Stake Fall Festival

Our stake had a Fall Festival over the weekend. They had a live band playing and all sorts of games for the kids to play. We started by "fishing" for prizes, where Keira got a bracelet and Ryder got finger puppets. Keeping with the fish theme, Keira picked a whale to have painted on her face. Ryder would not let anywhere near his face. We furiously painted a sun on his hand, which he was very please with when all was said and done.


The kids danced to the band for most of the time. Even Ryder got into it!


Keira figured out the cake walk and couldn't wait to get a cupcake so that she could eat the gum drop off of the top. Neither one of the kids would actually eat the cupcake, but Ryder couldn't wait to get ahold of the wrapper to munch on.

Roger was at Powder Mountain for a First Aid training, so he couldn't come with us. He was certainly in our thoughts, though, because Keira told everyone she saw that, "Roger is on the mountain."

It's a Fair Summer

Weber County Fair
We decided to splurge a bit and give the kids their first taste of cotton candy. Keira loved it. As you can see by the stink face Ryder was giving us, he wasn't about to put that weird stuff in his mouth!

Can you believe we paid $5 bucks for Keira to ride these ponies!? She loved it so much. She asks us every day to go to Grandpa's house to ride his horse, Brownie. This horse is no Brownie, but she loved it all the same.


Ryder had a great time feeding all of the animals until this goat nibbled his finger. He wouldn't go near them after that!

Keira, on the other hand, loved every minute of feeding the animals in the petting zoo.

The crowning moment of the Weber County Fair was when Keira got to milk a cow. After all her experience riding horses and milking cows, I think she's almost ready for a summer at Grandma and Grandpa Goodman's farm!

We had so much fun at the Weber County Fair in Ogden, we decided to go to the Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot. We spent the weekend with Uncle Rex and Aunt Cassie and went to the fair with them. Thanks for a great weekend, guys!


The fair in Blackfoot also had a little petting zoo, which the kids loved. Notice how Ryder learned his lesson from the petting zoo in Ogden. He made absolutely sure that anytime he had feed in his hand that his fingers were completely straight. That made it a bit hard to actually carry the feed to the animal, but he wasn't taking any chances!

Keira lucked out and found 2 rides that she was barely big enough to ride. She had a great time. Poor Ryder was too small for anything, but he was a good sport and had fun watching his sister.



We did, however, find a few things Ryder could play on...


About the time we were ready to head home, Keira started whining and throwing quite the little fit. She finally quieted down and we thought she was putting on a great pouting show. However, upon looking a little closer, we realized that she was actually asleep! She was so excited to see Uncle Rex and Aunt Cassie that she hadn't taken a nap earlier that day and she just couldn't stay awake any longer. We took that as a sign to head back to the house.

Happy Jumpers

Keira has decided that her favorite thing to do is jump the stairs. She is progressively jumping further and further, to the point that it is starting to make me a bit nervous. Ryder, of course, loves every minute of it and thinks that he can do anything big sister can do.

I know...his shirt is disgusting.

At the lake

Keira is practicing her wakeboarding stance.

Good thing Aunt Kathy is so Super Fine, otherwise she may not have been so excited to have a picture of her in a swimsuit posted online. But this is the only picture we have of the boat that was once ours...an awesome little Mastercraft. We have a lot of good memories on that boat and we are glad that Uncle Mike and Aunt Kris bought it so that they will have good memories in it, too!

North Ogden Pool

After getting dunked a few times, Ryder started getting really confident in the water. He wanted to go everywhere by himself and would walk around in water up to his chin like it was nothing.

Keira....America's next swimsuit model?

We were a bit hesitant at first, but thought we'd start getting the kids to go all the way under the water in the hope that they would get used to the water quicker. Ryder did really well and actually kind of liked it. Keira did much better than we thought she would. She didn't cry when she came back out, but she wasn't about to let me do it again.

The kids sometimes take a few minutes to warm up to the water. This little sprinkler section works like a charm!

Missouri Trip

Keira waited all week to ride one of Grandpa's horses. She finally got to ride Brownie and she was so excited she could hardly stand it. In Utah, she only gets to ride the carousel horses after we are done shopping. She liked the real thing even better!

Grandma and Grandpa's new house is right by the river. Grandma takes all the grandkids and cools off in the water. Keira and Ryder are catching pollywogs and crawdads with their cousin, Avery.

It was hot and muggy in Missouri, so we really liked spending time at Stockton Lake. The kids liked the water ok, but liked playing in the sand the best. You can see that Ryder had his own bucket, but preferred Keira's pink one. He may be little, but he was clearly big enough to send Keira into meltdown mode.

We lit fireworks on the 4th of July in Everton at Grandma and Grandpa's new house (and no...that's not it in the background). Keira loved her little sparklers, but wasn't about to relinquish the hold she had on the yummy corn that Grandpa grilled.