Jordanelle & Antelope Island

We finished off the week before school

with a fun little family reunion with my parents and some of my siblings.

Derek had really wanted to go boating or jet skiing all summer.

He found a place to rent them either from Deer Creek or Jordanelle.

We opted for Jordanelle because we were able to reserve a condo nearby.

It was beautiful-- a perfect day to be on the water.

And there was a shady spot with picnic tables so we could keep Chase out of the sun.

Derek and I went out with Julia and she was so excited.

As soon as we pulled out of the "no wake zone"

he got going pretty fast.

Julia kept yelling "Yes!! I love this!!!"

Ethan preferred going a little slower.

We took turns on the wave runner,

and the rest of us waited on the dock, the beach, or at the tables in the shade.

It was so much fun, we think we'll have to do it again next year.

My Dad had really been wanting to go to Antelope Island, so the next day we all went.

There were some enormous spiders-- not my favorite thing!

We went to Buffalo Point and had a picnic.

There was an overlook there with a gorgeous view of the Great Salt Lake

but if you went to the edge the wind nearly blew you over.

Ethan got a bug in his water so he tried to dump his cup out over the side

and the wind blew the whole thing right back at him, lol.

My Dad, Derek, and Julia took the trail up to the very top,

and they said there was even more wind up there,

but the view was great.

On our way out we saw lots of people at the beach area.

Derek was going to go jump in but decided not to

because we had to get back to Orem for Julia's best friend's birthday party.

It was such a fun weekend-- the perfect way to end the summer.

Lagoon

The week before school started we decided to finish off our summer with a bang.
We started by going to Lagoon!

When we first got there we hit Lagoon A Beach.
We tried putting Chase in his floaty seat,
but he still isn't too fond of it yet.
I put him in the water sling
and he liked that much better.
Derek and I walked around the lazy river once
and Chase fell asleep.
So Derek took Ethan and Julia on some water slides,
and I hung out on a beach chair
(which was just fine with me).

Chase's nap ended up not lasting long,

and Ethan came over to entertain him

while Derek and Julia found some more serious water slides.

After a couple of hours in the water park we decided we were ready for some regular Lagoon rides. Derek and I switched off on rides. Sometimes they let us do a "baby exchange" and one of us would ride and then the other.

Char and Andrew met us that afternoon so we were able to trade off holding the babies on some rides with them too.

Last year when we went to Lagoon I was pregnant with Chase and couldn't go on any good rides, so it was great getting to ride the roller coasters again this time.

We had such a fun time!

Julia's baptism

A few weeks ago we celebrated Julia's 8th birthday.

Julia is such a sweetheart, she's always serving others

and trying to help out.

She's cheerful and helpful and such a good girl.

I can't believe that she's already 8.

Her baptism was Sunday, August 15th

and she was SO excited.

Her Aunt Melodie gave a great talk on baptism,

and gave Julia an amazing little book

all about the steps of baptism. (She loves it!)

And her Grandpa gave a great talk on the Holy Ghost.

Right after she was baptized I was helping her change

and she said to me, "I'm so happy! I feel so clean!"

It was such a sweet experience!

Here's part of her baptism spotlight:

Julia's favorite subjects in school are recess, lunch, and math

Her favorite foods are pizza, and Costa Vida burritos

Her favorite activities are crafts and playing the playstation

When she grows up she wants to be a lifeguard (she also told me that she wants to work at a movie theater and at McDonald's- lol)

Her talents are piano, drawing, painting, & soccer

Her favorite scripture is about Nephi building a ship to come to the Promised Land

We're so grateful to have Julia in our family!

Pass of all passes

We just got a great deal and I wanted to share it with all of you just in case you want to take advantage of it too! We purchased the "pass of all passes" from CityDeals (link below) and for an entire year we'll be able to go to Seven Peaks, Trafalga (both locations), Orem Owlz games, and Utah Flash games for free! City Deals mailed us tickets and we had to go to the Seven Peaks office to redeem them and to get photo ids. Even Chase got a "tadpole" id card, it's super cute! Here's the details:


Seven Peaks "Pass of All Passes!"
WOW! City Deals & Seven Peaks have teamed up to bring you a 4 pack Seven Peaks Pass of All Passes- This is an amazing sale for a set of 4 passes to the following venues:

Seven Peaks Waterpark
-- Unlimited admission on days of normal operation
-- A 3% discount on food in the park

Trafalga Fun Center, Orem
-- Unlimited Mini Golf
-- Unlimited Slick Track
-- Unlimited XD Theater
-- Unlimited Batting Cages
-- Does not include arcade tokens

Trafalga Fun Center, Lehi (formerly Liberty Land)
-- Unlimited Mini Golf
-- Unlimited Laser Tag
-- Unlimited Slick Track
-- Unlimited Bumper Boats
-- Unlimited Rush Coaster
-- Unlimited Rock Climbing
-- Unlimited Carousel
-- Unlimited Frog Hopper
-- Unlimited Kiddie Area
-- Unlimited Pirate Ship
-- Unlimited Train & Airplane
-- Unlimited Mini Track
-- Unlimited Drop Tower
(Does not include arcade tokens)

Orem Owlz Games (at Brent Brown Ballpark)
-- Unlimited General Admission Tickets(one ticket per home game per pass)

Utah Flash Games (at McKay Events Center)
-- Unlimited General Admission Tickets(one ticket per home game per pass)


You get 4 of these passes for only $139.95! That's only $34.99 a person! Normally a pass like this would cost $440.00. So, you're really being rewarded for thinking ahead and you will be able to use it right away. This pass is good until Labor Day 2011! Wow- a whole year of admission to 5 venues for 4 people. This is a steal!

First Day of School

Yes, it's that time again!
We've been super busy this summer,
and I didn't get a chance to take the kids shopping for school clothes
until this past Monday.
Luckily they found lots of new clothes that will work
(even though the clothes were really picked over and sparse)
and they should be set-- for now anyway!

Ethan is starting 5th grade, and Julia's starting 3rd grade.

How in the world did my kids get this old so quickly?

They weren't exactly excited for school to start,
but are you ever?!

Reunions

We had two reunions on the same weekend a few weeks ago. We went to the Hendriksen reunion on Thursday night up at Balsam campground in Hobble Creek Canyon. We didn't stay overnight because I didn't really want to sleep in a tent with Chase, but Robyn and Eric were kind enough to let Ethan and Julia stay overnight in their tent. It was so much fun seeing everyone! Sadly the few pictures that I got were lost in yet another memory card error, as well as some great pics I took at the Hill reunion of Derek and the kids canoeing. (Really bummed about that!)
I was lucky to have taken the camera bag that actually had a spare memory card so I at least got some pictures of the rest of the Hill reunion which was at the Heber Valley Campground.

The kids had lots of fun making cute bracelets with the beads Jean brought.

Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) with Chase and Daphne

Jolie became best friends with Ethan the 2 weeks they were in town

The kids loved sleeping in these bunks in the cabin!

The next morning we were signed up to do a challenge course that included a zipline.
Julia was just barely tall enough to go. I had thought that I'd just stay at the cabin with Chase,
especially since I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before (apparently lots of other people hadn't slept much either...), but Derek signed us all up for the course, so I quickly got ready and we went!

There were different areas in the challenge, we started with the zipline. All of us were pretty nervous, but Julia was brave and decided to go first from our group.

She loved it!

And yes, even I did it too!

(Nothing reminds you just how much baby weight you still need to lose quite like these darn harnesses you have to wear! )

See how high it was?!

The next part of the challenge course was this area where you had to swing on a rope (after getting hold of the rope without crossing the line on the ground) and land on this small black square on the ground.

It's harder than it sounds!

And the last activity for us, since we were running out of time, was this ski poles activity (I can't rememer the exact name for it). Everyone had to step together and lift up on the rope together to get up the hill and back down.

It was a fun and challenging course, everyone did great!
But we were all ready for a nap after it was over.