Splish Splash

All of the boys headed out to the Bookcliffs scouting deer this weekend so us girls got together to have our own party. The kids love swimming at Huntington Lake, so we decided to make a sleepover out of it. It was really fun and Kade and Tyce actually sleep great under the stars.

Here is Tyce still sleeping at 9:00 am.

Finding treasures that were hidden around our campsite
Late night swim

Tyce being a goof with the blow-up toys

We have to take the dump truck with us everywhere.....even into the lake

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The day before, we took the kids to the new pool in Castle Dale. Kade and Tyce are in heaven when we are there. Tyce could stay there all day if I wasn't so exhausted from chasing him around.

Here comes Tyce down the slide

Splashing around

Kade head first

Our Mini Vacation

Someday we will take a wonderful vacation somewhere outside of Utah, but until my kids get a little bigger, it just isn't worth the money. So, for our mini vacation we took the boys to Salt Lake to see all of the cool fish at the aquarium. Kade loved the jellyfish (thanks to Spongebob) and he loved holding the star fish. Tyce loved the sting rays and he loved running around like a crazy man.

Checking out the Jellyfish

The Sting Ray's

More Jellyfish

Our next stop was the hotel. As soon as we went into our room, Tyce freaked out. He couldn't figure out why we would stay anywhere but our house. He finally calmed down when we took him swimming so he could jump off the side of the pool into the water.
The next morning we tried to do some shopping. I have NO school clothes this year because for the past 6 I have taught both health and P.E. so I would wear my P.E. clothes to school. Now I am only teaching health and jeans are not allowed. Needless to say, shopping was a nightmare with my kids and I did not accomplish anything.
Our final stop was at a little theme park thing called Hollywood Connections. It is all indoors (thank goodness because it was 103 degrees outside) and they have a few little roller coasters, bumper cars, a roller skating rink, and laser tag. Kade had so much fun crashing into me and Kyle with the bumper cars. He could have stayed there all day, but Tyce wasn't having it. He would scream every time we put him on a roller coaster.

Bumper Cars

The Carousel
Roller Skating
Balloon Ride

So we are back home and we are SO glad. I hope that next year we can do something a little bit more exciting and maybe Tyce will not scream the entire time.

Our Eventful Fishing Trip

Yesterday we decided to head out on Ferron Mountain and do some exploring on the South end. The mountain was beautiful and the trail that we ended up taking was pretty cool. After we got home from our ride, Kyle's brother called and asked if we wanted to go up to Willow Lake to go fishing, so we headed back up Ferron Mountain. Now for the eventful part: all of a sudden Tyce started screaming so I bent over and picked him up. There threaded through his tongue was the hook end of a spinner lure. I started freaking out. Kyle, Kory, and Chris went to work. Kory held his body, Chris held his mouth open, Kyle pulled the hook out and I stood there crying. It was scary because they couldn't find a pair of pliers that would cut the barb off the end of the hook and Tyce was moving around so much that it was starting to get stuck in his lip.

Tyce was such a trooper. He immediately stopped crying and went and played with his dump truck. Needless to say, we ended up sticking around and everyone caught quite a few fish.

This is Tyce right after it happened. He is showing you how sore is tongue is.

I didn't get a picture of the hook actually in Tyce's tongue (for obvious reasons), but here is a picture of it after it was removed. Check out how huge the hook is!

This is Kyle explaining how we NEVER take anything out of the tackle box. NO, NO, NO!

Here is a picture of the Larsen's fishing away after the trauma

Pictures from our ride:

It started raining so Kade decided to hide under Grandma Jo's poncho.

We stopped at Muddy Creek for Lunch and the kids had fun playing in the water

I will always remember

July 9th means that it has been 2 years since my dad passed away. I think, and cry, about my dad everyday. I think about how it's not fair that he is gone and that he is missing so much. I wish that my kids could have known my dad and that he could have taken them out to herd cows. I know that my dad is watching over us from heaven, but it is still SO hard to have him gone.

My dad was the most fun dad ever. He used to brand everything. He was so proud to carry on the rafter J brand. He would mark his brand in the rocking horses, the camping chairs, every tree up East Mountain, his horse trailer.....I mean EVERYTHING. It was kind of ridiculous.

When it was time to pick out my dad's casket, it seemed like nothing fit because my dad wanted to be buried in a pine box at the farm. While we searched around the room, there it was..... a real pine box. It fit my dad to a T. After the viewing we were all sitting around reminiscing when my dad's brothers had the bright idea to brand my dad's pine casket. We went to the farm, got the branding iron and we did it. It was such a great moment. It sounds really redneck, but it was amazing. My dad wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Sorry that we couldn't put you at the farm dad, but every time we are there, we think of you and miss you so much! We will always remember you and I promise to pass your stories and adventures on to Kade and Tyce.

Love,

Your little buckaroo's

4th of July

I just have to say that I LOVE tradition. Camping up Huntington Canyon for the 4th is one of ours and I hope that it never changes. It is so pretty up there and there are so many fun things to do. We spent our weekend playing in the dirt, riding 4-wheelers, fishing, and we even went down in to Mount Pleasant for a firework show. It was so nice up the canyon and we couldn't have asked for better weather. Kade and Tyce played from sun up until sun down, and they never complained once. It was great!

Mom, Grandma Hansen, and Grandpa Hansen