From Border to Border...

John FINALLY got his Secret Sunday. He didn't tell a soul until we were well on the road (and I know why... Garrett threatened to start walking in Henefer). He drove us up near the Wyoming border to follow the Mormon trail into SLC and read all the plaques along the way. He's wanted to do this his whole life and I'm glad he finally got to do it!

Getting ready to descend into Emigration Canyon and follow the pioneer's final journey...

We headed up to the Idaho border for our Monday night FHE activity... Crystal Hot Springs. I'd never been there before so when John explained it's really a boy-scout hangout I was nervous. A bit run-down but we had a ton of fun in the various pools and water slides AND I was so pleased to hear they drain ALL the pools each night and let the springs fill them up again each morning. Bring on the scouts!!

We are ready/anxious/willing for school to start! Are you?

Korean Friends (part II)

Our family went to Taste of Bountiful Wednesday night (food from local restaurants like Mandarin, Plates & Palates, Cutlers Cookies, Sego Lily Cafe, etc.) so we could see our Korean boys perform with their group. They will be performing at Bountiful's Summerfest on Thursday, Friday and Saturday but we will be out of town...

Getting ready to perform...

The whole S. Korean drum corp. They performed two pieces--one was 7 minutes long and the second was 5 minutes. They were amazing! The other groups were fantastic as well. A few that I saw were from France, Nepal, Spain, China and there were several other countries that I didn't see perform...

Finally figured out how to record video on my camera to catch a brief section...

Saying goodbye after 5 days...

...so polite, so gracious, so mature for 12-year-old boys. I'm not sure I'd let Grayson travel to the other side of the world for several weeks...

Korean Friends (part I)

We have a couple of 12-year-old Korean boys staying with us this week as they perform in various Festivals around the state and specifically Summerfest in Bountiful this weekend. My friend Carol got a call late Saturday night that a couple of host families backed out at the last minute and would she be willing to take 4 boys. She said she would and went to pick them up Sunday morning. There were 8 boys waiting for her! She knew she couldn't transport 8 of them and didn't have beds for that many either. She quickly asked several of her friends if they'd help by taking 2 each. I was one of those friends...

The boy in the white shirt (Tim) speaks a "little" English and Chan doesn't speak any. We took the boys to the Rec. Center on Monday for 5 hours and they didn't want to leave!

We had the families up for FHE Monday night and showed the boys how to make S'mores.

Chan's first taste was very exciting for him and he ate 3.

Tim must've gone through 20 marshmallows as he worked on keeping the marshmallows on the stick (I think he really had fun with the fire and watching the marshmallows burn...)

The boys love when we get them all together so they can speak Korean and they seem to be enjoying everything we have planned for them.

They are very nice, respectful boys and very appreciative. We've enjoyed having them in our home.

Bountiful Handcart Days...

Kind of strange this year. There were 5 adults from our family watching the parade without any children this since they were all participating on various floats. My parents drove up from Sandy and John, Hillary and I had great front-row seats in the shade by Carriage Crossing.

Garrett is a member of the Bountiful City Youth Council and helps out when he can...

Garrett pegged our group with about 3 frisbees... He said they handed out 2,000.

Hailey rode on the WXHS float as one of the 20 cheerleaders for 2010-11.

She says she LOVES all the girls and she's having lots of fun.

Grayson was on the Forza Futbol Club float. They were entry 125 out of 128. The sun was beginning to set by the time they got to the end of the parade route around 9 pm.

Colby, Mitchell and Grayson had a fabulous time throwing candy--and they can throw hard!

We had dinner at John's parents house around 9:30 and then watched the city's fireworks show since they have great views from their house. Since we were the only family of all of John's siblings that was able to attend, we brought enough guests to eat all the food.

Hillary brought her friend Alyssa (one of her roommates last year and again this Fall).

It's so much easier to get Garrett to events if he can bring a carload of his friends...

Hailey brought her good friend Katy to join the fun.

I believe Garrett was instructing Grayson and his friends about the hazards associated with illegal fireworks...

Cooper didn't like the fireworks at all and ran to John to take cover.

Another fun tradition for our family. Maybe we can get Cooper on a float next year!!!

First Picks...

There's ALWAYS Zucchini...

What are you growing in your garden???

Morning Greeting...

Don't you love it when you wake up to this?!

... and this!

With 3 teenagers in the house, I'm not sure which "friends" are the culprits, but I have my suspicions...

Kids...

Grayson and his friend Colby finished off their week-long G.R.E.A.T (Graphics, Robotics, Engineering & Amazing Technology) Camp at the University of Utah. They loved it!

With Grayson at his 3 hr./day camp all week and Hailey in Provo at EFY, I wasn't a crazy carpool lady every day and actually had time to read and work on other projects. However, I was very glad to see Hailey when I picked her up at BYU Saturday morning at 7 am.

We headed straight to our day-long Stake Youth Conference at This Is The Place Heritage Park. (I hope Garrett works harder than this at his Robintino's job... I "think" he does since he got promoted from dishwasher to pizza maker after 6 weeks.)

Hailey cracked me up and I had to take a picture of her comparing skin color with her two cute black friends... really Hailey?!

This pictures says it all... "Mom, this is the third dance this week and I do not like when you take my photo cuz you post it on your blog."

Secret Sunday OVERNIGHTER...

... glad we didn't really have to go the 5,295 miles to the REAL Zermatt--just 60 miles to the Zermatt Resort in Midway--beautiful!

Once again we took our sack lunches in the car and ate as I drove the family to the undisclosed location...

They were excited. The family participated in shuffleboard and a group chess game...

... and Hillary was glad she was on Garrett's team as he yelled "checkmate" to John and Grayson.
Hailey never disappoints when she participates in unwanted photographs...

... the goats were so fat because they'd been fed a lot over the holiday weekend.

Enjoying the indoor waterfall jacuzzi...

John told the kids to enjoy this bit of Switzerland since it may be the only chance they get!

4th of July Holiday

Our family went out to celebrate the holiday weekend Saturday with our annual trek to Sandy Days with my parents and my niece and her family.

Garrett was a little naughty when he started squirting his dad so his cousin's husband started beating on him!
These girls were extra naughty when they got Utah face paintings!!! (and one of them attends BYU...)

The youngest kids were the best behaved so we took them to Texas Roadhouse for lunch...

... and my runners toes enjoyed swimming back at my parents' pool before heading to Stadium of Fire with Carrie Underwood that evening in Provo.

How did y'all spend your holiday weekend?! (the twang kind of stayed with me after listening to Carrie all night...)

Summer Camps

Hailey and I are heading off to girls camp for the week so I thought I'd make life REALLY easy for John and drop the boys off to camps too. Garrett is at BYU tennis camp for the week and Grayson is at the BYU basketball camp.

This is Grayson's first time spending the night away from us over a period of time--he's only 11--and I hope he does OK...
He's got great buddies to hang with and hours and hours of basketball each day so he "should" be fine. Plus unlimited food in the Cannon Center--isn't that every boy's dream?! I just reminded Garrett to say hi to his little brother if he sees him on campus... you know how that goes.