Witchapalooza 2011

What a great night we had at Gardener Village's Witchapalooza. Although it was crazy crowded this year, the worst I have ever seen, so maybe I should stop telling everyone how great it is! :)
A group of us have gone every year for the past 3 years. I love going to the show too and it was better than ever this year.

The Harry potter birthday party

At the end of the party the kids had a spell book and they practiced some of Harry's famous spells on Ron, Hermine and Harry. We took everyone's photo so they would have a picture to go home with their diploma from their term at Hogwart's.

JDRF walk at Wheeler Farm

We did it! Our first JDRF walk and thanks so much to all of you who donated to Ryder and the cause. Ryder raised over $1,000 for JDRF! Thanks everyone. There were over 6,000 participants.

The Lake Powell trip ... that didn't go well

Oh our one trip to Lake Powell this year! We thought we'd get an early start on it. Remember we are motorhomeless now so we took the truck and boat and headed down. Something about Fillmore, it's like our Bermuda triangle.. the truck broke down. A nice Highway patrol guy kept trying to help us but it was a hose. He even called ahead into Fillmore to his buddy at the the Ford dealership, what a nice guy! Anyway, luckily Scott is a wizarding mechanic and jimmirigged it so we made it down to Lake Powell. Yeah hooo..
But the next day when we launch the boat and the kids and I are waiting for Scott to come down the ramp, Maddie comments on the exhaust smell. So I open up the back and smoke is pouring out and there is water in the boat! Ryder is crying wanting to know if we are going to drown, we are trying to call Scott on the cell phone and then the boat stops running! Just stalls out and here we are out in the water. A nice ski boat filled with little team hottie pull us in, thank goodness. We load it back up and there was the boating experience. Not to mention the truck breaking down I think two more times it was actually a fun trip. We made it home alive so that's a good deal. :)

more Italy

My cheap umbrella in Lake Como

Yes, i know we went to Italy in June and I am just putting pictures on. I had to laugh when I saw this one cause it completely depicts the trip to Lake Como. It was the rainy season and we didn't know, so we didn't bring umbrellas. So I bought some cheap umbrella from a street guy and within 24 hours it looked like this! Notice the spokes sticking out? Yeah cheaper is not better.

Draper Days Parade

Ryder's karate group, Bobby Lawrence in Draper was in the Draper Days parade. It keeps growing, there were 100 entries this year. BL was #97 so it took a while before we saw Ryder. The kids were throwing candy and looking pretty tired by the time they made it to us. Cameron went with us and we all parked it in front of Christine's house. Thanks Chris for the sprinklers and the spot and to Shawn and Cindee for the chairs and cover

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4th of July

We went and watched the parade and did fireworks that night. Sheridan was in the parade, cousin Isabelle with us and Cindee in the picture. The weather was perfect! When has it ever been so cool on the night of fireworks that you want a coat? Gorgeous.

Jogapalooza

Ryder's school fundraiser: Jogapalooza
We ran for 20 minutes, Ryder and his friends made 3 laps with mom following along. The kids were so excited and have so much fun. They loved the warm up with the Bobby Lawrence karate team.

Jogapalooza

Ryder's Kindergarden program

16th ward makes it to Regionals!

Way to go my little YW Basketball team!


Our ward took first in our division so made it to the regionals for basketball. What a bunch of cute girls huh? 2 had already darted off to make it to their PROM dates.. sorry Lauren and Nicole.
The girls were amazing. In the CHAMPIONSHIP game they barely lost by 3 points! We won't talk about the big travel that should have been called in the last minute that let the other team get the basket that took them from 1 point lead to 3... nope won't mention that at all.
Great group of girls and great season.
Thanks to my coach Melissa over there for dragging out her kids!

Heading into the holidays..

So sorry if this is the same picture you get on your Christmas card from us. I am just sitting here uploading all my music to my newer computer so I will be able to make the annual Christmas music Cd. So realizing the blog hadn't been updated in a while again, decided I would post some photos etc. I really can't believe Christmas is right around the corner.
Every year I have the same delimma how do we do this without it being ruined by how worldy and gimmy gimmy it's become. And then I do too much.. so how do we do it?

Jackson Hole

For the July 24th weekend, we escaped Utah and more fireworks and headed to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I had forgotten how absolutely lovely it is up there. Our river guide assured us we might not find the winters quite so lovely. Did he really say -35degrees? Ugghh, no thanks. Scott and I rode our new bikes on a pretty road leading up into the mountains. Jackson has these trails everywhere. We are so jealous that Utah doesn't have trails all over like that. They were everywhere.
Our friends, the Stones, went with us and we had a great time. Had to do the downtown scene, ate some yummy BBQ at Bubbas, did the river, downtown in there again :) and the went to the Bar J for dinner and entertainment. We stumbled on that place totally by accident our one of our drives and it was fun. I would definatley say that is a fun family thing to go do. Now we our home for one day and back up to East Canyon! Then on to Washington. We are excited to see my mom and dad (the "other" grandma and grandpa- is that like the other white meat? ) The kids and I love WA, we are going while daddy works in Reno.

Maddie feeding the stingrays. Ryder dropped his fish in the water before they could eat it. You have to get your hand right under their body and then their mouth kind of sucks it up

April trip to Alantis

Just days after falling 14 feet to land on my head (the lovely stay in the hospital, the worry that the headaches and memory losses would be permanent) we traveled on our planned trip to the Bahamas and Atlantis. That was THE greatest fun.
What a neat place with all the water, the sea life, the beaches, we pretty much just stayed on the island. The hotel was huge, it wasn't one hotel but several large towers that were spread out. They had these amazing aquariums throughout the whole place not just with regular fish but with sharks, manta rays and all kinds of things.

Maddie and her friend Bailey before their dance recital . Yes the huge baggy pants were meant to look like that.

East Canyon

We went up to East Canyon this past week. So much fun, the weather is cooler so Scott and I would take turns going on a bike ride. You'd get up in the morning and it was still a nice cool 50-60 degrees. What a change from down in the SLC valley.
Scott's family reunion was on Saturday with his mom's Anderson side of the family.
Maddie was off at girl's camp all week so she missed the fun. She was pretty tired of camping by the time she got home on friday.
Did some 4 wheelin in the Rhino, some boating, all though the water wasn't real smooth so it was more about riding on the tube.
The Smith's came up and partied one night, this is Peyton, their son riding with Scott and Ryder.

Vote on the family picture

Trying to decide which picture to use for the Christmas cards. Please vote...