Flashback Friday - Summer Photo Shoot

This looks like the summer of 2000. My dad got a new camera and wanted to take some pictures. We are in my parents beautiful backyard in Park City.

The two girls are Amanda (the one in overalls) and Aubri. Two of my best friends. Aubri is now married to my Brother in Law so I get her to see her almost once a month. Amanda is my husband's cousin and she lives in AZ. So I don't get to see her as often, but we still keep in touch.





My brother Mckay and his friend Tyler joined the party. Tyler is the with red hair.

Turkey and Sobe Bombs

We had one of the best Thanksgivings this year. We headed down to the Ranch in Escalante. We all stayed in the Bed and Breakfast.



Nothing beats riding dirt bikes,




shooting guns,




and eating way too much!





Friday we went hiking at Devil's Garden. I love Utah for all its different landscapes. It was perfect for all the kids and the kids at heart.










Ben tried to sleep in every morning, but Finn and I wouldn't let him.




Finn and Mr. Gids. Best friends already.



Getting Finn naked in the kitchen showing off his muscles...



It was such perfect weather for us, and just absolutely beautiful.





Highlights of the trip that I don't have pictures of include, Kareokee (not really a highlight), Wii, and late night fires, bombs and fireworks.

Sunday Night Dinner

Tonight a few family members met up at Morgan and Rebecca's house for Hawaiian Haystacks. We didn't all get to spend Thanksgiving together so we thought we'd at least get together.

We had to get some pictures of Finn and Emmie together.



Of course we couldn't get them both to look at the same time.





Emmy smashing her older cousin.



Cute Mackenzie doing the Mexican Sombrero Dance.

Wayback Wednesday - Ode to Uno, Cops and Robbers, Bean-o, and Yellow Water

Since I am going to be out of town for Thanksgiving, I decided to do a onetime "Wayback Wednesday" instead of "Flashback Friday". Flashback Friday will return on November 30th, don't worry.

This weekend I am going to one of my favorite places in the world, Escalante. My aunt and uncle own a bunch of land down there and there used to be a house we'd go spend weeks at a time at. When I was in high school the house burned down. Several years later, Jeff and Joette built The Slot Canyon Inn, where we will be staying this weekend.

I have so many great memories from there during every stage of my life. The pictures below are not all the same trip, I was scrambling at 11:00 last night to find these.

To start off, a journal entry from when I was six.




A small sampling of my family.





The little house and barn that was built by Isaac Riddle over 100 years ago. My cousin moved the small house up the hill and rebuilt. Now you can rent the entire cabin.



The original Rex house that was built in the 80s. We had one big party kids room upstairs with 3 bunk beds. A basement that was used for Haunted Houses and either a Drug House or Police Station for Cops and Robbers on the four wheelers. After the family grew a bit, the basement was finished as a huge room with futons and tables for the girls to set up their makeup.



A summer hike to Calf Creek Falls with my cousins Spencer and Precia. I've done this hike a million times, but I still love it.

Mini horses smell as bad as big horses

Saturday was a beautiful day. Marc, Aubri, Beckham, Cohen and Uncle Jake were up for the weekend. Since we had a full house, we needed to get out. None of us had ever been to Gardner Village, so we made that our first stop.

Nothing really to do there. We ate at the Naborhood Bakery (Jake had 2 cookies for lunch). Went into 2 shops that were really cute and I could have bought a $75 blanket for Finn, but I decided not to.

We walked over to the Petting Zoo, which was closed for some reason. The hours said they should have been open, but no one was there. We still got to pet a stinky mini horse over the fence.

We walked over to the other side of the parking lot and pet real horses.




After the exciting Gardner Village, we thought about going to the Bingham Copper Mine, but thanks to Jake's iPhone, we found out it's closed all winter.

Ben and I had driven around a few months ago and ended up in Copperton. Their city park was so cool, so we talked everyone into going there. It's really far out there, but only about 10 or 15 minutes further west than Daybreak.




Ben swinging. We did get Finn on the swings and he loved it. Didn't get a picture though.



Since we were right next to the mines, they had the biggest tires to play in. Probably from all the crazy huge trucks up there.

At one point, Ben, Marc, Jake, Beckham and Cohen were all in one of these tires. It was like clowns in a small car. I had no idea how they were all fitting, and then I looked inside and Aubri and I probably could have fit in there as well.





Finn went down a few of the tiny slides by himself, but he also went down a few big ones, with our help of course.

Peas Please

Finn love sweet peas.