White Sands Hike

 The day after Thanksgiving we needed to work off some pie, so we went for a hike to one of our favorite spots.  It is called the White Sands Hike near the top entrance of Snow Canyon.  It is a pretty easy hike that leads to a huge sand hill.  We invited Kim & Lloyd and their boys, my parents & brothers Kjarsten and Jason with his daughter Aiva.

 Owen and Ben digging in the sand

 The kids had a great time sliding down the huge sand hill in a train formation.  Their pockets were full of sand!

 Here is Lloyd, Danny and my dad Ryan

 Here is Kim, my mom Verlene and brother Kjarsten

Ben, Nathan, and Luke are so cute with Reese...they play so cute with her & are very patient

Red Hills Hike

The weather has been so nice! My friend Rachel and I decided to take the kids up on the Red Hill to have a picnic lunch, hike around & play on the red rocks. We had a great day enjoying our friends & the sunny St. George weather!

Adee found the perfect spot to strike a pose!Rachel with Reese & Sara

The kids are a little TOO daring!

Averee & Adee with their their cute friend Emma

Owen pretending to be a frog

The kids made 'houses' out of all the cool rock formations.

Reese & Sara just tried to keep up with the big kidsAll the kids: Reese, Sara, Adelyn, Averee, Tyler, Emma & Owen We love hanging out with the Page family. We have kids the same ages & genders & they all play so well together. We are blessed to have such amazing friends!

Staheli Farm

My friend Rachel & I were both single moms for the night so we decided to be brave & take all the kids to Staheli Farm by ourselves. It wasn't as hard as it sounded :0) They have added a lot of fun stuff since last time we went a couple years ago. The kids had a great time on the horse swings, the corn slide, the rope swing, learning to rope a cow, riding on the hay wagon out to the pumpkin patch, eating yummy food, petting the farm animals, watching the pig races & listening to the kids in the Haunted Corn Maze scream!

Owen & Adee learning to rope a cow. It is harder than it looks!

Reese loved all the farm animals

Averee & Adee playing with the water pumps

All the kids, patiently waiting for their dinner :0) Averee, Emma, Owen, Tyler, Sara, Adee, & Reese

Pumpkins for FHE

What can you do for fun on a Monday night in Enterprise? Pick pumpkins! Our good friends Ben & Cammi Randall invited us to come up to Enterprise (Ben is originally from there) to pick pumpkins at his parent's patch. We had fun trying to find just the right pumpkins...

Gorgeous view from the pumpkin patch Owen is on the hunt for the perfect pumpkin Reese is such a cheese ball! Averee with her pick of the pumpkins Owen finally decided on this one

Adee picked an oblong pumpkin

Owen was more interested in finding the gross rotting pumpkins The Jones Family The Moms: Camille Jennings, Cammi Randall, Kayla Gubler, Me & Tiah WrightThe Whole Gang: Ryan & Kayla Gubler Family, Danny & Maren Jones Family, Joe & Tiah Wright Family, Ben & Cammi Randall Family, & Steve & Camille Jennings Family

After picking pumpkins, we headed back to Ben's parents house for a story & treats. Ben's younger sister, Angel, is battling a brain tumor. Even with all this, she wrote a children's book called Snow Angels. She is an amazing & inspirational young woman. She read the story to us & we all really enjoyed it. It was a great nite spent with great friends!

Feeding the Ducks

The weather was a little cooler so we thought it would be fun to go feed the ducks for Family Home Evening...

The ducks heard us coming so they got out of the water & came to meet us on the pathThis was the first time for Reese, she was a little nervous at first These ducks are pretty tame!

When we had given the ducks all the bread we brought, we headed over to the park so the kids could play & get all their wiggles out. The girls had to show off their monkey bar skills. They are getting pretty fast!

Yankee Meadow

We took the kids & went camping up at Yankee Meadow with Danny's brother Ryan & his family. We love hanging out with these guys-never a dull moment!

After trying for about 10 minutes, Reese finally figured out how to blow bubbles. Then she didn't ever want to stop. What determination!

The kids spent most of the time making forts & playing in the trees...and getting dirty of course!

We ate at a cute little diner-the food was delish & the portions were huge! An older German couple came over & told us how cute all our kids were & that we needed to stop telling them to be quiet :0) Then he started singing really REALLY loud-it was hilarious! The kids thought it was the highlight of the trip.

The whole gang-from left to right around the table: Danny, Shannon, Ryan, Stockton, Megan, Cam, Brecken, Averee, Adelyn, Owen & Reese. ( I am taking the picture)

Reese is a very early riser-no matter how late she goes to bed. The only way we could keep her quiet was to let her listen to primary songs on the iPod. It was pretty cute to hear her sing along. She thinks she is SO big!

It was a great trip, with great food & great company! Thanks Ryan, Shannon, Megan, Stockton, Brecken & Camden!

Panguitch

The weekend after we got back from San Diego we went up to a friends cabin in Panguitch. Chris Gunn was super nice to let us stay & we had a great time! We invited the Ryan & Shannon Jones family, Glen & Rachel Page family, & Joel & Brenda Andrus family to come along. It was great for the kids to have so many playmates to chose from. Here are some of the highlights from the weekend:

The girls loved playing 'restaurant' in the yard using some old dishes we found in the bushes. They made some delicious things for us :0)

While we were there a rodeo was going on, so we went over to watch that for awhile. Reese was quite entertained by the calf roping. The rest of the kids seemed a little disturbed :0)

At the rodeo- Cam Jones, Owen, Brecken Jones, & Reese Reese & Sara Page playing houseThe favorite past time for the kids was playing in a huge tube. The kids did this ALL day long. They would push each other all over the yard. Stockton even rode the little motorcycle thru it-crazy!

Reese with Aunt Shannon. She finally found the way to Reese's heart-candy of course!

Adelyn found a grasshopper (with a broken leg) and she carried it around for over an hour!On the way to the cabin-aren't they so sweet when they are asleep?

We also did a couple little hikes in Bryce Canyon, played games, went fishing, & ate yummy food. It was a great weekend thanks to some great company!