The Lion King & Tarzan at Tuacahn

The week before school started, we filled it with Disney plays. Jon and I were able to see The Lion King at Capital Theater. It was sensational! We've enjoyed going to Broadway Across America plays with our friends, the Proctor's, Hatch's & Ashton's. The Lion King was the final one of this season and we were also able to go with Becky & John. A super huge thanks to Rich & Misty for watching the kids!

We met at PF Chang's for dinner and then walked over to the show. It was fabulous! The costumes were breathtaking and I thought it was very well done.

Then on Friday, we took one last trip before school and went down to St. George to see Tarzan at the Tuacahn Ampitheater. We left on Friday morning. Peter came with us and was so good with the kids in the car. We checked into our hotel and then swam. It felt so good - it was probably 105 degrees outside. We then got ready and met Becky & John at the Pizza Factory for dinner. We then headed to the ampitheater and met Rich & Misty there. It's a beautiful setting to see a show and the kids did great. We saw "Tarzan" and after getting used to people dressed up like apes, it was pretty good. Hannah sat still the whole time and fell asleep at the end. She liked watching the "monkeys."

On Saturday morning, we slept in and then met for breakfast at Denny's (thank you John & Becky for this fun treat). It was so fun to sit and visit and laugh. We stopped at Old Navy on the way home to get some school clothes for Emily & Lindsey and then drove home. It was a fun little get-away and something we hope to do next year too!

Jon & I at PF Chang's

Becky & John

Swimming in the pool with Uncle Pete....Hannah's face says it all!

How the ampitheater looks

Helco Family sealing

One of the highlights of our summer was being able to see our sweet new nephew & niece be sealed to Jon's sister Sarah and her husband Bobby. Danny & Gracie have been with them for 3 years and in the middle of August, they were sealed to Sarah & Bobby at the Vernal Temple.

We left Lindsey & Emily with Becky & Mike for the day, as they were playing in a soccer tournament and took our three little ones and Tom and made the drive to Vernal. It was a beautiful drive and the kids were great. Tom was kind enough to make that drive with us to watch the kids while we were in the sealing.

Danny & Gracie were so cute and sweet and it was a tender experience to see them become a part of an eternal family. We all celebrated together afterwards by eating at The Golden Corral. Thank you Bobby & Sarah for the wonderful day! We love you so much!

Danny

The Helco Family

Visit from the Rasmussen's - Part 2

I wish I had more pictures, but we another great day with the Rasmussen's when we got back from Oregon. We had decided to meet at Thanksgiving Point. Emily & Lindsey had their last day of a cooking & sewing class they took over the summer, so they went to that and Jon was able to stay with Hannah while she took a nap. I took Jack and Kate and drove to Thanksgiving Point. Kirsten & Becca (Ammon's sister) were trying to get ready to leave the next day for their sister's wedding, so we made it there first. It was a beautiful day and I had some cards in my bag. We sat in the shade and played games. It was such a fun time to be with these 2.

Then, we went into "Farm Country." The kids loved seeing the animals and for $0.50 they fed them dried corn for quite awhile. We went on a little wagon ride and then met Kirsten, Becca & the kids at the Dinosaur Museum.

We had a fun time seeing the museum. Then, we left to get home and then met everyone again at a Bees game that night. My sister Becky was kind enough to get us really great seats (in the shade right before home plate!) and it was even "kids eat free" night. It was such a nice summer evening and fun to enjoy it together.

This baby donkey loved Kate's skirt and kept nibbling on it.

Hailey, Ethan & Brayden

Kate, Hailey & Brynlee


We were then able to see the Rasmussen's (including Ammon by now), one last time on the following Sunday evening. They had travelled back from Vegas and they were kind enough to baptize Ethan in Utah so that their family & friends could be there. We soaked up every moment we could with them and then had to say a fond farewell! We love them so much and so much appreciated all the time they sacrificed to spent with us! We can't wait to see them again!

Jon & Ammon finally seeing each other after a year

Cute kids!

Baxter Family Reunion

Right after we spent a few days with the Rasmussen's, we drove up to Oregon for Jon's family reunion. We hadn't been able to go very often when we lived in Ohio, so it was great to be there and enjoy all of the Baxter/Bowen group.

Jon's sister Beth and his aunt Chrisanne were in charge of it and they did a fabulous job! They had fun ideas and made it so nice for everyone. They were able to reserve "the Lodge" - a lodge that Jon's grandpa & uncles helped build and where they stayed for lots of youth activities. Jon and the older kids were going to sleep there on Friday night, but there was a race early on Saturday, so decided not too. Then on Saturday night, everyone else decided to not sleep there, so the kids were disappointed by that, but we had fun hanging out at the lodge and visiting.

Grandma's swing is always a hit!

Our niece, Gracie

Lindsey, Kate, Danny & Jack wading in the stream by the lodge

Kate getting bug sprayed

Chrisanne & Beth - thank you again for a great reunion!

On Friday night, we had a ton of different kinds of popcorn! This family is amazing at making popcorn and it was fun to try so many kinds!

The kids before the 5K race - Jack, Danny, Lindsey, Hannah, Emily & Kate

Kyle & Tyler

Jon ran the 1/2 marathon and did great! He's run this one several times. He ran by us during our 5K walk, so this was the only picture I got of him. After he finished, he walked up the road again to find us.

Beth, Sarah & I decided to walk the 5K with all the kids - 9 of them! We had 3 strollers and started out pretty strong. But, we ended up being quite the sight! Beth was able to go ahead with Emily, Lindsey & Jack. I stayed with Sarah and we did our best to get our 4 little ones to the finish line. We had Gracie & Hannah in umbrella strollers most of the time. Kate & Danny walked/ran a lot and had a short turn in the strollers. With a little less than a mile left, my mother-in-law drove by and we loaded Kate & Danny in that car and finished with the two little girls. If there was ever a scene that would remind you of the Clampetts running a 5K race, that was us!

This is Sarah taking Gracie's shoes off. She started with them on, then took them off to run in just socks and then decided that she wanted her shoes back on with no socks.

This was a tender scene - Danny & Gracie holding hands

Thankfully, there was ice cold water & watermelon at the end of the race!

Jack won 1st place for his age division

Emily won 1st place for her age and Lindsey won 2nd

This is a picture of Jon giving himself IV fluids after his race. He wanted to see if his recovery was quicker that way. His idea is to do it after a marathon in October and he tried to teach me how to start it. Thankfully, his sister Rebecca was able to get it started.

It was great to be in Oregon! We loved seeing our family there and spending time with them!

Visit From the Rasmussen's - Part 1

I'm a little sad to be blogging about this, because it means that it's over....but, we had a wonderful visit from the Rasmussen's! Kirsten and the kids have literally driven thousands of miles this summer - visiting family & friends between Ohio & California.

We were so grateful that they were able to come to Utah and even though our visit together was much shorter then we had originally thought, we loved every minute of it and had a great time! They arrived on a Sunday evening and the kids were so excited. I think they had literally been dreaming of that moment for months and it was fun to see them instantly start to play together and act like they had never been apart.

On Monday morning, we took the kids to a park in West Jordan called the Wild West Jordan Park. It was really, really cute and even though it was really hot outside, the kids had a good time. Kirsten & I set up camping chairs in the shade and just visited. Beth and her boys were in town too, so they joined us for the last several minutes. We decided to cool down with $1 snowcones! Yum! Yum!

Jack & Brynlee

Karli

Jack

R1: Jack, Hannah, Brynlee, Kate & Hailey

R2: Lindsey, Ethan, Emily & Karli

Hannah & I

Kate

Karli

Hailey

Brynlee, Lindsey & Karli

Karli, Brynlee, Kate, Kyle & Hannah

We came home and fed the kids lunch. Then, the babies took naps and Kirsten & I cut out paper dolls from the Cricut machine. We had wanted to try to go to the Kearns Rec Center because we had heard the have a super fun outdoor pool, but just as we were dressed and ready to go, thunder & lightening started. Because it's a good 20 minute drive, one way, we decided to have a water balloon fight in the backyard instead. We had a great time filling up balloons and having the kids either jump with them on the trampoline or throw them at each other.

That night, we went to Emily's soccer scrimmage and then went back for round 2 of snowcones!

Jack & Kyle

Hailey

Best Friends - Hailey & Kate

Lindsey & Ethan cracking up over filling the balloons

Beth - the balloon tier

Cute Karli

Kyle - loving the trampoline

Ethan & Lindsey

Emily trying to pop a balloon over Ethan's head

Waiting for snowcones

On Tuesday, I took some lunch to my grandma, while Kirsten went to Deseret Book, the Distribution Center & Sam's Club. After we fed the kids, we were able to sneak away to the quilt store and scrapbook store. Jon is always such a great sport about watching the kids - thank you Jon!! We then got ready for a Buckeye BBQ - in honor of Kirsten being in town. We rented a bounce house again (a true winner!), had BBQ chicken and sides and enjoyed visiting with all the wonderful people who came. It's always great to get together!

Sam Nadauld, Noah Crockett, Luke & Jake Nadauld & Carter Brostrom

Kate in the bounce house

An amazing group of women: Row 1 - Beth, Kirsten, Sarah, Becca & Nina

Row 2 - AnnDee, me, Jessika, Andrea & Ali

Us again - I can't remember why we decided to lean forward though.

And to end the night...Jon pulled out little Eliza's first tooth!

Cute smile!

On Wednesday, Kirsten took her kids and Kate to get haircuts, while I went to a PTA meeting. Becky had taken the day off to spend time with Kirsten and was able to go with her John and my Jon to the hospital to do an ultrasound. That sweet little baby is a girl and we couldn't be more thrilled!

Our plan was to go to the Mayan for lunch, but once we got there, we realized they didn't open until 4:00 p.m. So, we headed to Wendy's and then to the Nickelcade. Hannah had a complete melt down at Wendy's and thankfully Jon was able to just take her home and put her down for a nap. The kids LOVE the Nickelcade. I had a coupon for $1 admission and then games are only 5 cents. The joke of the day came with a rather large man with a pony tail butted in front of Becky in the ticket line. He knew he had done it and said to her "I'll be just a minute." When we pointed him out to Kirsten, she said that he looked like a Lamanite. It was the perfect description - a real live Lamanite!

First attempt at the Mayan - it was so sunny the kids could hardly open their eyes.

Becky, Me & Kirsten

Becky standing next to the Lamanite - we were too scared to ask him to turn around!

After the Nickelcade, we went home and Kirsten was able to get her van all packed up. I don't know how she's done it! It's packed like a champ with everything from clothes, shoes, movies, swimming gear to the kid's scooters.

We let Emily skip soccer practice and went to The Mayan for dinner. It wasn't crowded at all and we got great seats for the diving show. The kids were so well behaved, the food was better than I anticipated and the show was great. The divers came up to our table as well, so we were able to see them up close.

The Mayan divers & the kids

All these cute kids in birth order:

Emily (10), Lindsey (8), Ethan (8), Jack (6), Brynlee (6), Hailey (4),

Kate (4), Karli (3) & Hannah (2)

Kirsten left from The Mayan to head to Springville and we went home to pack and get ready for our trip to Oregon for Jon's family reunion. We knew we'd see them again after this trip, so saying goodbye wasn't too bad.

Thank you again Kirsten, Ethan, Brynlee, Hailey & Karli for a wonderful visit! You're the very best!