Hair Celebration!!!

CLICK ON ALL PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Last week we celebrated two hair events. Mine grew overnight (thanks, Anna for letting me play with your extensions), and Emily's is finally one length again. Hurray!!! I think she looks great, and she seems happy, as well.




We've been pretty busy getting in our fill of the West before heading back to Ohio. Here are a few of the things we have done.

My parents bought a scooter for the kids. Emily loves to ride it!

We spent a fun afternoon playing with Adrienne Parsons and her kids at the Kangaroo Zoo in Pleasant Grove. Emily cried when it was time to leave her friend Ella.







We met my sister-in-law, Amy, and her kids at Chuck E Cheese's for a great afternoon. Here is Emily with her cousin Anna. They love playing together, and are so happy to be able to see each other often this month.











We went into Big Cottonwood Canyon and hiked to Doughnut Falls. I carried Joshua, but Benjamin and Emily did the whole hike themselves! When we arrived at the falls, there were a few large groups there. It was hard to get a picture with just us, so David photoshopped "the others" out. Here is the picture before...













...and after. I love photoshop!











Dave finally came back to Utah after 2 weeks working as a Radiation Oncologist (on his own for the first time!!!) in Indiana. He also took the written part of his board exam (the second of 3 parts) while he was out there. He doesn't take the orals until next year.




We were so glad to see him! We took a camping trip to Yellowstone with Dave's parents, John and Myrna, and his sister, Amy. She came up on her own with her 5 children! Wow. It was a great trip, and the kids all loved playing together. Here I am with Joshua at Old Faithful.










David, Amy, and I took the three oldest boys (Benjamin, Taylor, and Dallin) hiking up Avalanche Peak. It os over 10,000 feet, and was a steep 2 mile climb up. The boys did so well! It was a hard climb. As we neared the summit, a thunder storm popped up leaving us stranded on an exposed ridge. We all laid down flat on the ground, and waited out the lightning. It was really loud up there, and the boys were a bit nervous (as were the adults). When the lightning passed, we started down in the pouring rain and hail. We walked down holding this tarp over the boys to keep them "dry." We won't forget this hike!





We had better weather the next day. Here are all 8 kids at our picnic site. It was a really fun trip to yellowstone. The highlight for the kids was swimming in String Lake. I liked seeing the animals. We saw coyotes, bison, elk, a black bear and a grizzley bear, a bald eagle, and many others.










One last picture to commemorate all the junk food we ate on our camping trip. Here is Joshua eating his favorite food, Cheetos, with his grandfather. Who wouldn't love a 3 day trip with 8 bags of chips? Josh was in heaven!