Finished Trip

We had a great time in Utah with all of my family. Claire absolutely loves being with her cousins. I seriously need to get her around more kids when we get back to Washington. So if you and or your kids want to hang out with Claire and I...call us. We'd love it.
On the Fourth of July we got to hang out with a lot of my family. My sister got out their slip n slide. Claire loved it. She doesn't understand the slide part, but she loved running through it...her cousins were all so good to help her and very patient with her when she'd run in front of them before they got to slide. She loved it so much we bought her one. (another reason to come to hang out with us).

Also on the Fourth, I was crazy. I randomly decided to run a 10K. I've never done one before...I hadn't been training; in fact I didn't have any of my workout clothes (no shoes, no clothes no nothing) so thanks to my sisters I had stuff to run in. The only problem was since I wasn't use to the shoes I wore my feet got blisters and I was really stiff for a couple of days. I know I'm crazy to do it...but you see my siblings all run and I wanted to do something to help me feel closer to them. I'm not sure it worked! Oh well I did it and I'm proud of myself. Thanks Peggy for being crazy with me.

After we ran the race, as we were walking back to the truck. We saw some ponies and a baby camel to pet. Claire had no fear...she walked right up to it and stuck her hand in and petted it.

We got to see the Riverton Fireworks and also was able to do some of our own. Thanks Cort for helping Claire do them. You're a great cousin to Claire.

We got to go to the Zoo while we were down there. Once again Claire cousins were so helpful in watching her and going around with her. We checked to see if the kids measured up to a gorilla.

We were able to see the bird show. I can't believe how close the birds fly over your heads. The Golden Eagle flew down close enough that one of the wings hit my sister in the head. We did get to get our picture with a Bald Eagle I loved that.

Last but not least. Claire loves to go bowling. We got to take her with my brother and his little girl. We had so much fun. Claire did really well and it was a blast.

I need to brag...

My family loves playing this game called cornhole. I have wanted the game for a few years. For Christmas my Brother gave me cornhole...the only thing is it wasn't painted yet. Brent (my brother) wanted to let Bryan paint it since he is a bit of an artist. I am just floored at what he did. (No these aren't decals put on the wood...Bryan painted these). Bryan you are so talented and I am lucky to have married such a dedicated and talented man. Thanks for finishing our cornhole game. LET'S PLAY!!!

Utah

After the family reunion, Claire and I drove down to Utah to spend time with my family. We wish Bryan could've come with us for the first week and a half, but we are happy he'll be down here for a bit of the trip. We have already done so many fun things. Thought I'd update what we've done so far this trip.

First off we went to the children's museum. It was Bode's (Claire cousin) birthday. He wanted to go to the museum. Here is Claire pretending to be a blacksmith.

This one is of Claire following in Grandpa Don's and Daddy's footsteps!! She said she is building a tower.

The next thing we did was to go to a petting zoo. Claire had so much fun. She loved seeing all of the animals. She got to pet sheep, goats, horses and a cow. She saw pigs, chickens, llamas, geese, ducks and rabbits. Here she is petting the baby cow.

There was also pony rides at the petting zoo. Claire absolutely loved riding the pony. Her pony was named Sparky. She loved it so much I allowed her to ride it twice. It was just too cute.

Claire, Cortney (my niece) and I went to The Living Planet aquarium. She loved to see all of the fish, but her favorite was seeing the turtles. It was a great time.
Yesterday we were able to attend the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open house. Claire loved it. She said the chandelier was "Jesus' Diamonds." It was so cute.
Then last night we went to a carnival. It was family night so all of the rides were only one ticket which was 50 cents. Claire loved all of the rides. She went on the Ferris Wheel, Giant Slide, Roller Coasters, and some of the fun simple little kiddie rides. Here she is in her little dragon.

Claire is enjoying riding in her little duck boat. She had a lot of fun with this ride.

Here we are at the bottom of the giant slide. Claire giggled the entire way down. It was fun. We loved the carnival and also spending time with the cousins.

Family Reunion

So my family reunion was June 21st through the 25th at Cascade. It was our first time trying out Cascade for our family reunion. It was a lot of fun. IT was a bit cold the first couple of days, but it ended up being a lot of fun. Here are some fun pictures.

Here is our little family on one of the cold mornings. It was fun though!

Grandma brought balls for each of the younger girls to play with. Claire loved playing ball with her cousins and grandma.

Bubbles....Claire loves bubbles. Thanks to grandma and Piper we had lots of bubbles around. Claire loved popping the bubbles with her cousins.

We went down the the lake a few times to fish and when we got warm we went on the wave runners (thanks Uncle Dan). Claire went on the wave runners (jeck skies as Claire calls them). She didn't like to go fast though.

Claire had so much fun with her cousins. We are so glad that everyone could make it to the family reunion. We just hope it won't be too long until we get to see them all again.

It's Official!!!

For the past seven weeks we've been waiting for a big envelope from the Church to come to my (Stacie) parent's house...today it came.


My parents have been called to serve in the Stockholm Sweden mission. They will be serving in the temple there. So come October 19th of this year my parents will be on their way to serve the Lord for 18 months. We are going to miss them so much, but the good thing is they will have Internet access so we can keep in touch. We are so grateful for their willingness to serve the Lord and for being such great examples to us.

WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU MOM AND DAD!!!

Little Swimmer

Here is Claire's other favorite thing to do...she loves going swimming. Every day she asks if she can go swimming. We love to take her any and every chance we can. She has become a little swimmer.

The Park

One of Claire's favorite things is to go to the park. We love taking her to the park as often as we can. Here are a couple of the pictures we took the other day.