Moab Giants

Another day at another lake, and a little fishing.  

 Silly parents!

 

 He did it! 

Most of vending machines were out of order.
Water? Nope!  Corn nuts, beef jerky or Doritos?  Sure!

Selfie with the dinos!

 She's still very interested in Dinosaurs.

 Souvenirs?  

 One day Mimi chose not to go shooting and we had a little visitor! 

 

 

Hanging with cousin A and the Rifle shooting merit badge

While in Utah my dad helped Parker earn the rifle shooting merit badge.  They worked for days!  Yoda and Mimi came along too. 

 Mimi always finds the perfect spot to play with dirt. 

Dad would watch Parker's shots through the binoculars to see how Parker was doing.  He had to score a certain amount on the target to be able to earn the merit badge.  

 Later grilled cheese at the Branding Iron...

It worked out that we got a couple days in Moab while my sister and her family were there.  That meant quality cousin A time.  He's such a little character! 

 Selfies with Cousin A. 

We celebrated my mom's bday a little early while we were there.  Ice cream cake!  

 A little chess. 

 And a day at the lake! 

Our trip to Utah...

On the long drive to see my parents we bumped into my sister and her family on their road trip.  Totally not planned! 

 The kiddos ran around a highway rest stop, since they were having so much fun, another boy joined them. 

 Rolling in the grass gave Mimi and Yoda a weird allergic reaction. 

 We had some snacks

 We had packed these Cowboy boots to give to cousin A, but then we decided it will be a while before he fits them, so we gave them cousin H, they fit perfectly! 

 We've driven through Missouri so many times and have never done any of the church historical stuff.  This time we didn't do a ton, but we did decide to visit the Independence, MO visitors' Center.  

 As we were leaving the visitors' center, a sweet little missionary asked if we wanted a list of local Bar-B-Que places.  For a moment we hesitated, then said YES!

 This place didn't disappoint!  Lots of good food and interesting stuff to look at.  Lots of locals and people traveling through. 

 

 Mimi got brave and had some ribs. 

 Grilled cheese, of course.

And Yoda was surprised to see a Star Wars star destroyer in the clouds. 

More to come...

something funny...

...Just sharing a funny comic today.

Some of summer

I forgot to post the after photo of Greg and Parker coming home from the High Adventure hike.

Happy but tired...

Here's a video of Mimi at the discus throw.  She's really tired in this video, but also really serious.  There has been so much rain or we've been out of town so she hasn't had time to practice this year.  Greg asked her why she liked track, and she answered in a very surprising way.  She said she liked it because it teaches her to run away from a bad guy--!  She's thinking in self-defense.  Such a surprise to us! 

And Yoda trying to catch the stomp rocket.  When he would catch it, I didn't get it on video.  When I got a good video, he didn't end up catching it--but this one was SO close! 

Mimi goes to camp

Mimi ready to go to camp for 2 whole nights! 

You can see her happy profile singing songs before the camp bus took off.

Fresh off the bus after it was over. 

Here Mimi is with a new friend and an old friend, just like the song!

She loved her councilor.  She didn't believe that her councilors might be from other countries like mine were when I was a kid going to camp--but they were all from England! 

And a photo bomb...

Yoda says some silly things...

Yoda saw the Spinning Room at the Recreation Center and said, "So it's like you don't know how to ride a bike, and they teach you?"

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After Greg took a while in the bathroom, Yoda said, "Haven't seen you in a while!"

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After seeing a girl in a dress with spaghetti straps, "How do those dresses even stay up!?"
Mimi, "I think with those overall things."

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At Fallingwater, "SO worth the drive!"  and "Why can't we keep exploring?"

Birthday

I insist that Greg gets me a cake for my birthday.  I insist we take a photo.  A few weeks ago I had another birthday and thought it was fun to look back at some old birthday cake photos.