A week with the cousins

This past week, we had the boys cousins, Tyler and Jaemon, come and stay with us. It was a good thing too since half our neighborhood (which includes most of the boys friends) went on vacation! So we planned some fun things to keep the kids entertained (and make it so they want to come back, right?) I'll say, these kids had a lot of fun. There were just a few mini arguments mostly between brothers. We went to Kangaroo Zoo, set up a mini waterpark in the backyar, went up to Salt Lake for the Days of '47 parade for Pioneer Day to see their grandpa's float again, went to the Clark Planetarium, out to lunch, had a few movie nights with popcorn, and then a big day with Grandpa going to Ogden on the front runner train. You have to know my father-in-law. He loves trains! He becomes a kid when a trian comes into sight. You can imagine he was just as excited as the kids were to be around trains! It was pretty cute! We checked out all the old trains they have up there at the Union Station. Pretty interesting history. We saw an old train they used for delivering mail around the US, as well as a military hospital train, among other types. Then after all that, we went to an OWLZ game which is a local baseball team. They lost horribly, but we had fun being together as a family! Here's some pics to show all the fun the kids

had.

Spears Family Reunion

This past Saturday was the Spears Family Reunion. That would be my mom's mom's side of the family. I haven't been to one of these for a long time, so I was looking forward to seeing some relatives I haven't seen for a while. As Richard and I were driving up to Wheeler farm for the reunion, I had a flood of memories come back. Both of my mom's parents were born and raised in Tennessee. So during my growing up years, we made many, many, many trips there to visit, practically every year. I remember visiting this small town of Cookville where my grandma grew up and spending lots of time with my second cousins. I absolutely loved/love it there! We'd pick peaches, blackberries, raspberries, play childhood games, go visit local sites, go to Memphis, Nashville, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge, etc, etc! I would love to take Richard and the kids back there someday. It is so beautiful, green, hot, and humid! My grandpa's farm that he grew up on is still around and owned by some family. I have memories of staying there and the house didn't have a toilet! We used the outhouse. It freaked me out all the time. I remember not sleeping at night cause I had to go so bad, but going out in the dark to the outhouse was not an option. One great memory that I'm glad I have is knowing my mom's grandparents. I was young and they were pretty old! My great grandma died first, then my great grandpa missed her so much, he died a month later.
Anyways, it was a lot of fun being able to see some cousins I haven't seen for a long time at the reunion, including my second cousin, Emily who was also my companion in the MTC! My Dad worked there for a long time and probably pulled some strings to get us to be comps. She went to Winnipeg, Canada which is where my husband grew up. We had a good time catching up!

Me and Emily:

Here's my immediate fam:

Here's the extended fam: (my mom's siblings and families)

Here's the larger group including my some of my mom's cousins. Unfortunately, a lot of the family couldn't come or live in other states now.

Here's a few of my really awesome first cousins!

A 4th full of fun!

We had so much fun this past week, we really wore ourselves out, so that by the time Sunday came we didn't want to do anything! (yes, we did get up for 8:30 AM church! It was tough, but we did it.)

So here's what we've been up to this last week. Richard got Friday off from work so he took Wednesday and Thursday off as well to play! It was great! Hard part was to have Monday come around.

We decided to get adventurous on Friday and hike to the Timp caves. Little did we know that by the time we'd get there, there would be a 5 1/2 hour wait for the cave tours. Yeah, we didn't hike Timp. Maybe another day when we feel motivated to wake up at 6 am and try it! So, we hiked the Y on the mountain above BYU. No, we didn't take Sara, there's no way! But, we took the boys and they really liked it.

Then we brought the kids home and decided to let them cool off and play in the water while mom and dad die on the couch. I still have no idea where they get all their energy! Here they are finally relaxing on the steps.

After a while, we got our second wind and took the kids down to Provo to go to the Freedom Days Festival. They close off center street and fill it with way-too-expensive rides and food and tons of booths of people trying to sell their 'stuff'! It was CRAZY! But amazingly enough, Ethan wanted to go on the 'Tornado' ride so I let Richard be the chaperone. Ethan loved it. Richard didn't. Neither of us can stomach rides like we used to. It was pretty funny though! Then to my shock Preston wanted to go on it!! Now, if you know my kids, they don't venture out and do rides much. So when Preston says he wants to go, I'll pay the high price to get the tickets and get him on it! Thankfully our friend Steve seemed brave enough to go on it with the boys! :) (Since Richard was out of commission and I was getting over a headache. Yeah, I know, excuses.)

The next morning (Sat. the 4th) we ventured out way too early and went to the hot air balloon festival. It was really cool! Well worth getting up early for.

The parade came next and you know, people really are crazy in Utah county when it comes to this parade. They literally stake out spots and sleep there until the next day when it's the parade. You'd think someone famous was going to be there! We couldn't find anywhere to sit until 5am saturday morning! It was nuts. But, we wanted to go since Richard's dad was in charge of creating one of the floats and it was a really cool float!

We continued the day with bar-b-ques, swimming and fireworks at night! So by the time Sunday rolled around, we made sure to just hang out at home, sleep and drink lots of fluids!!