My House is Quiet?

You are probably assuming from my title that this post is about school starting but that's not for two more days.  Yet, even with all three of my noisy kids, bored to death with summer, running around my house I'm sitting here thinking how quiet it is...  I guess that's what 15 people in my house has done to me!  All joking aside, I've had a fabulous two weeks with my family and find myself feeling sad today that they all live so far away.

My sister, Rebecca, arrived two weeks ago with her husband, Brian, and five kids.  We were so excited to see them but the one year old triplets were not at all excited to see us after two long days in the car!  The next day they were much happier after some sleep.  Andrew was in heaven having three babies to play with!  The good thing was that there was always at least one happy baby to play with but unfortunately there was almost always one sad baby too!  I couldn't help but think that my house resembled a day care center every time I walked in.  I am constantly amazed at how my sister can possibly keep up with triplets!  We enjoyed playing in the wading pool and the slip and slide, a day at the Dinosaur Park, and trips to Beus Pond for bike riding, picnics and pushing the babies in the stroller.

All the cousins.  I think this is the only picture I got of them all together all week.   It was nearly impossible to get all the kids in the same place looking at the camera at the same time!

Emily, Andrew, Teresa, and Aubrey

Laura and Kaitlyn

My youngest brother, Spencer, came from California (by way of Germany) a couple days later and then later in the week my parents drove from California.  The only ones in my family we were missing were my brother Ethan and his wife Cecilia who are living in Europe.  We took Spencer downtown and played some miniature golf and checked out the construction on the Ogden temple and went to an Ogden Raptors game one night.

Jared, Andrew, and Kaitlyn in front of what's left of the Ogden Temple.

Jared, Andrew, Kaitlyn, and Spencer downtown Ogden

Spencer in his typical Dodgers attire.

Lucas, Laura and Kaitlyn at the Raptors game.

Dad, Mom and Andrew

We celebrated my niece, Laura's 6th birthday.  Jason was convinced if he fed Emily enough birthday cake she would like him.  It didn't work but she enjoyed the cake!

I love this picture of Kaitlyn and Laura when they climbed in the hammock together!

Emily, Andrew, Teresa, Jared, and Aubrey at Beus Pond.

A trip to Utah wouldn't be complete for my dad without a fishing trip.  Thanks to some generous friends of ours who share their property with us my dad was thrilled to catch his biggest fish ever!

I grew up looking out my window at Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake but had never actually been there.  My parents and I took the kids out there to see what it was like.  It was a pretty fun day trip.  The kids enjoyed earning their Jr. Ranger badges.  We visited the old ranch house, saw herds of bison and antelope, and the kids played in the water at the beach.  They had a lot of fun swimming until they got a taste of the water!

Jared practicing his lassoing at Fielding Garr Ranch

Kaitlyn decided this was the easiest way to lasso the horse.

The view from Buffalo Point

Kaitlyn and Laura after church on Sunday.

We were planning on spending Saturday swimming at the water park at Cherry Hill's at the Christensen family reunion.  Andrew rode his bike while Jason went running that morning.  They went on some of the trails in the foothills.  Andrew was loving the mountain biking until his foot slipped off his pedal and the gears on his bike sliced his leg open.  So Jason spent the morning stitching Andrew's leg up.  We still made it to the family reunion but late and the swimming wasn't quite so fun for Andrew.  He did a couple slides and floated on the tube in the lazy river but what he really wanted to do was just jump in the pool and he couldn't.