Weekend Adventures

My auction ended last night at 9. Thank you, thank you Mom for your generous bid and your sweet comment. My grandparents also pitched in so my auction total came to $150. Thank you!



Thursday evening, Russ and Jessica Beecher and their four children spent the night on their way to Fish Lake and Lake Powell. It was a short visit but the kids filled every moment with joy and laughter. Ivy and Tristan played together well. In the following pictures, we caught Ivy putting the moves on Tristan with the old "bucket-on-the-head-then-schmooch" trick. What a cutie!





It was hard to say goodbye!



Then we loaded up the fam and the camping gear and headed off to our favorite campsite near Idaho Springs with the Laws, Purcells, and Zack M.



I wanted to get a good shot showing the technical nature of this 4x4 road, but this picture does not do it justice.



On Saturday, we left our camping buddies for a few hours, dropped our kids off with a sitter in town, and went to Brock and Haylee's wedding at the Denver Temple. It was a huge effort to get there, but when the sealer said, "Doesn't it feel wonderful to be in the Temple today? Would you rather be anywhere else?" I knew he was right and it was all worth it (even though we were the only people in the Temple that smelled of campfire smoke!).



I wanted a nice picture of the two of us in front of the beautiful flowers on temple grounds. Adam would not cooperate.



Back at camp, we found many ways to entertain ourselves:

Adam is shooting the potato gun while Marcus and Zack try and hit the launched potato with paintballs.
When they tired of that, they switched over to a mean game of badminton.

All 7 kids of climbing age were able to take a chance on this rock wall. Fun was had by all. Here is a picture of Lafai getting a little help from Zack and Jeremy.

'Smores are always the highlight of every evening:



Kaia and Riyan getting pumped for 'smores. Sierra and Lafai in the background, wasting no time.
Bedtime is always a lot of fun. Tristan was a bit of a nighttime terror. The girls snuggled up to stay toasty warm.

Breakfast with Marcus involved beating eggs with a power tool and a tent stake.

Zack helps Adam and Jeremy chop wood using his Range Rover.

My boys chillin' by the fire.

My girls trying to snarf as much sugar as possible before Mom forces them into the tent.

And the final family shot. The pictures make it all worth it.