Sunday, August 8, 2010

Cousins + Mountains = GOOD TIMES! :)

6/27 ~ Sunday

We made it!!! At last we were finally freed from the van!!!!!! :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

We were greeted by a bunch of yellow ribbons, signs, and lots of hugs and kisses! :) Tarina and Chris were the first to greet us at Grandma and Grandpa Cutler's house. Grandma, Uncle Frank, Aunt Lily, Aunt Carlynne, and Grandpa were eagerly waiting for us inside! Little Kate was taking a nap when we arrived, but woke up soon after. She wasn't sure she so much attentions and was more than willing to stay in the safety of Grandma's arms!

Did we look that scarry after sitting in the van for 2 days straight???
It didn't take long for Kate to warm up to the kids though! Andrew became Kate's special "eye ya" or something sweet like that! :)
Aunt Carlynne, my little sis, flew out from NYC so she could play with us too!!! We celebrated her birhtday, just a few days late. Her b-day was June 23rd. Carlynne let Mattie pick out which present she'd open next! :) Did someone say presents??? We had a few belated birthday presents for Kate as well!!! She turned 1 back in April. Check out all those Mardi Gras beads!!! Kate was in HEAVEN!!!! She loves necklaces...what girl doesn't??? We also gave her a PINK PRINCESS CELL PHONE...which of course was also a hit! :)
6/28 ~ Monday

Edd and I took our kids up to Ogden to see the Dinosaur Park. Aunt Carlynne came along too! Thomas was so excited to see all the dinosaurs again!!! It was so much fun to watch Thomas and his incredible excitement for all things dino!!! :)
Thomas was SUPER EXCITED to see a volcano!!! Every now and then, you could hear it rumble! :)
Thomas had so much fun running around, checking out all the dinosaurs, digging for bones, and hunting for a special treasure! He crashed on our way back to Grandma's house and slept on the couch for a few hours! :)
Mattie and Kate had fun getting to know each other! Kate had fun doing her tricks for the kids! One of her favorites was to fall onto the floor, which would make the kids laugh! :)
Aimee and Kate became good buddies too! :) It didn't take long for Kate and the kids to be nearly inseperable! :)
Monday night, we went to visit my Aunt Joann. She was excited to see us! It was fun to see Aunt Joann in her new condo and get caught up on things! :)
Next stop, we went around the corner, literally, to visit Uncle Harold and Aunt Patsy! We had a good visit with them as well! It was fun to hear what was happening with their family.
As we were leaving, Uncle Harold gave us the keys to the cabin and told us to watch out for bears and such. Ohhhh, that 's just what Thomas would love to hear!!! Before we left on our trip, Thomas would day-dream of seeing bears in the mountains!!!
After visiting everyone, Chris and Tarina took us to the "park" (the school playgrouond) down the street from their house so we could play for awhile! Just as it was getting dark, there was a motorcycle that revved, but Thomas thought it was a T-REX growling...so we had to pack up and head home!!! Which was ok since it was almost 10pm Utah time/11pm Louisiana time! :)

6/29-7/1 ~ Tuesday - Thursday

Tuesday morning we got all packed up again and headed up to Grandpa's cabin! We were all so excited to get there! It was so nice to be back at the cabin again! :)

Edd took the kids fishing while Carlynne and I went back down the canyon to get some worms and a few things that we'd forgotten. While we were gone, Edd and the kids hit the fishing jackpot!!! They were catcing fish almost as fast as they could cast out their line! Even Edd caught a fish!!! :)

Here's a picture of the kids after on of our fishing breaks.... It was refreshing to have a good fishing trip!!! Most the time, in years past, we haven't been blessed with fisherman's luck. This year, the fisherman's luck was shining brightly on us! :)

Tuesday night, as it was getting dark, we heard a knock on the cabin door!!!

WHO WOULD BE KNOCKING ON THE CABIN DOOR SO LATE AT NIGHT????

SURPRISE!!!! It was Kate, Chris and Tarina!!! :) They had decided to take a couple of days off and come join us at the cabin!! :)
Although Aimee had had numerous nibbles on her line, she was getting very frustrated with the fact that all her nibbles were just that...nibbles. All her hungry fish were just a little too quick and got away. Edd tried to help Aimee, but it was not meant to be. :(
What was that????

What is that scarry thing over by the trees??? Could it be...SASQUATCH or a LOUP GAROU???? Thomas was always wondering what would be around the next tree or corner....we found something....LOOK....
Did the LOUP GAROU follow us all the way from Louisiana??? Thomas decided that it was more fun to do monster impersinations than to fish! :)
The girls hanging out together. Kate thought it would be more fun to play in the water in the water than to fish!
Uncle Chris saved the day many times!!! He helped retrieve the hooks that had been swallowed and were stuck really far down. Once the fish was hook-free, we'd let them go!
We all love going up to the Smith and Moorehouse Reserviour! It is so beautiful!!! The kids all have their favorite fishing spots now! It is also fun to just sit on the rocks and watch and listen to nature! :) So peaceful!!! :) We were able to even see Mother Nature send a few rain clouds our way! Beautiful!!! :)
After a hard day fishing, there isn't anything better than some yummy food to fill our tummies!!! :) Bethany was getting a gumbo lesson from Edd. The official roux stirrers!
We had fun watching all the wildlife! Here's the Steller's Jay that was taking peanuts we'd put out on the fence! Edd and I also a young moose just on the other side of the fence we were driving past! :)
The kids had a grand time playing with Kate~she had a blast too! :)
The cabin trip wouldn't be complete without "THE RIVER CHALLENGE!" Andrew had a personal challenge to get this stick to stand up in the river. He finally got it to stay put! Andrew and Aimee challenged each other to walk across the the river to the other side. Thomas wanted to do it too, but I wouldn't let him. The river was too deep and swift! Thomas did walk in the calmer waters and even took an unexpected dip! :)
I love being up at the cabin!! It is so beautiful and peaceful! :) I took this our last afternoon at the cabin as the sun was starting to go down a bit.
Andrew and Thomas loved helping with the gate! Here we are on gate duty...you either love it or not.

BACK AT GRANDMA'S HOUSE~
After dinner, we played outside for awhile! The weather PERFECT! All we wanted to do was play outside! :) A little while later, we headed over to the park to play. While the kids played, Edd and I went up the walking trail and took some sunset pictures.

I grew up in the shadows of this magnificent mountain...Mt Olympus. I just love this mountain!
Here is one of my sunset pictures. The sun is setting next to Antelope Island. Edd had fun getting his sunset pictures! Too bad there weren't many clouds...in fact we hardly saw any clouds the whole time we were in the valley.
Meanwhile, the kids were having a blast down on the playground! Here's Kate trying to grab Aimee's tongue! Kate is a silly girl!! :)
After the park, we went to "cool off" with a treat!

Here's the whole gang! Tarina, Chris,
Kate, Mattie, Carlynne, Andrew, Edd, Aimee, Thomas and Bethany!















7/2 ~ Friday

We drove down to Provo to visit with Edd's side of the family for a few day
s! We stopped at John and Melissa's new house for a little while. Then we were treated to a to
ur of BYU! (Sorry you Ute fans out there!) We split up between 2 carts. This is the one with most of the kids! We all had a fun tour!








I had to stop the tour for a quick picture of Thomas by this statue...I couldn't resist!!! It's a little boy showing a frog to his big sister...just like Thomas!


















After our tour, we stopped at the Cougar Eat to get some ice cream!

































Well, you can't eat at the Cougar Eat without running into someone you know...



This is Jessica Sandlin Matheson, a Prince family friend, who just happened to see us! So she ate her lunch with us. Then came along to see Uncle John's office and lab.

Here is Uncle John showing off his lab to all the kids! John was just hired as a professor at BYU. After John's tour, we went to the bookstore for a few minutes. Then back to John and Melissa's house for dinner and a fun night at the park!


Here are the big kids playing! :) Dallan, Joe and his wife Brittany came to play with us! When we got back to John & Melissa's, Bethany and Dallan played some music together!

7/3 ~ Saturday
Melissa's dad treated the kids to a raft ride down part of the Provo River! Most of the kids thought it was really cool. Thomas was a little scared at the beginning, but by the time we finished he was having fun! We spent the day playing at Vivian Park, while the big kids went rafting on the river!
Here is Bro Snow giving the safety speech to the kids before their raft rides.
On our way back down Provo Canyon, we stopped for a minute to look at Bridal Veil Falls. Thomas was excited to see a real live waterfall! He loves waterfalls, almost as much as hippos!

Saturday night, Melissa and I went with her family to Stadium of Fire! It was a lot of fun! This was my first time to ever get to go! (Thanks Melissa! :) ) It was fun to see Carrie Underwood perform and the fireworks were awesome!


7/4 ~ Sunday

We tried to go to church with Frank and Lily, but ended up at the wrong church building. We ended up attending the Spanish branch. Bethany was excited because she understood a few things....all those hours in Spanish at school paid off! :)

We did get to spend some time with Frank and Lily after they got home from church. Lily cooked us a scrumptious lunch. We went out and played in their backyard for a little while, then went in and played some more!

After playing with Frank and Lily, we went back to Grandma's house for Sunday dinner! Most of us were still stuffed from Lily's lunch, but dinner was good too!

7/5 ~ Monday

We decided that it would be really fun for all of us to hike up to Timpanogos Cave! After a yummy lunch at Chick-fil-a, along the way, we were all ready for the big climb! Grandma and Grandpa stayed at the base of the mountain just in case someone needed to come back down. The rest of us climbed up the mountain! Unfortunately, all the tickets to go on the cave tour were ALL SOLD OUT. :( But we had fun looking at the beautiful scenery at the top of the trail! :)


7/6 ~ Tuesday

The brave folk left at the crack of dawn, which comes super early up in Salt Lake, so they could venture back down to Mt Timpanogos! This time they were all going to hike up, AGAIN, so they can see Timpanogos cave! They all had a grand time! :)

Thomas and I stayed behind at the house with Grandma and Grandpa! Thomas was sad that he didn't get to go to the cave, but on the other hand was super glad because the cave was going to be DARK and SCARY! :) So we had fun playing around the house. We also walked over to the school and played on the playground for awhile.

Later that night, we all went to watch the AAA baseball team, the BEE'S play! It was a perfect night to be out watching baseball! :) The kids had a blast running around on the hill outside of the ball field.

Mattie, Thomas and Andrew even had a couple moments of fame!!! They were able to get on the BIG SCREEN!!! Here they are with a bunch of other boys . Too bad the big screen view didn't show up very well.


7/7 ~ Wednesday

Edd, Bethany and Aimee dropped Mattie, Thomas, Andrew and me off at the Hogle Zoo. They drove up to Park City to visit with Edd's old boss, Susan and her husband. Susan and her husband go back and forth to Houston...where we met them!

Andrew, Thomas, Mattie and I had fun checking out all the animals! We got to the zoo just in time to see the elephant show! Seeing the wolf was at the top of Thomas' list! So we went on a wolf hunt while we waited for Kate, Tarina, Grandma and Grandpa to join us.

We finally made it to the wolf habitat, but the wolves were hiding. So we went to visit the creatures next door...the building with all the little critters like snakes, frogs, birds, etc. Thomas was keeping a close eye on the wolf habitat through the door because all of the sudden, in his excited voice, he was telling me they were there!!! So we rushed out to see the wolves! About this time Kate and her gang had arrived so we joined up with them. Thomas couldn't wait to take Kate to see the wolves!!! He was just as excited to see them the second time around! :)

Here's a cool elephant! He likes to squirt water at you through his trunk! Better watch out!!! :)

Wednesday night, 0ur last night in town was spent enjoying the beautiful weather with some Cutler cousins!!!
My cousins, Cathy and Heather camewith their kids! It was so fun to see them!!! All the kids had a blast playing together! :)


After a whirlwind of fun, we were finally ready to get back home. We sure loved playing with all our cousins and seeing the mountains again! We sure had some good times!!! :)











































After the park, it was time to pack!












































The plan was to head out EARLY in the morning...hoping to make good time on the LONG drive back home.
!
!
n p

No comments: