ASPEN GROVE!

Okay, so I found one of our NEW favorite places in the world to take a vacation! It's Aspen Grove Family Camp in Provo, Utah. This was Todd's family reunion--which is kinda funny, because most of his brothers and sisters live in Mesa or Gilbert with his parents, (except for 2), and we see eachother like all the time! But we love to vacation together, and our kids have so much fun together! Anyway, what an awesome place to take a vacation, especially if you are a parent with many children! They have tons of activities, and your children are divided into groups according to their age. Every day, they go to group activities from 9:30-12, and 1:30-4:30. On Wednesday, they stay in the group all day, and parents are free to do whatever they want. Not only that, but they will take your breastfed infant, and keep him, even if he screams the whole time! (Hey, don't judge me--he was fine for a few hours, and they held him the whole time!) Another great thing, is that it's an LDS family camp, owned by BYU, and run by a staff of BYU students, so you really felt great about the quality of the youth that were in charge of your children while you did your own thing. I walked by the pool one day and Josh was down there swimming with his group, and they were blasting primary songs on the loudspeaker--where else can you hear that??? We had firesides, and an outdoor sacrament meeting, and lectures geared toward the Book of Mormon and other LDS interests. Plus, every game you want to play, and fun family activities for every age group!

I don't know about you, but sometimes as a mother, I feel like a vacation is not really a vacation for me at all. It's just doing the same things I usually do in a different place. Having someone take my children and entertain them all day felt great for me--like I had a break to really do something that I wanted to do, which was AWESOME! The other great thing was the FOOD! Three meals a day, cafeteria style, are included in the price, which means I didn't cook one thing the entire week!!! YEAH! That is priceless! Check out the website--http://aspen.byu.edu/-- and be aware that spots fill up FAST!

Here are just a few--(very few, I took like 200) pictures of the great memories we made at Aspen Grove:

This was the ropes course, which as you can see was very high up--and a little hard for an old woman like me! I was proud of myself for getting my fat butt up there!

We had a great time playing games with our whole family during Aspen Follies! These boys were so funny!

These baby birds hatched the day before we got to Aspen Grove in the tree right next to the bridge we crossed every day. Josh and Ashlie loved checking on the birds every time we passed them. So cute... Joshua climbed all the way up the rock wall--crazy boy! He was like Spiderman!All the grandkids doing the skit during talent night--they did the Peanut Butter and Jelly song, and did it like pros!Our whole group--minus Carson who we figured out was hiding just as we were finishing taking pictures! Silly boy! This picture was relatively painless and quick believe it or not!These pics are from the family dance on the last night--it was a ton of fun! Grandma and Grandpa Allen--who made this trip possible! Thank you so much for all you do for our family and for keeping us strong and keeping us together! We love you so much!

Bryce Canyon, Utah!...

So this was our first stop in Utah--and thank goodness we only went halfway, because I was going out of my mind to get out of that car. I hate the drive to Utah! Anyway, we stayed overnight at Ruby's Inn in Bryce Canyon. We were kind of the side show at dinnertime it seemed. There were all these Europeans and foreigners there, and no one spoke much English, and they had obviously never seen such a large family before, so we got lots of staring and gawking during dinner at the restaurant there. It used to embarass me, but I've gotten to the point where I don't really care anymore, I just ignore it and go about my business. The next day, Friday, we went to Bryce Canyon. Todd was miffed that you had to pay $25 just to get in the place, (CHEEP!), and thought about turning around, but we didn't. We found out that if you really want to enjoy Bryce Canyon, you need to plan on wearing hiking shoes, and hiking down into the canyon. All of our kids had their flip flops on, as did we, and we had Jack in a stroller, so you can't really hike down into the canyon with that--(unless you want to send your baby flying off a steep trail to his death--which we didn't)! So we just went to two or three lookout points and we were done. It was incredibly beautiful, and I'm glad we went, and paid the money to see it! HA!

The road cut out of the canyon...

Me and my Girls...

My little daredevil kept climbing on the fences...YIKES!

Ashlie loves her Grandpa Allen--she was his hiking buddy...

Grandma Allen and the kids...

Isn't Abby cute!

My cute boys...

Then we headed off to Richfield, Utah, Todd's old stomping grounds--(they moved to Mesa when he was 13). We had to stop by our favorite place, where my diet started to go downhill--Ideal Dairy in Richfield. So we all got ice cream and Todd's favorite cookies from his childhood, Raisin filled sugar cookies--which might sound gross, but are amazingly delicious! We bought a few dozen for the road and headed to Provo for the next part of the vacation which deserves it's own post--ASPEN GROVE!

YUMMY, YUMMY!

Happy Birthday Erin Nicole!

Erin turned 11 today--I can hardly believe it! I am so proud of this girl! Erin got to celebrate her birthday with all of Todd's family at Aspen Grove. She got sang to by the whole camp at dinnertime, and got her own Y cake! She had so much fun with her cousins. The other pictures are of her doing the high ropes course--which was so hard for me--but she did it with ease! It seems like she can do just about anything that she sets her mind to! Erin is such a fun person, with such an engaging personality. She is so much fun to be around, and is always smiling and laughing. Erin, I want you to know how grateful I am that you are in our family! You are so helpful to me, and such a great example to your brothers and sisters. I love you so much, and you make me so proud in the way that you live your life, and in the choices that you make! You are an awesome daughter!!

Another Adventure...

This summer is FLYING by! We are off tomorrow on another family adventure up to Utah. We will be going first to Bryce Canyon and Todd's old stomping grounds, Richfield, Utah. Then head up to Provo to spend the day there at BYU and visiting my Grandpa Epperson, who turns 94 this week! WOW--can you imagine? Then, we will be off to Aspen Grove Family Camp for the week with all of Todd's family. I am very excited, but also completely exhausted! Going on vacation with this many kids is just a lot of WORK! It is after 2 a.m. and I just got done packing, then I had to sit here and figure out how to load some songs onto Abby's new MP3 she got for her B-day. It's just a little cheap one, but it sure took awhile for me to figure out how to actually get songs onto it! I guess sometimes you get what you pay for--Oh well! We will not be back until next week on Friday. Maybe I will be able to use Todd's laptop to post from there, but we'll see...It will be a fun week for sure!... I did get some school shopping done for the girls this week--and you don't know how excited I am about that! I can actually cross something OFF my list! That, for me, is progress--(you don't understand how long that list is)!!!

Running on Auto Pilot...

Today I took Josh and Ashlie to swimming lessons, and I was so tired I was literally falling asleep on the drive home. Their teacher only lives about 5 min. from our house, but I was like nodding off at the wheel! It was like I got home on auto pilot, because I don't really remember getting here, so thank goodness we got here safely. It is just so dang hot sitting out in the sun, and Jack was sleeping, so I started to get so tired. It wasn't like I could stay on auto pilot all day though, I had a million things to get done, so I visited the only place that could really help me at that point:

Seriously, sometimes a girl just needs a Route 44 Diet Coke with cherry and vanilla!!! Today was one of those days! I was literally sucking that thing down like a mad woman. It's pretty sad when the best part of your day is a soda--but today, that was the best part of my day. I loved that drink! Some people in the church would tell me "that is called addiction", and maybe it is--but if that's the worst thing in the world, then sue me. It's a little thing, but it brings great joy to this tired, worn out mom, so bring on the Diet Coke, and bring on the rest of my day!

Small Town Holiday...

I grew up in a small town, the kind of place where you don't have to worry about locking the door at night. The kind of place where I would leave home in the morning to go and play, and sometimes not come home until dark, or until I was hungry for lunch or dinner. The truth is, I loved it. We were not wealthy, but I don't think I ever realized it until I was a teenager. Sometimes I still miss that small town feeling, especially on holidays like the 4th of July or Pioneer day. The city is just not the place to spend a holiday. Everything is overcrowded, the traffic is horrendous, and the weather--well, it's flippin HOT! That's why I love spending the holidays down in Thatcher, with my parents, or up at the cabin with Todd's family. There's nothing like a small town holiday parade! My kids had such a great time with their cousins.


This is what happens when a 3 yr. old is too bored in the back of the car. I gave the kids a box of Sixlets to share, then I hear Abby yell, "Ashlie has something stuck up her nose"! Sure enough--a red sixlet is halfway up her nose and she is pushing it further up trying to dig it out. We were able to pop it out, and then mom gave the "nothing goes in your nose or ears" lecture one more time!

Grandpa was ready for the parade!

All the boys with their shirts off waiting for the fire trucks to come. They were dancing in the streets!

Our 4th of July annual family photo--Isn't Josh's hair so cute! Thanks Aunt Karin--that faux-hawk stayed in even after being soaked a few times!

Someone was passing out these buttons--I thought this was funny! It certainly describes most of the people I know! (Even though I'm a city girl--I still have that small town attitude--ask anyone!)

The water play began with just a few water guns--Then it got a little CRAZY!








It started with the fire hoses getting everyone wet--(I dove into a car and took these pics from the window).

Then the water fight began which quickly got out of hand, as you can see!

There was no one who was safe--if you were dry, you had a big target on your back!

The Democrats might think that water-boarding is torture--but when you dump water on Uncle Kohn, you better run a little faster!

The girls were alot better sports about getting wet than I was I'll tell you that for sure!

Oh well, when you're soaked, you might as well smile, and have fun anyway! On the way home Ashlie told me--I don't like parades, they are TOO WET!

Twenty Pounds!!!

Okay, so as of this morning, I have officially lost 20 pounds!!! This is where it all started--http://6krazkids.blogspot.com/2008/05/diet.html . I'm not saying this to brag--but for me this is a major milestone! It has been two months in the making, but I'm proud of myself for sticking with something this long and actually having a little bit of success! This diet has actually been quite effective, and very easy to follow. I'm grateful that we finally found something that actually WORKS! I'm afraid we're taking two steps forward and one step back, because we will be at the cabin this weekend for the 4th, and then up to Aspen Grove family camp in Utah for Todd's family reunion. Lots of good food--and great FUN! My sister just got back from there and said she gained 4 pounds--and she's not an overeater like I am, so I need to just plan on gaining twice that much! That's okay though, I figure we will just have our fun, then get back on it when we get home. Life's too short to be on a diet ALL the time! (If you read my diet book, that right there is called rationalization--). Oh well...

I have so many projects started this week, I don't know what to do to finish them all. Yesterday, I got out a new box of clothes for Jack, and Ashlie, and added them to my already HUGE laundry pile. I forget that it's summer, and I already have like 5 loads of towels. I never know which ones are dirty or clean, so I just wash them all. (No, I'm not doing the environment any favors!)--I cleaned out all of the kids dressers and closets yesterday and today and now have tons of clothes to find a home for. My closet needs a thourough cleaning, but I'm not touching that with a ten foot pole this week. It's gonna take me hours! The worst part of this is that I have devoted literally 8 or more hours yesterday and today to these projects, then Todd comes home and looks at me like "what did you do today?" I hate that look. I haven't showered, or gotten dressed today, and even though I've been working, it doesn't look like it. So I decided to take a break, blog, swim a little with the girls, and then I'll get back to all of it later. It is summer after all--don't I deserve a break too??? Oops, Jack just woke up from his nap after all of 15 minutes--so I guess not! Such is life...