Fish Lake and 75 degrees...

So, it's been a really busy summer for us, or so we feel. Becky, being the crazy spontaneous person she is, went out on a limb and just booked the family vacation at Fish Lake, without being able to cancel and without checking around to see if anybody could actually make those dates. Luckily, three of her four kids were mostly available. Jesse and Lindy are off school for a month, so I'd say there schedule was pretty open, and they were planning on being in town for those days too, which is partly why Beck did what she did, bless her heart. Unfortunately Doug, Rachy, and little miss Ava couldn't escape Idaho for the trip and were missed. Fortunately they have planned the first annual, that's right annual, "P-Town Extraveganza". We're stoked. So, back to Fish Lake...we left on Saturday just in time to catch all the ash from the Millford Flat Fire. We hit Nephi and could see something brewing and by the time we got to Gunnison, it was smoke and ashes all over! We stopped in at the Henlines and when we left about 30 minutes later, there was a healthy layer of ash on the monkey wagon. We stayed that night in Richfield. We swam a little that night and then hit the hay. Teeny and I stayed up after the kids went down and played cards for a bit though, which we love doing. We did some swimming the next morning and A loved his new Spiderman life jacket. He'd even doggy paddle by himself all over the pool. N and T were a little more reluctant, especially T. It was fun just to be on vacation as a family though. We met Jesse and Lindy later that day and headed for the cabin. I didn't expect much from the cabin, but when we got there it was sure a lot nicer than what I'd thought it would be.

Teeny hangin' out on the deck...

The little monkeys in the morning

From the loft...

Jess and Linny entertaining the troops...
Nate and the Sunday comics....unseperable.

I can't remember ever going to Fish Lake, but it was incredible. We watched our temp gauge go from 95 in Richfield to 79 at Fish Lake. This was just what we needed. We saw a moose the very first day there just out grazing on trees by the cabin. At first Teeny thought it was a horse (for about 0.001 of a second). We biked, boated, and fished mostly. Fishing was fun. We took the whole family out on a party barge type boat and had about 5-6 lines out at any given time. A was the first to get a bite, but no fish. The kids had fun driving the boat with Grandpa Neil and we had fun watching them and trying to get them to turn the wheel the right way.

Neil's asleep at the wheel and look who's driving...

N and T loved 'driving'

We tried a couple of spots and Neil and Jesse were the first two to land fish. Then Nate's clan landed a few too. Cole caught a fish that was a surprise. He kept telling us he had a fish, but none of us believed him til he pulled it in!

Mr. Fisherman Cole....brining in the big ones.

Jesse's first fish of the day...

The fishing crew

We had a great time out fishing that evening and the kids loved being on the boat too. We played games and just enjoyed being together. Jess, Neil and I went on a bike ride one morning to Johnson Reservior. It was a great ride staring at Jesse's backside the entire time. We thought we'd see more wildlife than we did (maybe a few deer), but we did see tons of cows. Stupid things wouldn't get out of the road. Neil and Jesse and the cows

The lodge there was pretty neat. Nate was sure it was going to come down on all of us, but we still chanced going in anyways. It was a lot like Yellowstone on a smaller scale. It was pretty slow business wise too, which I think made it even better. No yuppie types up there in their ultra short khaki shorts and golf shirts. We treid to get a reservation for dinner one night, but apparently the cook decided to take it off, so we had to wait til the next night.

Cole and A at the lodge

If you're happy and you know it....

We fished the Fremont River one morning as well. While that was fun going to the river, the fishing sure did stink. As soon as we got out of the cars the kids were yelling about dead fish. Sure enough someone had thrown what looked like a carp on the shore and let it die. We saw a bunch more like that, which isn't a real great sight when you're fishing for trout. Snagging was the theme of the day. Surprisingly I never lost a hook, but never really got into river fishing. The kids and ladies hung out in a pretty little meadow and chatted and chased kids. N and T have such different ideas of what they want to do, and A and Cole were everywhere too. Nate and Fisher

Keeping the customers satisfied

The Mighty Fisherman

That night we hit the lodge for our dinner reservation and although we might have waited a while for service the food was amazing! Teeny and Lindy got this soup that was to die for and everything else was really great. I had to get the trout filet and am glad to this day that I did. Our server was this girl from Russia somewhere and was super nice. Dinner at the lodge

Maggie's massive salad....yumm

Teeny and I had the kids all ready in their PJ's because we had to head out right after dinner. We had such a great time we want to do it again sometime soon! When we left Fish Lake we watched the temp guage again go from 75 back on up to 92 when we hit Salina. Bummer. The ride home was perfect and we want to thank Becky and Neil again for such a great time!!

We (and THEY) Did It!!

We got the courage and enegy to take N and T to their first movie! They did great! We'd been wanting to take A to Ratatouille for a while and figured we just as well take the whole fam-damily! We went to the matinee and were feeling pretty good about the boys being good for the movie and low and behold they were. T needed to get up once because he bonked his head on the floor trying to get some candy. It reminds us that we have great kids. We love em all!

Our Boys at the Parade

The 4th of July was a blast! We went down to my sisters Jodi's house in Gunnison. We arrived on the third. We had a huge BBQ with my family that night and watched the fireworks right in her front yard. I love the 4th in Gunnison, thier town just has that hometown feeling about it. A,N, and T all loved the fireworks and were in awe of them. N had a little bit of a hard time with the loud ones. He was sitting on my lap but was just really squirmy. He finally went and sat on Connors lap and was just as comfortable as a bug in a rug. We stayed at the Hotel that night because there were a lot of people at my sisters and we thought are kids might do a little better, we had made a reservation for a two bed room but apparently the man who took the reservation (and this is not a joke) is deaf and can not hear people on the phone. It was really kind of funny and our room was really small. N and T were set up in their cribs which took up almost all the floor space and A had a little cornor where we made a bed for him. We slept pretty well. The next morning we got up and went to the town breakfast on Grandpa Bob and then the Parade. This parade throws out more stuff then any other parade I have ever been to. My kids got more candy on the 4th then they did on Halloween. We all had a wonderful time. That afternoon we drove back home and went to Neil and Beckys backyard BBQ where we saw lots of people and played the annual game of volleyball. My favorite thing about their annual BBQ is Neils famous homemade ice cream. It's devine!! After the BBQ we went over to the park for the Riverton fireworks, by that time A,N, and T were too tired to care and were a little crazy but still had fun. When it was all over we walked to the car, put the boys in their seats and they were out for the count in about two minutes. I love the 4th of July!

A at the parade

N with his BUG juice

T opening his candy.

He kept taking his candy to people we did not know to open it for him.