Sharkarosa Ranch

This past weekend we had an amazing animal encounter. We went to a place called Sharkarosa Ranch introduced to us by a family in our ward. It is a much smaller than any zoo, but provides a close up, face to face encounter with various animals. We were able to hold a couple of lemurs, a monkey, baby kangaroo, and kinkajou. They have a bunch of picnic tables that they bring the animals out to and let you touch them as they tell you all about them. They also have a safari tour that takes you to various other animals such as deer, horses, camels, and some South American camels that look just like llamas. They put feed for the animals in buckets that hang from the sides of the truck. The animals are so large that when they come up to feed, you can pet them and get some great pictures if your kids aren't too afraid to stand close. We all loved Sharkarosa Ranch. Below are some of the highlights from our trip.

This lemur is the first animal we were able to encounter. We arrived right at opening so we were the only ones there for a while and were able to sit and hang out with this lemur for a while. We couldn't believe how friendly he was and how soft his fur was.


This little monkey, Michelle, loved Lincoln and jumped into his lap as soon as he sat down. Lincoln actually came out to the ranch the weekend before to help with an Eagle project and the monkey jumped in his lap then too. They said Michelle has a tendency to remember people and especially likes men.

Alyssa sat on Lincoln's lap as Michelle was eating peanuts. At first, all was well and Michelle happily ate peanuts as Alyssa watched, but soon Michelle realized Alyssa was taking up Lincoln's attention and she nipped at her. Below you can see Alyssa's reaction from getting bit. Michelle then nipped at Samantha as well. Good thing it didn't hurt!


Samantha got up and personal with the camels on our safari ride. Alyssa and Courtney were much more timid, so Samantha got the best photos.


Here's Samantha with the zedonk - half zebra, half donkey. They also have a zorse there - half zebra, half horse.


Alyssa and Courtney were thrilled to pet this baby albino kangaroo. This joey just started to be pouch trained a few days earlier and this is one of the first times it was comfortable enough to let people touch him. We felt lucky to be able to pet a joey. Who can say they have ever petted a kangaroo?



These two younger camels were quite a riot. They made all sorts of noises at the kids and decided to taste out their hair. Alyssa about died when the camel started to eat her hair in this picture.


We had so many fun pictures so we put a bunch more in a slide show.

If you end up making a visit yourself we would recommend you getting there right when it opens to have the most time to yourselves. Their website is www.sharkarosa.com.

Labor Day Campout

The girls had so much camping at Turner Falls they wanted to have another campout as soon as possible. Since Lincoln and I weren't quite ready to brave another trip, we decided to have a indoor campout over Labor Day weekend. We set up the tent in our family room and cooked smores on the BBQ. We played games in the tent since we weren't able to last time. Then Lincoln and I slept comfortably upstairs in bed while the girls camped in the family room. We look forward to our next campout in the great outdoors. Here are some pics of the girls enjoying their smores.

Alyssa's Day at Pizza Planet

After school had started for the older girls, my friend, Kristi, invited Alyssa and me to go to Pizza Planet with her and her kids. Alyssa had so much fun going on the rides with her friend, Charlie, and her little brother Pearson. She has been talking about it nonstop since and has said she wants to have her birthday party there. She thinks Pizza Planet is the best place ever. Thanks Kristi for a fun afternoon!

First Day of School

Just thought I should post the girls first day of school pictures. Samantha and Courtney seem to like their teachers. I can't believe we have 1st and 4th graders! Alyssa started preschool a week after Samantha and Courtney started. She didn't say much on the first day to her teachers, but came home and couldn't stop talking. She has been praying for quick nights so she can go to school again and wants to be going to school 5 days a week. We are so glad she is enjoying school!

Camping at Turner Falls

The last weekend before school started we decided to go on an impromptu camping trip to Turner Falls in Oklahoma. This was our first family camping trip and quite the camping trip! I can't pass up writing about our experience.

It was Friday afternoon and our plans for the weekend were changed and we now had some free time on Saturday. I got a wild hare idea to try and pull off a camping trip at the last minute. Since we didn't have a tent big enough for the family, Samantha and I ran to the store and bought a tent and everything else we needed for the trip. I was even feeling good about remembering to plug in our trusty lantern to be charged while we were busy getting ready. Lincoln arrived home as soon as possible, but even working at turbo speed we weren't able to get on the road until a little after 6 p.m. We knew we would be fighting daylight since Turner Falls was a good 2 hour drive. Unfortunately, their was a major traffic accident that slowed us down even more.

We finally arrived right after the all light had disappeared. We picked our campsite in the dark and then Lincoln went to work on setting up the tent. Our trusty lantern that I was feeling so good about charging wasn't working and we only had one other flashlight. We ended up shining the car lights on the tent as Lincoln tried his best to assemble it for the first time in the dark. We are lucky to have such a smart dad because somehow despite the lack of light he managed to get it set up after some time. The only problem was that it took Samantha and I the whole time Lincoln was setting up to get the fire going. We realized after the tent was set up that the smoke from the fire would be blowing directly into the tent all night. We decided to move the tent, but since we didn't have much light the only place we could find big enough was on top of two very large rocks on a bit of an incline. We were so tired at that point that we just left the tent hoping our air mattresses would make it bearable to sleep. Originally, we had planned on having smores and playing games in the tent before bed, but it was SO late by the time we got everything set up so we decided to call it a night. Samantha and Courtney were able to fall asleep quickly, but Alyssa had taken an evening nap on our way up and was very aware of every sound outside. Then we had another late arriver at the campsite across from us who stayed up until 4 in the morning and who frequently shined their headlights directly on our tent.

The next day turned out to be far better than the night before. We enjoyed roasting bagels for breakfast and had smores for our morning dessert. When Lincoln was throwing our the trash he saw 3 raccoons in the garbage and all of us were able to check them out. I think this was the first time the girls had seen raccoons. We then headed down to the falls and had the best day ever. We enjoyed swimming and hiking. There are several caves at Turner Falls. We had hiked to one on a previous visit and hadn't been that impressed so we decided to try a different cave that was behind the falls. It ended up being a great hike with a good little cave and quite the view. We have some great pictures from the falls and hike, but I will have to post them later since those were on a disposable waterproof camera. After the hike we enjoyed swimming more and then had our picnic lunch on the creek runoff. They have some great rocks that the kids can slide down all along the runoff. Even with our rocky beginning this ended up being a great trip!

We Miss You Uncle Jake!

Uncle Jakey left us at the end of August. He was here about 6 weeks and the girls and I were gone 2 of those weeks. The time seemed to fly by. The girls are all missing Uncle Jake since he left. We had some good times and some crazy times. Some of our favorite memories over the 6 weeks with Uncle Jake - our temple trip :), the afternoon Uncle Jake did origami with the girls, fondue night, and all the many nights watching the Olympics and cheering on Michael Phelps. We miss you Jake - hope you're loving BYU!

Samantha's Party

Our little girl, turned 9! I can't believe how much she has grown in the past nine years. She has become such a fine young lady who we couldn't be prouder of.

So we celebrated Samantha's big day only once and actually on her birthday - this is a rare thing around our house. We are usually on vacation and she ends up celebrating her birthday multiple times with all different relatives and then again with just our family and then again with friends. We decided to have a small party so we let her invite as many friends as we could fit in the car. She ended up having 5 of her favorite friends over for some good food, swimming, and a sleepover. It turned out to be quite the party and everyone seemed to have a good time. You can read the craziness below.

The girls waiting for some good grub before heading off to the pool.

Here are the girls at the pool. They were so good about posing before hopping in the pool.

This slide is the reason why Samantha wanted to have her party at this pool. The girls all loved going down. We just wished Courtney was tall enough to go down too (next year Court)!

Here's the girl crew - Sarah, Paige, Megan, Naomi, Courtney, Makyla, Samantha, & Alyssa

Alyssa had just as much fun at the pool as all the older girls. She loved showing daddy her new swimming skills. We are especially proud of her floating on her back because this is what she fears the most.

The Cake - Samantha made an easy cake request this year - she just wanted a funfetti cake - nice and easy for mom to make.

Samantha's best friend, Paige, painted this for her to put in her room. Thanks Paige!

Sarah gave Samantha this face paint. Samantha could not have been more excited about a gift. She has since done some pretty cool face painting.

The girls with Uncle Jake - this is a precursor for what was to come. A few of the girls (we won't mention any names) decided it would be funny to sneak down to Uncle Jake's room in the night and attempt to put face paint on him while he was sleeping. Well, Uncle Jake is not as deep as a sleeper as they hoped and he thwarted their efforts not once, but three times. Finally he wised up and put a chair in front of his door. Lincoln and I were oblivious to this until morning - we must be sound sleepers.

Alyssa had to sleep in the play room with the other girls. She only made it about 5 minutes before conking out for the night. The rest of the girls enjoyed watching a movie before bed. Lincoln had borrowed a projector from work so they got the big screen experience.

The next morning the girls ate donuts and played games. It wasn't until morning that Lincoln and I learned the rest of the trickery that went on in the night. Some of the girls (again we won't mention any names) decided to try out the infamous whip cream trick - they placed the whip cream in two of their friends' hands and then tickled their noses. Luckily the two victims were good sports and were friendly with the others the next morning. We hear they are planning their revenge though for future sleepovers.

Our Utah Trip

It has been over a week since we got back from Utah, but I have been so swamped that I haven't gotten around to posting anything about our trip until now. We had the best 2 weeks! It was just me and the girls and we saw as many people as possible in the 2 weeks we were there. Below are some of the highlights of our trip. I say highlights, but really it is a very long post because of all we did. Thanks to all of you for taking time to hang out with us Texans! We only wish we could visit more often.

In Sandy
Grandma Rhonda, Grandpa Jerry, and Jackson picked us up from the airport and we were able to spend the beginning of our trip with them in Sandy. We were so glad to be able to visit with Jackson and Heather at the beginning of our trip. They moved to Colorado just a few days after we arrived, but we were lucky enough to see them before moving day! Jackson will be starting a new job teaching in Denver and they will be having there first baby in October! We're so excited for you two!


24th of July
We headed to my sister, Rose's, house to celebrate the 24th with her family, Jeff, and Ryan & Merry's family. The cousins had fun hanging out with each other. It ended up being a great evening despite the scare we had thinking Gabe might have broken his arm - luckily he was ok! Thanks Chance, Ryan, Jeff, and Kade for a great firework show and the yummy ice cream Merry.





Hiking to Timpanogos Cave
I convinced Rose to hike to Timp Cave with me and the girls (it is never very hard to convince Rose to go hiking anywhere). Luckily Jeff decided to join us too. He was a huge help carrying Alyssa when she thought she could walk no farther. We had a few hours to spare before we could begin our hike so we checked out some trails near the cave trail and had some lunch. It has been a long time since I hiked to the cave and I didn't remember how hard it would be for Alyssa. It is only 1.5 miles but has over a 1,000 foot elevation gain. I wanted Alyssa to walk as much as possible. She walked at least half way up, but on the way down she was screaming that her feet hurt so bad, so we carried her pretty much the whole way down. When we got down and took off her shoes she had the hugest blister that was still healing by the time we got home. I felt horrible since I knew Alyssa's shoes were a little snug, but the night before she said they felt good so I didn't worry about it. But all in all we had a great time. All the kids loved the cave. Alyssa said she liked the cave but she never wanted to go back. Go figure.







Saturday
On Saturday my sister took me to her hour and a half strength training class - 30 minutes abs, 30 minutes lower body, and 30 minutes upper body. Although I have been doing a lot of cardio lately I haven't done any strength training. Needless to say, I got a thorough whipping. I hurt so bad for the next few days. Guess I should add some strength training to my workouts.

We hung out the rest of the day and had lunch with Ryan's family and then headed to the park behind Rose's house. It was nice to be able to spend a few days with my family.

Visiting with the Bernhardt's
My girls and I could barely wait until our trip to Logan to visit with best friends who just moved this past November. We stayed with them a night and enjoyed catching up and just hanging out. We didn't have to plan much for the girls to thoroughly enjoy themselves. They were just glad to be with their friends. The girls especially loved meeting Dash the guinea pig for the 1st time and trying out the Bernhardt's giant water slide and slip and slide. Thanks for a great few days Audrie -we sure miss you guys! We are ready for you guys to move back anytime. We feel lucky for the years we had with you in Texas and the many memories!

Visiting Relatives
Aunt Julie came to see us one evening. It has been so long since we've seen her. Wish we had more time to visit, but so glad you came Julie.


Girls' Night
Another highlight of my trip was getting together with 3 of my college roomies - Trista, Shiree, and Lindsey. We had a girls night at Paradise Cafe. It has been 14 years since we first met! Boy, those were the days! It was fun to reminisce on all the good memories and catch up on how life has been since. Wish you could have been with us Angela and Janelle. All of these girls have made such an impact on my life and have truly inspired me to be a better person. I am so glad our friendships have stayed intact despite the years it has been and our sporadic contact since. I only wish I had more time to spend with all of you - one night was hardly enough time. Thanks for a great evening girls!



Visiting the Burt's
Half way through our trip we made it to Saratoga Springs to visit the Burt's, another great family we met in Texas. Becca has 3 boys who are all 2 months younger then all of my girls. The plan is that we give them enough exposure to each other while they are growing up that they enjoy each other's company and then by the time they are in college they won't realize their marriages were arranged all along. When Becca got pregnant with twin girls a few years back she called and asked if I was pregnant yet. No twin boys yet, sorry Becca.

It didn't take the kids long to warm up to each other after not seeing each other for so long. We had a great time playing at the park and hanging out at the house. It took half an hour to pry these guys away from each other by the time we needed to go. We were so glad to be able to make it out to see their house for the first time and to meet the girls and Cameron for the first time. I can't believe how long it has been since Becca left. She was another best friend and truly amazing individual I was blessed to have met in Texas. Becca is not only a great friend, but one of the most talented people I know. I miss the days of hanging out together. Why is it that all my friends move away? Miss you Becca!

Visiting the Elggren's
After leaving Becca's we headed out to West Jordan to see the Elggren's. They were our first "best" friends here in Texas. We used to hang out all the time and have sleepovers when Samantha was little. We were so sad when they left years ago, but are so thankful we are able to visit them each time we go to Utah. Jayme has been such a great friend over the years at taught me so much. There isn't a friend of mine who wouldn't love Jayme as much as I do, she is one of a kind. It was fun to hang out and catch up while the kids played.




Our BYU Trip
Towards the end of our trip we headed down to Provo with Grandma Rhonda to visit good ole' BYU. We had a quick lunch with Uncle Jeff before he headed back to Arizona and then headed to campus. We showed the girls the art museum where Lincoln used to work then checked out the library, had a quick stroll through the bookstore, and then checked out the Wilkinson Center. There was an adult ballroom dance class going on that the girls got to see and then we took them to see the bowling alley and theatre. They thought that was the best. I kept pointing out the many cool things going on at BYU like the giant twister game later that weekend and the upcoming celebration during the opening ceremony of the olympics. We hope to keep impressing them with all the reasons they should be go to BYU when they are older. We had to rush our visit as one of the other reasons we headed to Provo was to meet up with Aunt Maranda to go see Kitt Kittredge. By this time it was only playing in a couple theatres in all of Utah. We decided to head back to BYU after the movie since we didn't have a chance to get the girls ice cream from the creamery. We were hoping to check out the new Gordon B. Hinckley Alumni Center, but by the time we got over there it was closed, but we got to peer through the windows for a little peek inside. It was a fun day and the girls were excited to ride back to Sandy in Auntie Maranda's car. We love BYU!



Swimming
The next day we went to the pool with Grandma Rhonda and Aunt Maranda. We had a great time going to the pool where Alyssa became a "deep sea diver" as she would tell you. It was her first true time to swim on her own! Way to go Alyssa! Courtney jumped from the low dive for the first time despite being anxious about not being able to wear goggles and Samantha jumped from the high dive for the first time. It was so much fun! I didn't want to bring my camera to the pool though so I have nothing good to show you. The kids loved showing their great swimming skills to Grandma and Maranda.

The Big Night
Later in the evening was the moment I have been waiting for forever - the release of Breaking Dawn. I was so bummed to be missing the big Breaking Dawn release party with all my friends in Texas so I convinced Rhonda and Maranda that we should go get the book at midnight. We kept ourselves busy trying to stay awake by getting some school shopping done. We decided to go low key and get the book from Smith's rather than the big party at Barnes and Noble. Believe it or not even Smith's had a line!
Here we are waiting.

The line at Smith's. Some poor guys with ice cream were waiting in this line with us not realizing the line was for a book.

The infamous black box - good thing they had enough!

Finally, the book we have all been waiting for.

Thanks Rhonda and Maranda for humoring me and for the fun night. I will remember this one always.

Spending Time With the Family
We had so much fun hanging out with Grandma, Grandpa, and Maranda. The kids played in the sprinklers, we ran errands, Grandma read Alyssa lots of books, but mostly we just enjoyed hanging out. Grandpa watched 3-D Hannah Montana with the girls and took them on the much anticipated corvette ride. No trip to Grandma and Grandpa's would be complete without a ride in the corvette.




The girls loved hanging out with Maranda and playing Family Feud with her. Alyssa was so excited to have Maranda paint her nails and cried uncontrollablly the day her nail polish started to come off. We were so glad Uncle Ryan was able to make it up for a quick visit (he had been busy working and spending time with his dad).





Missionary Homecoming
On Sunday we were able to head down to Payson for my cousin, Jacob's, missionary homecoming talk. Rose and Ryan and their families were there as well as almost all of the Palmer's and a few other aunt's, uncle's, and cousins from my mom's side. Rose and I spent the summer after my 7th grade year down at the Palmer's so we have a special love for their whole family. That was a summer I learned a lot about myself and who I wanted to become. It was so fun to hear Jacob and then visit with all of the Palmer's. Everyone but Jacob is married now and it was fun to see their families and catch up with them.

One Last Hurrah with Friends
Our last full day in Utah the Bernhardt's and Burt's came and saw us in Sandy. We spent most of the time outside playing in the water and sprinklers. I'm not sure who had more fun the kids or Becca, Audrie, and me. It was nice to be able to see these guys a second time. It was a great reunion before heading back home.

Can you believe we have this many kids?

Haylie, Samantha, and Austin - these guys had preschool together when they were 3.

The younger crew

Me with two of my best friends - Becca and Audrie.

Can you believe how many of them fit in this little pool!

Having Fun!




Thanks everyone for making this one of our best trips ever! We loved every minute of it!