August Adventures 2017

August 1-16

Some photos of my favorite little people.  Molly and Ryder shared a hug after Molly had been gone to New Hampshire for 2 weeks.  Maden is spread out on 4 different states. Clark is really on the ball. Maden, Clark and Annie at the Grand Canyon. Molly and Ryder eating some toast.

Ryder got to spend a few days with us while his parents were on a little vacation. We went to Burger King, blew bubbles, and played in the hot tub among a bunch of other activities.  I love these pictures of Celia and the kids at the Grand Canyon.  Brian got there too, but after dark.  Jared got stuck at a job site, luckily the Explorer could pull him out.

Molly and Ryder had a fun time playing at the Iona Park.  I love Molly's flighty hair!

We watched Molly for a weekend while her parents had a little get-a-way.  She had fun playing with the toys at our house, going to Grandma Beth's for dinner, and playing in the hot tub, and a lot of other activities.  Blake went to help Jared dig a trench at a job, it was fun to watch him run the digger. Ryder loved watching the grain combine in the field by our house.

Brian and Celia got sprinklers installed in their yard, so now it was time to get it ready and then plant grass.  They had to level out some places and also spread out some gravel with the tractor.  It still needed some smoothing out, so we borrowed a harrow to pull behind the 4wheeler.  Annie, Clark, Molly and Ryder thought that was a very fun job to "help" Grandpa with.  They got the grass all planted and it's coming up great now.

Molly and Ryder are enjoying some more hot tub time. Molly is such a happy little thing, even in the early morning.  Maden loves building things with all sorts of different mediums, this was a great ramp.  Jared and Nikelle had a fun little vacation in Park City. Clark is a good dog sitter during a car ride.  Courtney and Ryder enjoying a little boat ride. Molly loves her Minnie Mouse car mat, and the splash park.

August 16 - Brody's Headstone

Brody's headstone turned out so nice.  It's such a peaceful, sweet place to visit.

Jared and Nikelle and Molly visited as soon as they heard it had been installed.  They make it a fun thing for the family to do, they have picnics, take a truck for Molly to play with there.  Molly kisses Jesus and shares her juice with him too.  

We tried to get a good picture, but the sun was just too bright.  Molly loves going to see Brody.  Ryder loves seeing Jesus and Brody too.

August 17-18

Maden, Annie and Clark came once a week for "Grandma Day". I love it! We had a lot of fun, and did a lot of different fun activities.  This time they played with play dough for a long time.  I got to tend Clark by himself for a day, he became my good buddy that day.  He is a quiet, deep thinking little guy.  Nikelle joined Molly and Ryder for some hot tub time.

August 19 - American Falls

We took the boat out for a spin on the American Falls Reservoir.  I got sunscreen on the lens of my phone, so some of the pictures are kind of blurry.  Randy skied, Jared wake boarded.  

Nikelle tried and tried to get up on the small wake board that came with the boat. (It's not in very good shape!) She was really sad that she couldn't get up.  Courtney got up once, then couldn't again.  I don't know how any of them ever get up, let alone get in that cold water.

It was a fun day in the boat, Molly and Ryder love it.

August 21 - Total Solar Eclipse

We had the opportunity to see the total Solar Eclipse.  We took the back roads from Blackfoot to avoid the traffic on the freeway and highway to Jared and Nikelle's house.  We had fun playing in their backyard as the eclipse started.  These pictures really don't capture the dramatic difference in the light.  It was actually quite incredible.

Here we are with our eclipse glasses, getting ready to see it.  Nikelle had to eat a banana, because everyone bought bananas before eclipse day, and they were scarce.  

It was an amazing sight to see the eclipse.  None of us really knew what to expect, but it exceeded all of my expectations.  The last picture was taken by Josh Packer and posted on facebook.  

It only lasted a few minutes in its totality.  It was so amazing how light it was with just a tiny sliver of the sun shining from behind the moon.  Once again, it was hard to capture how it really looked with the pictures, but it was definitely a memorable experience.

August 22 - IJump

For Grandma Day, I took Maden and Annie to IJump.  They had a great time jumping, running, inventing games and laughing.

Aug 20-25

Ryder and Molly having a great time running and playing in my kitchen.  Blake, Jared, Molly and Nikelle enjoying some pool time at a hotel in Salt Lake.  Clark loved getting a ride on Grandpa's leg.  Brian and his kids eating some ice cream on a very hot day in Draper, Utah.  

August 26 - NF Walk and Scheels

Nikelle has a disease called Neurofibromatosis (NF), there was a fund raising "walk" in Salt Lake for NF.  Brian, Celia, Maden, Annie, Clark, Jared, Nikelle, Molly, cousins Jessica and Steve, Blake and I all went to participate.  It is something Nikelle has always wanted to do.  It was a very hot day, but we all survived the nice walk in the beautiful park.  After the walk, Annie got her face painted and the kids all enjoyed getting into a fire truck.

After the NF walk, we went to Scheels Sporting Good Store.  It was nice to be in the air conditioning! Everyone but Clark went for a ride on the Ferris Wheel.  Maden went by himself first, and was very brave, but he told me that he liked going with me better.

After the Ferris Wheel, the kids did some bowling and shooting activities.

Clark didn't really care that he wasn't tall enough for the Ferris Wheel, he had a great time in the shopping cart.  Annie and Molly liked it too.

August 26-29

Molly and Ryder are having fun coloring with Grandpa and Grandma.  Maden started 2nd Grade on the 29th! I can't believe he's already that old! Annie and Molly love to play dress up, I love how Annie helps Molly and how Molly loves Annie.  Ryder loves to read like his mom.