A Fun Summer

I have been a slacker and I have not been updating this blog like I should. I think part of the problem is I take all of my Photos in RAW format now and they have to be converted to JPEG before I can put them on here. It's just one more step I have to do before posting so it slows me down a bit. I forced myself to sit down today and get everything since the last time I posted. Get ready for a whole bunch of photos. I decided to start with the most recent first and work my way backwards.

Granite (Thornton Family Reunion 2011)

We had a lot of fun this year at Granite. Greg and his family came and we haven't seen them for a couple years so it was good to catch up with them and for the cousins to get reacquainted. These first pictures are of some of the younger cousins, we walked down to Granite Creek so the kids could look for snail shells and to find branches for Grandpa to make willow whistles. Usually you can wade in the creek some but this year the water was so high the kids just had fun throwing rocks in.

Hannah, Haden, Kaylee, Brianne, Sydnie, Izzy, and Trinity. At Granite Creek posing in front of the open door rock structure.

One more in front of the creek

Busy at work collecting rocks

On the last day some of us had the great idea to go on a hike. I must say most of us were ill prepared for the type of hike this was. It was a bit of a mix of mountain climbing and the rest was very steep and slippery with no trail to follow. At one point I thought, "I really don't want to go any further, but at the same time I don't want to go back the way I came either." So I pressed on hoping that we would find an easier way down. Luckily we did, but it wasn't without its hazards, between loose rocks and branches I managed to scrape and bruise my legs up pretty well.

We finally managed to make it to the top. I have to say the view was pretty amazing and there is nothing quite like accomplishing something like that.

Here is the whole hiking group minus myself, from left to right: C.J. , Mike, Sean, Whitney, Brad, Nick, and if you look in the upper right corner of the picture you will see Shaun risking his life trying to get back to a more safe spot on the mountain.

I took this one right after we reached the top, my nephew Sean and I were the first ones up.

This is of Whitney and Nick on our way down from the Arch

We always have a lot of fun at the pool "Granite Hot Springs" This year we got to swim two of the days we were there.
Sydnie with her cousin Katie:

Kaylee doing back flips in the pool:

Brianne just chilin' in the pool:

Sydnie with her Grandma and Grandpa Thornton:

About a week before we went to Granite Shaun and I took the girls up to strawberry reservoir to do some cray fishing. Shaun always tries to catch a few trout while we are there too. Here is Kaylee holding his catch:

Kaylee found a big hook and decided to see if she could snag any crayfish with out any bait. She actually managed to catch quite a few with it. She was pretty proud of herself:

We also took the girls one night to the lake by our house, we don't really have any areas with sandy beaches but they still had fun throwing rocks in the water and swimming a bit.

Brianne and Lu lu:

Sydnie carefully walking through the rocks:

I am the activity day leader for Kaylees age. We took a Field trip to the temple. I took pictures of all the girls. Here is me and Kaylee:

For the fourth we went to Idaho Falls for the first time in several years. We had fun seeing family and going to the parade. We were sad not to be able to stay for the fireworks but Shaun had to work early the next morning so we went and watched fireworks near our home instead.

We sat with the Jacksons and My mom and dad at the parade:

I had to throw these in. Kaylee gets pretty creative sometimes and she decided to make costumes out of construction paper for everyone. Sydnies favorite animal is a penguin so of course she made a penguin costume for sydnie:

Here is all three of them Kaylee is an elephant, and Brianne made her own. I think she was a dog.

For the Huls family reunion we decided to visit Shauns sister Katie in San Diego. The whole family(minus Shaun's two Brothers) Rented a beach house just a couple blocks from the beach in La Jolla. The kids had fun playing in the Ocean, going to San Diego Zoo, Sea World, a Padres Baseball Game and swimming in the pool at Katies apartment. We also stopped at some friends house who live near L.A. and it was fun to see their house and have a swimming and BBQ party.

On the way to San Fransisco we stopped in Las Vegas to spend a night and break up the drive. The girls had fun touring Las Vegas and riding a few rides:

I had to include this one:

We had fun at the M&M factory:

One of the first days we were there we went to San Diego zoo. It was fun it was just our family plus Natalies little boy Kegan. My girls were happy to have one of their cousins come along with them. We were amazed at this peacock who was more than happy to show off his feathers and let everyone come up really close to him.

More goofy photos at the zoo:

while we were in San Diego we celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary. Katie insisted on taking some photos of us before we left. We had a good time eating at a local Italian restaurant and getting some cheesecake to go at the cheesecake factory.

And finally Way back in May Sydnie had her first dance recital. Here is the whole class:

Sydnie was rotten at the dance recital she just laid on the floor during the whole dance and wouldn't do anything. I was worried she would do the same at the recital. But just before the dance started I figured out why she was acting so silly. She wanted to be under the orange light on the stage (it's her favorite color) so I switched some girls around and let her be under the orange light. It worked! She danced her little heart out and even started laughing in the middle of the dance.

Sydnie positioned herself front and center and I couldn't help laughing a little bit at my little show off:

The end hopefully I won't let myself get so far behind again.

As Summer Ends
Even though we start school on Wednesday, we managed to squeeze a few more fun things into our summer. The girls have been saving money from doing chores around the house since spring, so that they could go to Lagoon. They finally saved up enough, and we went last Thursday. I realized when we got home, I have not been for almost 20 years. Lagoon has changed a lot since I last went. We had a great time.


Kaylee and Brianne in the sky ride.


Kaylee loves roller coasters. There wasn't one she didn't want to try, even ones I wouldn't ride, like the Samurai. Shaun finally found one she wouldn't go on, but after some bribing she finally rode the Rocket (pictured above). After the ride she decided it wasn't very scary, but it wasn't very fun either. Her favorite rides were Wicked and Colossus.


Sydnie and Brianne had fun on the kiddie rides. We talked Brianne into riding the Colossus, she was just tall enough. She didn't cry and said it was fun, but that was the last roller coaster we got her to ride that day. She and Sydnie especially liked this car ride, they rode it several times. Brianne said her very favorite ride that day was the Turn of the Century swings. Sydnie was very daring and happily road any ride we put her on, even ones that most kids her age would have screamed their heads off on.

Sydnie's first Birthday Party

Sydnie had her very first Birthday party last Monday. She has watched her sister go to many parties, and she felt very grown up finally getting to go to one herself. I was a little worried that she wouldn't want to give up the toy I got for her to give. But when the time came, she put her present in a bag without any trouble, and seemed very excited to be giving it away to her friend Bailey.

Brianne learns to ride a bike (finally)

Brianne is so timid around bikes. It may be all the hills in our neighborhood, our street is particularly steep, and can be very intimidating. She has barely even wanted to ride her bike with training wheels. So I was surprised when she requested Shaun teach her how to ride without training wheels. She wants to ride her bike with the other kids to school, so she was bound and determined to learn.

Shaun followed behind her a few times, but it didn't take long for her to take off on her own.

Soon she was riding up and down the only level street in our neighborhood. She has a bit more practicing to do before she is ready to ride to school. She is still a little shaky on her turns and hasn't dared to try downhill yet (a must if she wants to ride to school) but I'm sure with a little more practice, she will be ready to ride to school with the rest of the kids.

Sydnie and Lu Lu

This is an old picture, I have been holding onto for awhile. Sydnie and Lu Lu have had a long road to becoming friends. Sydnie likes to treat Lu Lu like her little doll or stuffed animal, and Lu Lu has had a hard time figuring out how to deal with it. But as she has gotten older she has become much more patient with Sydnie, and almost puts up with anything Synie dishes out. Including being put in doll cribs, and packed around by Sydnie like a stuffed animal. We love our little dog Lu Lu, she has really become a part of the family. We haven't regretted for a minute getting her. I think the secret to our good experience is being prepared by other family members who had recently gotten dogs on what to expect, and just in general being at a stage in our family life where a dog was a fun addition to our family and not an extra burden.

Cancun

Shaun and I celebrated 15 years of marriage last week in Mexico. It wasn't our official anniversary, but we wanted to go to Mexico in the spring, so we decided to go now before it got too far into spring break season. I don't know if it was the hotel we chose, or I was right about going early, but it really wasn't too crowded. We had a great time our Hotel was nice, the food was okay. It was all inclusive, so it was nice just not to have to worry about trying to find somewhere to go to eat unless you wanted too.


Our first day there we went to Salvatica. They have zip lines through the canopy, and then at the end they take you to a cenote (cave filled with water) to go swimming. Here I am at the cenote ready to zip line into the water.

Day two we drove to Telum to see the ruins, we were close to a place called Xel Hah so we decided to go ahead and go snorkeling there. This is Shaun at Xel Hah, he doesn't look too thrilled about getting his picture taken. We had fun snorkeling. There are tons of cool fish to look at out there, but we kept getting sea sick and having to take breaks. Who knew you can get sea sick snorkeling.

Everywhere we go Shaun is wanting to steal fruit. In Florida it was oranges, in Oregon its the black berries, and in Cancun it was coconuts. Here is the thief running with his prize. He opened them in the hotel of course they were still too green to eat.

It was suppose to be cloudy the whole time we were there but the last day cleared up and we had a great day on the beach. We played in the waves, which were actually quite big because it had been windy, found some really neat seashells, even a large conch, and then rented jet skis. We had fun on the jet skis, but I got really sea sick and Shaun had to finish up on his own while I recoverd on the beach.

Our last morning in Cancun we got up early enough to see the sunrise. This was the view from our hotel room balcony.

Our Florida Vacation

We finally made it to Florida! We had a great time there. Although, getting there and getting home were a little more complicated than I anticipated. Because of the way the frequent flier miles worked out, Shaun flew on one plane and I took our three girls on the other. On the way there we were all worried because we thought Shaun was going to miss his flight. He went to park the car and got pulled over by the police for speeding and then couldn't find a parking spot. I checked his bags and got his tickets and he just made it. I thought all the drama was over until I went to check in and found out my plane had already left! Apparently they changed my flight time to an hour earlier and failed to notify me. I had to fly standby the whole way there. The way home was even worse. This time I made sure to check my flight times. But Miami international requires you to check in 45 min before your flight not the usual 30min of most airports, I was late by 5 min and they wouldn't let me on my plane, so once again I had to fly standby. This time, however, the planes were much more crowded, and we had mechanical issues on both flights, turning an already long trip into 2 hours longer. Needless to say we were glad to make it home.

Other than the plane rides we had a fabulous trip. I had trouble narrowing down the pictures, so I decided to break it up into days. Sorry this post is so long.

Day one flight out and Miami beach!

The girls were so excited to ride in an airplane for the first time. On our first take off Brianne got so excited she kind of forgot there were other people on the plane and practically shouted with excitement, "we are up in the air Mom!" Everyone in the airplane was laughing.

We finally made it to out hotel on Miami beach. Our original hotel had overbooked and so they payed for us to stay at a 5 star hotel just down the road. It was really nice, our room was huge with a full kitchen and a washer and dryer. We had a beautiful view of the beach and the Miami lights at night time. The minute we got to our hotel, we threw our swimming suits on and headed out to the beach the girls had lots of fun, but they both wished the ocean wasn't salty, because it tasted bad when it got in their mouths.

Here is Sydnie having fun in the water the first day was about the only day she enjoyed the water she got knocked over by a wave shortly after this picture and it ruined her for the rest of the trip. She wouldn't even get her feet wet in the tidal pools of water that were completely still.

Day two more Miami beach and alligators.

We spent the morning again on the beach, then cleaned up and headed for a place called Holiday park just outside of Ft. Lauderdale. They have air boat rides on the everglades. The girls had fun on the boat and we saw quite a few alligators and other wild life. After the boat ride, they do an alligator show and then let the kids hold a baby alligator if they want to. My girls were not scared at all to hold it. Later that day we drove over to the Gulf of Mexico and stayed on Sanibel Island, a little island just of the shore by Ft. Meyers. It is know for its sea shells and the girls had allot of fun looking for them.

Kaylee and Brianne holding the baby alligator at Holiday Park.


Day 3 Playing on the Beach at Sanibel.

We spent the whole day on the beach. The girls had fun playing in the water, either in the ocean or in the swimming pool just of the beach by our hotel.

Kaylee and Shaun body surfing. This is one of the few times she got it to work. The waves were not huge on this part of the ocean.


Brianne and I made a sea shell sand castle. It managed to last the whole day.

This is not sand we are sitting in it is seashells. The shells are piled up into big mounds all down the whole beach. The shells are as plentiful as the sand. So the trick is not finding shells, its finding the good ones.

Sydnie thought it was great fun to sit in a pile of seashells and throw them. She looked so cute in her little sun dress throwing the shells, that everyone who walked by was commenting on the cute little sea shell princess.

That evening the tide went way out and we were finding all kinds of fun things. We made a tidal pool and filled it up with all kinds of live shells. We found small conch shells and hermit crabs, sea urchins and some sort of clam thing. The girls especially like the clams they would stick their foot out, and try to jump out of the tidal pool. Kaylee would laugh and laugh, and Sydnie kept trying to grab them and almost got her finger stuck inside one of the clam shells.

I just had to add this picture of all of our feet in one of the piles of sea shells.

Saying goodbye to Sanibel. This Island is also known for its spectacular sunsets, and it did not disappoint us on our last night there.

Day Four Sea World.

The girls had had their fill of the beach so the last day we decided to make an unplanned stop to Sea World. We got up early Saturday morning and made the long drive to Orlando and spent the whole day at Sea World. It was allot of fun and the girls favorite part of the trip.

Kaylee and Brianne had allot of fun riding the kiddie rides at the end of the day. Here they are on the Shamu Express roller coaster.