Family time!

Since Blondie turned 8 in July, that meant that her baptism was scheduled for the first Saturday in August. DH's brother was able to take some time off of work that same week so he and his family joined us the Wednesday before and then left Saturday evening. They drove down from the Spokane, Washington area and we really appreciate them driving down here with their four kids (and our sister-in-law pregnant with baby #5). DH's parents also joined us and flew in Thursday morning and then left Monday evening. It was definitely crazy around our house with 8 extra people sleeping in our house and the middle kids being back in school and rehearsals and performances for the musical going on. It was just bad timing because the cousins weren't able to spend a lot of time together. We ended up taking them out of school on Friday (since it is a short day anyways) and we also had them miss the performance Friday night so they could have a little bit of time together.

We drove down to American Fork Canyon and had a picnic lunch and then went on a short hike at a place called Cascade Springs. DH, his brother and their father and the older kids tried going on a hike up to the Timpanogos Caves that morning but the timing was bad and they weren't able to get tickets for a good time so we ended up just doing the lunch and short hike. They were all a little bummed about that...

(Friday, August 5, 2011)
The place where we picnicked was right near this river. The kids had a blast playing along riverbank and throwing rocks into the river!

This picture cracks me up because all of the kids are in a line along the bank, busy doing their own thing!