The Cabin

The cabin...a retreat we love to get away to as much as possible as a family. Unfortunately it only happens a few times a year. It is located in Island Park, Idaho which is approximately 5 hours away from home. Remote? Yes. Running water? No. Even though there is an outhouse for the bathroom, we love every minute of it.

Liam loves to bring his "toys" to ride around on. Kate's quickly becoming a big fan too.

Kate loves to roast "smarshmellows"



Here's Eli at the mill pond doing what he does best...catching frogs.

A broader view of the mill pond and there's some of the kids off in the distance beginning their hunt for frogs.

Liam was really determined this trip to catch some fish. Honestly, the mill pond is probably the least likely location to be catching any fish...but it's fun anyway.

I'm not sure how Kate does it but take a look at her feet! Let's zoom in on the next pic to see a close-up.

YIKES!!!

Liam and Sam killing some time stacking cards

The cabin trip is one of the few times of the year that all of the games get broken out-this one became a quick favorite...Ligretto

Time for tye-dye t shirts. Here's the "before" shot.

A little help from Mom

It's kind of a weird process for tye dyeing: Just grab your white t shirt, wrap it up with rubber bands in several spots and spray it with random colors of dye.

Voila! The finished product turns out pretty dang cool.

...even for the newest member of the family. Here's Kirk, Ellie and Andrew and their new baby boy "Will".

Looks like someone's had a little experience.

Like I mentioned, Liam was bound and determined to have this trip be all about the fishing. He spent about 3 weeks prior, arranging and prepping his tackle box. We surprised him with a new pole and fishing vest for a pre-birthday present. He looks like a seasoned fisherman in this pic.

These pictures are the day that just Liam and I went down to the "Coffee Pots" fishing hole. It was so much fun watching Liam enjoy every part of the process. Within about 10 minutes he had his first bite.

I think I'm going to get this picture blown up to be a mural on one of our big walls....he couldn't be happier. This shot is priceless.

He could have stayed all day long.

We fished for about 3 hours that morning. Don't you love the shot here? Nice fishing chair, oh, and gotta love the bright red athletic pants, eh?

Wrapping up the fishing trip

Harley cooling down in the grass.

The Cheney family left a little early but Casey and Emma stayed with us for more fun.

This was a contest to see who could stay in the freezing water the longest....I believe it was a tie between Eli and Casey.

We announced that we would buy a treat for anyone who dunked their head under the water. Liam was the first to do it-he was so excited about the contest that he forgot to take his shirt off first.

Here's a huge toad that the kids found by the water.

They thought it was the coolest thing they'd ever seen.

Liam wanted to try his hand at some photography for a while so we let him take the camera for a bit.

Playin' around

This was the night before we had to come home. All of the kids had begged to go fishing just one more time, including Kate. Here we are on the path to the "Coffee Pots" again.

A happy fisher girl

Eli was diggin' it too.

Chloe had a good attitude for fishing even though she got a couple of bites but no catches.

Both Liam and Kate got a kick out of removing the hook from the fish and also "cleaning" the fish. Kate would poke the fish's eyeballs out while Liam would slice up it's belly. It was pretty gross to watch but they would just laugh and laugh (along with the "ewwwww sick"! every once in a while).

Here's the kids on the famous "Castle Rock" by the cabin just before we came home. Nothing really famous about it other than it's the biggest rock around the place to hang out on that the kids have played on since they were toddlers.

After dropping the Cheney girls off at their house, Eli wanted to see what it might be like to travel around inside the food cooler. We were all too warn out to care much at that point. It was a great trip with many, many great memories for all of us...can't wait to go back.

The 4th of July

My kids love the 4th of July. Liam loves it because it's an excuse to go buy fireworks and each year we pray he doesn't blow himself up. Chloe and Kate love the parade-in fact, this year the parade was rerouted and it came in front of our house-now that's convenient. Also, some good friends of ours, the Milnes (who were visiting from Chicago) and the Schenks got together for a late breakfast at our house with all of the kids. Tyler brought about 497 breakfast burritos (slight exaggeration)already wrapped in tin foil, ready to eat. Here's a pre-parade shot of everyone.

Just before the parade begins

Here's the new student body for 8th grade: Eli, Casey (cousin) & Connor. They were required to be IN the parade-Eli is showing his excitement...it's hard to miss.

The candy is coming!!!

Here's a video clip of Liam with a Roman Candle style firework-it's pretty cool.

A visit to Camp Browning to see Clayton

We told Clayton we wanted to come visit him at camp and bring him a birthday cake for his 18th birthday (Heather and I are still in shock that we have an 18 year old kid). He's working at Camp Browning this summer here in Utah instead of the usual Holcomb Valley in California like he's done the past 3 summers (it was closed due to a very hard winter). We loaded up all the kids, packed some food to cook for the camp staff and headed on up. When we arrived Clayton told us that he had a cool hike to take us on. This is a picture of him "bouldering" on the hike.

The kids were pretty psyched to go on the hike...except Kate. She wanted me to carry her the whole time-not fun.

Yeah, Clayton decided to "bleach" his hair too-like the nice orangey color??? He tells us now that he tried to get it to go blonde but that didn't work so now he dyed it...black. Okey dokey.

The waterfall at the end of the hike was incredible-it looked like we were in Hawaii.

Clayton and Eli hiked down the middle of the waterfall among the rocks and stuff-We held our breath for a while but they said it looked more dangerous than it really was.

Clayton and Eli really wanted me to take a picture of them "controlling" the waters-it looks pretty cool.

Here's a pic of Kate during a very brief moment off of my shoulders.

Here we are preparing to cook for about 25 people.

Lighting up the birthday cake for Clayton.

Scout Camp at Capitol Reef

Our priest quorum went to Capitol Reef this year for our summer camp. We knew it was going to be a great trip when the first stop we made was IN-N-OUT burger in Lehi. What a cool place the camp was-the quorum loved it. We didn't love the fact it took 7 hours to get there but we soon got over it when we saw the scenery. This pic is of Sulfur Canyon-one of the coolest hikes I've been on. It was approx. 6 miles of shallow river bed with breath taking views of the canyon and cool waterfalls to hike down.

Here's some of the guys: Ryan, Blake, Royce & Kyle

The water felt great even though it was a cloudy day

Here's a waterfall/pool area we found to take a quick shower (that's me in the background under the waterfall)

One of the cool lookout points as we approach Capitol Reef

Look at this cool little dude who liked Braydon's Chuck Taylors

What is he doing you say? We dared Kyle to "lick" a cactus for a dollar. Several people pitched in and Kyle walked away 3 dollars richer and no long-lasting wounds to speak of.

Here's Blake and I. The slots at Peekaboo/Spooky Gulch were incredible

Here are most of the guys from our quorum starting the hike at "Peekaboo Gulch "

All of us made it home in one piece and we were all accounted for-amazing. All of the guys got

along so great and we enjoyed eachother's company so much. At night we would sit around the campfire, play Maffia and sing songs with my guitar after enjoying Matt Adams' amazing Iron Chef cooking-holy cow, that guy can cook some amazing meals. The theme of our camp was "Life is Good" and we had some incredible campfire discussions about what that meant to the boys. I was very impressed by the thoughts that were shared. Travis Herion, who has been a little inactive over the past few years, announced on the last day of camp that he was going on a mission and nothing could stop him. He said that he just felt like that's where he needed to be at this point in his life. He just kept saying over and over: "I'm ready". I remember that same feeling when I decided to go on a mission. We're so excited for him.

Lake Powell

What's funner than going to the last day of school for a few hours, then jumping in the car and going to Lake Powell for a week with family and friends? We felt so lucky to be invited with our good friends the Bruses along with 2 other families that we came to know and love over a week together, the Barnes and the Warrs. Days were filled with sun, waterplay and great food. Dave (we call him Captain Dangerous) taught us all how to make homemade bombs that were perfect for this trip. All you need is a can of corn, green beans, tomato paste or whatever kind of canned food your heart desires and bury it under a pile of briquetts. Throw some lighter fluid on the 20 piles that you've made and within 30 to 40 minutes, you have yourself a legit firework show that will surely get the oohs and aahs from the crowd. Do not try this in a forested area, I repeat... DO NOT try this by anything that will burn...because it will when the bomb explodes and the briquettes fly everywhere. We were safe in Powell doing this up on the mountainside of rocks and it proved to be a very entertaining show...and a cheap one too. We loved every minute in Powell, except for the last day when I discovered my phone had met the water at some time during the week and the kicker...my wallet went to see the bottom of the lake. It was especially fun to ask if our friends could spot us a tank of gas to be able to make it home and to buy our lunch. So, if you go to Lake Powell-put your wallet in a waterproof container that will float and do not bring your cell phone...you can't even get service out there anyway.

Introducing...the Accolade. Sounds cool & mega important, huh? It's even cooler than it looks if you can believe that. So this is where 24 people lived for a week. The middle and upper decks are where everyone slept. They had a ton of sleeping pads that during the day would stack up to make a few couches and at night would be spread over both decks to sleep everyone under the stars after the nighttime firework show-it was awesome.

Chloe gives the kneeboarding a try and she loved it.

We had to get a pic of all of the kids all together...what a sight, eh?

Eli with his good friend Mckay

The greatest thing about Lake Powell on a houseboat is to be able to just jump in the water anytime you want to cool off.

Here's a little indian village we discovered on a day excursion

Kate loved playing outside everyday

I forgot to mention that our air conditioner went out in the Suburban on the trip too-glad it wasn't blazing hot on the car ride home. Guess that's what we deserve for having so much fun out there. In any case, we're huge fans of Lake Powell and can't wait to go back again someday.