The Hilllllls are Alive with the.....

This last weekend some of my girl friends from High School went to see Sound of Music in Logan. Our super talented friend Vanessa is the lead playing Maria. As little kids her and I were the kids in the High School production. It is still some of my best memories from being a little kid. It was so fun to see her perform as Maria. The next morning we went to breakfast at Crumb Brothers which if you are ever stopping in Logan you have to go it is an amazing bakery. I love seeing these girls and catching up and reliving the old days.

Snowbird Weekend

The best part of an awesome family vacation is when it is free. Dave's boss hooked us up with a 2 night stay at Snowbirds Cliff Lodge. It also came with activity passes and free breakfast. The hotel is so nice that we had enough space in our adjoining rooms to invite the other Ratchfords up to stay with us. We felt like we were in the Alps. It is just gorgeous up there.

The kids loved this pool and I loved the 3 hot tubs.

Bungee trampoline was a blast. We managed to get in line for this first thing in the morning and didn't have to wait in the really long line later in the day.

All the kids figured out how to do flips and thought they were hot stuff.

Kay so I thought I would try this and then was so winded after 10 minutes of jumping around. I attempted a double flip and sorta landed on my head. I am too old for this.

We bought lunch and rode to the top of the mountain on the lift. It was much colder up there and there was still a little snow in spots. And the views were breathtaking.

On the tram riding up.

The Garreth Ratchford family

Mechanical bull always a great laugh

Rock climbing all of the kids thought this was really cool to try.

All of us at the top of the mountain. I am so excited for these guys to be closer now. They just moved to were at least they can drive to see us for a weekend.

WORK. We both hate it.

These two are the cutest thing together.

Alpine Slide. The line was forever but we did go on a Saturday. I recommend a weekday if any of you are going to try doing the all day pass. By the way Costco has them 4 for 90.

We all enjoyed ourselves with only driving 45 minutes up the canyon.

The 4th & Leah's Birthday

Here are a few pictures from our fun 4th of July celebrating. I felt like the holiday when on for 4 nights with the way it fell on the weekend. I love the 4th so I hope it can be that way every year.

We went swimming and had a potluck lunch at our friends pool.

I love this picture of Eva. I had to come up with 3 days of holiday wear for each of us.

We did fireworks with our neighbors at night. Every year we try to figure out how to take pictures of our names spelled. After many tries we finally got it. This is EVA in case you can't tell.

Cool shot of the fireworks.

Ronan in Ethan's hat. I think we have the same type of photo from lasts years fireworks too. Ronan thinks that kid is "awesome."

Brave Leah with the sparkler wand.

Mine all mine

Leah had quite the day for her birthday. Her dad took her to The Last Air bender movie. Then we went swimming. After we got home I took her to Boondocks. Then we did fireworks outside with our neighbors. It was a great holiday and celebration of our Leah.

Celebrating with our friends at the pool

I am so proud of this girl. She has gotten very mature of late. She is reading chapter books, riding her bike like crazy, swimming by herself. Being so helpful and sweet to have around. This has to be my favorite ages so far. I love hanging out with her. She is greatly anticipating being able to babysit by herself, which is not for a few more years. I hope she is still excited about it when the time comes. It has really been a dream summer with much thanks to my helper. When we go run errand and the little kids are being crazy she waltzes over to me and says, "those crazy kids." I remember just a few months ago when she was the crazy one at the store. I am dying that she turned 7 and is going into 2nd grade. And whats more crazy I will have 2 kids in school in about another month.

We did presents in the morning after everyone woke up with chocolate chip pancakes and whipped cream. Leah got Kirby for her DS, Super Mario Brothers for the WII, Zhu Zhu pets and accessories, and goggles.

This is the Place Park

We had an adventure last week to This is the Place Park. My mom has been gone all summer visiting my sister in Alaska. So were happy to have her with us this time.

There was a fire that started in the barn and the park lost the barn and some of its animals. It was sad to see the beautiful livery gone. They are planning on rebuilding it. They still have the petting zoo and horse rides the entrance is just different.

Handsome Cowboy

There are some new exhibits this year. One is a giant ship that that kids can go in. Ronan was nervous to go on at first he said, "mom is it going to take off." Then they have panning for gold. What kids doesn't love wading in a stream and add that to finding gold. It was a huge hit.

My mom with the kids on the train.

Elders VS Young Mens

Our ward came up with a fun activity for this summer. It was a soccer match of the Young Men against the Elders Quorum. Everyone had a great time watching and playing. The Young Men won in a shoot out at the end. Better luck next year big boys.

My hubby he's still got it.

Naughty boy trying to go to the bleachers. I laughed so hard seeing these 3 neighbors carrying him back to me.

The whole gang

Kite Flyin Tree Climbin

My mom found a kite that we had as kids. It is a classic great kite. We took it for a spin the other day. Dave got it so high. The kids each took a turn flying it.

This is Sadie our neighbors dog. The kids love her and have even got to dog sit a couple times this summer. They love to check on her all day and take her for walks. Leah's pet sitting business is really taking off. She told me the other day that she was changing her price to 1$ a day. This is the kind of dog that someone has to just give me already trained and good with kids.

A little tree climbing. They got up by climbing off Eva's bike onto the limb.

Ronan and the kite way up in the sky.