Leia's & Ammon's Birthdays!

We celebrated Leia's 9th and Ammon's 6th birthdays this week!

 Leia invited several friends, and Ammon invited his favorite friend to a party at Grandma Collier's house.  The weather was just warm enough for the kids to enjoy playing on the slip-n-slide.

 After they were done sliding, they all piled into the hot tub.  When they were dry, we went inside to eat pizza and cupcakes, play games and open presents.  We all had a wonderful time!

Grandma Rollins arranged a fun night away for our family in Midway for Ammon's and Leia's birthdays.  She even made them both their very own cakes.  We stayed the night in the condo, then spent the next day playing together.

 We went to Trafalga and enjoyed the fun rides and games.  We all got soaked on the bumper, spray boats.

 We raced around the slick-track.  Spencer was, once again, the blocker.

 Cute Leia and her cheezy mommy!

 We like riding their ancient carousel.

 All of our kids enjoyed climbing the rock wall.  Talmage and Spencer raced to the top of the wall...I think the race ended in a tie.

The kids rode this ride over and over.  I got a little nauseous just watching them go up and down forever. 

We loved celebrating Ammon's and Leia's birthdays, and we're so grateful we have these two amazing kids in our family.

Labor Day Camping

 My Dad reserved the Valley View stake camp for the family over Labor Day weekend.  We hiked through the beautiful campground with my parents.  We ended up having a wonderful trip with the Colliers and the Rollins.

 Our kids loved exploring through nature, finding all sorts of weapons and treasures.

 Peter and the other kids worked hard collecting rocks and firewood.

 Our kids loved sleeping in a tent on the hard ground.

 We enjoyed time together and kept warm by the huge fire.

 Clint is spinning Talmage in the tube.  We all took turns rolling in the tube to see if we would get hurt...pretty smart.

We enjoyed tubing down the chilly Ogden River.  We loved getting away from busy life for a few days!

Summer slips by

 At our house, everyone is dreading going back to school next week.  We LOVE our summers!  We have enjoyed many fun days at the park playing volleyball while the kids played in the truck-pool or "trool" as Spencer calls it.  This photo shows the trool being emptied onto Isaac, Peter, Leia, and Jayne.  Talmage, Ammon and Jeffrey sat in the pool and tried not to be washed away.

 We have enjoyed several fun days boating at Pineview.

 Talmage and Spencer had fun splashing each other on the knee-boards.

 Spencer tried to get Leia to go with him outside of the wake.  Leia was a little concerned about that idea.

 Both Ammon and Peter were brave enough to knee-board this summer.

Peter is such a daring little boy.  When he was about to knee-board, we told him to hold on really tight to the rope.  But when the board slipped away from him, he continued holding onto the rope while submarining through the water.  We were concerned when we heard Spencer scream, "Let GO!"  Eventually, the rope slipped out of Peter's hands...and he was ready to try again.

 Ammon and Leia enjoyed a nice, calm ride with Grandma Collier.

 Then they endured a wild ride with crazy Grandpa.

 Leia and Ammon relaxing after their hard work out on the water.

 Our kids enjoyed a fun day at the County Fair.  Peter loved feeding all of the animals.

 Leia and Kat liked watching the baby goat stand on the larger one.

 Talmage admired the horns on this huge animal.

 Leia and Laura liked brushing this enormous cow.

Ammon didn't like feeding the animals because he didn't want to get their spit on his hands (just like his mom), but he enjoyed watching the tiny pigs.

We are sad to have our summer end, but we're already excited for Spencer's fun plans for Labor Day vacation.

Reid Ranch

 We enjoyed going to Reid Ranch for our biennial Pearson Family Reunion!

 Peter, Ammon and Leia enjoyed exploring the outdoors, while Talmage's favorite activity was playing Risk and Mafia with all of his fun cousins.

 Leia and Jayne rode the ponies every day of the trip.  Their favorite pony was named Lady.

 Ammon enjoyed the pony ride also.  We thought it was a little odd that they were required to wear helmets and life jackets while riding the ponies, but we obeyed the rules anyway.

 Peter had a huge grin on his face the whole time he rode on his pony.

 Talmage was happy that he was able to take a longer horse ride with the adults.  He enjoyed riding on Blackie.

 Our family, and especially Spencer, loved competing in various sporting and gaming activities on this trip.  We played horseshoes, soccer, board games...

 Shuffleboard, clay pigeon shooting, card games...

 Foosball, volleyball, random family games, swimming in the pool...

 Talmage and Shaylee enjoyed archery.  Eric, Spencer and Ben found out that Rob Anderson is the best archer in the family.

 At the request of his Mom, Spencer wrote a short script of funny memories Joyce has of her parents.  All of the Rollins family participated in performing the cute, funny skits.  We enjoyed being silly, while becoming more familiar with our sweet Grandparents who have passed on.

 We had fun on paddle boats and canoes, and even fished a little.

 We were busy having so much fun, that Peter fell asleep at the dinner table more than once...not very comfortable sleeping arrangements, but he was clearly exhausted.

We loved partying with this crazy Rollins Family!

Play Day

Talmage and Leia participated in a Drama Camp this summer.  They performed in the play, "The Little Mermaid and the adventures of the Pirates of the Caribbean."  Leia was thrilled to be a mermaid, one of Ariel's sisters.

 Talmage was cast as Prince Eric, so he had a lot of lines to memorize.  But he also got to play a pirate at the very beginning of the show.

 Here Prince Eric is locked in jail by the wicked pirates.  When the pirates leave, Talmage says, "Here, doggy, doggy" while trying to get the dog to bring him the keys to the jail cell.

 Prince Eric and Princess Ariel.

 Captain Jack Sparrow threatening the handsome Prince Eric.

 Several beautiful mermaids, Leia on the right.

 Almost the entire cast of the show.  Leia is far to the right, while Talmage is closer to the left.

I was so proud of Talmage and Leia while watching their show.  They both did a great job memorizing their lines, songs, and actions.  They were stars!

Happy 4th!

 Spencer is the party planner at our house, and this year he planned the funnest Fourth of July weekend ever!  We played endless hours of volleyball with our awesome family and friends.

 We enjoyed a huge BBQ at the Rollins' home and then cooled off on the Ultimate Slip-n-Slide.  The children played on the slide for a little while, then the rowdy big kids took over.

 We all had a great time, and nobody got hurt very bad.

We enjoyed a traditional night of doing our own firworks at the park, where the big boys ended up throwing flaming flowers at each other.  The rest of us tried to keep a distance from the dangerous boys, but we had to be ready to jump up and run in case a fireball came flying toward us.

We concluded our celebrations by watching the Clearfield City fireworks.

The next day Ammon asked, "Mom, when can we do all that fun stuff again?"