At the entrance to the old copper mine up past Skull Canyon.

You can't beat Grandpa Carpenter at Blonco!  He's the champ...

Grandpa Carpenter was a great host! He was always up for a game of blonco, fishing the streams, and was our guide up to the abandoned cave. For 87 years old, he is in excellent shape!

Summer Vacation--Part 1--Camping at Birch Creek

Alexia showing Tyler how it's done at Meadow Lake.

Lacey jumping the creek with her fish in hand.

We spent the first three days of our vacation camping out at Birch Creek with Great Grandpa Carpenter. We spent our days fishing the creeks, exploring old abandoned mines, playing in the creek and playing blongo. It was a lot of fun and a time I'm sure the kids will always remember (especially since it was spent with Great Grandpa Carpenter!) The drive on the four wheelers up to the abandoned mine was a little scary at times, but Tyler and Alexia did awesome navigating the trails. NO INJURIES!
We also had the chance to fish at Meadow Lake. I couldn't believe how many people were camping WAY UP THERE; but I can see why they were; it was beautiful. Still had snow in July. We packed up Monday morning, drove home, unloaded and re-loaded for Part 2 of our Vacation; to Boise.

First Camping Trip of 2010

We took our first camping trip of 2010 the weekend of May 14-16. The weather was absolutely perfect!! I couldn't believe how many campers there were. We were lucky to even get a spot. Some things we learned on this camping trip:

1. ALWAYS MAKE SURE YOUR FIRE IS COMPLETELY OUT!! COVER WITH WATER, DIRT, ETC. The people before us obviously didn't know this. All it took was a little kindling and a breeze and BAM the fire lit itself.

The fire that started itself.  No match required!

2. My girls are avid fishermen. They didn't learn this from me! Lacey caught the first and second fish. Alexia, however, caught more snags than anything. She manged to lose the top half of her fishing pole half way out in the river while trying to get un-snagged. Luckily, Kelly is an expert at handling situations like this and was able to not only get back the top of the pole, but also got the whole line, worm and all back.

Lacey caught the first fish before we even had camp set up.

Alexia looking at the other end of Kelly's fishing pole out in the middle of the stream.

3. Lacey STILL HATES riding on 4 wheeler trails. See, Kelly had the girls on the 4 wheeler with him a couple of years ago when they went on what was marked as an ATV trail...they soon found out it was mis-marked. It was barely wide enough for a motorcycle and they ended up rolling the 4 wheeler. Kelly knew this was going to happen and had them get off BEFORE it rolled. Lacey is still terrified. I took the girls and went up Stinking Springs ATV trail. When we got to the end of the trail, Lacey started pounding on my back and yelling and crying to stop and turn around.

4. My absolute, most favorite thing about camping--NO FIGHTING! My kids don't fight while we are camping, but start right back up when we are within a mile of the house. I don't get it--maybe we should take to living in the camper.

15th Wedding Anniversary

I can't believe it has been 15 years! I have counted living in 8 different apartments or homes, owning 9 different cars or trucks, changing jobs 13 times between the two of us, and MOST OF ALL having THREE AWESOME KIDS. Life has definitely been an adventure. Kelly has almost been (or should have been) killed numerous times, and there was a time when he was asked by a doctor to choose my life or our daughter's. LUCKILY we have all survived. HERE'S TO MANY MORE YEARS TOGETHER. (I'll have to add pictures later since this is the part I can't figure out for the life of me!) But, these are the beautiful flowers Kelly sent me.

Christmas morning 2009

Don't we look beautiful early on Christmas morning.

WOW can't you just see the excitement on our faces!!! That's because the girls woke up and came into our room every hour starting at 2:00 am, until we finally got up at 5:30 am. Kelly was worried about not seeing them open their gifts before he had to go to work. Ha, ha, ha!

Lacey's Christmas Choir Concert

Lacey wanted to be in the school choir for Christmas. She had to get up early a couple of mornings a week for a month to be to the school by 7:00 am for practice. She never complained once! We are so proud of her. They only performed twice though. Once on a freezing night on the bridge over the Snake River at Taylor's Crossing, and then for family and friends and the school. She had fun.

Christmas lights at Temple Square

Salt Lake Temple