Last Saturday we spent the day at the park in Clarkston at the Clark family reunion. After discovering a new “shortcut” over the Short Divide Rd (closed winters) thanks to my relying too heavily on my phones GPS, we ended up being the very first family to arrive. I almost suggested that we drive back to Bountiful and then come back just to maintain my reputation but we decided to just stay and live with being first. Once everyone else arrived we spent time on the playground, playing ball, making crafts, and eating. We even got a tour of the historical Clarkston LDS Chapel. It was a nice relaxing day chatting with family that we don’t get to see too often and eating great food. I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I meant to, but I was too busy sitting around not doing anything to take pictures.

In an effort to explain the following pictures a bit, the kids were playing with a Nerf-ish rocket launcher that was powered by jumping on an air pouch. I was able to get several action shots of the kids doing their best to get air to jump on the air pouch while I sat in my lawn chair sipping a chilly Diet DP. Too bad it feels like winter this weekend.

In additional to my golf tourney last weekend, we also went camping up North Willow canyon just west of Grantsville. Besides being a little bit rainy and a lot bit dirty, we had fun hanging out with my family and playing in the hills. On Saturday morning before I left to go golfing, we even got a nice family nature walk in. The kids threw lots of rocks into the stream and even managed to only hit each other with rocks a couple times. It’s crazy to think that our family is getting old enough to be able to go adventuring without strollers (even if leashes would be nice at times).

As usual, I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I meant to, but you can see the results of our nature walk below.

Wow… I’ve been quite the blogging slacker lately. Unfortunately, with everything else that goes on, this seems to take a back seat most of the time, but I’ve got several backposts to crank out so hopefully it’ll get me back into the habit.

to start off, I’ve got some pictures from this last Saturday. Emily decided we celebrate Pioneer day by visiting the International Peace Gardens while the weather was still good so we all hopped in the car and went to see what there was to see. To be honest, I didn’t even know the gardens existed, but it was a nice Saturday afternoon stroll and the kids had fun (other than the fact that it was around 100 degrees).

We finished off the day with a BBQ at grandmas with all the cousins and we even had a nice little fireworks display in the street with lots of glowing jewelry to top it off. Overall it was a nice relaxing holiday.

In late January we got to spend a long weekend up at the cabin. It was a nice relaxing weekend of movies and playing in the snow. Rarely do we get to spend time up at the cabin without having other family up there so it was fun to spend the weekend sitting by the fire alone. When we first arrived we spent the first couple hours getting “parked” and getting the cabin to a livable temperature. After turning the water on and getting the fire going, I then had to head back outside (around 10 at night) to get the van into the driveway. Although the road up to the cabin was plowed, the driveway itself was not so I had to head back out with a shovel and a flashlight to dig a path so that we could get the van off the main road. It took an hour or so, but eventually I was able to get a parking area dug out and after a couple runs, I was able to get the van pulled in.

The rest of the weekend was a lot of hanging out and playing in the snow piled up in the yard. As you can see from the pictures below, we had to improvise and use a knee board for a sled. It actually worked pretty well once the snow was packed down. After the girls had had their fill of the cold, Jack decided to take a walk up the road. Jack and I had a nice little walk to the top of the road and got to chat a bit about life and stuff. I obviously love all my kids and love to spend time with them, but I must say that I get excited thinking of all the fun guy stuff Jack and I will get to do together as he grows up. On the way back down the road Jack’s legs were a bit tired so he road on my shoulders back to the cabin. It was a great weekend.

In an effort to catch up a little, I’m going to throw down a few posts that have been sitting in the queue for a bit. The first here is about our little excursion we took downtown in February. I was out of the work at the time so we decided to head downtown and visit some of the sites on Temple Square. We first took a tour through the Beehive House. It’s crazy to think of what life must have been like back when President Young and his family were all actually living there and going about their regular daily life. The kids seemed to enjoy the tour, but it may have just been the steep stairs and pink lighting.

Next we walked over to the church office building and took a ride to the observation deck on top. We got a great view of the temple, the capital, and the rest of downtown. I think the kids mostly just enjoyed sticking their arms out of the camera holes cut onto the inch thick glass surrounding the deck. After that we walked down and took some pictures by the reflection pond and let the kids run around a bit. It was a fun little day trip and we even learned something along the way.