bear lake fun.

we planned a trip to bear lake with cory's family almost 9 months ago. little did we know that there would be crazy rain the whole time!! we camped at rendezvous beach. luckily we had a pavilion to keep us dry for quite a while. but it was inevitable that things would get too wet and we would get too cold. so much to everyone's dismay, we packed it up and left a day early. still, lots of fun memories and fun were had!

elsie was content to play at the beach the whole time.

mabel was the brave soul who first caught & held our frogger friend.

connor couldn't be outdone by his sissy.

this little man was in h.e.a.v.e.n.

anywhere with water and/or dirt and he is a happy boy.

the fun continued for else on the beach, even after getting mud dumped on her.

football on the beach.

kids got up early {shocker} and we walked the beach in the rain.

a trip to bear lake wouldn't be complete without one of these...a raspberry shake. by far the best we've had at bear lake, from le beau's...mmmm...

found some more water.

sticker number eleven.

last weekend we visited the grounds of our 11th temple this summer. it's been a really fun experience for me and also for the kids. each temple is so different and it's been fun to notice the little differences. we ventured down to our last temple in ut county, mount timpanogos. the grounds are beautiful and filled with flowers, but much to the kids' disappointment, didn't have a water feature! one of the kids' favorite things to do is to lean over and touch the water...probably a little irreverent, but whatever, they're kids. :) so, hopefully at the ogden temple open house this week, they'll get a chance to touch the water.

after we drove a little ways over to the sliding rock in alpine. the kids each did it once, cory three times (once with each kid), and then they decided they were done...maybe we'll try it again in a couple years or with someone else, to help give them the motivation to slide into the cold water!!

how many kids can you fit into a wagon?? the kids were a little tired {grumpy} after the slide and were lucky enough to ride while cory pushed.

stickers eight, nine and ten.

well, thanks to connor's baseball we visited another temple that we probably wouldn't have gotten to for a while. his last baseball tournament of the season had a couple games in salem. so we ventured a few more minutes down the road to the payson temple. it is such a powerful building, even while under construction. it was bigger than some of the most recent temples and will be very beautiful when it's completed and will serve the many rural communities that surround it. it was fun to look around the grounds and try to imagine where the flowers, grass, and water features would be.

last friday, we took advantage of cory's half day and drove down to utah county again to visit the two temples in provo and also to go see great-grandpa's exhibit at the bean museum. as we walked around the provo temple, we talked a little bit about the mtc and our missionary memories going to the provo temple. a few groups of missionaries were walking up the hill and the kids got to wave and say hi. we noticed at least three drinking fountains around the grounds...a first we've seen while visiting the temples. it also had some fun water falls. and parsley was in the flower beds.

we had driven by the provo city center temple as we came home from salem, but this time we got out to take our photo. will had fallen asleep and they all humored me to get out of the car just to snap photo. i'm excited for how this temple will look when it's completed. it will be so different from all the others as it is being rebuilt from the old tabernacle.

caught connor mid-yawn and will mid-nap

we searched high and low to see a moose on our hike, but had not luck. so, the kids were pretty excited to see one at the museum. 

our favorite birthday guy.

happy birthday to our favorite guy!!! we started the morning off right with strawberry shortcakes for breakfast. followed by a hike an picnic up little cottonwood canyon in the albion basin. we hiked to cecret lake and had our picnic. connor has been dying to fish any chance he can, so we took a couple poles up just in case. turns out there aren't fish up there, but there are some pretty ugly prehistoric looking salamander larvae. the kids {and cory} had a fun time trying to catch them. luckily we brought a net and were able to successfully catch 3 of them. the flowers throughout the basin were in full bloom and so, so pretty. 

we came home and had the birthday boy's requested steak fajitas for dinner. then off to football practice.

on the way down the lake, this little miss climbed up on some rocks and shouted, "i'm the kind of the world" only to then topple down the rocks in her efforts to get down. :( she cried a bit, said her arm hurt, but complained mostly about her bruised legs. when we got home, we iced her elbow and didn't think much more of it. then at football practice, she was running around and moving everything except her right arm just hung there. she came unglued if i moved it at all. so, we decided to take her to the instacare that night and were grateful we did. turns out she broke her humorus. :( poor girl is such a trooper and has such a high pain tolerance!!

all in all it was a pretty great day for cory...

...minus the broken arm thing...

number six & seven.

last week we went to two temples. on friday we picked cory up from work and headed downtown. we went on the conference center tour, it was pretty amazing! that is a beautiful, incredible building. we found the painting of grandpa, a bronze sculpture by uncle ken and even got to go on the roof. years ago just before the building was finished, as a ysa, i planted prairie grass up on the roof. i haven't been up there since. so it was pretty fun to be up there with my own family. we snapped a family pic from the roof in front of the temple where it all began. kinda crazy how much our family has grown in 10 years.

then on saturday, after connor had a baseball game in salt lake, we ventured down to the draper temple. it was pretty busy with weddings cause it was the weekend, but still fun to walk around and see the beautiful flowers. 

miss else.

our sweet elsie turned four last week. she brings such a joy and life to our home. she is our free spirit who loves life, wearing pajamas, her buggy blankies, yellow, polka dots, having her hair down, the zoo, playing with her sissy and ruff housing with her bros.  

for her fourth birthday celebration she requested we go to javier's for dinner so she could order her favorite, rice & beans. she even was spoiled with a birthday song and fried ice cream. thursday we went to the zoo with cousins, a few days before the big day because of baseball games. luckily we were watching 4 cousins for a few days and so that made elsie's bday even more special. we got to see the new safari park at the zoo. and...best part of elsie's birthday zoo trip was the train is working again!! wahoo! 

on her birthday she requested blueberry muffins for breakfast, which she doesn't really eat, just the sugared muffin top, mini corn dogs for lunch, and waffles for dinner. we went to 2 baseball games that connor said he won for elsie. after dinner we had water world with cousins. she requested an umizoomi cake, which we accomplished by printing off umizoomi pinwheels and putting them on top of the cake. i made her favorite, carrot cake, which is almost all of the siblings cake of choice. 

for presents she got a suitcase, 2 new buggy blankies and a skirt. she was also spoiled with presents from grandmas & grandpas, aunts & uncles and cousins. it was a great day indeed. 

elsie, we sure do love you!

passport sticker number five.

this week we visited the brigham city temple. this is one of my favorites. i think a lot of it has to do with all the family history we have in brigham. we headed up with sara and kids on wed afternoon after naps. connor wasn't too excited to do another temple, but quickly changed his mind when we got there. we've loved taking pics next to the water feature at each temple. we've figured out they are always on the east side. we also noticed little pepper plants in pots and also planted throughout the flower gardens. also, two clumps of corn stocks in the flower beds along a rock wall. also, many, many fruit trees throughout the grounds. most of them the fruit was still very small, but we thought looked like pear based on their shape.  the peach blossoms on the stained glass windows and on the carved into the rock on the sides of the temple were beautiful. they are also etched in the fence posts.

afterwards we drove over a few streets east to the cemetery and found some packer graves. the kids' great~great grandparents grave on the packer side. we looked for smith ones, but didn't have success...next time... we also found lorenzo snow's grave.