Colcord Ridge - Family Camping Trip

Our brand new tent, BYU colors of course!

The night before camping, we did a practice setup in our backyard.

The kids couldn't get enough rolling around inside.

Nothing but smiles from this snowflake princess.

Here we are eating three hour old Subway. Setting up camp takes a long time!

The sleeping beauty who decided playing with her parents all night would be more fun than actually sleeping. Thanks for the fun night, Liberty, ha!

I forgot how dirty camping is, especially with kids. Here we go, Oxiclean!

Before going home, we sidetracked over to Willow Springs Lake to capture some breathtaking views. Yeah for God's creations! We had fun chasing lizards too!

The car ride home. We didn't stop except to get some much needed Wendy's!

We had a fun time together in the mountains and look forward to the ward's annual camp out.

First Day of Kindergarten

Nathan's big day to shine on his first day of school. Here are a few pictures of my baby! ;)

NATHAN . . . walker. No, his last name is Andersen, with an E! jk (He is considered a walker because we walk a block home from school.)


Here I am trying to get Nathan to look up for the picture.
"Where is the red light on the camera?"




This spot is where you'll always find Tim when we go to Nathan's classroom. Tim: "That's when I was reading books, Mommy."


Nathan gives Tim a hug goodbye and then tells him to get out of his classroom. Nice, I know!



Is he really old enough to attend school now? The speed of time feels cruel today!

Happy Birthday America

Our morning started at 5:45 am. The ward has an annual pancake breakfast, patriotic presentation and bike parade to celebrate America's Birthday!

The Patriotic bike parade, i.e. race!


Nathan sporting his decorated bike at the finish line.


Tim looking festive on the trike. The YW did the face painting.


The water balloon toss/fight!



We had a family get together at our house and ate lots of good food. The cousins and Uncles had fun swimming in the pool. The water was nice and warm!



We enjoyed pulled pork sandwiches, Hixon baked beans, yummy pasta salad, Uncle Nate's homemade salsa, Uncle Steve's guacamole, and to top the night off this "wave your flag cake"!

After the get together we all dashed out to find firework displays. We made it to Gilbert's Celebrations at Mesquite High School and parked the car off the side of the road. We propped the boys up on the roof of the van and our sweet Liberty led us in song. Neil Diamond's "America" never sounded so good.



We LOVE this country so much and are grateful to be citizens of The United States of America! I will forever remember the two words told to me by a U.S. Customs agent after returning from Ukraine/Russia.

W E L C O M E   H O M E !

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy-o!

Sorry for being a slacker and not having something fabulous for you. We had fun being with you at the family reunion. We'll try to avoid all political/religious talks in the future! Or maybe we'll just forget to invite Steve to the party! Just kidding.

Love you!

How do you spell stinkpot?

Nathan came up to me earlier today and asked me how to spell stinkpot. The following is the result of this vocabulary lesson.




I later learned that Dave had written "Nathan is a stinker" on the same board just moments before Nathan was asking me how to spell stinkpot.