Lily Lake

Despite our best intentions, we never made it camping this summer. (Kids, say it with me: We can't do ALL the things.)  But Jason had an itch to go fishing last weekend, so we made a quick afternoon trip to Lily Lake. It was a beautiful day. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to sing "Fishing in the Dark" for hours even though it was very much daylight the whole time we were there. You can't beat that. 

Surprisingly, Rooney was pretty well behaved on this outing. I think he knew we were testing him. He liked playing in the muddy water, exploring in the trees, and he didn't bark once at our fishing buddies. He may have earned the right to go on an overnight campout next summer. Maybe.

Mickey and Dahlia both caught a fish. Or, more accurately, Jason caught two fish and each of the kids reeled one in. (Or rolled one in, as Mick would say.) 

I can't even tell you how proud I am of capturing the moment when this little fishy decided to start dancing. That's quality, right there. I call it "When good fishing goes bad." And it's my new favorite.

Witch Fest - We Salute You

One of my new favorite fall traditions is Witch Fest at Gardner Village. I noticed the witches were out early this year when I went to get my haircut a couple of Saturdays ago, so this weekend we went on a witches scavenger hunt and earned our discounted cookies.

It's possible we also got some non-discounted cotton candy, because Jason thought he could buy some for Dally without any of the other kids noticing. That's funny. They noticed. So we all got cookies AND cotton candy in our favorite colors.

It was a sunny day, as you can tell from these pictures. 

Although I prefer to think the kids are all giving a special witches salute.

Witch Fest - We Salute You.

Rooney Tunes

I love that Lauren included Rooney on her heart of people she loves - and that she spelled Rrony with cheese in the "o."  Definitely the correct spelling.  Some of the others, we'll work on.

Tanner Man

When a broken wrist means unlimited screen time....

Lauren's Baptism

It's hard to believe Lauren is eight - but apparently she is. She was baptized on Saturday. She was the only one being baptized from her ward, so the baptism was just us, which was really special and so nice for Lauren.

Grandma Vonnie made Lauren's dress from fabric from Heather's wedding dress. And I led the music for the songs at the baptism, which is practically the same thing. Right?

My favorite quote of the day was at Tay's house after when we had lunch to celebrate Lauren's birthday and baptism. I told her I was proud of her for being so brave and making good choices and she replied, "It's mostly fun to come home and play with everyone and eat cake." Which is true. You can always count on Lauren to tell it like it is.

Speaking of cake, these two (and Tay) made the Costco run to pick up the cake.  Could they be any cuter in that cart? Their personalities are a bit different, but they are remarkably good friends, and it's so fun to watch them play together. It was a great day for family fun.

Utah Olympic Park

On Labor Day, we took advantage of a 50% flash sale at the Utah Olympic Park. Jason and the kids are, not surprisingly, more adventurous and more coordinated than me, so they were super excited. The summer activities at Utah Olympic Park include extreme tubing, zip lines, ropes courses, and a 65 foot drop tower. Lots of climbing, jumping, and falling. And standing on scales and taking awkward harnesses on and off in front of lines of people with the help of teenage kids from Slovakia. All of my favorite things.

Obligatory bobsled shot.

The ziplines and the tubing were my favorite. Much to Dahlia's dismay, she wasn't old enough to do the taller, steeper tubing hill, so I stayed back with her while Jason and Mickey tackled it. I was perfectly ok sitting in the shade at the bottom of the hill to take pictures. The shorter hill was plenty fast for me.

I love a good selfie fail.

Drop tower. You think you want to do it until you're actually there standing on the edge of the platform where you just have to walk off and hope for the best. But we all did it together as our final activity of the day. What a rush! Great way to spend a day off. Especially if you can go home and eat ice cream and watch a movie after to recover.

Mini Golf at Mulligans

Labor Day weekend always seems like a good time to say goodbye to summer and hello to a nice, long fall. (We can hope, anyway.)  We decided to celebrate a not-quite-so-horribly-hot September night with miniature golf at Mulligans. We didn't keep score or play too strictly by what some might call "the rules" - and an enjoyable time was had by all.

Yay for fall!

This Guy

Jason and I both started new jobs this summer. I'm grateful for the opportunities I had as a General Authority secretary, and I'm REALLY grateful I now have a job that allows me to go to the restroom whenever I want without announcing it to everyone and arranging phone coverage. The first couple of weeks, I felt so reckless leaving my desk to walk down the hall to the recycling bin etc. I'm afraid I've always been a bit of a rebel that way. Jason was jealous of my new-found freedom and decided to take a job as a driver for Fed Ex. He'd gone as far as he could really go at his job and was ready for a new adventure. It's been great so far. He has Monday's off now and we enjoyed a Monday lunch date at J-dawgs. Because nothing kicks off a healthy week quite like hot dogs and Cheetos.

But sometimes I do make healthy (healthier) choices. This summer we canned peaches, pickles, and spaghetti sauce. It makes me happy that my storage room shelves are so colorfully stocked. Jason is a great canning partner. He even does this weird thing at the end called cleaning the kitchen that I haven't seemed to master yet. Jason is a great canning partner. 

Rooney, however, is not. I have one rule at my house. ONE RULE. No pooping near my piano. I was canning peaches early last Saturday morning and Rooney was on his favorite perch on the couch, surveying the neighborhood from our front window. He was going nuts barking, but I was trying to finish the peaches and wasn't paying attention to him. So he did the one thing that will always make me pay attention.

Yep, you guessed it. I was SO mad. Later I realized the neighbors were having a garage sale and Rooney  felt like I needed to know there were lots of cars and people and overall excitement out front. So I get it, but I still wasn't pleased. So much so, that I made Jason pose for this picture at Hobby Lobby later that afternoon. He was really embarrassed and stood still with the sign in front of his face for about half a second before setting it down, making sure no one was watching him from behind, and darting away from the display like the whole thing never happened. But I got my picture. So I was happy. And we all lived to tell the tale.  

Aunt Traci Moment

I wasn't on any of these adventures, but I love the pictures and I'm sharing them anyway! Tay and Heather's family took an end-of-summer staycation to Park City and had so much fun at Snowbird.

Lauren being brave on the rock wall.

Ethan being impossibly cute on the alpine slide.

The fam, also being impossibly cute

Grandpa took the brothers fishing near Twin.

Love the expressions on this one! Tanner caught this one but he was clearly more comfortable with the tiny one he caught earlier.

Kami Kate and her biggest fan. Or one of her biggest fans. The competition is stiff.

Back to school for the brothers. Tyler starts junior high and seventh grade. WOW. Aunt Traci is old.

Mickey and Dahlia helped me select perfect back-to-school outfits for Lauren and Carly. Cats and books for the girls with bright yellow for Ethan. It doesn't get any better than that.