Family fun!!!

Last weekend we had a rare wonderful treat, we got to spend time with our "California cousins". Ok that's what Luke and Kolby have always called them. Really they are Dewey's sister Jana, her husband Marshall and their ADORABLE boys Canyon and August.

On Sunday we all loaded up and had Grandpa lead us to fun. (Which for those of you that don't know is his specialty) We ended up near St. George at a sand hill, which just happened to be perfect for sledding down.

I love these boys expressions, here's Luke loving it

Canyon who is a bike/surf/skateboard whizz put his own twist on getting down the hill


Kolby who had a look of pure terror but still made it down a few times.

Look at this darling face, I think August enjoyed the "crash" landing part the most

We all gave it a try, even grandma. And for those that are looking for a good work out, might I suggest walking up and down a sand hill. I have done P90X and can tell you a sand hill beats it every time.

After we dragged the boys away from the hill we went on a beautiful hike, with a red rock arch as part of the attraction. I love this picture with three boys under and one very brave little head on top (canyon :)

It truly was a treat to be able to spend time with the Jana and her wonderful family. Jana is a beautiful and amazing woman, one of those rare people that makes you feel good just being around them. All four of them are very kind and just plain fun to be around, we enjoyed every minute.
Cute pic of Jana and Gus

My favorite kind of hike ends at water. I especially love when your in the middle of the desert you walk around a corner and see a breathtaking river running through red cliffs. I'm sure you can imagine the excitement this caused in 4 boys.

One thing I seem to always forget to take into account is that if I'm walking down I will need to walk back up. A good test to see how in shape or out of shape you are is to walk straight up through sand. Marshall and Canyon were waiting at the top lounging on chairs sipping lemonade (or would have been if there were chairs or lemonade around, but you get the picture) by the time the rest of us made it back up. :)

One of my favorite new pictures, LOVE it!!

We had a picnic lunch and decided we were so close to Zions National Park, it would be a shame to pass it by. We all loaded back up for more adventure. We ended up at one of our favorite hikes, the river walk.

To me Zions is such a magical place I love seeing others experience it for the first time. Even though the "littles" were beyond tired they were little troopers and hung in for the whole hike. Uncle Dewey gave quarters for anyone that could spot a deer or large bird. Pretty sure that Canyon came out the big winner on that venture.

After Zions we ended up in Springdale at a delicious restaurant. (which actually had more then one choice for veggie me) Even exhausted it was such good food and conversation we hated for it to end.
One of those rare wonderful days to file away under perfect memories spent with family.

St. George Air Show

Last Saturday we went to the THUNDER OVER UTAH air show in St.George with Grandpa and Grandma. It was A----WESOME.

The Blue Angel F/A 18Hornets sitting pretty as you please all in a row.

I like this one with all the "boys" in it.

Dewey LOVES the F-22 Raptors. There just happened to be two of them parked right in front of where we were sitting. (there was still rows of people between us and them) I made my way through the crowd with a lot of "excuse me, pardon me" trying to get a couple close ups for him. Right as I make it to the very front I hear a plane coming and start clicking..... I'm THRILLED I was able to get this shot.

Ok you are about to see way more pictures of planes then I'm sure you want to. However I can tell you that I shot 942 pictures while we were there so it could be a lot worse :) It was seriously so cool to watch this amazing airshow AND have a camera nice enough to be able to catch a lot of really great shots.
May I introduce the United States Air Force F-22 Rapter

Having this plane fly so close and show off all it can do was pure pleasure. If I was a plane expert I'd use big technical words about its maneuver's, but I'm not so I'll just say it did some super cool stuff. Want to know what it likes look from its underside, doors open? Here ya go

They did a salute to the troops with an "old and new" display. A 60 year old P-51D Mustang performing with the Rapter. Hardly a dry eye to be seen.

And the "Transformer" The United States Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey.

With the looks and speed of a airplane and the maneuverability of a helicopter this thing rocked.

In the midst of snapping (my nearly 1000 pictures tehee) I turned and saw Kolby on Dewey shoulders playing with his plane...love it

And now the Stars of the show.... the United States Navy Blue Angels.

I was simply in awe the whole time watching them. I still don't even know how what they do is possible.

Breath taking........

Are you kidding me with some of these moves, these jets are screaming through the air sometimes a mere 18 inches apart.

And then flying straight at each other to come within inches, causing the entire crowd to collectively gasp.

I think its safe to say Dewey and I were way bigger kids then the boys, we loved every minute. So so glad we were able to experience it.

It was an all day show with lots more to the show. And believe you me I have the pictures to prove it.

A fun filled day for all of us with a yummy dinner to follow. Huge thanks to Dad and Winnie we had a wonderful wonderful time!!

Stingrays two posts in a row!!

I'm still trying to catch up from vacation, so this is from two weekends ago. My grandma was in Salt Lake City visiting from Texas so the boys and I drove up to spend time with her. (Dewey has been working around the clock...weekend what weekend? So he did not join us) It also just so happened to be little cousin Amelia's first birthday party. So of course we wrangled an invitation. Here she is opening presents with the help of grandma (Aunt Becca to me) her big sister Ellie and Kolby. Look at Kolby face, he is so funny around girls all shy smiles.

And icing on the cake was meeting baby William, how stinking cute is he? He is Samantha and Steve's brand new son.

Its not a birthday party with a pinata. Amelia's little tap was a little less then my own darlings who whacked the poor little ducks head off.

I know you were waiting for it....the stingrays. I have never so much as mentioned them in the 5 years we have had this blog and now you get them two posts in a row. That's just how we roll :)

So after the birthday party the boys and I took grandma with us for the day. For those of you that know the parties involved you know what a struggle it was to come up with something that grandma and the boys would enjoy. The best I could come up with was visiting Salt Lake City's new aquarium. None of us had ever been there and grandma was all for it. I would like it noted that I stand by my good idea, if fact I know it was a good idea because half of the valley had the very same idea. It was JAMMED packed wall to wall people. Not the ideal situation for a grandma or a 5 & 7 year old. I'm sure I had my "crazy lady" face on the whole time. (I myself don't notice but those that know me point it out....a lot)

However...... we got to see Stingrays (after much waiting/pushing/pulling/wiggling to the front)

The boys especially Luke thought they were so cool since we had just told them about swimming with them. He was all for reaching in the pet one. Kolby said he would like to wait until the next time we come.

Under the sea pics

Cute pic of grandma (G.G) and the boys.

It actually was a pretty cool place for the boys, well set up lots of creepy crawly things. A lot of educational material about all the animals and various creatures. (We will for sure go back when it is less crowded so we can read some of it.)
A great big disgusting (to me) snake that Luke thought was the coolest thing ever.

And real live Penguins.

This was Kolbys favorite part.

I hope that we made the best out of the day we had. We ended up at Liz and Gary's where Steve and Miki met us for a very nice dinner with Grandma. Then breakfast the next morning with Grandma and the Allreds before the boys and I headed home.

Stingray adventure

This was the first time I had ever snorkeled, that being said I can not stress to you enough just how big of a dork I am. While still in the boat Dew gave me snorkeling 101 lessons. Me "I can't breathe" Dew "open your mouth, you breathe out of your mouth not your nose" "oh yea, got it that's what the mouthpiece tubey thing is for". Once in the ocean I put my head in the water and then immediately popped back up to explain "hey you can see fish down here, its like being in an aquarium". I'm pretty sure this was not news to anyone but me. I LOVED snorkeling, every minute and didn't care about my dorkiness in the least little bit.

How cute is this stingray? Their tops feel a little like sandpaper and their underside feels like velvet, so so soft.

One of the guides said "want a stingray massage?" who wouldn't say yes to that? He preceded to place one of the stingrays swimming by on my back. I might talk a brave talk but you can see on my face I'm not altogether sure if this is the bestest idea. It was quick and was the soft side, actually felt kinda cool.

They gave us squid to feed the stingrays. Gross holding the squid and very strange to have the stingray swim over your hand to suck it up.

Dew was a master at it. Much better at holding the squid and not being freaked out about the stingray sucking in a whole hand like I was.

As we were leaving the guides informed us its seven years good luck to kiss a stingray. I ask you who can pass up the chance of seven years good luck? And just look at that sweet kissable face :) And no I wasn't the only one to do it me and another woman in our group jumped at the chance. Well not jumped exactly but were standing near the guide holding the stingray. Let the good luck start.

Oh how I love this picture and the blue blue water, it was taken by Jeff in our group. I can't believe we were just there. So glad he shared it.

Dewey and I had a little disposable water camera that ran out of film right after we got in the water with the stingrays. (in my defence we snorkeled first, see above dork comment and I did get lots of cool fishy pics) A complete stranger took the picture of my "back massage". She heard Dew say we were out of film and offered to take the pictures for us. As we were standing in the ocean without pens to write down names and numbers she gave us her email to remember. We got in contact once we were home and she sent us several pictures she took, how nice is that?
Wonderful memories of Grand Cayman.