July

Besides our big adventures, we had a few on the side during July.

The Bountiful temple opened up and Quinton and Clara were invited to go there to do baptisms with the Hirst family from our ward.

Barry and I were also able to finally go in the temple (without masks even!) for a session.

Clara had a blast at a birthday party for her friend, Morgan, at Classic Waterslide in Ogden.

Warren mowed the lawn for the first time!

Quinton and Clara were able to attend the temple to do baptisms with their young men and young women groups.

Miles got a black eye when he hit Sawyer's head playing in the pool in the backyard.

Barry and I went to the drive-in theater and saw Jungle Cruise. It would rain off and on so we had to keep pulling the truck cover over ourselves, haha.

 

More Connect Pass Fun

Since the brothers’ hike was postponed to a week later than expected (due to Barry’s sickness), we actually some free time to do things together as a family. We decided to visit a couple more places on the connect pass including the Clark Planetarium and then at Thanksgiving Point I took the kids to the Museum of Ancient Life and the Ashton Gardens. The dinosaurs were fun, but the gardens were actually a pleasant surprise. A couple of the kids didn’t even want to go, but by the end we were pretty amazed. They had a dozen or so huge Lego sculptures placed around for the kids to find. I loved the rose pathway, pond, and the Light the World garden filled with statues. The waterfall was not running because we’re kind of in a lousy drought, so I’d love to go back and see it someday. 

 

Huckleberry Hunting

(After driving an hour and a half, trekking through fallen trees, and wading across a river)

Me: Huckleberries are a lot of work!

Warren: Yeah, but they're a lot of worth it!

Fresh huckleberry milkshakes were definitely a nice reward for our efforts.

 

Pioneer Day

Quinton, Clara, Warren, Barry, and I all ran the 10K this year. The kids did really well and we had fun. Although Barry was pretty sick for most of the week, he still managed to run with Quinton. They also shot off the starting gun while we were in line for the port-a-potty so that was a little stressful, but it worked out. Sawyer and Miles did great running the mile race, too. Quinton and Barry (and several other family members) were very excited at the post-race breakfast to meet James Empey, a BYU football player. Barry also had his 20^th class reunion that day followed by the parade, family dinner, and fireworks!

 

Jenks Family Reunion

It was really nice to get together with Barry’s family for their reunion this year. We camped at Father and Sons campground and did most of the usual stuff. We also took a few rides on Jared’s little motorcycle. Michael and Theresa were in charge and put on a fun medieval theme with Grandma Jenks as the queen. The kids had to achieve different things to move up ranks and participated in a tournament. The older kids made paracord bracelets for hours. I love seeing them be friends with their cousins. Miles had fun playing with Kimber’s daughter Felicity. He even started sleeping pretty well in a tent - finally! The last morning a few of us went on the "Grandma Hike" with Amy. The campground had a fire go through it last year and it was crazy to see how much was destroyed.