Camping with the Dowlands- July 7-9

We were initially going to go up camping on the 8th of July in the morning, but decided to surprise Adam's family the night before.  They had already taken Brody up with them, so it was more of a surprise for Brody.  Adam got off work early enough for us to get up there about an hour before it got dark.  They were thoroughly surprised when we pulled in.

We got to setting up our tent...and OF COURSE it decided to do a 20 minute DOWNPOUR right after we had spread it all out.  So our tent ended up soaked.  We dried it out the best that we could and then let it dry itself out the rest of the night.

It was a very relaxing weekend.

Brody rock throwing obsession continued..

I was the first to catch a fish... and ended up catching 3 more, but forgot what it felt like to have the fish wiggling on my finger.

Me taking Mason for a trip around the camp.

Brody waiting for his turn on the four-wheeler.

One of Brody's many hats to try and keep him from burning. (Thanks mama and papa, this worked great)

Brody posing by the lake.

Fishing with Mason.

Mason chewing on the tail of a stuffed pig...

Mason wearing Grandma's glasses (I think)

Grandma and Mason on the four-wheeler.

Can you tell their related?

We love camping!!!

Fishin' with Grandpa...

I forgot that this post should have come before the last one.  We went down to visit Adam's family in Fairview and made a day trip up to do a little fishing.

On the way up the mountain..

Mason got tired...

Mason with Brody's fishing pole..

Grandpa fishing...

Hanging by the lake... soaking in some sun while fishin.

Adam "sneaking" a kiss...

All Brody wanted to do was throw rocks in the lake. (and scare all the fish away)

Adam pulled out his fly rod.

Multitasking..

Mason getting in on the action..

Brody cheesing...

Nicole came too... but this is the only shot I got of her.

Brody being a dog on the way back to their house.

It was a nice day up in the mountains...

4th of July...

Our Fourth of July this year was kind of a fun, drawn out event...

We did some of our own fireworks at home on July 1st...

Brody enjoying the fireworks.

Our fireworks...

Mason enjoying the fireworks..

Then on July 2, we went in to Riverton Park to watch some BIG fireworks...

Mason chilling as we waited for it to get dark..

Two brothers..

Brody waiting...

Wrestling to make the time pass...

Finally it's dark and fireworks are going... look how happy Mason is..

And then on the 4th of July, we went in to Thanksgiving point to watch some more big fireworks.  These were the best fireworks of the year.  They put on a GREAT SHOW!

Waiting for the show to begin.

Mason waiting when the rain wasn't going.

Just hanging out in his brother's chair.

Daddy trying to make the necklace land on Brody's head.

Pretty shot of only one of the amazing firework show.

Another firework.





On the 5th, we invited Cassie to come over so we could shoot off some of our sky fireworks from home... but it was too windy.  We ended up just doing sparklers and did the big ones over the 24th of July.

Brody lovin it...

Playing with sparklers..

It was a very fun weekend to celebrate our independence.

Blogs to come...

So, I looked back and realized that I haven't update my blog since June.  Now, I was aware that I had been inactive for quite some time, but I didn't realize that it was half a year's worth.  I have A TON to catch up on.  My upcoming posts may not have as much detail as they normally would, and I will probably leave out a lot of the things that I just don't feel is as important, so I can bring us all up to date... watch for lots of posts over the next few days.

Thanks!  And sorry to those of you who actually check my blog regularly to see if I have posted.  Your patience will hopefully be rewarded!

Pony Express Days Parade

Adam and I remembered about the Pony Express Days parade the morning of.  We decided that it would be fun to do a family bike ride to the parade route.  We left a little late, but were still able to make it to the beginning of the parade.  The bad thing is that we weren't completely prepared.  We had water to drink and we had the diaper bag... but we didn't have sun screen, and it ended up being the hottest day up to that point.  Oops!  So the whole parade ended up being a game to see how we could keep the boys from getting completely fried.  Oh, we also saw some cool floats and got TONS of candy along the way.

This is how we started out...

We put Mason under the tree in the shade for a bit...

But he got fussy and ended up being with us...

Us enjoying the parade and some of the "give-aways".

The coolest float they had...

This is how Brody ended up... we actually did pretty good getting him covered up and he didn't end up having a burn!

One video clip from the parade...

Goal Accomplished...

Since having Mason, I have been working out a lot more than I ever did after having Brody.  A friend in my ward invited me to do a Triathlon sprint with her.  At first I basically laughed at her, and then as I thought about it more, I knew it would be really good for me to set a goal of finishing the race and not completely making a fool of myself.  Well... I FINISHED (not quite sure if I made a fool of myself though ;) )

In all honesty, I didn't do a whole lot of preparation the last month...  I wish I would have.

Our race started off with a 300 yd swim, then we transitioned to a 11.5 mile bike ride, and then to a 5k jog.  My swim was slower than I had once practiced, then the bike ride seemed to be a bit harder/slower than I had practiced, and by the end I felt like I was jogging in jello.... but I FINISHED!!  I have a number to beat the next time I decide to do a triathlon... :)

Here are my stats:

Swim: 9:14

Bike: 54:55

Jog: 38:50

Overall 1:46:51

Not very impressive times, but I am still glad I did it.  I plan to work harder and try it again... Thanks for getting me to do it, Leah!!!  You rocked it!!  

Summer fun...

I have already posted two posts of us going to Trafalga and using our Pass of all Passes... but we went with some friends in our ward, so I thought I would post some of those fun pics.

We have also gone to Seven Peaks four times this season.  We LOVE it!!!  We have so much fun!

Mason has some FUNKY hair when we get done swimming... here is a few shots of it:

On top of all of these other fun things we get to do, we also get in free to the Orem Owlz games.  We went to our first game for family night on Monday.  It was a lot of fun!  We totally weren't prepared with blankies or anything to sit on, so next time we will be better prepared.

Thank you PASS OF ALL PASSES!!!  You are making our summer so enjoyable!!