BYU! and Party at Riverwoods

While in Provo we stayed at Cammie and Robbie's place. Cute little newlyweds, still flirting and biting each other. :) We had such a great time with them. They are a fun Aunt and Uncle to our kiddos. Cammie got the kids special frozen yogurts and then brought them outside and read a few stories to them one morning. She is so great. Thanks for the hospitality guys!!

Cammie was going to campus to study, so we took her there and checked out the new set up at the BYU duck pond! It is beautiful! There is a little board walk all around it. I bet the ducks love their privacy and feel more safe!

Zach feeding the...Zach!? We were supposed to be feeding the ducks, but somebody was hungry. Luckily this wasn't moldy bread!

Look at all of those cute little ducklings. You can also see 2 turtles swimming and a couple on the rock over. There were SO many ducks, and ducklings, and teenage ducks. And about 12 or more turtles!!! Crazy.

See those turtles? Isn't that cool! They were so cute. I could get a turtle.

Kate really wanted to reach those turtles on the rocks. I really couldn't believe how many there were!

More turtles and ducklings basking in the sun. :)

Walking up that big hill was a lot of work for these kiddos! they were so cute. It was hot and when they got to the top of the BYU hill they saw shade and took a little nap. Pretty cute moment. :)

Chillaxin'. They stayed here for quite a while resting. :)

Growing up we always reenacted the statues, but the kids weren't all for it.

Kate got pretty fond of this little statue girl though.

After BYU we met my brother Cody and his wife Jessica at Tucanos. Also newlyweds. No biting here though. They are cute. :) Cody is a meat server at Tucanos and Jess is in cosmetology school. They are one of THE BUSIEST couples I know. I also love Zach's pose here. After we ate Papa and MerMer met us at Riverwoods and walked around. Someone mentioned that there was going to be a kid's carnival there that night with tons of free activities, so we decided to go to the Bean Museum (a.k.a. the dead animal museum) to see some dead stuffed animals. They have such a great variety! Then we headed back to the carnival. It was SO GREAT!

Kate and I got brave enough to touch this boa. It actually felt really cool!

Ha ha! All so interested. :) They told us there was going to be an animal show starting soon, so we headed over and got seats.

We got to see Joanna from Rescuers Down Under.

And we got to pet a skunk! So soft.

This was THE FUNNIEST part of the night. Zach reached out and pet the skunk, and then he sniffed it!! Ha ha!! :)

And this baby tortoise was THE CUTEST animal of the night.

Beautiful Kate.  I love this picture. :)

Then we got free rides on the Carousel. This is inside Provo Beach Resort. An AWESOME place that has a ropes course, arcade, and even a surfing place!

Adaleigh's first horsie ride!

Zach and MerMer.

Cowgirl Kate. This girl LOVES horses. Her favorite animal.

Cousins Nani and Samara...

...and Kea.

There was also a little splash park out there. It was a warm, muggy night so the kids had a blast!

Cold cuties.

They had a bunch of carnival games to do and they got this sweet bag full of stuff. Mostly junk, but some fun stuff too. :)

Like these awesome vampire teeth. :)

They wouldn't humor me with a great enthusiastic vampire picture, so this will have to do. :)

And balloon animals! All for free! This is somehow a cat?

Zach loved his sword.

Cousins!

Sweet little Adaleigh at about 6 weeks old. She is such a sweet heart.

Finished off with some delicious pineapple and raspberry whip and it's a great night!! :)

Hiking the Y!

The day after Seven peaks we were wiped. I woke up and my eyes were SO PUFFY. Like swollen. I don't know if it was the heat or what, but it wasn't too pretty, so I thought I'd try the cucumber trick and Kate ran to Justin and asked for 2 cucs too so she could be like mommy. Didn't work to well, but sure felt good! And good work Justin for snapping a picture without me even asking! I am the camera happy one in this family...almost to a fault!
Anyway, we thought what better thing to do when you are wiped than to hike with the kids to the Y in the middle of the day?! So fun! The Olsingch and Hopoate families were going, so we joined right in.

Mom and Dad stayed behind and watched Adaleigh and Cannon for us, but the rest trudged their way all the way up!

I knew it was going to be a LONG hike when I had complaints before even got to the first switchback. There are 10 switchbacks to the bottom of the Y... 12 to the top. Zach was tired at first, but that boy has such a competitive spirit that he wouldn't be anything but first up. It was so funny watching him, SO tired, but almost running up the hill to catch his cousins that had gone ahead.  Now we just have to find a way to make that driven spirit work for his good. :) We stopped pretty often to rest in whatever shade we could find. The worst part was when we got to the point that we had a great view of the awesome water park we were at the day before. All of the kids wished we were there again! Not hiking up some dry, dusty, hot mountain. I did too!

Like I said, Zach did awesome. Kate and Kara did good, but complained a lot more and needed to be carried sometimes. Near the end Kara and I did a 10 second walk. We would count to ten while walking then I would hold her under her arms and count to 10 as I carried her, then she'd walk again for 10. Kept her mind off of complaining and gave me my sanity not hearing that little whiney voice the whole time!

Katie, Carrie, and I took the littles to the bottom of the mountain. Justin and Harvey trekked to the top with some of the older ones. And Zach of course. ;) Can't be beat!

Hot and sweaty, but we made it!! Good work kiddos. Way to build some character!

Way at the top are Justin and Zachary making their way down to the bottom of the Y to join us. The Y is made of painted cement. Once you get up there it is scary with kids I think. So it is a steep hike with a scary destination. I am such a worry wart though, I just didn't want anyone to get hurt! "Don't tell me worrying doesn't do any good, the things I worry about never happen!" :) No body got hurt! See!

On the way down, a shady rock cove. Ahhh...

 

Here is my adorable touristy sister Carrie in mom's hat and her adorable girl Malia again. :) We should have brought a fanny pack too Care. :)

And Kara. Oh Kara. I was her descent partner. Man was she whiney. You can't blame her though. I mean she could have been a little less vocal, but they had played hard in the sun all day the day before, and then did the same the next morning. Her legs were tired! They were working like crazy! The whole down..."Mom, I don't yike walking...I HATE walking... whine whine whine cry whine..." My mom had promised the kids smoothies at the end. I reminded Kara of that and she almost lit up. Often as she whined about how hard it was I would say "remember the smoothies, remember the smoothies!" It became our mantra. She repeated it over and over. Then at the end, still whining and crying, but then she saw her cousin about to get through the trail head gate before her and she knew she couldn't be beat. Those exhausted little legs started sprinting! So competitive, my kids! Yikes.

"Remember the smoothies!!!!" :)

It worked! And they were delicious. So worth it, eh Kara?

Look at my hot, sweaty, tired hiker! They did so good. Glad we did it. Glad it's over. :)

The Crew enjoying Mer Mer's smoothies!

And after smoothies, we heard some cousins were going to the infamous BYU Creamery, so we joined in! Smoothies and ice cream for lunch! And their delicious fries. Yum yum. Gotta replace those calories we burned you know! Here are Kate and Kaela celebrating their pink ice cream, called Sparkle! It tasted like pop.

Justin ordered their ice creams and didn't see that there was a child's cone size for the kidlets. So they had these whoppers! That is a HUGE ice cream cone!

Orange sherbet.

Sparkle.

And mint chip. Mustache and all.

After the creamery we all went to the kids favorite place to be...Katie's house!!! My kids loved playing there with cousins and dolls and the Wii. Addie loved the attention from cousins too! She loves any attention and is seriously the smiliest baby in the universe. Love love love her.

There's one for you too. ;)

Justin holding his not-so-twins. :) What a day!