July Randoms/Lefler Reunion in Woodland

Here is Boonie's capitalist Christmas present from my dad.  It was suppose to be a remote control balloon which in theory is pretty cool, but it didn't work because of the altitude we are in.  So this giant fish sat around my house for a week and all my children wanted to do was play with it but I wouldn't let them because I was afraid they would break it.  We ended up sending it home with Grandpa when they came up at the end of July.  Maybe it will work there.  Instead grandpa took Boonie shopping and Boonie chose out an awesome police/fire/rescue truck that squirts water.  It's basically the best thing he has ever gotten.

On a hike up the mountain with our babies.  I love that this is so close to our home.  We drove for probably 10 minutes to this gorgeous hike.

After our bbq with Kyle and Stacey up the canyon Boonie apparently had gotten bitten by 4 misqutios right on his forehead.  He woke up the next morning and it just kept getting bigger and bigger.  He looked like a klingon.  These pictures go in order as the day went on and then finally the next morning he could barely open his eyes all the way.  Poor guy.

This was the next morning.  I called the doctor but they said it would just go away.  I was nicer than usual to him that day because he looked so goofy - like my little handicapped child.

My parents came up to visit at the end of July.  They stayed for 3 days and then went up to Yellowstone.  After Yellowstone they were suppose to stay 3 more days but my mom's mom ended up passing away so they went home early.

Before they left we got to do a few things together.  We went bowling one morning and to a concert at the Logan tabernacle.  Here was the bowling score.

My tired babies after all their adventures this month.

The 18th and 19th was the Lefler family reunion that they have every year up in Woodland.  We all wondered how it would be with Grandma Elizabeth there this year.  I wondered if anyone would really show up being everyone had just gotten together for the funeral about a month earlier.  There weren't as many people as there usually are, but there was still a great turn out.  We camped out that night (or should I say Marae and I stayed up looking at each other all night) and it was a fun time.

Marae and Gabey

We started out in the 2 man tent, yes you read that right... I tried to convince Mason that we need to get a new one... he said okay, but we need to do research and get the best possible deal.  So we started off in the 2 man tent right on top of each other.  Marae 'slept' at our heads and Boonie 'slept' next to Mason squeezed against the side.  It was kind of windy and the wind cover kept blowing against the tent so around 1 I took Marae and went into the van.  We laid all the seats down and attempted to sleep.  She would only fall asleep if she were plastered against my body and any time I'd move she'd wake up.  Like I said, we didn't get much sleep that night but we still had fun.  When we first went in the tent around 11 I got some pictures on my phone of us all piled in there.  It was funny because it was pitch black and then my flash would go off blinding everyone.  It was pretty funny.

Tom Lefler Family Reunion: Zion's National Park

July 10th through 13th we went down to Zion's National Park where Tom and Laura rented a cabin (mansion) and everyone met down there for a reunion.  We had tons of fun and Zion's is just BEAUTIFUL!!!  Here are a few shots from the ride down.  I'm so glad we got the minivan when we did after all these trips we ended up taking this summer!!  This was the first time we had turned Marae's car seat around facing forward.  She got to watch the movies and she loved her whole new view.

The cabin we stayed in was ENORMOUS and beautiful.  Below is Tom and Laura's master bedroom and below that was the room we stayed in with our little ones.  It was nice because each family had their own room so we didn't feel like we were all on top of each other.

We arrived Thursday and then Friday we drove into Zion's and hiked part of the narrows.  I've always wanted to do this!  The entire trip is 16 miles and of course there is no way we were going to do that with  Boonie on foot and Marae in a backpack.  But we did end up going 2 miles in.  Boonie did AMAZINGLY well.  He LOVED, I mean LOVED walking through the water holding my hand.  It was such an adventure for him.  Everyone pretty much went at their own pace and we ran into different people from different families along the way.  We basically stuck with Laura and Estelle (Danielle's oldest, 8 years old) who was visiting from France.  The water was warm and it felt good to walk through.  Luckily Tom had a walking stick for me to borrow with my growing belly I was a little off balance.

Zach, Avery, Gabey, Seth 

Estelle with us.  This was right before we went through the first river so everyone was clean.

Everyone was pretty tired after that hike.  But like I said, it was SO MUCH FUN!  Marae actually fell asleep while being in the backpack on Mason.  Mason and I had put that on our bucket list to do again once we don't have little children and can do the whole hike.

The rest of these photos are just from around the house/cabin area:

Boonie had a blast with his cousins!!  Below from left to right getting ready to ride to the pool in Nana's truck:

Monet, Zach, Gabey, Marae, Lilah, Boonie, Avery, Seth, and Estelle being blinded by the sun.

The 4th of July

I'm so glad Kyle and Stacey were up here visiting during the 4th.  First we went to a parade down in Hyrum where the kids got more candy than they do on Halloween night.  Marae was VERY cautious and I think she thought we were a little crazy running in the road for candy after we've told her so many times not to when there are cars in the road.  Sometimes she'd even run back to the house behind where we were sitting and stand on the porch when things got too loud.

I always feel guilty complaining about heat being from AZ and the summers there... but it was a little toasty out in the sun.  So we watched from the shade for a little while.

That night we went back to Hyrum for the fireworks show.  We decided to go early to get a good spot being the parade was SO CROWDED.  We went about 2 hours early.  We were probably one of the first 10 people there.  But at least we got a good spot!  Haha... for some reason it wasn't at all like the parade and nobody showed up until about 30 minutes before.  But we had things to keep us busy.

Stacey and I both decided that pregnancy profiles are the WORST.

Poor Darci was terrified of the sound of the fireworks.  She spent the majority after the sun went down like this.

This is a new favorite picture of mine.  We were watching the fireworks and turned around to see Marae sitting in the wagon like this.  She had dug through my purse and found her 'eyes' (sunglasses).  She is such a goofball!!