Southern Utah Vacation

Warning: This may be a long post!!! Get ready for picture and event overload.  

This year we decided to go down and spend the entire week from July 23 to July 31st down in Southern Utah visiting family, going to county fairs, enjoying Beaver's 24th of July celebration, and enjoying great outdoors. It was quite the eventful week for us.  It all began on Saturday the 23rd, which was the day Beaver celebrated the 24th since the 24th was a Sunday.  To begin the day we ran the Beaver Switchback 5k.  By we I mean, my mom, Mariah, Vanessa, and my cousin Greg.  We all decided we should show a little pride in the fact that we all ran the Wasatch Back together and wear our shirts from the race.  There were so many people who ran the 5k.  I have been running this race almost every year for the past 15 years and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.  I love it!  I remember when there used to only be like 50 participants.  Now there were probably close to 150.     

 After the race we headed down to the parade.  It was a great parade and we had a nice bit of shade which always makes it a little more enjoyable.  When the parade finished we headed to the city park for the kiddie races and to mingle.  We really thought Sawyer would do good in the races this time, unlike the 4th.  However, the distance-20 ft- was just too much for the little one.  He didn't make it, he sat down and started crying.  What kind of child am I raising???  We would have video of it but Travis forgot to take the video camera off standby.  Silly Daddy! I love mingling at the park.  It is the one time most people come back to visit their families.  There is always family and old friend and classmates to talk to.  For the past few years we meet up with the Smith's, Mariah's inlaws, and go out to eat after the park.  It is nice to sit down someplace with air conditioning and eat good food.  

Travis' tradition on the 24th is to go golfing instead of to the horse races, like I used to like to do. However, after going golfing the past few years, golfing provides a front row seat without the smell of cigarette smoke and beer for the horse races.  We convinced my mom and grandma to come golfing this year with us.  We rented golf carts to zoom around the course on, which was a good thing because I didn't want tote the baby carrier all around the course.  Sawyer did good though.  He slept for some of it, as you can see below.  

What a good photographer, I caught the ball in the shot. 

 We always have an Ira Yardley Family BBQ on the evening of the 24th at my cousin Alisons house.  There is usually an intense volleyball game of inlaws vs. outlaws that ensues.  It gets pretty heated.  The inlaws claim they win every year but I beg to differ, we have won a few times too.  We ended the day watching fireworks at Mariahs and lighting a few of our own.  It was a blast, literally. Sam, Mariah's youngest was so enthralled with the fireworks.  The next day he kept asking for more, and the next day and the next.  

Sunday we decided to go to church down in Greenville, well Lori Anne suggested we should come down.  Greenville was the ward I was in growing up.  I love that little ward.  There is so much love and history there. It hasn't changed too much in the past 17 years.  People still sit where they sat when I went there. I felt really bad, we took someones seat.  I forgot about that unspoken rule.  It was fun though to see old friends.  We headed down to Minersville after church.  Sawyer had been acting kind of funny all day.  He just wasn't hungry and he is not a kid who turns down food.  He was a little fussy too.  We found out on the way home what his problem was.  He got sick all over his car seat.  I almost got sick cleaning him up.  It was awful.  I do not do throw up.  I didn't realize I have such a bad gag reflex.  I felt so bad for the little guy.  We actually were headed back to Mariah's to eat dinner with the Missionaries.  I really hope they didn't get Sawyer's sickness. 

Monday Mariah, my Mom, Debbie-Mariah's Mother In Law, and Megan, Mariah's sister in law, went to St. George to go to the Tuachan to watch "The Little Mermaid".  It was amazing.  I highly recommend it.  There was actually thunder and lightning all around us all during the play.  Fortunately, it only lightly sprinkled on us for about 5 min.  The Tuachan actually had fireworks after to celebrate the 24th.  What a great day Mariah chose to have us go.  

Tuesday was an awful day for us ladies.  Sawyer passed his evil bug onto us.  I hate going on vacation and getting sick at someone elses house.  Honestly, though misery loves company so it was kind of nice to have others who were sick with me.  We just rested most of the day.  The men went fishing on the mountain.  We decided we needed some fresh mountain air so we drove up there. The boys were fun to watch reel in the fish.  They brought a lot home.  Thank goodness they didn't cook them that night though.  EWWW! 

 Wednesday we all felt a lot better.  Thank heavens!  We decided to go cool off at the pool.  I love the Beaver City Pool.  The boys loved playing in the water.  Sawyer just cruised around in his float tube.  Sam was quite the adventurous little fellow.  We played for a long time.  After swimming who doesn't need a little ice cream.  I seriously crave ice cream and macaroni and cheese after swimming, we used to always eat this growing up.  We headed out to the good ol Beaver Dairy Queen.  I swear it is the best one I have ever eaten at. All the boys took naps afterwards.  Sawyer slept for 3 1/2 hours. I thought he needed some company so I laid down beside him and slept a long time too. Travis and Jared decided they needed some more fishing time. 

Mariah and I decided we needed some chinese food.  The fishermen were on the way to the food so we picked them up on our way to Milford.  I love the Station Chinese food.  

 Thursday was going to be our big hiking day.  We got up and packed our bags to head to the mountains.  We were going to hike some trail that I actually helped clean and maintain when I worked for the Forest Service.  Travis' Aunt Tammy and Uncle Dave and their two boys came with us.  I was a little worried about how the little kids would do but they were champs.  I was really worried about thunderstorms, they come up fast and their wasn't much shelter on the trail we hiked. We didn't get any though.  It was perfect weather, cloudy and a little breezy.  

Before we left for the hike though, I had to run to the store to get some stuff for lunches.  When I got in our car I realized it smelled like cigarette smoke.  I thought that is odd, was Travis smoking in our car? I didn't think too much of it at the moment.  Then on the way back to Mariah's I realized there were some ashes on the middle console and our I-Pod was missing.  Yep, we were robbed in little ol Beaver.  Lesson learned always, always lock your car door.  

Mountain goats

Apparently he was a little hungry.

I just love these mountains. 

 Friday morning we headed over to my Grandparents in preparation for the best little county fair in the nation, Piute County.  It is such a great little festival.  My mom's family all tries together for this time of the year.  It is fun to have all my cousins and their kids around.  In the afternoon we had the water balloon launcher out.  Spencer would ride up and down the road and Travis and Rowdy-two adults, would try to launch a balloon at him.  I wish I would have gotten some pictures.  

Sam is a crazy sleeper.  We put him to sleep in a bed and this is where we found him in the morning.  He had crawled across the floor and ended up backwards in Sawyers carseat.  This can not be comfortable. 

 Saturday started out with another 5k, the Brayden Blackwell Memorial Race.  I love racing.  Tiara and Jordan ran with me with year.  I didn't get to race last year and it felt oh so good to be back.  I tried to convince Travis to come run with me but he decided fishing with Rowdy would be a better activity.  The race went great though.  It was actually a 3.2 and I ran faster than I did in Beaver and Junction is higher in elevation than Beaver.  

The parade was a lot of fun to watch.  It is probably one of the most generous parades I have ever been too.  We left with a ton of candy.  After the parade they have boothes and games up at the park.  Travis convinced me that we should do the horse shoe throwing competition.  We then convinced Grandpa and Rowdy to do it too.  We lost to them our first round.  Grandpa and Rowdy did really well though.  I was pretty pathetic.  It was pretty much embarrassing.  

We headed home to have a little light lunch.  While there the skies decided to open and drench the dry valley.  There was so much rain and lightning.  I loved it.  I love summer storms and the smell of rain after. Poor Sawyer was taking a nap and some thunder woke him up.  Normally he is like me and can sleep through anything but this thunder was window rattling, ground shaking stuff.  

We headed over to Uncle Todd's for a BBQ.  It was amazing.  Steak, fresh caught Alaska salmon, new garden potatoes, salad, and rain in the background along with great company, couldn't ask for anything more. The kids got soaked.  They just couldn't resist the puddle and dancing in the rain.  Sawyer even joined in.  He was so funny with the dripping water from the roof.  I wish I would have gotten a video.  It was a little too wet to go over to the rodeo with all the kids.  Travis and I couldn't miss our favorite part of the fair though. The after rodeo dance.  There is a live band and tons of people.  It is so much fun to just go and spectate, and swing dance.  Lets just say a few, I mean a lot, of the people have been tipping a few back before they get there.  It is always a lot of fun to go to though.  

Keeping the hooligans tied down.

Enjoying some homemade ice cream

 Sunday was Travis' birthday.  Unfortunately most people headed home early so we had a small party.  It was still pretty fun though.  We played some games with the kids.  I sent Travis on a scavenger hunt to find his presents because Travis likes to shake his presents and try to guess what they are.  It is a little disappointing when he actually gets it right because I have a hard time hiding that he got the right answer.  We had some cake and ice cream then made our way back to Logan.  It was nice to go and visit family and friends.  We always have a good time down south. 

Sam didn't want to let his balloon down to get popped.

We played the balloon game and mine just got popped. 

While Travis was opening another present Sam had started opening a present.  His excuse, "I want to help."  All day Sam kept asking if he could open the presents. 

Happy Birthday To You! 

This is how Sam decided was the best way to shoot the balloons. 

Feeding Time

Sawyer is at the stage where he has decided he likes to feed himself. I am not so sure I like this stage.  Eating was messy enough for Sawyer.  Sawyer is very charitable though and he not only likes feeding himself but also likes feeding those around him.  Dad is such a good sport to eat Sawyer's slobbery second mashed potatoes. 

Seven Peaks, Salt Lake

Since the thermometer had been reaching summer temperatures finally we decide to take advantage of the warm weather and head down to finally use our Pass of All Passes.  If you haven't heard of them, they are awesome.  Ours are for Salt Lake so we got season passes to Seven Peaks Salt Lake, formally known as Raging Waters.  We were a little worried at first because when we went down to get our passes the park looked a little run down. I had looked up the attractions for this park though and they were awesome and scary at the same time.   

We headed down on Friday the 15th for our adventure.  It was a lot of fun.  We were able to get into the park early due to passes.  It was fun getting there early but the water was so cold, particularly in the baby pools.  I thought that was a little backwards but whatever.  Sawyer was not excited about the cold water.  He cried and cried but when we went into the wave pool he began to be the water lover that I know he is.  Some of the slides were pretty scary.  When we go back again, I need to be a little more brave.  It was hard with Sawyer and no babysitter or nobody else to go up the slide with.  I feel I do better when I have a little peer pressure.  

 

 Travis taking Sawyer on his first slide of the day.  Travis was really good to take Sawyer on the slides.  I was not a good on the other hand.  I had a hard enough time myself keeping up right and the water out of my nose.  I know pathetic.

Sawyer loved the wave pool.  

 This is Sawyer about 2:30.  He had had enough.  He was so tired.  Water does that doesn't it.  He kept falling asleep in his tube.  He would do the head bob and hit the water with his nose.  It was so cute and funny.  We had a great day and only got a little sun.  Travis got the worse sun burn because I didn't rub the lotion in without giving him splotches.

He just got rudely awakened by his nose touching the water.  Poor little guy

Sawyer didn't even make it out of the parking lot before he zonked out.  We decided to stop in Layton at 5 Guys Burgers, we had never been there before.  It was so good, but nothing really beats a good burger.  A perfect ending to a great day.

Independence Day

Well we survived last week, July 1-9.  It was exhausting but it was so much fun.  Now to recount the details of the week.  We headed down on Friday, such a long drive. Sawyer woke up about half way down and talked and talked the rest of the way.  

Saturday we headed down to St. George to go through the temple with Vanessa.  It was so much fun to be with the family in the temple.  I am so happy to be blessed with a family that is supportive and loving.  I loved seeing all the cousins, some of them I hadn't seen in 4 years. After the temple we headed out to the Olive Garden for a little grub.  I forgot how busy those places get on Saturdays. 

Vanessa and Cressa 

 On Sunday we spent the day down in Minersville with Travis' family.  We played games and visited with everybody.  It is fun to just sit around and shoot the breeze.
Monday we were awakened by the dynamite going off at 5:30 AM.  What a great little tradition right?  We headed down to Minersville just in time for the parade.  It didn't last too long but for Sawyer it was long enough.  He wanted to get down and get the candy with all the bigger cousins.  After the parade we headed up to the school for the little program.  Sawyer was so funny at the program.  Whenever we would clap he would stop everything he was doing, get as serious look on his face and start clapping like it was the most important thing in the world.  Minersville always does a luncheon at the park after the program.  It is fun to sit and visit with everybody.  The real fun begins after the luncheon.  This year they did a Minute To Win It game for the adults.  Travis was chosen out of the crowd to participate in a game.  He had to use scuba flippers to flip a tortilla up on his head and catch it.  He actually did it twice.  It was so funny to watch all those who participated.

Minersville always has foot races for the kids, and adults if you want.  Sawyer was so tired, hot and overwhelmed when it was his turn to race.  He refused to even stand up by himself.  Apparently he does not perform on command. Spectators were killing me in the crowd.  They were treating the races like they were life or death.  I was dying inside laughing.

Debbie and Kenneth had a BBQ at their house for all of the Hollingsheads.  There were so many people. It is always a lot of fun and a lot of chaos.  There are kids running to and fro and adults playing games from their youth like, Andy I Over, running over the small children.  The wives even started arm wrestling which lead to the guys trying to prove who was the toughest Hollingshead.

I spent the rest of the week down in Southern Utah with my sisters.  We had a lot of fun together.  Tuesday Sawyer and I headed over to Circleville to visit my Grandparents.  We actually caught Rowdy before he headed back to So. Cal.  Sawyer actually got his second black eye while over there.  Poor little guy.
Wednesday we had a bright idea to go walking.  (I am still paying for that bright idea.) We were just going to walk the bike path in Beaver but Mariah's boys had a party that we decided to walk them to.  We ended up being gone about two hours which meant two hours in high elevation sunlight.  I put sunscreen on Sawyer like a good mom does but forgot to put some on me.  I got fried.  I am now peeling for the second time in my life.  I look awful and I itch.
Thursday was a busy day.  We helped Cressa get some decorations for her wedding.  We almost lost the decorations and Mariah and I in transit but we had some great laughs.  Mariah and Vanessa had a softball game and Spencer had a soccer game.
Friday was an awesome day.  Cressa and Heston got married.  They are such a cute couple.  They looked so happy.  Again it was awesome that we had so much family support for this new couple.  Despite being hot and humid it was a gorgeous day in St. George. The picture on the temple steps better turn out for Cressa, I thought we were all going to melt away.  The luncheon was so good.  Thanks Farnsworth family for all that you did.  The reception was in Allison and Jim's backyard.  I was a little worried because they are having early monsoons down south.  We got rained out about half hour before the reception was over.  The reception was so much fun though chatting with cousins and people from town.  I love the people from Beaver so much, I forget how loving and kind they are. All in all it was a great week.  Thanks for letting me stay down Travis.  Sorry to leave you alone.

We were all so tired and hot after the day in St. George

So grateful for nap time. 

Sawyer's favorite part of the reception.  A stick and puddle.  A little boys favorite toys. 

I Would Rather Be Fishing........ well Travis would be.

The Hislops invited us to go fishing with them to celebrate Colbie's 2nd birthday.  Of course, we would never say no to fishing, well Travis anyways.  It was a lot of fun.  We caught five but only brought in 4.  Dustin got one on with his first cast which is pretty much amazing.  We had a really good time.  Hopefully we will do it again, because when you reel on of those fish in it is worth sitting around with a line in the water. 

Look at my handsome husband.  First Muskie for Travis of the evening. 

What a big fish! Watch your fingers! 

First Muskie for Dustin.  You can't really tell by the photo but there is a big drop off  that is right below Dustin. 

The picture does not do this fish justice. 

Sawyer helping me reel the fish in.  

A family affair

38 inch Muskie.  Biggest one of the evening.  It was quite the fighter.

It was such a gorgeous night, until the mosquitoes came out.