Photo vomit

 I'm lazy so you'll have to just skim through my photo vomit and hopefully find something interesting...  We've been too busy having fun this summer.  But school starts next week--paradise is about to end.

 Trying to interest the kids in the original Star Trek.  Everything was going fine until they saw the salt monster on the second episode and the nightmares commenced.  Tribbles didn't even help.  May have to take this one up again later...

It's one of his last binky smiles.  He has fought thrush since he was born, and we finally felt like he was in a good place for weaning off his beloved "ee-ee" as he called it.  We've been blessed and he's done well.  It helps that we've kept him nice and tired so that he drops off pretty fast.  He also enjoys reading some books in his crib before sleeping.

OMGosh, hiking Stewart Falls with a tired, hungry 2-year-old and tired, lazy girls was so not fun.  We'll try this one again in a few years.  Still, the end pic looks nice and we had fun using the hydration backpack...

Derek got a promotion and is now the Nursery Leader for our ward!  I love getting more men into Primary--it's so awful how it's a "woman's" calling in many people's minds.  He's fantastic of course, and the kids love him.  Their favorite things are when he brings his guitar (monthly) and when he does his "magic" tricks for them...  (Here they are celebrating Pioneer Day with a long walk, a few songs around the "campfire" and marshmallows.)

Did I mention how much I love the Provo Library?  It's built in the old BY Academy that they were threatening to tear down when I was at school at BYU (during the Medieval times).  Disaster was narrowly averted when wealthy donors helped pay for its refurbishment and the addition that holds most of the collection now.  It's appalling that it came to that, frankly, and I'm glad someone was willing to rescue this historical treasure.  Anyway...the library has so many fun programs for kids, notably the summer reading programs that have weekly crafts.  Here the kids dressed up for the trick-or-treating in July party they earned--most of them are Olympic athletes in keeping with the Summer 2012 games.

I can't help it, I just want to squish the love out of this boy.  I need to make this my desktop background...

Here they made fireworks hats for the 4th of July.  I love how the Wudge just wants to be a big kid and is always copying their body posture.

So there are all these crazy people that live in Provo who start reserving spots for the Provo Freedom Festival parade a full 24 hours before it starts!!  This is Provo, mind you, not DC or Paris.  We figured we could just squish in small somewhere since we came late and left early.  One lady actually told us off.  Then these two nice girls from UVU told us we could sit right in front of them.  I love it when people aren't scrooges.  It was a good parade, but so darn hot that we didn't last too long.

The Wudge wasn't sure what to think of all those sketchy clowns and weird old cars.  Didn't help that half of them blew your eardrums with their sirens...

These two pictures are for Mini-Me who will always be a princess.  Who knows: one day she may be one of those Miss Provos?...

Or maybe she'll be part of the Orem theatre scene and get to wear super cool costumes from their green room!

So Derek and I had just finished transplanting 10 rosebushes (that are still in critical condition with an unknown prognosis) and lots of other yard work when these teens all started walking by.  They asked if they could help us and we accepted.  They were walking to the Provo temple and offering service as they went.  Have I mentioned I love Utah teens?  In 20 minutes they doubled our rock pile and pulled and bagged 10 feet of garden beds.  Love you Orem Windsor Stake youth!

Summers are birthday season for my family, both siblings and children.  Have I mentioned how much I love getting to know my younger siblings? 

Lego mini-figures are probably more fun that making millions of Mii characters on the Wii.  Especially since we have several Harry Potter ones, including a dementor.

You pretty much can't beat putting Ginny's hair on Snape or stacking several heads together.

Speaking of weird stuff, this is Domba's version of an Indian Princess.  Not sure about that nose thing or the knee brace, but we all know that she is..."special"...

Why let the lack of a chair stop you from practicing piano when you can just use a sister?  It's been good to see the "twins" as we like to think of them, playing together so well lately.

This is just hear for shock value.  You know my kids can't play with iPhone apps like normal children, right?  No beating Angry Birds levels for them: no we only pervert normal apps or download disturbing ones like iFat Face or Face Juggler.

(Domba & her BFF)

I hold this brother fully-responsible.  See what he's teaching my son??  ;)

One of my sisters live close to a farm that rescues rare (and not so rare) animals.  We fell in love with the little burros and their baby this time.  Of course, we all still have a special place in our hearts for the reindeer and their HUGE horse dog, Mowgli.  I'm not kidding when I say his head comes to my mid-abdomen!  I think he's a Great Dane, and I mean GREAT.

Derek seems to have trouble with incontinence lately.  The rest of us are wet from the bumper boats at Trafalga.  In fact, Mini & I squirted him right in the nether regions last night so it looks like he had peed his pants.  Doesn't get better than that!

Summer wouldn't be what it is without a gathering of all our beloved friends from Ann Arbor.  What a special ward we had, and how wonderful it is to know you have these friends scattered across the globe.  Another wonderful thing about being in Utah is how frequently we run into them.  Love you guys, so much!

Playing Ninja: the object of the game is to be the one left with working limbs.  Sort of like the Black Knight wasn't on The Quest for the Holy Grail.  Derek seen here only has the use of one arm and no legs.  Everyone takes turns moving once.  A simple but hilarious game, especially for the picture-taker.

So my sister was going to run a race with me that was practically in my backyard.  She (conveniently) got stomach flu and asked Bubs to cover for her.  My sister got her fastest 5k time yet!  :)  Have I ever mentioned how freakin' fast this kid is?  She def didn't get it from me.

Hiking the Y with cousins.  Never ceases to amaze them how huge the actual letter is and how distorted it looks up close.

 

We get the best rainbows over Rock Canyon.  Seriously, they are a common occurrence, even double ones like in this picture.  You wouldn't think it, but Utah has some of the most frequent rainbows of anywhere I've lived.  Of course this is one of the few this year with our droughty conditions...  :(

 

Eating at JCW's, the kids favorite place to chow.  Actually, they pretty much just go for the ice cream...

More parade fun in SLC at the Pioneer Day (Days of '47) parade.  We are lucky to always get good seats with grandparents living downtown.

Okay except for these giant puppet dues.  They were so freaky I almost wet myself.  I know the Wudge was scared of them.

Wudgie loves being with his cousins.  It's so nice for him to get to be around these sweet kids--they treat him so gentle and are careful with him, even when he (accidentally) socks them in the face and jumps all over them when they are trying to read or watch TV.

No summer is complete without or dear friends from MD visiting.  Domba & her other half are just so happy together.  It's honestly a tragedy that we moved away from them.  Maybe someday we can talk them into moving here.  Or at least sending their kids to BYU so they can live with us...  :)

 Derek taught them to play Scum and they pretty much played nonstop the entire visit to the cabin.

I took this pic when Domb was just 3 chubby years old.  She's SO cute, huh?

I wanted to take a picture of her in the same spot at Yellowstone.  I cannot believe how fast time is flying away from us.

Oh how we love the 4-wheeler.  Even the Wudge had fun.  No bear run-ins fortunately, and no ejected little girls (or boys).

They discovered a geocache near the cabin in the trunk of this ancient, abandoned car.  Very fun to add in some polished rocks other trinkets.

(Source of said polished rocks).  West Yellowstone has some pretty fun stores to look through.  We had fun just running our hands through all the gorgeous polished semi-precious stones and looking at the different colored geodes.

 We went to Yellowstone three times this visit, a new record for us.  Of course everyone got to make a big deal of how stinky the sulfur pots where when the wind blew the steam our way.

 Saw tons of wildlife too: elk, bears, eagles, falcons, eagles, and buffalopes (as Dade calls them).

These dudes just strolled right on by as we were heading home.

How sweet it is to see the dynamic duo reunited once more.  Domb is lucky to have such a special friend.

 We got to see Old Faithful erupt a couple times, check out the museum, and the Old Faithful Inn.

And they we rounded out our trip with a visit to Firehole River for some swimming.  The water is ridiculously temperate with all those hot-springs that feed it and so clear.  We got most of the older kids to take a trip down the rapids, as well as all the adults.  I'm pretty sure it's one of my favorite familial traditions ever.

We sent our friends back to MD with sadness, but still had some time to spend at the cabin so we took a trip up to Mt. Sawtelle per the usual.  We hiked around further than we've done yet and froze our tooshies off at the summit.  The view is just so amazing, and the video of Derek "falling" off the mountain is too good to pass up.  (Coming soon.)

Our last jaunt to Big Springs, we saw a mushcrack (as Wudge called it).  Muskrat to those of you that speak English.  We laughed about that pronunciation the entire drive home. 

And a final picture of the Wudge gracing us with a nighttime prayer.  He closes his eyes so tight I'm worried they'll stick permanently (not).  Also, he's usually jumping off the couch onto one of his kneeling sisters by the end of the prayer so that it usually ends in laughter.  I just hope God is laughing too at this little monster...