My crappy birthday

My birthday this year was a really good one despite what the title of this post might make you think. I got to have breakfast with Kurt at Kneader's and a little shopping at Fashion Place Mall. That night the Hunters and Andersons invited us to take a razor ride from Wallsburg over to Daniels Summit and have dinner at the lodge there.

Ready to eat dinner!

The gang minus Jim (taking the picture).

gross.....

So, on the way back, we were behind the Hunters. There were cows all around during the entire ride therefore there was lots of cow manure on the trail. And there were quite a few puddles.... Dave happened to drive right through a puddle and a big load of manure which flung directly back at my forehead and all over my side of the razor. 

a little blurry but you get it

This is after Gina got most of the manure off!

It took me a minute to realize it wasn't mud! Then the smell hit me. It was pretty lucky that I had brought baby wipes. Otherwise I would have had to ride all the way home with that crap all over my face! It was still pretty gross even after I got most of it off. 

Despite that hilarious incident, my birthday was a success and will probably even be one of my more memorable ones. 

The sunset on the way down from the ride.

Finn's Lake Powell Trip

Finn went to Lake Powell this week with the Hunters and Slades.  Here's a little video of some of the fun they had!

July 4th weekend in Grover-Day 3

The Grover float

Crew & Kai with their loot.

The pie-eating contest

Barbecue at the barn

Getting a well-deserved wash after the fun weekend.


The 4th of July parade in Torrey was actually on Saturday, July 7. Go figure. Anyway, I mentioned hating parades in an earlier post. I guess I will have to make an exception. I LOVED the Torrey parade. Not too hot, not too long and not very many people.....compared to Provo anyway. And the parade entrants throw candy! Score! This year they even gave out miniature apple pies from the little store in Capitol Reef. Perry, Emerson and some more girl cousins were  princesses on our family float and Penn and Indy skateboarded behind.

The pie-eating contest took place in the park after the parade. I don't think I've ever actually seen one of those before. Cafe Diablo makes the pies every year. I have yet to eat at that place! I've only heard good things. Soon....

Later that evening we headed to the barn for a barbecue and hanging out with the Dietlein clan. Tons of good food and good conversation followed by fireworks. Even though we missed Coronado we couldn't have asked for a better 4th of July! We sure love to go to the ranch and hang out with family.

July 4th weekend in Grover-Day 2

Fish Creek Lake

Marnie, Montana, Emerson, Savy, Perry, Lauren, Jasmine

crossing the creek....

Overlooking the valley into Grover. What a view!

Day 2 at the ranch took us on a girls-only (well, mostly. Kurt came with us!) ride up on Boulder Mountain to Fish Creek Lake. It was about a 9 mile ride almost to the very top of the mountain. We crossed a couple streams, saw some cows, passed a couple lakes and got eaten alive by the mosquitoes. Lots of girl time!

July 4th weekend in Grover-Day 1

There was actually a double rainbow but we didn't quite catch it!

Hunt Cabin

Factory Butte

Em getting in some drive time.

The young ones.


The day after July 4th we headed to Grover for the weekend. Our little Tahoe was maxed-out pulling the HUGE trailer with both Razors inside. There were a few hills where I wondered if we would even make it......but we did and I'm so glad we did! We had such a fun time.

As we pulled off Highway 12 onto the dirt road into to the ranch, Kam,  Katherine (and kids), Rick, Rachel and kids were all headed out to Cainville to do a ride. We threw our stuff into the house and immediately got back into the car  to follow them.

40 minutes later we pulled off to the Factory Butte ride. The boys were thrilled to get their own machine! Em got to practice driving.  There was lots of dust and hills and speed, a little historic cabin, a little rain and even a few rainbows at the end of our journey.  And a good time was had by all!

July 4th

Pedersen house at sunset

Provo Royalty......young and old!

Our 4th of July this year was very different than it has been for the last 8 years. We're usually in Coronado celebrating but not this year. It's a sign your family is getting older when children's work schedules disrupt your family vacations! No good at all. 

We still enjoyed this 4th a ton. We spent the morning at the Freedom Festival parade which made me remember why I dislike parades so much-----hot, sweaty, crowded and long empty spaces of nothing in between floats. After that we had lunch in the park with Sherry and Darin and her kids. 

That evening was spent at Todd & Andie Pederson's house eating, visiting, eating and more eating. I have no idea how many people were there----200 maybe? It was a pretty fun time. Kids were swimming.  There was face painting, a live band, jump houses, games and more ice cream and desserts than you could stuff into your face. Unfortunately, because of all the fires this year, there weren't any fireworks but we could see many shows in the valley right from the backyard. 

All in all it was a really fun break from our Coronado tradition. And, yes, we will probably go back to that 8 year tradition next year. Better start saving now....

50th Anniversary Celebration

To celebrate Pat & Sherry's 50th Wedding anniversary officially, the adults drove up to Santa Monica to spend the night. We went out to dinner that night.

The next morning we rented bikes and rode along the boardwalk. The weather was perfect and we had a really good time. I had never been to Santa Monica before so it was all new to me!

We walked along the pier, got a funnel cake and did a little people watching. We even spotted Kalen from this season's show The Bachelorette. Kurt totally wanted to talk to him but I convinced him not to! 

Sherry showing off her new Tiffany ring. 

What a fun weekend we had celebrating together!

Balboa

Our family almost took up the whole ferris wheel!

I wasn't overly impressed with this corn dog place.... :(

One of the MANY little dream houses found on Balboa

We are always up for a trip to Balboa! Such a fun place to walk around.

More Beach Week

During beach week we were able to celebrate two very important things that happened on June 28----Pat & Sherry's 50th wedding anniversary and the 2-year anniversary of Pat's passing. Christy got 50 gold helium balloons and we all wrote messages to Pat & Sherry. It was a really fun thing to watch! Those balloons stayed all clumped together until we almost couldn't see them anymore. I think everyone really enjoyed the happiness it brought to Sherry. We sure love her and know how much she misses Pat--as we all do. 

Beach Week 2012

Montana and Perry paddling away!

Last week was our annual Brian family beach week in Laguna. We have never had it this early in the summer before so I was a little bit nervous what kind of weather we would have. As luck would have it, it was the best weather we have EVER had for beach week I would say. And luck was really on our side that Kurt's work trip that was scheduled for that very week was cancelled and he got to spend the entire time with us. 

Finn and Indy are obsessed with Penny boards. Luckily both Ford and Penn have them as well. We hardly had to drive these boys anywhere the whole week. They were riding back and forth between Derik and Darin's, downtown and to the grocery store all week. It was great!

I love seeing the comparison of these boys from a few years ago to this year. They grow up way too fast but they still love doing the same things at the beach! I love that this foursome get along so well and enjoy being together so much.

I think I may have mentioned this before but funny that one of the boys who actually lives in Laguna is the whitest in the bunch!

Myla, Noah and Eliza playing in the waves.