Bear Lake

Bear Lake was so much fun this year with the Draper Family. We love being with everyone, being up late, eating raspberry shakes and having wonderful adventures together. Thanks to Lesa & Steve for putting it together, Mom & Dad for the house, Amy & Duff for the boat, and everyone else for just being there.

Memories
*The Red Rooster
*Dave's broken coccyx
*Raspberry Shakes - 3 times
*Dave and Brady giving Kace and Drake some tips on picking up girls
*The flashy red boat that attracted the bear lake cops
*Dave & Steve S. always talking and giving everyone a hard time and driving me nuts
*Drake winning the golf game - with a 3 stroke subtration on each hole, replacing a few balls that were hit in a bad spot, and not playing part of the last hole
*Dave & Steve S. in the same golfcart together (bad idea) and getting it stuck in the mud
*Dad almost hitting Drake & I with a golf ball
*Taylor getting sick from drinking too much lake water
*The girls making our bed each morning
*All of the amazing talents - Carrie can fit way too many grapes in her mouth (Duff comment - she's crowning)
*All the wonderful meals
*Listening to Kace and Drake wine on the water wienie
*Sierra always watching out for Taylor
*Getting to surf - thanks to Duff

And so many more. Thanks everyone!

Finally - Pictures!

I finally downloaded the pictures of hiking to Stewart Falls, Dave's Echo triathlon, and a few extra summer pictures. Enjoy!



There are two pictures of Dave and Kimball having a water fight. They had a water fight with water wienies made out of surgical tubing. That brought back a lot of memories because when we were growing up we always had surgical tubing and half a pen to make water wienies for our water fights. Good Memory! I had forgotten about them. Anyway, we got to spend a Friday night with the Hansen family. We love this cute little family and really miss living close by them. They are so much fun and great friends. Thanks for everthing Hansens!

No Camera!

I haven't been carrying my camera with me the last couple of weeks so I don't have any new pictures. I decided to update my blog though with a little bit about my family.

Taylor is growing so quickly and I am starting to think I don't have a baby anymore. He goes off and plays by himself most of the time and is starting to watch movies and loves to be independent. He is very interested in cooking and has to watch me prepare meals, which makes me nervous because of the stove and the knives. He also loves to help with loading the dishwasher and loading the washer and dryer. He is becoming a great helper. He loves pulling everything out but also loves putting it away. One of his favorite new things to do is folding his arms. In church he sees everyone folding their arms and he loves to copy them. Every time we say, "It is time for prayer" he folds his arms (it never lasts throughout the prayer). He doesn't say too many new words but his most recent is "Banpa", translation - Grandpa. He is really into climbing and has found out that if he pushes his fire engine up to the couch he can climb on it and then onto the couch. Swimming has been a lot of fun these last few weeks. Today we went swimming with Amy, Kassidy, Lesa, Jake, Stevie, Natalie, Sara, Issac, and Colin. Taylor loves trying to follow everyone around but doesn't want anyone to touch him. He is learning to float on his back, kick his legs, blow bubbles, and how to hold his breath.

That was a lot about Taylor, now a little about Dave. He did his second triathlon and this one was at Echo Reservoir in Coalville. Dave said he didn't feel great during the swim but I think he did an incredible job. He took 5th in his age group and 49th overall. This triathlon was much larger than his last one. This one had over 900 participants. Way to go Dave! His next triathlon is on August 23 at Jordanelle Reservoir.

As for me - nothing exciting. I have started working out everyday which I haven't done for awhile. Taylor and I have been going for a lot of long walks, bike rides, and hikes. These are not vigorous workouts but at least it is something. I do have pictures of our hiking trip to Stewart Falls with the Drapers I will have to post those another time. I have been working a little more. I have been running a day camp program where I work. I have only done a two week session but it took a lot out of me. Everyday I was running to WalMart or a craft store and staying up late at night trying out different crafts and games. Dave really helped me out with testing everything. Right now I have no more day camps scheduled but we might have one in August.

I hope you enjoyed this little update about our family.

Swim, Ride, Run

Last blog for the day is about my machine Dave. He has more energy than anyone I have met and he blows me away when it comes to his endurance. Last year he did one (his first ever) sprint triathlon and he just finished his first this year. He has been doing a little training but nothing too serious. We went to Logan and he competed in the Cache Valley Triathlon and took 29th overall and 4th in his age division. Afterwards he doesn't seem too tired and he doesn't get sore. I don't understand that, who can do that! Well, he can. Great Job! Doesn't he look hot in those tight spandex shorts and tight shirt!

On the Thursday before the triathlon Taylor got really sick. He threw up more than I thought possible. It was my first experience with a sick child throwing up all over the house, in his crib, all over me and anything in his path. It was miserable. Friday he threw up a few more times in the morning but it eventually stopped. That night we headed to Logan for the triathlon. He was so sleepy and so quiet all night and all day Saturday. At the tri it was so easy to take care of him because he didn't want out of his stoller and slept part of the time. It has taken him a long time to get better. I think he is finally there. His energy returned just yesterday afternoon and he is finally eating everything again. Anway, that is why he looks so tired and sad in the picture with Dave.

Summertime Fun

I love to hike and be surrounded by nature so on the 14th we headed up American Fork canyon to enjoy the beauty. The ride was a little long with Taylor screaming in the backseat because he got sunscreen in his eyes. Poor guy! The tears subsided as soon as we got out of the car and he could roam. We got to take the dogs with us which is always a treat for them and they get overly excited. We had a good day relaxing outdoors and eating our picnic.

Afterwards we went to my niece's birthday party and had dinner. She got a Hannah Montana wig for her birthday and everyone tried it on, I like Kace's picture the best.

At the end of the slide show I through in two random pictures of Taylor. We love checking out his sleeping position and this is one of our favorites, look at him hug the animals. The other picture is at Thanksgiving Point, of course we love that place. I didn't think much about the water because we went at 7:30 but he couldn't resist playing at Noah's ark and got soaked in his clothes.

Lake Powell

I know it has been awhile but things have been just a little crazy and I put blogging at the bottom of the list.

We went to Lake Powell June 7-10 with the Johnson Family, Brady, Angie, Casey, Lindsay, Carrie, Shane and Kade. I had a huge fear of Taylor falling in the water but Dave told me it would be alright and it was. Everyone helped to keep a close watch on him and Lesa let us barrow two forms of life perservers.

Taylor loves the water but the first time I put him in Lake Powell he screamed. It was a lot colder than he is used to. We kept putting him in a few times a day and by the end he learned that if he stayed in the water and splashed water on me it was pretty fun.

We had a really good time. Thanks to everyone especially Duff and Amy.

More Hondo!

I promised to post pictures of the rest of our vacation so here it is. But first I have a picture of our sweet, grown-up boy. Grandma Draper, Grandma Bramhall, Aunt Amy, and others helped watched him while we were gone. I hear that he was an angel but maybe they are hiding the truth. We missed him very much and are happy to spend every minute with him.

We headed out to Utila, an island off of Honduras, to enjoy beach life and to do a little snorkeling. The first day in Utila was not the most pleasant day, it was extremely hot and our hotel room was worse than being outside. Luckily they did have window air conditioning units that we quickly turned on and our rooms were a decent temperature by bedtime. Early the next morning we had George take us to our own private island - Sandy Cay.

We stayed here for two days and it was the most wonderful, relaxing part of the trip. It is just wonderful to be by ourselves to enjoy nature. The island was surrounded by reef and we did a lot of snorkeling. Dave and Tyler went at least 3 times a day for an hour each time. The last time snorkeling on the second day Dave and Tyler say a Sting Ray and I joined them before we saw a shark. Yes it was very scary to me. I wasn't so sure I wanted to be in the water anymore. Luckily it was a small shark and probably was scared to death of us. Tyler found an awesome star fish but it was still alive so we had to leave it. The sunsets were absolutely amazing, I have never seen something so beautiful. And the boys worked very hard on knocking a coconut out of the tree, ripping of the soft outside shell, and then finally cracking the nut to get out coconut milk.

Then the rest of the pictures are just of different parts of Honduras that we loved! First picture is of a truck with approximately 30 men in it drive down the highway and 60 mph - very stupid!

The second picture is of the awesome small trucks that are just my size.

Our last night in Honduras we searched out a place to eat Baliadas. Tyler and Mindy ordered the Super Baliadas. Believe it or not, Tyler ate the whole thing. Baliadas are mainly torillas, beans and eggs. The second picture is of a LDS church, all the churches are gated like this for protection. The last picture is a typical home in Honduras with clothes on the line. If you look to the right of the yellow cloth you will see a house, a very small house that someone was in we saw them peek out at us. Could you even imagine?

That is the end of the pictures I will post. Once again, I will say it was a wonderful experience and I hope to one day visit Dave's mission area in Brazil. He said Honduras brought back a lot of memories. Someday, Honey, we will go.