Temple Square

Om our way home we always drive through Salt Lake. This year we made the 5 minute detour from the freeway and went to temple square. It had been too long since we had been there. The last time we were able to go was when we were moving from Idaho to Arizona and Kennedy was just a little 10 month old. (We stopped to say goodbye to my Grandma Clark who was serving her mission in the family history center.) I was so glad that we were able to take the time to stop, yes it made it so we didn't get home till almost 11p.m. but it was worth the blessings!!!
Here we are as a family in front of the temple. The people who took our picture we ran into several times while there. I fact they took our picture in front of the statue of Christ, and of course we took there pictures too.

The kids, aren't they cute! I'm mad I didn't get all the spires in this picture. The one where I did none of the kids were looking. Go figure.

On top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, at the look out. We were going to eat lunch up there but it was to long of a wait, so we went downstairs and ate at the Navoo Cafe.

The statue of Christ. I forgot how beautiful it is!!(Just don't look to close at me it's not a good picture.)

The kids by the fountain resting there legs. Cole did better walking that the rest of them, and we didn't even walk that far.

The Day We Flew

My brother Matthew has his pilot licence to fly single engine planes. We thought it would be fun to go flying. So Matthew rented a plane and went to the Idaho Falls airport. We just did some touch and goes and the kids loved it. We thought that Cole was to young so he didn't get a ride and boy was he mad!! Matthew could only take three passengers at a time. So Cris went with Kennedy and Kaden, and me being the chicken I am decided at last minute that it would be fun to go, so I went with Jocelyn and my niece Sydnie. The first time we went in for a landing I about died!! Matthew cut the throttle back and the plane dropped. We flew over the temple went in for a landing went back up and over the temple again and then landed for good. I think that Matthew did about 4 rides by the time all the nieces and nephews went. My kids had a blast, and can't wait for him to give them a ride again next year.
Cris and Matthew

You really can't see this picture but it's Kennedy and Kaden.

Hunter waving at them while taking off.

Jocelyn and Sydnie. They were so cute riding together. All we heard during our flight was giggling and sydnie telling us her stomach was scared. Too funny!!

Our crazy pilot Matthew

The Idaho Falls Temple with the Snake River.

The kids next to the plane we flew in.

After our plane rides we headed up to Green Canyon(a hot springs) and swam. My dad paid my nephew Hunter a quarter every minute he sat in the cold pool.(that water is ice cold!!) He sat in it for 16 minutes!!! Crazy kid!! We then ate our dinner and headed home.

Blogger will not load pictures right now for some reason. I will try to put the pictures on later.

Clark Family Reunion

We had a blast at the Clark Family reunion this year. The theme was Clark Family Olympics, The Games That Rednecks Play. We do the reunion at the family cabin/ranch. Cris and I meet there, set up camp and enjoyed visiting with everyone that we hadn't seen in a year. After everyone set up we had our opening ceremonies, and our carb loading dinner(since we were having Olympic games the next day.)After dinner we rode horses, played golf, volleyball, softball, and just visited. Cris and my Uncle Jayme played guitar around the camp fire while we roasted smores.
The next morning after breakfast we started our Olympic games, or in other words the gamed rednecks play. Some of the events were, Javelin throw(straw throw), standing long grin(who had the biggest smile), the foot race(who had the longest foot), boxing(who could put the pillow in the pillow case first with boxing gloves on) and many more fun games. After games we had lunch and made ice cream in a bag,(you can find the recipe at famiyfun.com) and visited with everyone. After dinner each family did a skit it was alot of fun!! We stole the song "Granny had a altered farm" we had heard at the Bar J and turned it in to "Roger had a altered farm". It was a hit. John's kids did a cute skit about a fly that my kids keep talking about, and I loved Roger's family's song they sang.
The next morning we ate breakfast, did the pinatas, took a big family picture in the wild flowers, and cleaned up and headed home. We had such fun time. Thanks for all the hard work you did Aunt Ann and Kimberly to make it such a success!! We can't wait till next year.

Check out the slide show below for lots of pictures.

Clark Family Olympics 2008, The Games That Rednecks Play

There's Gold in Them There Hills

After Cris and I split up I headed to my mom's house. After a day of cooking (well I should say baking since we made three different batches of yummy cookies to take to the Clark Family Reunion. And I wonder why I gained some weight while on vacation.) my, mom, me, Jocleyn, Cole, and Maria and Andrew headed up to Virginia City MT to meet my brother David and his wife Kristie which I hadn't seen in three years. They were on vacation also and were camping there for a few days. If you don't know anything about Virginia City or it's neighboring town, Nevada City, they are towns that were booming during the big gold rush. Most of the buildings that are there now have been brought in from all around Montana to make a little town. Virginia City is the big one that people live and work in.(basically for the tourism) Nevada City is smaller and I think that no one lives there unless the people who own the little motel in which you can rent out old little one roomed cabins live there. Here is a web site you can go to. I'm sure it's more informative than I am. http://www.virginiacitymt.com/ You can ride a small little train from the one town to the next (just don't get caught in the rain. It's open top and is ran by a little engine and I do mean little since it's basically ran by unleaded fuel and a lawn mower engine. So maybe I'm exaggerating. But it can't make it up the little tiny hill when it rains, cause the tracks get to slippery. So we ended up having to be shuttled back to our car.) We also panned for gold in Nevada City which was the highlight for the kids. That night we stayed at the KOA my brother was staying at. I had to put up the tent which and never been opened. Thank goodness David was there and it went up in no time. It was alot of fun!! Here are alot of pictures.
Main street Nevada City

The little ones looking in a building that Sydnie named "Mary Poppins house"

How many kids can you fit in a out house. They all just had to go, look at the strain on Hunters face. Cole, Sydine, Hunter, Cooper, Andrew, and Jocelyn.

Panning for Gold and Garnets. Here they are leaning how to sift out the big rocks.

Leaning how to pan the gold to get the rest of the rocks and sand out.

Cole and Jocelyn hard at work finding garnets.

Say cheese! Cole wasn't to happy about the picture op and I'm not sure what Jocelyn is doing.

Everyone showing off their gold and garnets. Together we all made about 10 or 12 dollars worth of gold flakes. Yipee!!!

Cooper showing Cole how to fish at the KOA

Stay tunned for the Clark Family Reunion slide show.

Fishing in Chesterfield

After the Bar J Cris and I split up. He took Kennedy and Kaden with him , and I took Cole and Jocelyn with me to my mom's and meet up with my brother. For the past two or three years Cris has been going camping and fishing with his dad. This year was no exceptions and they had a blast!!! They caught I think 6, 4-5 pound trout. Since they were so big they only kept 3. (plus I think that was their daily limit.) After fishing at Chesterfield they headed up towards my family's cabin and fished on Paul's reservoir and fly fished along the creek. There they caught a few in the lake a a few more fly fishing in the creeks. (Cris taught me how to fly fish while dating. I'm not so good, I catch trees. :)) Anyone will tell you that Kaden is the best little fisherman!! While at chesterfield Cris dad woke up early and headed to the lake. He had been there for about a hour, and caught nothing, Not even a bite. Not five minutes after Kaden cast his line out he caught the biggest fish while their, a 5 pounder. He had to tease his Grandpa about this the rest of the trip. We always joke that if your going fishing you need to take Kaden to catch the fish for you.

Here is the crew with their catch, Kennedy, Jimmie holding the fish, Cris' mom Sharen, Cris and Kennedy. The big fish in front is the one Kaden caught, Kennedy caught one and I'm not sure who caught the other one.

Kennedy and Grandpa Moss with her catch of the day.

Kaden and his 5 pounder.

These pictures aren't the greatest they were take with Cris cell phone. I had the camera with me.

Grandma Moss', Cousins, and the Bar J

We left Cris' sisters house and headed to his mom's house. That same day we went to Jackson Hole, WY to the Bar J. Here are alot of pics.
Kaden, Kennedy, Jocelyn, Cole, Naomi, and Quintin eating lunch before our drive to Jackson.

Our entertainment before our two hour drive. Cris and his brother Jimmie wrote this song while in high school. It makes me laugh everytime I hear it. I hope it sounds ok, we were all laughing so hard. It's call " A song for the minority"

We meet up with my family at the Bar J. My brother and his wife went up earlier in the day to stand in line for our tickets. They were one of the first in line, so we got front row seats! It was awesome!!! Thanks Steven and Maria!!!!

You have to ride the train at the Bar J. I think I was the only adult on it. Cole wouldn't go alone. I don't look that great in this picture either. I'm sitting by my brother David's youngest two kids. Sydnie and Cooper.

You don't go to the Bar J without seeing good old granny. They sang "Granny had a altered farm" It was hilarious and the kids loved it.

If you are ever in the Jackson Hole WY area make sure you hit the Bar J. It's so much fun along with great food and entertainment. Here is their web site. http://www.barjchuckwagon.com/ .

Here are some random pictures from that night.
Naomi giving Kennedy Eskimo kisses.

Jocelyn loved My brother Steven and his wife Maria!! Steven even had her convinced that she was going to live with them by the end of our vacation.

Stay tuned for more of our adventures!!!

Home Sweet Home

It's great to be back!! We had so much fun and enjoyed our time with family. Sorry to any friends that I didn't get to see. We were so busy with family that friends got put on the back burner and didn't get seen. I will be posting about our trip in several posts the next few days. I have so many pictures that need to be downloaded and chose from.
So to start off...... We started our adventures with a 10 hour drive. Here are a few things to remember......
*Your two year old will do better than anyone including your eight year old when it comes to the whining, are we there yet, potty breaks(although he isn't' potty trained yet) fighting with siblings, and the list can go on and on. Cole did great the whole trip, in fact I think he was the happiest in the car. And any family members can attest to that.
*Don't' forget the Bonine. Bumpy, twisting, winding roads will = one very sick crying child and a not as sick one.(We always forget that Jocelyn gets car sick on long rides and she cries and screams and cries some more and then screams some more untill she pukes in Page. She has done this for the past three years. You think we would remember form year to year. Kennedy gets alittle car sick but has learned to close her eyes and take a nap.)
*Taking our whole family to McDonald's now costs $30. And remember that there is a Wendy's in Kanab. Which in my book is much better than McD's and would have been alot cheaper to eat off their dollar menu.
*Your three year old will have to go potty every 15 minutes or she will pee her pants. And while driving in the boonies this is not good. Make sure you have a extra set of clothes in the car, not in the suit case on top the car.(Yes we did have a accident.)
*Movies, movies, movies. Enough said.

After our 10 hour drive we stayed the night a Cris' sister Holley's house for a day in Brigham City, UT. It was alot of fun to see and visit with them. Man, their kids have grown. I'm bummed that I didn't get any pictures of them. I'll have to remember that next time. That was our first couple of days on our trip.

Ponytail Challege

Go check it out!! They are doing a awesome give away!!

Happenings of The Past Few Days

Not much has been going on here. We took the kids to a presentation that the library put on about bats as part of their summer reading program. I was really hoping that they would have a live bat or two, but they didn't. But they did show lots of pictures and had a dead one that I got a picture of. Nice huh.

So my pictures didn't turn out that great but the kids loved it.

I ran a 10K this morning with my friend Jenn. It was alot of fun. It was just about 5 miles outside of town at the Homolovi Ruins State Park. We were prepared to just go and have a fun time. Most of the trail was in the sand which we were not prepared for. But it was fun, and the group was small. I think there was 10 or 12 people who ran the 10k and maybe 20 who ran the 5k. One of the Hopi runners said a traditional prayer they give before running blessing all the runners. It was really neat to see. The main guy who helped put it on gave out the awards. He said " We don't give out medals because we(the Hopi) don't believe that you can take them to the next life." Which is so true. So they did a raffle drawing. I of course didn't win anything. They did a big traditional corn roast in a pit over night, and we had some after the race. It was really really yummy!! We plan on doing it again next year. I loved the small crowd, it was much better that the 20,000+ people that ran the P.F. Chang's marathon we did in June.

I forgot my camera so this was taken with my cell phone after the race. We totally didn't mean to match, Jenn came and picked my up this morning and We had on the same shirts, with black shorts. Funny! Great minds think alike!!! All in all it was a great run and I loved the small town atmosphere.

Now we are off on our next adventure. A twelve hour drive with four kids. Wish us luck!!!

Cole's Party

Cole had a fun little birthday party. We had some friends and family over for a BBQ and cake and ice cream. Here are some pictures of him on his big day.

He got a car and is loving it. Of course who needs to push it with your legs when you have three older siblings who will push you everywhere with it.

The monkey cake I made him.

Blowing out the candles.

Happy Birthday Cole!!!

Cole turns two today!! I can't believe that he's that old already. They grow so fast, next thing I know he'll be 20. Here are some pictures of him from the past two years. It's so hard to choose I wish I could put them all on here. I'll post pictures of his party later.


COLE

Cole you've grown into such a cute little boy who has filled our house with lots of love, and joy!! We still can't believe that we had a doctor tell us to abort you, and 6 months later you were born perfect!! (besides the fact of your double inguinal hernia) Not knowing whether you would live or be handicap strenghtened my faith immensely while pregnant with you. I laughed, and cried so hard when you were born.(as did all our family and friends) We are so thankful to have you in our home and family.

You love to play with your brother and sisters like you were just as big as them. You talk alot, and already know how to tattle tell. Oh, the joys of having older siblings to teach you things. You love to just sit on our laps and read or watch cartoons, and you love to cuddle when your in the mood.

We love you so much and hope you have a wonderful birthday!!!!!

Love,

Mom and Dad

4th of July Fun

We had a fun 4th with just our family. Cris played in a three man team basketball tournament in Joseph City. He had alot of fun, and his team came in second overall. They were pleasantly surprised to do that good. Needless to say he was sore. It's been a while since he played basketball for three hours strait, with not many breaks. We had fun watching him play.

( I forgot my camera so this was taken with my cell phone. Hence the poor quality. Cris is the one shooting.)

After the tournament we came home, and got dinner ready. We had a yummy BBQ in our back yard. We had chicken, corn on the cob, watermelon, salad, and strawberry shortcake for desert. The kids jumped on the trampoline while we enjoyed the cool night air that the monsoon season brings.

Then we moved to our front yard and watched the fireworks. Cole and Jocelyn were scared of them. Jocelyn finally came around towards the end. Cole fell asleep on the blanket we spread out, and was soon moved to his bed, and slept through most of it.

I really miss all the festivities that go on in my home town, and family fun. Maybe sometime in the near future we will make it home for the yummy breakfast Grandma Clark does, and the fun at the Menan park. But for now I'm just happy to be going home in a week to visit everyone. Let me know if anyone would like to meet up!!!