family BBQ. My Aunt Leslie was kind enough to allow us to have it in her backyard (which is absolutely lovely by the way). We had a ton of fun with lots of aunts and uncles and cousins coming for the afternoon and evening. Next stop, Moab 2012.

Our family stayed on the next week at Leslie's house (she is so gracious) where the girls enjoyed her beautiful garden, her darling daughter (Ashlie is so much fun) and her super fun grandkids. We got to attend church with her, go to a Nolan/Alicia/Leslie birthday bash (thanks again for inviting us...what a treat), nosh on the Red Iguana with Ashlie, Leslie & Will, and so much more. What a great week with her family.
Monday Tripp dropped Kyle off at BYU for soccer camp then we headed to Kayesville to play with my cousin Jen & her family. Tina, a gaggle of her other grandkids and Lindsay & the boys were there too. A great bunch. The highlight for my girls was playing American Girl dolls with Avery.
Tuesday we visited Grandma Florence for lunch. The girls colored her a million pictures and we stayed and had some lunch with her. She is the picture of grace, even in her 90s. I can only hope to age so beautifully.

Then it was off to Heritage Village. So much pioneer fun. We definitely need to return. I had to pet the sheep through the fence so Abbie wouldn't have to touch anything but Daisy ran right in and hugged every animal. She will definitely be my helper someday when I get a farm.

That night we had dinner with Aunt Tina, Uncle Gary and my cousin Michael and his family. He has three fun girls (Emma, sadly for us, was away on a houseboat) and Abbie & Daisy always love playing with Alia and Sophia. They played and swam. So fun at Aunt Tina's house.

Wednesday we met our BFFs Lisa, Talmadge & Jonah at Sundance. So much fun packed into one day. So many photos I can't fit into this post. Some are so funny. These four kids together crack me up....

Thursday morning before we hit the road to pick up Kyle, we had the pleasure of going to Gardner Village (I don't know really how that is spelled) with Leslie and Amanda & kids. Cute place. The girls can't wait to go back for more doll clothes. We also had the opportunity of hitting our friend Bella's lemonade and treat stand in Provo. She was having it at her grandparent's restaurant. What fun (and delicious).
We arrived at BYU a little early and what luck. Kyle's team was in the finals for the camp's soccer championship. We couldn't believe it! We got to see the final game!

Kyle usually plays keeper but he played forward in this game. He shoots and just nearly missed the goal. Rats. (I love the look on his face). But they won the game 4 to 0. He was so thrilled and we couldn't have been more excited for him. He had such a great week.
Thompsons Gather at the Cabin

We collected Kyle and headed straight for Duck Creek. The next morning Tripp's family started slowing arriving for a short summer gathering. By Saturday, all of Tripp's siblings were there. What fun!

We sat on the deck...
Held baby Keeton...
Rode 4-wheelers and cabin cars.
Messed around....

Played in the woods...
Played corn hole...
and played cards and ate and generally hung out. We had a wonderful time with the Thompsons and are really grateful to my parents for allowing us to gather at the cabin.

Sunday we met in Enoch for Keeton's blessing and lunch. The Randall house is great and they are such a fun family. It was a wonderful way to end our 10 days of crazy, wonderful fun.

Fourth of July

For the third? year in a row we spent the Fourth of July holiday at the cabin. It's become our family's tradition and it's a fun one. We have some regular activities and added a new one this year.

We always make it to the Duck Creek Firefighter's breakfast. The kids love riding the fire truck. We always run into the Earls on the way in or out. This year they had Julie's family with them and that was a delightful first.

Next up, a trip to the fishing pond. Papa made friends with the guy who owns land and turned it into a fishing site. It is super kid friendly and they always catch something. Two fish each this time. The cockatiel, Pete, missed Kyle.


Tripp taught a Danish boy how to gut and clean fish. No small feat as he didn't speak English. He was pretty cute though and really excited to watch and learn from Tripp.
Papa took Abbie and Nate to feed the horses (a favorite) after lunch and they ended up taking a short ride. Daisy needed to get in on that action and she road with Abbie for awhile. I never thought the girls would be that receptive to actually riding the horses (especially Abbie) but they loved it.
Then, dinner came and it was time to decorate the cabin car for the parade. Tripp and Sam helped the kids make Duct Tape headbands (in the spirit of Kyle...man we missed him).
The first year the kids (or was it just Lindsay and Abbie?) rode on a large float in the parade. Last year we entered the cabin car with Grandma, Papa the little kids in the back and Kyle leading the parade in his Scout uniform. This year we decorated the cabin car again and Lindsay added hats to drivers. You have to understand this parade...we see chicken costumes, dogs with hats, our family...not too sophisticated. But we've grown to love it.



Ryan loved eating the candy everyone was hurling at his cute body. He is darling but wouldn't give me a kiss the entire weekend...one sad Aunt Ali. Today he saw a picture of me and said my name so all is forgiven.
Sunday we went to "Cabin Church". Sam and Tripp both forgot their church clothes but luckily, no one there cares. Some guy showed up once with safety pins keeping his jeans together. It's something.

After church and lunch, and a good long rest, Wes, Linds and Sam took the kids on a "Hike" while Tripp and I worked on finishing up dinner. I guess the kids were using their pretend binoculars.
Bright and early Monday morning Dad, Sam & Wes went fishing. Around 10:30 the rest of us met them at the dock to join in. Another successful day. Nate caught one, Sam caught one and Abbie caught one. The rest of us just had fun.







That afternoon we took an official horseback ride. Abbie and I tried to fit on one horse but it didn't work. Luckily, she had no reservations at all about riding by herself. I got to ride "Reno" which I thought was pretty appropriate.
That evening Tripp taught the kids how to roast the perfect mallow. I love how two of them are wearing their fire safety hats while roasting over an open pit of flames.

And that's it, in a nutshell. We had over 500 photos on our camera alone...then Lindsay dropped hers off this morning. So I just picked some to post. They may not be the best of the bunch but I've got to get them up and move on. We are on the fast track now and summer is flying by at record speeds.

Dance Recital

Abbie and Daisy's spring dance recital was last week. I'm a bit behind on my posts and they have one every year so I thought I might just skip it this time but Aunt Tina sent me a text the day of the show wishing the girls good luck and specifically asking for photos so this one is for Aunt Tina.

It was Daisy's first costume show on the big stage. I thought we might have big problems this year as Abbie didn't dance at all last year due to stage fright and Daisy bailed out of the Christmas show at the last minute but they both did a great job. I'm not going to bore you with details on each photo but they had so much fun learning their "60's dances" and we will be singing "The Locomotion" and "Good Day Sunshine" in particular around here for a long time. It certainly helps that they both have super friends in their classes and that their teacher and her daughter are extra darling. Daddy brought flowers for both girls and their friends and our darling friend Mallory surprised the girls with flowers as well. Now they dress up in their costumes almost every day and just dance around the house...money well spent I guess.

While downloading the photos off Tripp's camera, I noticed that there were several he took months back that never got downloaded. That turkey. I love that he likes to take photos but I guess I'm the official downloader of the family.

First up, Abbie & Daisy twirling...

Sitting in our tree....
Our peach tree in bloom...
And possibly my favorite, the girls with their shower caps on!

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent Memorial Day Weekend at the cabin with my family. We arrived Saturday night just in time for dinner then to say "Goodbye" to Aunt Sam and her friend Bert (Abs had her Preschool graduation that morning). Sam had to work Sunday so she left that night. The rest of us, however, made our way down to Duck Creek for the annual welcome dance. The band is so nice and the singer always remembers our kids and lets them play tambourines and generally has a ball with them. Small towns are pretty cool.

Grandma read the kids a story from one of the old Care Bear books before they hit the sack. Everyone was loving those Care Bear books and looks forward to reading them when we visit the cabin....cracks me up.
Abbie helped Papa with his exercises. She did all his counting for him (he got a new knee).
The enormous pile of brown snow was a huge hit.
Kyle has been telling me about a game called "Corn Hole" that they've been playing in PE lately. He has been trying to explain it to me and I couldn't really believe that they would play it in his 7th grade PE class. Well, sure enough, Grandma shows up with a set of Corn Hole games for the kids. I laughed pretty hard. No one else really got it but when I got home and told Kyle he thought it was pretty cool.

Of course, despite the cold weather (and lapsed registration...oops!) there was a good amount of cabin car riding to be had as well.
Another great weekend at the cabin. Can't wait to go back. Hoping the weather is just a wee bit warmer the next time. It was downright cold some of the time and we'd like a little nicer weather for the 4th (or earlier). But we sure are thankful Grandma & Papa built it for our family to enjoy. It truly is the best.