Ben's Video

Ben decided to make a video of his free running and parkour skills to take with him to EFY. I thought it turned out pretty fun, so I decided to share it here with you!

He makes it all look so easy!! It's hard to believe that some of those walls are over his head!

Way to go, Ben!

Elephant Rock

Saturday we worked on a few things... Slowly but surely Doug has been working on the spiral staircase leading up to roof of the tree house. It's slow going, but it's turning out pretty awesome!! Because of that, we got a late start on our hike to Elephant Rock.

I've heard about Elephant Rock, but never hiked it myself. I heard it wasn't a hard hike, so I decided it might be fun to do it as a family. A couple of the bigger kids have hiked all or part of it with other groups and no one said anything! We didn't want to hike in the heat of the day, so we planned on late afternoon, early evening. We started just before 8 o'clock. It wasn't too hard of a hike, but it was long! The bigger kids left us in the dust to the point where at times we were running up the mountain to try to catch up. We didn't, until the top! I was sad because we didn't get to enjoy the scenery, it was hurry, hurry, hurry. Next time, I think I'll be more vocal about enjoying the journey and catch them on the way back. I'd rather enjoy the climb, than make it to the top and miss the view!

By the time we reached the top the sun was pretty much not only behind the mountain but, there wasn't much sunlight left at all! I took a pic of the younger kids while the bigger kids hiked down the steep mountain to actually stand on elephant rock. Then I started down with the younger kids, while Doug waited to bring up the rear. I figured they would catch up to us before we reached the bottom. And I wanted to get as far down the mountain before the light was completely gone! I don't know why I grabbed a flash light, but for some reason, I did. I was glad to have one. We finally made it back to the car about 10:30pm!

We tried to take a pic of the kids on the rock, but it was too dark! Can you see that last of the sunset?

Little Natalie, hiked some and we carried her some. Tiff hiked all the way up and was carried part of the way down. Aaron was a trooper and hiked the whole thing! I was behind him on the way down and could visibly see how tired he was. He was weaving back and forth on the trail, but every time I asked him if he was okay, he said he was tired, but fine!

We still had fireworks to do! My poor neighbors!! We hurried up and had a fun fireworks show, then because of the hike, we had to do quick showers. I couldn't let their sweaty, dirty bodies in their beds! Needless to say, we all dropped into bed very sore and tired! What a day!!

Bountiful Handcart Days

It sure gets crazy around here for Bountiful Handcart Days. People line up their chairs and blankets more than 12 hours before the parade! We've never really been parade people. So we find it hard to understand what the hype is all about for parade goers. Then they do the same for the fireworks. We are fortunate to be able to see the fireworks from our house! I like to take the kids to the pool during the parade because it's much cooler and mostly empty because everyone is at the parade!!


Jon has sung at Bountiful Handcart Days for 6 years now. Seems every year he doesn't plan on being around, and for one reason or another he is, and at the last minute the entertainment committee is scrambling to give him a space to sing because they love him so much! This year was no different. They could only scrounge up 1/2 an hour, but it was fun to go listen to him sing. He sang quite the diversity in song choices this year, from Rascal Flats, to Aero Smith, to Josh Groban! He did a great job!


They sang a duet called The Prayer. They do a great job, and I love the way they smiled at each other when they finished!!

Melanie has sung at Bountiful Handcart Days for probably 3 years with Jon. This year she sang her angel Italian song that she sang at Gardner Hall for solo and ensemble when she was in high school. She sang it every bit as beautiful as she did then. I tried to link to a previous post that had a recording of it, but it wouldn't load. If I can get it to load I will put the link here.

We walked around with the kids for a little bit afterwards. I was amazed at how expensive everything was. I guess that's how it goes for fair like games and activities. We let the kids go on one of those big blow up obstacle courses then they played on the playground. I then talked them into just going home and making sno cones there! I know I should loosen up a little bit!! :)

I was surprised that I had to remind the kids why we celebrate Bountiful Handcart Days. Being in Utah, it seems we talk about the pioneers all the time. I guess they just didn't put the two together! Lol

Jon's The King & I

I mentioned before that Jon was performing in the Farmington City production of the King & I. He played LunTha & Simon of LaGree (I don't think I spelled that right).

I got to go see it 3 times, opening night, sometime in the middle, then closing night. I took different people with me each time. It was fun to see the progression and improvements they made throughout the week.

They did a pretty good job. It definately was a very low budget production, Mic's didn't always work, but they did a good job!! I made the mistake of waiting for the closing night to try to record him singing his songs and of course, that was the night his mic wasn't always working. I was not very happy!! I'll have to check the recording and see if I can get a clip of one of his songs on here. We'll see.

Ward Summer Party

This year we were sad to find out that the ward wasn't going to do a ward camp out. We are not much in the way of campers but it's nice to be able to take the kids to stuff like that when some one else is helping to make it a success. :)

Anyway, this year they did a summer dinner and had games and pony rides for the kids! You can tell by the looks on their faces that this was happiness!

I didn't stay for the whole thing. I was taking Nana to Jon's closing night of the King & I. I don't have too many pics, I sent the camera with out a memory card in it, it was in the computer. Doug had to improvise after he realized there was no card in it. He found another one in the bag, but it was full, so he had to go through it and delete some pics before he could take some.

Way to go!

I Looked Out the Window....

and what did I see......

I was getting dressed for church on Sunday and talking with Doug. All of a sudden he got this surprised look on his face looking out the window. I turned around to see a deer with a good sized rack on his head in my neighbors garden, eating her vegetables!! As we looked on in amazement, we noticed that there wasn't just one, but 3 of them, all with equally sized racks! This was in the middle of the day (about noon) in the middle of the summer!!

I did the only sensible thing I could do, I ran to get my camera....Then threw up the blinds, thus the first pic is through the screen. Then as they moved on because we startled them, I ran to the back yard and took a couple more pics.

I didn't know deer ate rose plants as well as vegetables, but right there in front of my eyes I saw one of them eating from the roses in my neighbors yard!

I came back in and called her to tell her what a crazy sight I just saw in her yard!!

Girls Camp

Emily left for YW Girls Camp this morning! She was so excited that she was mostly packed by Friday afternoon!

After Kennecott we took her stuff over to be packed in the truck. Then this morning she just had to get herself and sack lunch over there. She said she could hardly sleep last night!!

I think this is her first camping experience for more than one night. I hope she's still excited through the end of the week!!

I guess we'll see!!

They went in style, look at that yellow convertible!! Gotta love it!!!

Kennecott Copper Mine

Last night we took the kids to the Kennecott Copper Mine for Family Home Evening. Some were very excited and some were very not excited (mostly the big kids)! I figured we had to take advantage of the free admission this week!

It was hot, but the visitor center is air conditioned. I spent most of the time working with Aaron on his cub scout patch. We learned A LOT!! I think Aaron was most amazed when he heard that astronauts can see the pit from outer space!!

I forgot my camera so I had to use my cell phone camera.

Afterwards, we tried to make it up to the bigger kids and stopped at Cold Stone Creamery for an all you can eat ice cream buffet! I told them they could eat as much as they wanted, one scoop at a time. No Stomach Aches! I think they liked that!! Ben showed up to the table with a mixing bowl!! Such a comedian!

They didn't eat as much as I expected, But let me tell you, the little kids were WIRED right before bed. I'll have to think twice before loading them up like that before bed again!!

Mission Call!

We were told it was coming this week. Bishop said the call was issued and in the mail. We waited all day on Tuesday thinking it would come, but the mail arrived and no big white envelope. Thought we would have to wait another day!

But wait, 5 minutes before Ben had to be at work, it showed up on our doorstep!! He debated hurrying up and opening it, but decided to wait to get off work. He closed last night!

So we gathered everyone (there were 15 of us) and were waiting, some patiently, some not so patiently at 11:30pm last night for him to get home from work. I'm so glad he waited, it was very nice to have everyone here!

Finally just before midnight, he opened and read his letter.....

Elder Benjamin Forsyth has been called to serve in the Portland, Oregon Mission! He reports on October 13th. We are so glad he doesn't have to wait too long!!

Aaron's Bike

It's funny that all my kids so far are very late in learning to ride a bike. Not because they can't earlier, but usually because they lack the courage to try! Usually because of this, they catch on fairly quickly once they muster the courage to try!

Kim still doesn't ride, I'm hoping she will soon.

Aaron decided it was time. He was really struggling with balance and peddling fast enough to get the balance. Doug was struggling to continue running behind him to keep him up. Then he remembered what he had the bigger boys do to learn...

He put Aaron on the bike in our back yard, on the grass going downhill. And told him to practise on the grass. At first Aaron was frustrated and cried that he couldn't seem to keep himself up. But falling wasn't too bad on the grass, so he kept trying. And it took a lot more energy to peddle on the grass. He had to push pretty hard.

It took about 3 days of trying, but all of a sudden he was peddling hard enough on the grass to keep his balance! So that's when Doug took him back out on the street. He was so used to peddling on the grass that it was very easy to peddle on the street and with in a couple of passes he was riding his bike!!

He just has to practise some more to get better at control, steering, and turning around. He can do it, but definately needs practise!

Now we just have to get Kim going!!

4th of July Weekend - Monday

Aren't long weekends fun??!!


I decided to take the kids to the Museum of Natural History on Monday. The summer is the perfect time to work on cub scout patches and belt loops. I took advantage of the fact that the admission to the museum is free on the first Monday of the month. I was hoping it wouldn't be too busy being the 4th holiday. It wasn't too bad until towards the end, it got a bit busy, but by that time we had had enough!

We learned the difference between a petraglyph and a pictograph!

I have to tell the story of this picture...I'm working with Aaron on answering questions to earn his patch when I hear this guy in the picture laughing. Tiffany is following him around and he's laughing. I asked what is she doing? He said she asked me what I was doing, I told her I was cleaning the glass on the display cases. So she would wait for him to finish then smear her hand over the glass he just cleaned! He thought it was funny, so she did too, so she kept following him around the room and doing it!! I couldn't believe it!! How could my sweet little Tiffany be such a little snot??!! I guess because he thought it was so hilarious!

It was fun for the kids to see the paleontology lab and dig for dinosaur fossils! It was also cool to see the huge dinosaur skeletons!


We learned about Earthquakes, Rocks, and minerals too! Here Emily is making her own earthquake.

They also had a bug exhibit! It was cool to see some of those behind glass, it wouldn't have been so cool otherwise!!

They also had a place to do puppet shows!

Speaking of bugs, I went into the furnace room to look for something for Steven on Saturday, we heard this really loud buzzing sound. We both looked up to see this HUGE bumble bee flying around. It was funny that we both had the same reaction, GET OUT OF THAT ROOM!!! Naturally, we called for Dad to come take care of it. He came down and caught him in this bucket because he was much too big to try to squash! We didn't want to make him mad inside the house!! I am so grateful that Doug was home to take care of it!!