Disclaimer...this post is a very long post that covers most of our summer this year. Please realize that this is for a journal purpose so if you want to read go ahead but I really have no expectations of people reading this whole post! Except Monica!
Summer 2009 was one of rushed excitement. Justin had so many days off people were starting to get scared he was laid off! At the end of June Justin and I decided to rush up to Orem Utah to surprise one of Justin's cousin at her reception that night. We decided not to tell anyone we were headed up so it would be a great surprise, Justin's mom didn't even know we were going. We got there in the nick-of-time. Naomi looked beautiful that night and we were so glad we drove so fast so we didn't miss anything!
On Friday we drove (not so fast) up to Salt Lake City and did all the touristy stuff that our kids enjoy doing. We toured the Temple grounds and the conference center and just enjoyed the nice weather outside. I also practiced my photography. I also decided that the Salt Lake Temple is one glorious miracle. It took 40 count them 40 years to build this wonderful temple. It wasn't an
easy thing to do it was all up to the saints to use their hands (they didn't have all the machinery we have today) to bring the wonderful blessings to us today!
Anyway after a couple of hours in Salt Lake we headed up to Logan Utah to visit my brother Danny and his awesome wife Gwen.
Justin like to refer to them as Dan and Gwenny. Anyway we had so much fun playing with them they took several days off of work to entertain us while we were there. We had the chance to tour their new home and we were really paranoid that our kids would trash it, which they did. On the first day we were there Danny took us to Logan's own little zoo. It was a lot of fun not too big to get tired and bored but big enough to entertain us for an hour or two. Emie was having fun feeding the ducks and the older kids were having fun tormenting the animals. I got this really cool picture of a bird house the mother bird flew by and all of a sudden 4 little bird heads poked out the hole waiting for their food. It was really funny to see that.
The next day Justin and I were still on AZ time and slept in but we finally got up and Danny and Gwen took us to the dairies and looked at Logan. We also went to see the Disney Movie UP! That was very exciting for the kids and Justin and I liked it too! On Sunday we were late for church (on account of me and Justin still being on AZ time) then we had a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon at the house watching movies and playing in the back lot. On Monday Morning we decided to go rock climbing and fishing. Danny knows my kids pretty well so he told them not to get upset if they didn't catch anything because it was their first time fishing. Well right when we were getting ready to head out Michelle caught this little fish. She was so excited (or scared), we couldn't tell if she was laughing or crying but later she was excited. After releasing the fish we packed up to go rock climbing. Michelle has been begging Danny to go for a few years now and this was our chance. We all had a blast doing this Justin and I even go to go. Gwen and Danny enjoyed it too, I hope!
Tuesday Danny and Gwen had been called into work so we were left on our own for a couple of hours. Later we went and got ice cream and just had fun relaxing again.
On Wednesday we got ready because we had a family reunion up in Idaho at the Bear Lake Lodge.
This was exciting for a couple of reasons...1. I have never been to Idaho before and now I get to cross it off my list, 2. We got to see a ton of relatives we hardly get to see, and 3. We were still in Utah not in AZ. Bear Lake was marvelous it was cold at night and cool during the day. It was green and beautiful, it was eventful and fun and exciting. At one time while we were there there was about 68 people all together it was so much fun!
On Friday we headed to the north shore of the lake to play in the sand and water. Uncle Eric and Uncle Steve rented Sea Doo's and let everyone have a turn. I especially loved this Justin had fun riding on the back while I drove :) We had hours of fun playing, visiting, and eating (thanks Karrie). Parker found this piece of driftwood he asked if he could bring it home...umm Parker NO! Eli didn't get out of the water the whole time we were there, he was always on a raft or inflatable boat or something but always in the water. And Emie found a cousin to put sand on. She thought she was soooo funny. And Thanks Casey for being such a great sport.
Saturday was July 4th so we headed up to Paris Idaho where we enjoyed a cute little town parade and got tons of salt water taffy. After the parade we went on out to this little Ice cave and spent an hour or so there watching just about everyone slip and fall on the ice. When we got back to the lodge we all got ready for the fire works on the Utah side of the lake. They were very good considering we didn't hear very good reviews of them from some locals. After the fire works we headed home and got the car ready to drive
all the way home on Sunday.
While we were there I was curious about the real estate and how much it would cost to buy a little place or a piece of land. I was walking around in Garden City Utah and found this house with a for sale flyer.
This house cost $300,000!
WOW I wonder what this house cost!! 
We were home for 2 weeks then we headed up to St. Johns for the 24th of July celebration and to see our "Arkansas" cousins. Justin also helped his parents dry wall their attic. Something that has been needing to be done for a few years now...(try 20 or so). So St. Johns wasn't eventful until Wednesday. Wednesday was Eli's 8th birthday. Grandma got him a gift and let him open it first thing so he didn't feel like he was being ignored while we were still in the attic. Later The cousins called to announce their arrival in St. Johns so we invited them for dinner and birthday cake. We had a party and some yummy cake and brownies and ice cream. Eli loved his gifts from mom and dad and Grandma and Grandpa Crockett.
The next few days were filled with the celebration activities. We ate ice cream and rode on a float in the parade and went for a bar-b-que, and sat at a campfire circle and went out to the ranch and had more food. It was so much fun! We had such a great time for the 24th celebration that we didn't get many pictures of what we did. Hopefully next time I will be better.
While we were in St. Johns my Brother Kenny called and invited us to Eager for the next week at a ranch just outside Alpine. So we headed home on Sunday and left again on Wednesday to go up to Eager, we had to leave Justin behind this time because his work scheduled some training for him, he came later for a day and a half! Anyway This was a fun relaxing trip where the kids ran and played and rode horses and got very
DIRTY! 
Not only were they very very dirty but they were very tired too!
We had such a great summer this year and we were so excited to see so much family and spend so much time playing and having so much fun!
