More Summer Pics

At the end of the summer we went to a Davies family reunion.  These are descendants from John's Dad's (Tom) parents Lorenzo Davies and Phyllis Fisher.  John's sister Megan and her family were able to come for the reunion and we were able to meet many of John's cousins who he hadn't seen since he was a young boy.  We had a lot of fun hearing stories about the past.  One of the best stories told was about how John's great grandpa Thomas Davies was once in a gun fight.

As part of the reunion they had some fun outings.  Megan and Randy took Lance, Ashley and Ammon to hike Timpanogos caves.  Unfortunately John's foot is still in the healing process and so he was not quite up to hiking.  We ended up taking Jacob and Raeanna to go play some mini golf instead.

While Megan and Randy were in town we got together with John's brother Rob and his family.  After we had a nice big dinner we decided to drive out and check out the Great Salt Lake.  We went at the perfect time as the sun was just setting.  Nothing like looking out over water with a nice sunset on the horizon.

Ammon turned 9 this year and had a nice birthday.  After a family celebration the boys had gotten tickets to see the demolition derby at the local county fair.  A good time was had by all.  It may need to become a yearly tradition.

Instead of having a birthday party this year, Ammon wanted to do a boys camp out.  They had fun roasting marshmallow and fishing.  Unfortunately our family doesn't seem to have much luck in the fishing department and have yet to catch a fish this year.

Here are just some random photos that were taken this summer.

 

These are pictures of the first day of school.  Jacob and Raeanna got to take the school bus for the first time and thought it was cool.  Ammon didn't want to get his picture taken but we managed to get a few shots in anyway.  Jacob and Raeanna started grade 1.  Ammon is in grade 4.  I didn't manage to get any pictures of Aeddan and Ashley on the first day of school.  Ashley started Jr. High this year (Grade 7) and loves it.  Aeddan is in grade 10 and enjoys his computer programming class as well as TV production. 

Flaming Gorge Utah

For our summer vacation this year we went to Flaming Gorge, Utah.  We got the opportunity to use our newly acquired tent trailer and had a fabulous time.  There is just something great about spending time in the great outdoors.

 Cliff jumping was a big hit with the kids.  These cliffs were really close to our campground and so we spent a lot of time these fishing and jumping into the lake.  Ashley was the first to try it and jumped off the big cliff over 10 times!

 One afternoon we rented a fast ski boat and spent many hours tubing and knee boarding.  Because of John's injured foot he didn't get a chance to have a turn but was a great driver for the rest of us!  This was an especially fun day!

 We spent another afternoon at the John Jarvie Ranch.  Back in its day (1880) it was a hub of social activity and a famous hide out for outlaws such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; Matt Warner and Isom Dart; and Queen of the Rustlers, Ann Bassett.

 Fishing was another highlight for the boys.  They spent many hours trying to catch a nibble but sadly were unable to snag a fish even though there were plenty of fish to be gotten (the Green River is one of the top fishing spots in the US).  Better luck next time boys!

Scrapbooked Photos Jan - Jul 2011

Well summer is here and that means it is time to get caught up on my scrapbooking for the year so far. 

Enjoy!

I crocheted these hats for my nieces and nephew for Christmas.  I think they turned out so cute and I had fun making them.

For Christmas we were given a little fun money (thanks Aunt Janice) and we decided to go bowling. I don't think Jacob and Raeanna had ever been before.  It was a fun evening and we will definitely be doing it again.

This year Ammon had to do a science project for school.  He picked the topic himself and had a fun time collecting the data for his experiment.  Good Job Ammon!

Ammon and Jake often like to battle each other.  Don't ask me where they got the idea to do it in their underwear with ninja style headgear but I thought it was hilarious!

Although Ashley is still passionate about playing the violin and continues to take lessons, she thought she would also give the flute a try. Playing the flute was fun and she did  great job of learning a new instrument.

At Wasatch Elementary on the last day of school each grade does a special dance for the parents as kind of an end of year celebration.  I thought all the kids did a great job and I enjoyed their performances.

Time spent at the park is always fun.

The kids love to do rock climbing.  The funny thing is that Jacob is so light the harnesses help pull him up and it takes him a long time to be able to get back down.

In May John tore his achilles tendon playing basketball on his lunch break with some of the other professors at work.  Poor guy -  the recovery has been really slow.  He has spent the last two months on crutches and feels like he has to wear a winter boot in the middle of summer! About 5 weeks earlier Aeddan also broke his foot this year playing volleyball at school.  This is the second time he broke that foot and hopefully the last.

Aeddan is happy to be working this summer and finally earning some money to buy things from his ever growing list of wants.  He stands on the corner waving his sign every afternoon.  The pay is pretty good and he only has to work a couple of hours a day.

Jacob and Ammon both decided that they wanted to get some faux-hawks (fake mohawks where you spike the hair in the middle).  They turned out really cute and the boys were happy with the results.

This is just a collection of some random picture mostly of funny faces.  Aeddan has been enjoying exploring the art of graffiti and did a great job on his first real attempt with spray paint.

Aeddan  turned 15 years old this past week (can't believe I have a kid so old).  On his birthday he was already asking when he could go and get his drivers licence.  Scary thought.  It will definitely be John teaching him how to drive.

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Here is a little video of Aeddan breaking out of his room after he woke up on his birthday (if you are looking at this post from your email, I think you actually have to go to our blog to watch the video http://daviestribe7.blogspot.com/)

This picture is just to show you how goofy John and the kids are.  They all got the same sense of humor and have a lot of fun joking around with each other.

The kids had fun decorating their bikes and doing a little parade around our neighborhood.  The highlight of course was the promised Popsicle at the end.

The kids had a fun time doing fireworks.  All the neighbors around us got together and we pooled all the fireworks and had fun lighting them all off.  Aeddan was especially excited about the Martin Bomber Ariel that   John and Aeddan had picked out.  It was one of the best that we shot off that night.

For Aeddan's birthday he and a friend went paint-balling.  Although airsoft is still one of his passions, he has just added paint ball to the top of his list as well.

I started this quilt last summer and only managed to find time to work on it during the semester breaks from university so it has taken me a long time to finish.  I pieced the quilt together and then had it long-arm quilted.  I love the way it turned out and can't stop looking at it.  The quilt pattern is called "Stepping Stones" and I picked it because it reminded me a lot of my Ukrainian heritage.  

Scrapbooked Old Photos

I was looking through an old folder and found some older family photos.  I spent the afternoon scrapbooking them just for fun.  They turned out so cute. I thought I would share.  I can hardly believe how much we have all changed over the years!