The Young and the Restless

Picture perfect summer

Oh man, where do I start?? First of all, is there anything better than summer vacations? Especially when it's at Aunt Angel's and my grandparent's house filled with family, horses, quads, tractors, game nights, crafts, farm animals, yummy food and endless fun. Kylie summed it up well when filling out a questionaire in school last year that asked, "if you could go anywhere in the world where would it be?" and she answered, "Aunt Angel's house". I guess it was also no surprise when the morning after we got back I wake up to Jayden standing next to me crying because aunt Angel can't be his mom. I feel the love. Her house is always such a fun hangout, but we were especially lucky to spend time with my parents and younger siblings since they're living there while waiting to move into their house close by in Cedar City (yay!) and my sister Janessa and her family who came up from Texas and two other brothers and their families who also live in Cedar. All together we had 32 people in one house. Angel is a saint. It's almost unhealthy how many pictures I have, but I didn't want to miss a moment. Just looking at them while I'm posting them is putting a smile on my face. I love summer.

Maddox found his happy place. Every morning he woke up with the rooster at the crack of dawn and had to go make the rounds visiting all the animals before he would eat breakfast. When he wasn't chasing the cats he was asking anyone and everyone to take him on the "brrrrr" (quad).
he loved the horses, but only from a distance.

Love this picture. Love the dimple. Love this boy.

Who knew you could make so many things out of duct tape? We spent the afternoon making bags and wallets, so fun.

Happy 4th of July!

Watching movies on the big screen in the backyard

Picnic and hike in Cedar Mountain (I love how Dawn is oiling down Tyson's bald head with sunscreen).

These girls were inseperable

These girls were inspeperable too

Found out the hard way that strollers and mountains don't go together that great

Using Todd as a human bridge seemed like a good idea in theory....until Jayden slipped off and fell right into the cold water.

The lava caves, so cool and so creepy. They go for miles underground, I opted to stay out and watch Maddox. Can you blame me? I couldn't believe how brave the kids were, they couldn't get enough.

Watching the fireworks

I think this was the first time all week that all three of my kids were alone together, they were all running in a hundred different places with all their cousins.

We spent the day in St. George at the temple visitor center (and the movies and lunch), Janessa was trying to pose the girls for this picture and kept saying, "look up at 'em", each time Jayden would say, "it's not Adam!"

Girls shopping day and lunch at St. George. Don't worry, the boys had their share of fun with a 3 hr. 4 wheeler ride, chizzler hunting, baseball and basketball games. We definately deserved the shopping trip.

The Easter Bunny caves are a classic favorite, the kids were so excited to try to find the Easter bunny and his leftover candy stash. Here Angel is telling the story....

Here are all the kids excitedly hiking up....

Here is what they found covering the walls and ceilings through the entire tunnel. Yes those are spiders-ewww!!!!!

Here is what all the kids looked like after they discovered the spiders and then discovered some sort of itchy plant. They did end up finding a candy stash so that made things better.

Going to the park to divide up the stash and eat snow cones

I was surprise to see how inseperable Jayden and Gracie were. She's about 2 years younger and 2 feet shorter than him, but they became the best little buddies.

Our own little 4th of July parade where the kids spent the afternoon decorating their own little "floats"

We had the funnest time doing a "Top Chef" contest where each family had to come up with an original sandwich using a loaf of french bread. It was so fun to see what everyone came up with and they were all surprisingly really good.

Oh yeah, the Young's won the coveted duct tape apron with our Turkey/provolone/sundried tomato/feta cheese creation. woot woot.

how cute are these cousins? I can't wait to see them become best buddies as they get older, just like the rest of the cousins. Familes are great. (except for maybe when they jump out and scare you out of your mind while going for a walk with the girls at midnight on a deserted country road.)