Turkey Creek Backpacking Trip

Turkey Creek, CO

July 11-13, 2012

written by: Dallin

The Beginning:

This is where we started our adventure.  In front of my house.

Actually, the house in this picture is my neighbor's house across the street.

Me, (Dallin), and my Dad, and my friend Charles, and the Bishop (Charles' Dad) went on the adventure together.

Right here is our day hike in the . . . wilderness.

I caught my first fish!!!

Nice waterfall, don't you think?

Hey Bishop, is it cold in there?

How's it goin' Dad?

Looks like Dad went for a swim

Kings of the waterfall!

We're cleaning out the fishes, the fishes, the fishes, 

Oh we're cleaning out the fishes,

and it is disgusting!

I have a great Dad who took me on this backpacking trip.  It was so fun.  We hiked about 10 miles in three days, swam in a freezing cold river, caught around 20 fish and ate 8 of them.  I caught and cleaned two fish.  (The fish was delish, and it made quite a dish.)  This was the best backpacking trip that was ever hiked in the whole world!  

June Quotes

Uh, yes, these are a little late . . .  but, for your reading pleasure, here are our quotables from June.  I'll probably combine July and August since we've been too busy to say anything funny this month.

Hayden:  Lily, I jutht gave you a flower.  I know it didn't hurt, tho you shouldn't thay "ouch."

Hayden:  I'm the funnietht guy in our family.  I'm like 500 funny.

Hayden:  I'm tho glad God let Thydney come down from heaven to our family.  She'th the cutetht perthon in our family.

Daphne:  Can we get one of those tornado things from Sonic?  

(I think she meant a Blizzard and I'm not even sure if that's what Sonic calls theirs--let's see . . . Blizzard is Dairy Queen, McFlurry is McDonald's, and Sonic is a . . . Blast?  I think? Well, whatever, blizzard, mcflurry, tornado, hurricane--it's all the same, right?)

Sean:  Sydney's hair is really big.  How do we take the curls out of it?

Me:  Hayden, we don't throw stuff at people!

Hayden:  But I accidentally aimed at him.

Sean (during the sacrament):  Mom, this bread is SOOO delicious!  I wish I could have lots and LOTS of it!

Dallin was a prince in this year's CMT performance of The Emperor's New Clothes.  I wasn't sure what to do for his costume and was looking online for ideas.  He saw me checking out a picture of Cinderella's Prince Charming and became very alarmed.  He made it very clear that he didn't want to look like any of those Disney princes, because they were all "lame."  He wanted to look like Prince Caspian, but I didn't think anyone would recognize that as a prince.  So finally I said, "Let's look at some pictures of a real prince who is alive today, and see what he wears."  And I pulled up some wedding pictures of Prince William and Princess Kate.  "How about something like that?" I asked.  Dallin replied, "Mom.  He's bald."  "He is balding, true, but look at the beautiful girl he married . . . "  In the end, he reluctantly agreed to be a Prince-William-Style prince.  (Thanks for being so beautiful, Kate!)

Daphne:  Oh great, we're late for CMT practice!

Sean:  Daphne, we're never late for CMT because Mom is the captain.

Hayden:  Mom, I didn't pee in my bed.  

I jutht thweated a lot in my underwear during the night.

For all you Hunger Games Fans out there . . . .

Dallin:  Daphne, good job for being a Peace Keeper.

Mom:  I think you mean peace maker.

Sean at his first Swim Team practice:  What's a freestyle?

At Pack Meeting in June, the CubMaster had the boys walk a plank in order to get their awards.  Well, apparently, if nobody dies it's not very exciting because Sean sighed with disappointment:    "Everyone's gonna survive that!"

Wearing underwear on his head, Hayden said, "What?  It's my swimming cap."

While trying to do the Vulcan sign, Sean said, "I have to use a cheat code," and held his fingers open with his other hand.

{For those of you less video-game-savy than I am, (which is saying a lot, because my kids have stopped asking me to help them in their video gaming because I accidentally kill them) . . . a cheat code is a special code you type in to help you cheat.} 

Hayden:  (after leaving a friend's house in our ward)  

I wish I wath borned in their family.

(ouch)

Hayden:  Kaitlyn ith tho beautiful.  I love her.  I'm inviting her to my birthday party. (Which isn't until November, but it's never too early to start planning).  (And just for the record, Kaitlyn is 11.)

just a note

I've been catching up and backdating my posts so they correspond with the date they occurred.   So scroll down if you don't want to miss out on anything exciting like 4th of July, birthdays and 2012 CMT . . .

Independence Day!

July 4, 2012

Heritage East Neighborhood,

Rotary Park,

and Our House

We had a special treat this 4th of July to have TWO of my sisters come into town.  Jen and Brandon and their family stayed here en route to their new home in Georgia where they will be for the next three years, and Emma flew down from BYU-I to be with us for the week also!  So we had a major party.

Here are pictures of the bike parade, and festivities at the neighborhood park, and then just some hanging' out pictures of later in the day . . .

The kids LOVED this little water table.

Despite Hayden's being stung by a bee earlier in the morning, he recovered quickly enough to do the three-legged race with our friend from church, Parker.

The Reeds watching the races

Dallin with friend Christian, and Daphne with friend Alexandria in their 3-legged race

Arthur with our friend Russ (Parker's Dad)

Brandon and Eric looking pretty serious about their racing strategy

guess it paid off, because they won first!

(Russ and Arthur took 2nd, by the way, but they didn't get a ribbon.  Next time, we're bringing our own ribbons! ;)

I LOVE this picture of Dallin!

Okay, this is me holding my 1st place ribbon for the sack race.  I just have to toot my own horn for a minute and say that this is the second year in a row that I've won.  And this year, it was much less controversial.  I was DEFINITELY the winner, and you should watch the video at the bottom to see my race.  I might be the most impressive sack-jumping athlete I've ever known.

Popsicles

A Patriotic Trifle

Me and Emma made it and it was pretty delicious.

thank you pinterest.

Hayden and Sean thought they needed a brother picture by the trifle that they didn't make.

Emma and Jen up in the tree-house.  It's actually kind of scary to get up there, so these are a couple of brave ladies.

And of course, sparklers and fireworks . . .

Happy Independence Day!  

So grateful to live in this free country.

Okay, here is our Independence Day Movie.  Many of the pictures I already posted are in there, but there is also footage of some of the races we participated in at the park, and they are pretty fun to watch.  (Sorry, in advance, that the quality is so grainy.  I'm too cheap to pay for more space in my One True Media account, so I had to do the smallest version since I've almost maxed out my space this month.)

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!

www.onetruemedia.com

ZooMusic with "The Elders"

June 29, 2012

Albuquerque Zoo

ZooMusic with "The Elders"

Dallin & Daphne have had lots of opportunities this past month to perform around the community with their Irish Step Dance School, Coleman Academy.  But this one was by far their favorite.  A Celtic Rock band called "The Elders" was playing a concert at the zoo, and when our school found out about them, we asked if we could dance with them for a couple of songs.  And they said, Yes!  The kids practiced and practiced to their music.  Of course when it was live, there were some changes, so even though Dallin knew his dances like the back of his hand, he got thrown off, and spent a good chunk of the last song looking at his teacher to figure out what step they were on.  Daphne wasn't as polished to begin with so she just went with the flow.  

Anyway, it was a super fun concert--we brought a picnic dinner and camped out on the grass enjoying the music and the dancing and our greasy Church's Chicken.  :)  And Dallin and Daphne were super stoked that they got to fist-bump the fiddler of the "The Elders" band.  They are a very fun band, by the way, so look them up on itunes and check out some of their music.

Dallin and Daphne in front of the amphitheater at the zoo before their performance.

Sydney and her daddy.

Sydney relaxing on the camping chair.  Just the right size.

Sydney again.  Just can't get enough of her . . .

All lined up and ready to go.  You can pick Dallin out of the line-up because he was the only boy performer that day.  Daphne is the one in the purple dress.  (ha, ha . . . the purple dress two behind Dallin with a gold ribbon in her hair.)

Sean & Hayden

Daphne with a few of her friends who came to support her.

(thanks friends!)

Hayden took this

Here is some video of the concert--it's a little on the long side, but I wasn't sure what to cut out, and I'm already SUPER behind in the happenings of our lives, so . . . whatever.  Before the zoo footage is a special feature:  Hayden in his debut Irish Step Dance performance.  He hasn't taken any lessons yet so you will see him do a pretty good imitation of what he sees Dallin & Daphne do.  Makes me smile.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Sydney turns 2!

For Sydney's Birthday Celebration, Daphne dressed her and cousin Lily up in Princess clothes and even pulled Sydney's hair back into a little Cinderella bun.  (It's not staying very well, but now you can tell what it was supposed to look like . . . )

Opening presents.  On the right, Sean is helping her hold a box of 4 princess puzzles she got from Nona and Papa.  Sydney LOVES puzzles and is very good at them.  We do puzzles every day because she will take my hand and say, "Come on, Mom!  Puzzles!" 

Here is her cake.  I usually make them, but I just didn't have time.  So we got her name put on it, and put a Cinderella candle on that she loved, and it worked!  Although, I have to say that the leftovers didn't disappear as quickly as they normally do.

The Gariety kids and cousin Lily

The following pictures are not birthday pictures, but I wanted to include them anyway, because this is typical Sydney.  She is a monkey, so she can climb pretty much anywhere she wants to.  She frequently climbs onto the counter and gets into the cupboard where I store the chocolate chips.  She then proceeds to help herself to her daily chocolate fix.  (See how they are almost gone?) 

Can you believe all those curls?  I can't help myself, but give them a little tug and say "boing" whenever I walk by her.

We just love having this little "sweet pea" in our family.  

Happy Birthday, Sydney!