Huntington State Park

My in-laws FINALLY received their mission call. They tried first submitting their papers back in January. After a few medical procedures and 6 weeks of waiting their mission call finally came in the mail. They will be serving in the Baltic Mission in Estonia (next to Russia). They report October 6 and will serve for 18 months. Grandma wanted one last family get together before school starts and they leave. After a few different ideas she settled on Huntington State Park. It was a quick trip but fun nonetheless.

Thursday afternoon everyone was asked to meet at this state park at 1 for a pot luck lunch and fun in the sun. This state park provided everyone with a life jacket at no extra charge. In the middle of the ocean (Brayden kept calling it) was a blown up slide 10ft. high. This was the best part. The older kids never tired of this fun attraction. 

Brayden is my little fish. Once he got his life jacket on he was gone. Made me nervous to see him so far out and by himself but he was quite happy about with his independence. 

Throughout the water were a few of these docks. The kids could easily swim to them or ride their canoe/paddle board out to them. They spent hours playing games and jumping from them.  

Madelyn and Ruth taking a turn on the paddle board.

When Brayden wasn't out at sea he was playing in the soft dirt with his buckets we brought. 

Kylie loved the water too. She loved the small waves coming at her.

Kylie and Sara

Emily and Rachel in the canoe.

 Since I stuck pretty close to Kylie the older grandkids took Brayden out for a ride.

 Orrin, Hunter, Curtis

Hunter and Emily in the canoe.

Brayden and cousins trying to get their paddle board into the deeper water.

 Kyle on the paddle board and Brayden floating back to land.

 

 Kylie and Elizabeth wanted a turn on the paddle boards too. They each wanted a turn with the oars.

When the babies were water logged they spent some time digging in the dirt.

After several hours at the park we all headed to our hotels and got ready to attend the Castle Dale Pageant. This pageant is about the early settlers who were asked by Brigham Young to establish the local area. It was a long trip for such a short day but it was fun. The kids and I had a great time and am glad we went. The only thing that would have made it better was if our Dad would have been able to make it but he was working on a few cabinet jobs that have to be installed in Arizona 3 days after this fun filled day.  

Camping with Friends

Several weeks ago out of the blue I got a text from some very old friends, the Politowicz family. We became friends while living in PV, Arizona. When their family moved in Mandy was pregnant with their third, Christian who in February turned 8. Before we moved to Utah this wonderful family moved to St. George. Periodically we run into each other and play catch up. We miss our friends from Arizona.  Her recent text told me they were hoping they could come up to our place and go camping with us. Being it's been a crazy summer for us with baseball and dealing with the worker's we quickly said yes! It was time for a little family get away.

One of the great things about Alton is that there are several wonderful camp sites starting just 5-10 minutes out of town. We didn't have to go very far. Jason ended up having to work later than he thought so we got a bit of a late start. We got to set up camp and cook dinner in the dark. 

This is who we use to call Lexi Loo holding baby Sam. Being Lexi is 15 now and going to be a sophomore this year I doubt she likes being called Lexi Loo anymore. Can't believe what a beautiful young lady she is. In my head I still picture her to be 8/9 when we first met playing babies with Madelyn who was then 2. 

 Brayden, Emily, Madelyn and Kylie enjoying the camp fire.

The next morning for breakfast Hunter and Jaxson whipped out the left over smore' makings and made themselves some sugary breakfast. 

 Madelyn and Kylie soon joined us.

 Brayden was our sleepy head. He didn't get up for quite some time. He must have been pretty comfortable with 3 different sleeping bags surrounding him

.

While waiting on breakfast Hunter made a spear to take fishing later. 

 Emily and Kylie enjoying those breakfast smore's.

In Achievement Day's Madelyn made a Bunson Burner. She brought it along and cooked her own scrambled eggs on it. 

Jason and baby Sam. Love those eyebrows Sam was always making. 

 While the big kids were shooting the little's were playing with bubbles behind us.

 Daddy helping Madelyn shoot mom's gun.

 Hunter took his turn with the skeet thrower.

Kylie didn't care for the loud noises the shot gun was making. This little girl does not like loud noises.

 When camp was cleaned up and everyone was done shooting we took everyone to Grandpa Heaton's Reservoir. We had 2 canoes and life jackets for the little ones. Madelyn and Christian took first dibs on the closet canoe. 

The other kids soon joined and got a ride to the 2nd canoe.

Hunter, Jaxson, Madelyn, Christian, Lexi, Kiera 

Kylie was content to stay on land and play in the sand.

Christian caught several grasshoppers and tried to go fishing with them.

It wasn't a long enough weekend but we enjoyed every minute of it. It's so nice to be able to get away from every day life and just enjoy the great outdoors. The kids got a long great and us parents enjoyed sitting back reminiscing and catching up with one another's lives. We sure hope we can do this again.

Champion's

We are the champion's!!!

Just imagine British rock band Queen singing "We Are The Champion's" in the back ground while you read this post. I can't seem to get it out of my head. 

Hunter and I spent almost a solid 3 days and 2 nights in Richfield, Ut participating in the 

"12U State Baseball Championship". An Ump told us that there were roughly 278 games being played during the 3-day tournament.What a wild weekend that was. Every hotel, camp site, hole in the wall was fully booked. We were lucky to spend our 1st night in one of those hole in the walls. Our toilet flooded within the 1st 3 minutes we checked in and we actually had a plunger next to the toilet. I haven't stayed in a lot of hotels but I'm pretty sure this was the 1st that came with a plunger. Our room use to be smoking but was assured that it no longer was one despite the terrible odor left behind. It was a hot, muggy weekend. Our air conditioner rattled and sounded like someone was rattling the door handle. Needing some fresh air without the rattling we shut the a/c off, opened the window and got a wonderful breeze of cigarette smoke from our good neighbors smoking outside. Morning couldn't come quick enough.

 But enough about our hotel.

Our boys were FANTASTIC! They played hard, worked as a team and it payed off. 

76 nightly practices

27 game-wins

7 game-losses

and 1 tie resulted in

Utah State Champions of our league. 

 Hunter-bottom row, 2nd from the right

Kory and the kids made it the 2nd and 3rd day. I think we were all on a high after each win as we progressed to the top. During the tournament we were undefeated. We had a few close calls but we did it. I don't normally get into the "game scene" but being surrounded by other parents loudly cheering our boys on I quickly joined in on the fun. I screamed, I shouted and I came home hoarse. It was great and totally worth it!

One of the really cool things about small towns are their tradition's. One of the most fun tradition's I decided is when our little Valley takes State. We were welcomed into town by a fire truck waiting to escort our boys through town.

All the boys were invited to ride on the fire truck. We started off in Glendale and rode through Orderville ending at the high school. Following the firetruck were the parents in their cars and other towns people wanting to join in the fun with a few cop cars in the end. 

While making our run everyone's honking and shouting "champions" out their windows. Despite the late hour of 11:30 p.m people were on the street and in their yards wearing their jammies cheering everyone by.

When we got to the high school there were even more supporters waiting to congratulate these young boys.  

It was the coolest thing I have ever seen. Each of these boys had permanent grins on their faces. I can't explain what a wonderful weekend we had. We are getting ready to move and I will miss this part of small town life. Hunter had such a great season this year. I am really glad we are leaving on such a good note. 

According to Hunter this was the best weekend ever!

4th of July 2014

Our 4th of July starts off early every year. 

Our fire truck drives around town between 6-6:30 am blaring it's horn and siren. The truck drives up and down every street multiple times. The annual fun run begins at 7 and the flag ceremony at 8. This year the girls did the fun run with cousins and I missed taking their pictures. Hunter wasn't part of the flag ceremony this year so I came home and made breakfast for those still at home. Madelyn, Emily and Brayden decided to be apart of the parade this year. I took them all up to the starting point and came home to sit and watch on the side of the road. I think only in Alton do we have more participants in the parade then we do on the side. 

Kylie spent most of her time watching the parade roll by with mom and dad. 

As the parade started to get closer we realized Brayden was at the very front.  Being most of the parade was down hill I guess Brayden really got going on his bike. He even got ahead of the Grand Marshal. As soon as he got home he parked his bike and sat with us on the side catching candy being thrown our way. 

 Soon came Emily on her bike and Grandma Heaton dressed as a clown. 

When Madelyn came by Kylie decided to finish the parade with her.

After the parade we went to the Town Hall for the annual program. This year my mother-in-law was asked to come up with a performance. She got almost all of her local and older grand kids to participate. Earlier this week she decided she wanted the kids to have matching shirts so she went to Wal Mart and bought several packages of boys t-shirts and spray paint. Together her and I taped off shirts and sprayed the American Flag onto each of them. They turned out great! 

It was such a cute little dance number she made up. It was sure fun to watch and my

 girls say it was really fun to do.

Following the program I headed up some games at the park. I didn't get very many pictures since I was in charge and the only one running them.

Madelyn's favorite was the sack race.

Hunter's favorite was the relay using baseball bats. We formed 3 teams and one at at time the 1st in line ran to a particular spot picked up a bat had to spin around it 2 times and run back to their group to tag the next player. It was funny to see how dizzy the kids got and how crookedly they ran back.

The last game I was in charge of was a pie eating contest or in this case pudding contest. 

Lots of the little kids didn't want to do it so I was able to talk Emily and Brayden into it. I didn't have spoons but they could use their hands and fingers if they wanted to. Emily did not want to get her face dirty. She ate as politely as she could without using her hands. Brayden also didn't care to get terribly dirty so he carefully scooped each bite out with his fingers. These two did not win the game!

Hunter was a different story. He wanted to win and didn't care how dirty he got. 

I guess it paid off he was the winner in his age group.

I love Madelyn's facial expression. She did not want a dirty face either. She used her fingers and after a few bites decided to quit. She did not like the spray whipping cream that was on top. 

Following my games the traditional slip n' slide was pulled out. This is the favorite activity every year!

Emily and Brayden enjoyed it the most this year. Madelyn took Kylie down while I was cleaning up my games and we never could get her do it again. She didn't enjoy the thrill like the bigger kids.  

After the games I helped get ready for the big dinner. We had close to 300 people come and it kept us busy refilling the serving tables. When dinner was finished I was able to go home and put my feet up. I should not have worn flip flops all day. My feet were killing me. It was a great day but a very long one. 

When it finally got dark we set off some of our fireworks.

Kylie sat in her chair almost the entire time with her hands over her ears.

She didn't care for the loud screeching noises that some of them made.

Apparently aerial fireworks are now legal in Utah. Some neighbors bought a few and we were able to sit out front and watch their's shoot into the sky with their pretty lights.

It's been a long time since we've seen fireworks shoot into the sky!

Happy 4th of July.

Swimming

While the workers were at our house this week, I decided the kids and I needed a break from home and the chaos we were surrounded by. So we went swimming!

Emily was really trying to teach Kylie how to swim. It was fun to watch.

Hunter and Brayden really love the swim noodles. 

Madelyn trying to shoot her brother's with the squirt gun.

Swimming was the perfect thing to do and it gave us a few hours of peace by ourselves.