While the Parks were here...

Sarah, Danny, and kids came to visit the end of July and stayed for awhile... It was great to see them..

Danny stayed for a week and then had to head back home to Ohio and work. They had driven out here and stopped and visited with his parents in Cheyenne before coming our way.

While he was here there was Karakoke, guitar playing, yo-yo tricks, and a trip to Lagoon. None of the pictures from Karaoke or guitar night worked so.. Sorry Danny there are no pictures to show you were here... We do have pictures of the August family party that took place at Loreen and Salagi's church on July 26th... (pictures above) We played "Are you smarter than a 5th grader" and thought ourselves quite smart.

Notice also in different pictures Sam and Emily both got hair cuts... Emily wanted her hair to be like Kialie's.

Sarah and the kids stayed another week and enjoyed more fun. Also, while the Parks were here we had people over to visit ... and to eat... The blogger gets a bit caught up in visiting and forgets to take pictures of everyone...

Pictures of singing with the kids (Gavin and parents)

And of the barbecue master practicing his trade...

Go Salagi!!!

We went swimming at the public pool and had a blast!! All of the kids Sam, Emi, Kialie, and Freddy were like fish and we practically had to pull them out of the water... Brooklynn was content to be in for a little while and then take a nap with grandma in the shade...

Danny's sister had a new baby girl while they were here so they got to go see her and also go to Wheeler farms with Grandma Parks and Caleb and Parker...

There was a Putnam reunion and Sarah and kids went to Star Valley to visit there as well as Mom and Kim and Leslie.

Val, Sarah, and kids went to Bear Lake and met up with Kristi, Janine, and Lacy and had a great time.

We went to the Dinosaur park in Ogden

The kids loved the Dinosaur park and it was really cool. Large life like dinosaurs that made lots of noise (and scared Freddy) There was a playground that allowed them to continue getting all sorts of energy out.

After the dinosaur park we went to a drive in and got yummy food in Roy and then played at a park...

One of the favorite past times was the trampoline. Many an hour were spent and dirty feet gained by jumping on the trampoline. The best part of having them here was being able to see the intelligent way that Sam's mind works and how he loves to organize and set up intricate games. It was so fun to see Emily perform (she says she was born for the stage) and how she knows songs word for word- She and her dad performed 'More than words' by eXtreme. It was so great to just laugh and play and enjoy their company. It is always fun to have Sarah around and enjoy her friendly and fun personality and her creativity. We wish they lived closer. Love you guys!!!

Santa Rosa Peads continued...

Sorry technical difficulties... The blog won't let me edit the last post and add more so a continuation is needed. After the beach we got cleaned up at the hotel and then headed over to Kendall and Sheri's for a barbecue. The food was great and the desserts were amazing . Sheri is the perfect hostess. We just hung out and laughed and visited until it got too chilly and then we went inside for awhile. We laughed at Carter the tank.. he just runs people over and we loved his little dance. Wyatt and Blake wrestled around. The girls played wedding in Kelsie's room and everyone had a great time. Kelsie played the piano for us. She is very good!! We were so grateful that we got to hang out with Kendall's family so much in these two days. We definitely don't see enough of each other...

Sheri made awesome little treat baggies for all of the kids. They even had their names on them. Thanks Sheri they so enjoyed them on the trip home. It was hard for everyone to say goodbye and there were some tears. Family is the greatest.

We all headed home Monday ... Kim, Leslie, and Mom on the plane and the rest of us on the road. We stayed at Circus Circus again and took the kids to the Midway. They all won about 10 stuffed animals each. As if any of them needed even one more. We arrived home on Tuesday July 15th at 11:00 pm exhausted but having had a good time. The kids were angels. Even when so tired of the car they were so good. Definitely a good trip and well worth going.

Here are some more pictures of the Redwoods and Beach...

Time with The Santa Rosa Peads

On Saturday July 12th we all went over to Kendall and Sheri's to visit and to let the kids play... They had a great time in the back yard and hit it off immediately. Kelsie, Kialie, and Laycee were great friends from then on and Blake said he wanted Wyatt to be his neighbor. They got a long famously from that point on. Freddy, Kaysen, Carter, and Brooklynn were just glad to be playing outside. We had a good time catching up and we gave some presents to Kendall and Sheri's kids for birthdays and Kelsie's baptism.

At 1:00 we went to a cute neighborhood park for a picnic in honor of Kelsie. The Hillstead family members and friends came too. It was a great lunch with sandwiches on sour dough bread and fruit and salads. It was all very good.

One funny thing is that Freddy was playing in the dirt and had it all over him from head to toe. He had let it sift everywhere and he was now a brunette with a uni-brow. Carter (1) walked over to him very concerned and said "Ah-oh" He was very worried that Fred was so dirty. We had a good laugh over that. No-one got pictures which is too bad.

After the park it was time to get ready for the baptism (see Kelsie Baptism post for more info.) Tubby time for everyone!!!

Kelsie and Carter

After the baptism Kendall and Sheri and kids came over to the hotel to go swimming. Everyone had fun despite the chilliness of water and later air.

Laycee having fun

On Sunday after church we went on an adventure... Sheri and Carter stayed behind because Carter was due for a melt down if a nap didn't happen. We were sorry that they couldn't come with us. After Loreen headed one van full of people in the wrong direction (Kendall chased us down) we got on our way on a great ride through Northern California. Our first stop was Armstrong grove... a Redwood forest. It was incredible. Pictures do not do justice to these beautiful trees. The kids found one tree and decided that it needed to have a girls side and a boys side. Pictures below ...

After the Redwoods we went to a Beach... We couldn't really swim here because of the sleeper waves so we all held hands and waited for the huge waves to sweep in from different directions and get us wet. We saw sea lions and all of a sudden Kendall sighted something out in the water. Upon further scrutiny we figured out it was whales. We could see their blows and then parts of their bodies while they came up and down out of the water. One time a good view of a head another an awesome view of a tail. There had to be a pod out there because there were blows and sightings every few minutes. Incredible. Funny thing is that when Madge heard we would be going to the water she wanted to see whales and we were all telling her not to count on it. Hmmm.. to say the least she was excited.

SAN FRANCISCO

Finally getting around to publishing a post about San Francisco... Even though this picture is a bit blurry I like that you can see the streets going straight up...

On July 9th, 2008 at 12:30 p.m quite the group of us headed out on our way to Kelsie's baptism. Of course we would spend a couple of days getting there and doing some activities on the way. Madge, Colie, Amber, Wyatt, Laycee, Kaysen, Val, Loreen, Salagi, Freddy, Kialie, and Brooklynn started out in two rented vans and made it about a half hour before the first potty break ( oh boy)
After that we were able to make good time and made it to Reno, NV at about 8:30 pm and stayed at Circus Circus - for 32 dollars a night - Thanks Priceline

We got up the next morning and headed onto California... We got stuck in Construction and so it took us 4 hours to get to Vallejo to the Discovery Kingdom rather than 2.5 - We had a great time at the Six Flags and watched the Dolphin and Killer Whale show and looked around and rode rides. All of the kids had a great time ...

We drove into South San Francisco to meet up with Kim, Leslie, and Mom that had flown in from Salt Lake. Not too happy with this hotel and we had tired and grumpy people of all ages but it worked out okay and we all survived to have fun the next day.

Bright and early Friday July 11th we drove into San Francisco and went to Fisherman's Wharf. We waited for the ferry to Alcatraz and enjoyed our time there. We went to lunch at a way fancier restaurant than the kids needed to visit. The food was good though. The best clam chowder I have ever tasted and Madge got her lobster.

Salagi and I took Freddy, Kialie, and Brooklynn for a walk and they became the hit of the town with a group of Japanese tourists... especially Kialie... They loved her blonde hair and her big blue eyes. They gave the kids little Japanese fruit chews and this one couple kept bringing over all of their friends to see the beautiful kids... Kialie was the star of several pictures that have now found their way to the photo albums of Japan. We joked about one of the kids going to Japan on a mission and seeing Kialie at 4 years old being in pictures over there... She was a good sport and would smile and let them take her picture (I of course had dead batteries) It was quite entertaining to see all of these people fawning over the kids and only got annoying at the end. So, as soon as we saw Madge and Mom headed our way we made our excuses and left.

We decided against going on the trolley cars by this time because we had some kids that were starting to melt down a bit. So, we let the kids run around at this little playground area while Kim, Leslie, and Salagi did some last minute shopping. Then we headed straight to the Golden Gate Bridge... Salagi has been waiting all of his life to visit this bridge and from the pictures you will see much video and pictures taken by him.

After the bridge we headed out to Sonoma county to the Hillside Inn in Santa Rosa CA ... The next couple of days would be filled with fun with Kendall and Sheri and kids... That part to follow... Check out more San Francisco pictures and video (Salagi was our camera man) by following the link

http://picasaweb.google.com/loreenmanu/SanFrancisco?authkey=rq56l2bE98k#

Grandpa

For those of you don't know Katie's blog address here it is ...

http://web.mac.com/thelampshade/iWeb/The%20Roberts%20Family/Welcome.html

Visit it ... Click on the Mother Blog ... and watch the video of Grandpa being honored...

Awesome!!! We are so lucky to have such a cute grandpa!!