Grand Canyon Adventure

While in St. George, Mike had the idea to drive a couple of hours to go see the Grand Canyon! It was a pretty drive through the Kaibab Forest, although there must have been a recent fire. So, many burned trees and there was still snow on the ground in places! When we got to the Grand Canyon we took a short hike and then the kids were starving. There is never good food in National Parks and we ended up spending a wad of cash on some soggy deli food. Mental note: Pack in our own lunch!! When we told the kids we were going to do more hikes, our two blondies about passed out. They were already tired, but they came along and most of the time were very pleasant. We had a great time and it was a great way to spend the day! When we got back to St. George, we stopped at Smash Burger because of the good review the Jensen's gave it and it was really good!

Our family at the Grand Canyon. I was hoping for an awesome family picture against this beautiful background, but check out Brandon's face.
Beautiful girl!

Sydney showing Amanda how much she loves her!

Making our own scenic stop. Great views

The girls and I hung together on a short hike and goofed around while Mike & Brandon took the speedy route. When we were through and I noticed B & Mike at the car I told the girls to run because Dad would leave us! Sure enough, as we were booking it back, he started to take off.

The kids all thought Dad was so funny!
In the above picture, Sydney is a very loving sister and Amanda doesn't really feel the love anymore!

Goofing off....

Tree huggin'

The girls making their 'sad the forest burned' faces. They were cracking me up!

I love these boys!

Another view of the river. You could see the rapids from this far away! We tried to give the kids perspective and explain to them that the river is a lot bigger when we stand next to it.

Our awesome 5 year old! Love that smile!

Gorgeous!

Sweet kids

A little man that was sitting under a tree waiting for his family, jumped up when he saw us and offered to take our picture!

Angel's Window. See the river in the background?

Brandon was tiring out, so he got a shoulder ride from Dad! Little did we know about the fit Sydney was about to throw! I think we wore them out!

My cute family looking down at the Colorado River!

Memorial Day St. George Style!

We decided to go to St. George over the long holiday weekend. We left on Thursday night, crusing into St. George about midnight. Our friend, Reed and his girls (Kiersten and Max were at her brother's graduation) went down earlier on Thursday. It was so nice because he did some grocery shopping and we didn't have to run out early the next morning for anything. Reed actually got up and made us a big old bacon and egg breakfast! Nice!

Then, we packed up the kids and headed for Snow Canyon. First, we hit the Lower Galoot rock which we love to hike all over. The kids were set on catching a lizard while we were there. Reed's daughter, Mikaela, is a lizard expert and even had cages for when they bagged a lizard! The first one they went after was pretty smart and hid in a bush (yes, there are bushes on top of this petrified rock!). Then, as they raced up and down the rock, Sydney spotted one! They all came running and Mike ended up catching it for them. They were so excited! They made this lizard a condo with sand, rocks and plants. His name was Snowflake (because he was found in Snow Canyon), but later changed to Snowball. This lizard was the greatest find because then we didn't see Sydney or Mikaela for 3 days! They babied that reptile. Brought him potato bugs to eat. Held him. Changed his water every 5 minutes. Fantastic! We did make them let him go before the Laws left. Brandon, I guess, said a few words at the ceremony like, 'He was a good lizard. We will miss him.' Priceless!

We then stopped by the campground, found picnic tables and a fire ring. The boys got a fire started and we roasted hot dogs and had s'mores. It was great and everyone had a fun time!

Then, off to the sand dunes! The kids favorite! Although, now the sand was HOT! We were there in April and it was perfect. What a difference 6 weeks makes. We could only stand to walk a little way, but the kids wanted to be buried still, so the Dad's accomodated!

Back home for some yummy bbq dinner and day one was in the books!

Saturday, we got up and the kids just played with the lizard! It was a relaxing morning. We did have to work on Amanda's science fair project. Here is Mike & Amanda getting grass stains on the fabric samples. Then, we went downtown to the water park and played around until around 3p when we met Darin & Elise Jensen & Fam at the movies to see Shrek 3 or 4...what are we on? And then Pizza Factory for dinner! Jensen's were staying at a hotel in St. George, so it was really fun to see them and get together. I just have to say that our waitress got a $37 tip on a $50 bill that night because Mike & Reed were fighting about who was paying. I was going to grab at least a $20 off the table, but Mike said no way! I keep telling myself that she probably needed it more than we do and hopefully the good karma will come back to us!

Sunday, Reed got ready to leave because he had to pick up Keirstin at the airport in SL. We had a great time with them and the kids were sad to see them go! We decided to drive the 2.5 hours to see the Grand Canyon! I will put that trip in another post!

We left Monday afternoon trying to get to my Mom's for a bbq that night at 6pm. We stopped in Cedar City because they now have a DRIVE-THRU cafe rio! Rock on! This is TMI, but Brandon has been needing to pee urgently and frequently, so that made the ride home eventful! We love St. George!!!! It was a GREAT weekend!

Math Olympiad

Near the end of school, Amanda was picked as one of 15 5th graders to attend the district wide Math Olympiad. She compete in the 'Set' category. (Set is a game where cards are placed in rows and you have to find 3 that follow the rules of the game. The rules are pretty random. I practiced with her and it wasn't a game you pick up easy...)She did really well. The schools that placed (1st, 2nd, 3rd) must have practiced non-stop during school because they won in every category. :) Anyway, Amanda did awesome and we are proud of her!

The Party

He can't take his eyes off this awesome cake!

If these photos look familiar, it's because B wanted the exact same birthday party as last year! So, we did our best to compensate. We had fewer boys come over, but the cake, (which Brandon helped to decorate-its a volcano from Star Wars with S.W. guys) the party favors (lightsabers), and music were all the same! It did make it easier to put the party together! And the boys all had a great time. We had been having rainy weather all week, but lucky for us, it didn't rain until right as the last party boy was leaving! Hooray!

Discussing strategy!
The heat of battle!

Below-left: Matthew B., Henry K. Brandon, Spencer H, Tanner C., Nick S., Kolton N., Will G with his back to us.