The Canyons

During our love affair with the mountains this summer, we have been mainly sticking to Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons; however, we ventured out of our comfort zone a few weeks ago and headed up to Park City to go hiking up at The Canyons.  Our neighbors were nice enough to let us tag along with them.

I felt like we cheated a little bit on this hike because we got to ride the chair lift up the mountain.  It was a fun ride though because right underneath the lift is a bike course through the trees so we could watch all the guys jumping and cruising down the mountain.

Once we made it to the top we found a lake.  

The kids had fun throwing rocks in the water and running around the edge.  

Once back down at the lodge, the kids found a giant chess set.  Beck loves chess and really wanted to play a proper game.  

Owen was more interested in trying to ride the knight and then knock down all of the pawns.  

 

I'm getting a little sad now that our hiking season is coming to an end.  Can you hike in the winter?  Maybe snowshoes..... 

Owwwweeeee!

If you're ever looking for bone-deep, kick-you-in-the-guts, take-your-breath-away pain, go have steroid shots into the tendons in your hand.  It will work every time.

The really great thing is that the doctors don't even know if this will fix the problem!

Stupid hands!

The Big 8

This weekend was all about Beck.  

He woke up on the morning of his birthday to find a little surprise outside his door.

Happy 8th Birthday!

He and Owen got to play for a while before getting dressed for school.

He picked a special breakfast of cinnamon french toast a la birthday candle.

Since he opted out of a birthday party this year in lieu of cash for his iTouch, we had a small celebration at Red Robin and then went to see the movie ParaNorman.  It was all about zombies and ghosts and it was hilarious! until we got home and tried to go to bed.  After being tucked in, Beck and Owen quickly reappeared in tears saying they were scared.  

They slept with the lights on that night.

On Sunday, we did our family party at Grandma's house for Beck and Caron.  

Beck enjoyed the S'mores in the backyard.

Owen enjoyed his helmet and makeshift sword. 

Finally, we finished off the weekend of Beck by sharing some birthday cake with our Dessert Group.  In case you can't tell (nobody could tell what it was), Beck's cake is Thor's hammer.  He loved it....everybody else was clueless.

Owen felt a little left out, so we lit the candles again and let him make a wish.

It was a fun weekend.  It was nice to be able to focus on Beck and what a wonderful kid he is.  He is so mature, kind, sensitive, and smart.  He takes such great care of his little brother and he is such a great helper to me.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BECK!

Albion Basin

We dragged Dave and Jen along on our latest adventure up the canyon and ended up Little Cottonwood at Albion Basin.  

The kids were ready for some serious hiking!

Beck refused to stay with us, and he and Baylee practically ran up the trail.  

We had to keep asking, "Where are Beck and Baylee?" then we would find them scaling the side of some cliff or on top of a rock.  Carlee was so brave and joined them atop this peak.

(please ignore the  spot on all my pics - I've made multiple unsuccessful attempts to clean my lens )

As we ate our mid-hike snack, we made friends with the cutest little chipmunk.  He gladly carried away all of our crumbs so that we left the mountain as spotless as we found it.  

Scott and Owen sharing a snack.

It was so beautiful! 

Ended up being another great day of hiking!

Grandpa Gary

 My dad came for a visit this last weekend.  We had a nonstop action-packed weekend.  We started with the zoo on Friday morning.  Owen had never met Grandpa until the night before, but he was officially his new best friend.  He wouldn't let him out of his sight and insisted that he hold his hand the whole day!  When he got his fingers stepped on by Beck, he didn't need me, he had Grandpa Gary who carefully assessed the situation and kissed it better.

And then he really tried to be brave for the picture. 

What a bunch of monkeys!

Later, the injuries continued to get worse when Owen got his head eaten by a polar bear.  Luckily, he managed to survive....

And then jumped on said polar bear for a ride.

Friday night and all day Saturday we were able to go and watch all the kids play in their various sports. 

Ellie got 1st place in her cross-country meet (she did a 5k in 18:04 and then promptly threw up).

Colby scored the first touchdown in his football game but then Davis lost.

Jackson is a great little quarterback and threw some awesome passes in his football game, and Baylee ran her little heart out in her soccer game.  That girl is fast!

Then we finished out the night with the Utah/BYU game.  

Go Utes!

My favorite part of the whole weekend was that we FINALLY got to go see The Avengers!  The boys absolutely loved it!  Dustin did too because as soon as we got home he painted Owen green so that he could be The Hulk

and painted some Arc Repulsors on Beck.  I'm still scrubbing green paint off of Owen's ears and off of my bathtub.

It was such a great weekend.  It was wonderful to be able to just relax and spend time with my dad.  We had some really good chats about life and, more importantly, we were able to just have some fun together.  Owen misses him already and keeps asking where he is and says that he can't wait until the next party with Grandpa Gary....

Last Days of Summer

I know school has started, summer is over, and I need to start living in the now, but our last few days of summer were so fun that it's just so hard to let go...

We did another cute little art project where the boys made a necklace out of pretzels, Froot Loops, and Cinnamon Cheerios.  

Beck worked very carefully and created a perfect pattern.  Owen just threw his on as fast as he could so that then he could eat them. 

The finished products were delicious!

We took advantage of the100-degree weather and pulled out the Slip-n-Slide for one last water day.  

Owen and Maddie had a playdate.  Owen was quite the little gentleman and helped Maddie get her shoes on before it was time to go home.

Staying cool in the summer sun.

The day before school started, we all headed out to the farm.  Owen loved this goat and thought he was so cute!

Riding the tractor.

And, of course, feeding the ducks.

I really do love the fall, but this has been one of my favorite summers in a long, long time.  We were able to have so much fun together and do so many fun things that it makes me a little sad for this summer to end....only 267 days until school is out again!  

I can't wait!

Firsts

Summer is officially over.  There is a chill in the air in the morning, the mountains are beginning to turn orange and red, chicken noodle soup and pumpkin pie are starting to sound really good, and school has started once again.  Even though this was Beck's 6th first day of school, he was still really excited.  As always, he loved his new school shoes.  

In contrast, this is Owen's very first First Day of School.  He asked me everyday this summer if it was time to go to preschool yet.  

He got new Spiderman shoes and was very proud of how clean he kept them for the first day.

He's working hard on learning how to spell his name.  He's really good at the O-W part.....the rest is a little sketchy.  

Both boys have great teachers and I'm sure it's going to be a great year!