Surprise in the sand box

About a week ago, the dogs kept going to the sand box and just barking away. I thought nothing of it and just let them be dogs. The next day, I decided to investigate what they were barking at. We found 3 little kittens. We have neighbors that have quite a few wild cats that they feed. About once a year, one of them uses our shed to have her kittens. We found 2 black and one whitish kitten between the shed and the fence. We tried to feed them some milk but they acted like they did not know how to eat yet. They were so cute.

Aida Tuacahn

In June, Casey and I found out that Aida was going to be at Tuacahn. Of the plays we have gone to at Hale Center, this has been one of Casey's favorites. The best weekend for us to go was the last of August. Neither of us had ever seen a play at Tuacahn, so we did not know what to expect.
The day before we left to go down, Dad and Bet decided to join us. Casey and I left Friday afternoon. It was nice to get away just the two of us. Saturday morning we woke up and decided to see if we could find Tuacahn. What a pretty landscape. Also, we both can not believe how much St George has changed. Tuacahn is an outdoor stage that is surrounded on 3 sides by mountains. We met up with Dad and Bet in the afternoon and had a nice talk.
We got tickets early enough that our tickets were front row middle. Once the play got started and some of the props moved and they used the whole mountain as the stage. It even had a pyramid. Just before intermission, you could here tons of water moving. It came down the mountain and onto the stage. We got a little wet since the actors were splashing around in it. The water came ran down the mountain again towards the end of the play as well.
Tuacahn is awesome and we would suggest it to anyone.

Ever expanding family

Within a week between July and August, 2 of my sister in laws had 3 babies. First was Katie who had Ivy Jill. Casey and I can not believe how much hair she has. We spent a nice saturday with Katie and Nate and their girls a couple of weeks ago. After playing catch with a couple of toys, Sophie and Ellie wanted to sing Mamma Mia songs. This was perfect as Casey loves this play and the music for it.



Prior to going to Nate's, we went to see the twins that were born a couple of days after Ivy. Here is a picture of Bella and Jemma with Sarah.



I am totally amazed how unchaotic Eric and Sarah's house was. When we got to the house, the girls were playing next door with my cousins kids. Audrey was at the corner of the house. Once she saw us she told her dad that a nice lady was there. How cute! We had a nice visit with Eric and Sarah. I also was able to hold each of them. Babies are so cute.

Willard trip 2

I have gotten a little behind on my posts this summer. So the next couple of posts are to catch up. We had some much fun the first time we went to Willard in July, we decided to go back a couple of weeks later. This time we had our friends come up and spend the day with us. The three boys, Casey and I left for Willard after work on Friday. Once we got set up, we went to find a couple of geocaches. This was a nice walk that allowed us to see what the camp spots in the Willow side. The kids always love trying to find these. We definitely need to do more of that.



This second spot was a lot better because it was larger and had more shade. Saturday we headed to Pelican Beach as soon as we got up. We set up the shade tent and proceeded to pass the football around. The dogs even were able to play fetch. About lunchtime, Jordan and I went back to the trailer to get stuff for lunch. Once we were back, Bun and Karyn showed up. Another round of football passes was started up. Once we were pretty tired of that, Jason and Leslie showed up with their family. It was time to for another round of football.



Once the kids were tired of football. Zach, Collin and Chelsie decided to swim to the bouys. They were 3/4 of the ways there and Zach yelled back asked if they could swim the rest of the way. I told him he could since they were pretty close. I am glad they are all young bucks. They did not get tired swimming back.
Dinner was the next thing on the agenda. Then sitting around the fire for some nice conversation. At one point, Braxton and I left because we had found a geocache trail. After finding about 4 or 5 spots, we decided that we had been away long enough. It was nice having one on one time with Braxton.

I love the local police!!!

I know a strange heading but something just happened that makes me appreciate them even more. Over my lunch hour, I decided to go to the grocery store since the kids are coming over this weekend. Once I got home, I put my purse on the floor under the table and brought in the rest of the groceries. I put the groceries away and sat down to work. I looked over and saw that the phone said that it had no line out. I thought nothing of it. All the sudden the phone rings and I didn't recognize the phone number but can tell it is local. So I answered it. We usually don't answer the phone if we don't recognize the phone number. Someone asked to talk to Casey. He wasn't here can I take a message. The man asked me is everything okay in the house. I thought that this was a little strange, I told him yes. Well, it was the local police and could I come talk to them outside. Once outside, the cop told me that the personal alarm had been sounded and was I sure everything was alright. I told him what was going on and figured the dogs must have hit the key pad on my purse somehow. Can you imagine what would have happened if I had not answered the phone?
This is not the first time a North Salt Lake policeman has come to our rescue. A couple of weeks ago, we had to move the bench out of the kitchen to make room for the new fridge. Casey was outside chopping up the corner piece. Boo is scared of loud noises and he ran off. Casey flagged down one of the policeman and they went looking for Boo. He was just around the corner but Casey had already been up that street and did not see him.
And years ago before I knew Casey, he had to call them because he had an intruder at gun point. I am so grateful we live a couple blocks from the Police Department for them to be there to assist us quickly in times of peril. Thank you!!!

Last minute camping trip

Last weekend we were invited to a friends property that is right on Bear Lake. After all of our camping friends decided not to go except Dave. We decided to not go as well. So Wednesday night Casey asked me to look to see if there were any spots available at Willard Bay. There happened to be a few spots and one even big enough for us to pull our trailer down. Little did I know how much fun would be had by kids and dogs.
Friday, Braxton and I spent all morning shopping and getting the trailer ready. Then we picked up Collin and Zach from the movie theater. Once Casey came home from work we headed right to Willard. This drive took just over an hour even in rush hour traffic. As soon as we found our camping spot, we decided me needed to hit the water since the truck said the outside temperature was 102 degrees. So we all headed to Eagle Beach. The boys got in the water and I threw sticks for the dogs to go get. I got plenty wet with the dogs shaking off every time they came back. Once it was getting dark, we decided to try fishing over by the dock. This was highly unsuccessful but we did watch a woman reel in a nice sized channel cat.
Saturday morning Braxton, Casey, me and the dogs went for a walk and found a nice hidden little area that someone could sit all day by the water. Too bad someone was already there. Once we got back we had to wake up Collin and Zach so we could go to Pelican Beach. Little did we know but you are not supposed to have dogs at Eagle Beach. Once they were up, we all hopped in the truck and found a nice spot open on Pelican Beach. We put up our shade tent up and hit the water. The dogs played fetch with sticks forever. There was a 2 couples sitting right next to us that had rented a jet ski. And they took Zach, Casey and Collin each for a ride. Collin had the most fun I think. Once everyone got tired of throwing sticks Charlie decided he would just swim to these weeds that were not too far away. He kept swimming back and forth for an hour. Funny coming from a dog that would not fetch a stick out of the water last year.
After a couple hours, we decided it was time for lunch and a movie. All of us fell asleep in the trailer during The Bourne Ultimatum except Collin. I know we are spoiled being able to sit in air conditioning and watching a movie while camping. Later we went back to Pelican Beach to play some more.
We were going to play in the water on Sunday too. But I was pretty sunburned, well my shoulders were Lobsterish. We had so much fun that we have already planned our next trip to Willard. With Braxton's soccer season starting, we don't have the time to camp like we would like so Willard has become a perfect place to go since it is way closer than our favorite spot, Monroe. Here are some pictures from this trip.

Eaglewood and Fireworks

Every year we go up to the Eaglewood golf course to see the fireworks. Usually Ted goes up about 4 in the afternoon and waits until it is allowed to put chairs up. This year he was unable to go up. So we headed up about 5:30. All of Casey's family and some of our friends go up early every year and just play around until the fireworks. In years past I have not been too excited about seeing them. I think that this was caused by the one camping trip that there was like a 5 hours extravaganza of fireworks, probably an exageration but it went on forever. This year I was excited to see them. It still amazes me how they can get all the different colors and sometime shapes. As amazing as the fireworks were this year, they still could not compare to watching fireworks at the Wheatland Fairgrounds and listening to the local radio station play patriotic music. Happy 4th of July.