Browse Creek family adventure

Earlier in the summer, Matt took just our family to Browse creek for a hike. We hiked down the river, 2 and 4 year olds in hand, for about a mile. NOT EASY! But it was pretty cool by the time we got down there. There is a small waterfall. Matt and the older two kids went down it, but getting back up was rather difficult.

A couple of weeks later we took Matt's siblings and their kids down the creek. This time we left the 5 year olds and younger with Grandma back at our house. It was much better going without toddlers. Matt made a rope ladder and brought it along. The guys also brought some cut two by fours and nailed them on the log that was already there. It made it much easier to get back up. After we played for a while, we built a fire and roasted hot dogs. (I buy the ones at Walmart that are all turkey and don't have any nitrites or nitrates.) It was pretty awesome fun!

Matt here: You may be able to tell from the pictures that Amy is down to (and holding at) a very sexy 127 lbs, and is wearing a pair of cut-off jeans that she wore (just to drive me crazy, I'm sure) when we were dating! Yeah baby!

The way back out is going 400' straight up the mountain. It's not too hard, you just have to watch where you are going and where you are putting your hands and feet. A few of the children starting taking off up without an adult. I was frantically trying to catch up with them, but was a little bit too late. One of the kids accidentally dislodged a small boulder about the size of a volley ball and it came rolling down and hit Candy's 7 year old Branden on the head. I was trying to get to him as fast as I could. He ended up getting a gash about 3 inches long. Candy and Nate took him to the Dr. Dave and he told them to take him to the emergency room because he was finding pieces of skull. Branden ended up being life-flighted to primary children's hospital. He had a fractured skull and it was putting pressure on the brain. Fortunately, the head surgeon there decided that he didn't need surgery, just staples and they would watch him for 24 hours. The little trooper turned out to be fine without surgery. The next day they came home. Everyone else in the group made it up the mountain safely.

Eggs - This post is just for fun

On Aug. 5th, the kids gathered eggs as usual. This day we got a huge one. So we cracked a normal size egg and this huge one and put them on the same plate and took a picture! It was fun!

4th of July at the Ranch

We spent the weekend before the(Monday)4th of July up at the Ranch. The ranch has some additions: the playhouse, the escape for couples, and the giant stride.
My kids were all lined up to jump in the water, but at the last second, two of girls chickened out. It was rather funny. Then Jileigh went down the zipline into the pond. (My camera was being funny and making everything look digital. We didn't realize it until we were home and downloaded all the pictures.) Anyway, as always, the kids had a ball.

Fire!

I don't remember the exact date but that it was sometime during July. It was 9 pm and we were watching a movie. Jileigh went outside to feed the dog and informed us that the mountain behind our house was on fire! It wasn't that big and I watched it until midnight and then went to bed. I felt rather anxious about it and got up to get a drink. It had multiplied! The wind had picked up and made it much worse. In the end, it went about 3/4 of a mile from one end to the other, but no houses were affected.

Family decals

I finaly found some family decals on a clearance sale and bought some. Jileigh was really excited about it. She helped her dad get them all put on the back of our car.

Jaren's rain gutter rigotta for scouts

On June 22, the cub scouts pack meeting was at a local creek and had the rain gutter rigotta there. Jaren's didn't win, but he and his dad had a good time making it.

Talon's 6-day scout camp

Talon spent a week at scout camp in June. Matt, as his scout leader, got to go with him.

Cleaning Projects

(The only before and after pictures I took were of the boys room.) I was determined to make some progress on cleaning up our house and property. I spent about two solid weeks just cleaning up outside: front yard, back yard, side yards, and garage. I filled both of our dumpsters 3 times plus we took a load to the dump. Inside we went from room to room cleaning out and cleaning off. There is something about cleanliness and organization that brings me peace. :)

Elody's Birthday - 2 years old

My dear sweet 7th child is now two years old. She has definitely hit the terrible twos with a vengance! No really, she is a sweet, adorable child most of the time. Just sometimes, if she's hungry or tired or just simply wants her way, the irrational two year old in her comes out. We sure do enjoy her though. She really loves her mom and dad. She wants to always be with one of us, usually it's mom. When she is in a happy good mood, she plays really well with her brothers and sisters. I posted several random pictures of her that the other kids have taken of her, even though they aren't suppose to play with my camera. The red shoes are her favorite shoes to wear and pretty much the only shoes she would wear. Now they're getting to be too tight for her, so whe will wear other shoes now. The birthday cake is a large baked custard. That was our favorite way to use up eggs this past summer.

Finished Jileigh's New Bathroom

After months of hard work and a portion of our income tax return spent at Home Depot, we now have a working 3rd bathroom! It's off of Jileigh's room so it is considered the Girls Bathroom. Matt did all of the work himself, except for the rough-in plumbing, which our skilled brother-in-law plumber Jake did with Matt and Matt's brother Aaron helping. It turned out beautiful, only now the two original bathrooms look plain in comparison.

Our 15 year wedding anniversary

June 28th was our 15 year wedding anniversary. We really didn't have the money to go away on a vacation so we found an alternate plan. We sent the kids away to Matt's mom's house for a day, a night, and a day. We went to the Temple and went through a session and then did a bunch of sealings. Then we went to Benja's Thai food for dinner. The absolute best! Then we watched a DVD together. We finally had a night of uninterrupted sleep! The next day we went to see a movie and then made dinner together. This picture is of our dinner: Tilapia with squash and beets on chard from the garden with some Martinelli's on the side. Then Matt went back to get the kids while I went to Zumba! He is such a skilled, hard worker and sweetheart and I can't believe how lucky I am to be married to him.