Pedi Party...

The kids and I went out to Utah for a family reunion a couple of weeks ago; all the girls decided that we needed a little R&R, so we took off for a girls night at the pedi parlor...

 

I love that my family and my in-laws are friends - it makes it so much fun for me to hang out with all of my favorite people at one time!

 

Pedi Perfection!!

Slushies for Sale...

 

In case you are not fluent in Haydenese: "Slushies 50 cents; If you want 2 snow cones you can pay $1.00" He just had to make sure his customers were aware of the prices up front - no surprises at this slushy stand.

 

Hayden took his business very serious, he even had a plan for slushy stand robbers: knock them down with the umbrella. Hayden raked in a whopping $8.00 on his first day and the next day brought in another $7.50. This crafty little entreprenuer even invested $5.00 back into purchasing more supplies so he could make more money in the future. That's my boy!

 

The hired help went AWAL and we found her cruisin the streets with her posse.

Colorado Chaos...

We apparently didn't get enough mayhem in MN, so we signed up for some more chaos in CO... Bust out your bug spray...

 

You're about to get down and dirty...

 

At the Clark Family Campout...

 

Warning, picture overload - it was a five day trip!

Ana's attempt at facial hair to protect her from the elements... The kids apparently didn't think that there were enough bugs eating us alive, they had to paint a few more at "Nona's Craft Table"... Great job, Dallin! This was the view from our camp site, it was incredible! If you're looking for a great place to camp, check out Grand Mesa, CO... The girls chillin out with Papa... The best thing that we thought to bring was a baby pool for Sophie to hang out in, she loved to hang over the edge and play in the dirt... Getting ready for "Nona's Adventure Hike"... I don't know if Ana technically hiked at all, she was always hitching a ride on one person or another... Hayden educating us all on scat, now was that brown or green? Hiking is the best! This is a sweet glimpse of Laura and Dallin along the way... How many of you can say that you've seen snow on the 4th of July? Wendy, making her traditional flag cake... Independence Day would not be complete without a parade... Ana, modeling her American spirit (and clothing)... We built cucumber canoes and sent them down stream, Dallin was convinced that another little boy would find his and keep it safe for him... We had "Storytime with Nona" (isn't our Nona the best?)... Dallin spent half of his life at the campout as a bear, roaring and scaring everyone, this was him trying to scare everyone through the tent... The weather changed so quickly up on the mesa, one minute it would be sunny and the next it would be hailing, this is Hayden in disbelief of the hail... This had to be one of the funniest moments of the whole trip. So we were all sitting around playing "Toilet" (a dice game) one morning, when Callie stands up to stretch, "I'm getting hot," so she takes off her jacket. The next moment, Katie stands up, "Me, too," so she peels of her sweatshirt. They both get these cheesy grins on their faces and we all look over to see this... At first sight, it was funny just to see them wearing those shirts, but the look on Becca's face was priceless, "Uh... uh... where did you get those? Is that mine? Maggie, did you give them my shirt? Maggie, is that your shirt? You guys, that's not funny! You guys!?!" She was torn between being mad and busting up laughing, but she was a good sport and decided on the latter. I laughed so hard I cried, and continued to laugh every time I saw them that day - thanks for the great laughs girls!

So after 3 days, the girls said enough with the roughin' it, and busted out the shower... It was a bonafied backwoods salon (Ana thought it was wonderful)... These were just some more sweet moments I caught...

I think that the most fun we all had was compliments of Papa and his offroad vehicles (except for when he and Robbie got the FJ stuck and had to walk a mile and then hitch hike into town to get towed out) but other than that, the moments were like these...

Yeah... that was me!

Rob and I decided to take the plunge... Just kidding... we're still alive, and we managed to get a pretty good family picture, too... All in all, it was one heck of a family campout, we had such a fun time! Thanks to everyone that worked so hard to make it that way!

The FIRST of many...

Our baby girl turned "1", can you believe it? Neither can I!! Sophie has been such a delight to have in our family - from her infectious smile, to her one-of-kind scoot/crawl - our family would not be the same without her... We started out her birthday in Clark style - CAKE of course!

 

Wait a minute, am I supposed to have this?

 

It's really good... The heck with the calories, this cake is MINE!! And I'm not sharing... Mmmmm, that's good! There must be something wrong with my mom, she never lets me do this... Gimme another, I can handle it... All clean! Sophie, we love you!!

Letterboxing...

Some of our good friends invited us to go letterboxing with them this summer, we were so glad to get back in to it, since we haven't done it since we moved here. If you are wondering what letterboxing is, check it out at www.letterboxing.org. It is such a fun thing for kids - great exercise, too! Here are the kids starting off...

 

Finding the box...

 

I got it, I got it!!

 

Journaling their find...

 

Letterboxing is great because there are letterboxes everywhere... parks, hiking trails, bike paths... if you haven't tried it, you're missing out...