I can't wait to chill with our little club....

I booked my plane ticket to come and pack up our house and come to the Derby Days of Summer. Can't wait. ( FYI for mom, I will be there Tues afternoon, the movers come Wed and Thurs and I leave for Houston at about 7pm on Sunday.) Let me know what I can bring etc!

Have a good weekend! Love you all!

Jess

The Derby Dash!

We did it! Three of us finished a 5K in 38 minutes! We had fun, we had good food at the end and we won Fuddrucker's gift certificates! A pretty good morning's "work". Now we have to get back to our regularly scheduled lives!

Before the race...

After the race...

Treats at the end!

Upcoming Party!

So, we're about a month away from the big girls' weekend.  This will be a fun one.  Let's all hope it's mostly warm by then!  We're especially excited to have the under-18 crowd joining us.

As of now, we count 11 attendees.  If Jessica feels the need to come work on her home sale this particular weekend, we'd love to change the number to 12!  [Jessica, that means your assignment is to let us know so we can buy you a play ticket.]

The middle generation took it upon themselves to plan the weekend.  We thought we'd let everyone else in on the plans -- especially since you all have assignments.  I'd advise you to read carefully then take notes on what you might be responsible for!  Generally, we're going to do the big shopping at one time and just split the cost.  For dinner on Friday, we are asking for help just so everything can be chopped up in advance and preparation will be simplified.

Friday, June 24

7:00 a.m. Leave Orem in two-vehicle caravan.  The party begins!!!  We'll all travel in Cathy's Suburban and one other car.  Somewhere around Filmore, we'll stop to potty and change things up in the car if we want.

10:30 a.m. Let the party begin - the work party!!!  Grandma gets to have our service for a few hours.  We may be working inside, outside, or upside down, but come prepared to do a little service.

Work will be followed by a yummy lunch at Grandma's house.  [NOTE:  Grandma, that means you now have two assignments.  Determine what you want done, and plan lunch for 11.]

After lunch we'll head to St. George.  We'll probably do a little shopping or something at this point.  When we feel like it, we'll head to check into our digs.

If it's warm enough, and we have time, we can hit the pool.  Bring a cute suit!!

For dinner, we'll have Hawaiian Haystacks.  For this, please bring your assigned item to Cathy's on Friday morning, and we'll put everything into one cooler to take.

Cheryl: Chicken
Colleen: Coconut, Chow mein noodles, pineapple
Heather:  Gravy (Colleen said that yours is really good)
Cathy: Rice
Romney: Mandarin oranges, chopped celery
Grandma: Chopped green onions and chopped tomatoes

Everyone: Bring a really good treat to share.  We'll eat them throughout the time we are there.  NOTE:  For those of us participating in the Summer of Health Challenge, we are planning on everyone not getting their sweets points this weekend.  Better exercise a lot in the days before so you'll have some free points available!

After dinner, we begin the Slumber Party!!!

Bring fun stuff to do nails if you have it.  Bring your best pajama outfit to model at the PJ Fashion Show.  [Grandma, here's your next assignment, you are in charge of the fashion show.  If there is something you want us to know beforehand, drop us a note.]

Bring games you want to play.  We'll play games and maybe even do a craft.  [Romney, there have been requests for Hilarium and Spot It, just so you know]

Bedtime???

Saturday, June 25

7:00 a.m.  YES, I REALLY DID SAY 7AM.  Morning walk.  We'd love anyone who wants to go to take a beautiful morning walk to enjoy the early morning cool.

8 ish  Sourdough pancake breakfast.

Pool time
Play time
Nap time
Party time

Light lunch of quesadillas, nachos, fruit, etc.

Nielsen's  Frozen Custard Road Trip!!!!!!!  Woo hoo!!!

5:30 p.m. Dinner at fun restaurant in St. George

8:45 p.m. Grease at Tuacahn

Bedtime treats and bedtime??

Sunday, June 26

Sometime in the morning:  Crepe and fruit breakfast

11 a.m. Check out

Travel back to Orem


Hopefully this all sounds as fun to everyone reading this as it did to us when we planned it.  Send questions to Cheryl in case I forgot an important detail.  The condo is furnished and has dishes and such. You need to bring your own clothes, ear plugs, swimsuit, games, food assignments, etc.

Love you all!!!

So Jessica Can Vacation Vicariously...

Dear Jessica,

We really missed you on our trip! We tried not to have too much fun without you though.

Thanks for finding us the perfect accommodations. All the grownups had rooms and beds and there was ample space for all the kiddos as well. The backyard had soft green grass to play in and trees to climb. With Maddy and Missy we had built in babysitters so we adults could just relax. The pool was a bit chilly--actually it was frigid, but it was still perfect for tossing rocks in Eli found. That's what Dave, Daniel, and I were doing around the pool, fishing those rocks out before we left.

Saturday we went to Snow Canyon. If only you had been there...Scott could have followed John through St. George instead of Dave and probably saved himself crossing three lanes of traffic while Dave decided whether or not to follow my directions.

We stopped at the Sand Dunes first. The burst of hot desert air we were expecting to hit us when we opened the car doors did not hit. It was a bit chilly and breezy. We warmed up with a game of capture the flag on the dunes with boundaries far too wide and up hill both ways. The boy team beat the girl team and we collapsed to bury Cheyenne in the sand.

Next, we emptied our shoes of sand and started out on the "Pioneer Names trail" to find some historic graffiti. Each of the kids attempted to be reborn through a hole in the sandstone. Eli is quite a daredevil when it comes to scaling red rock. He climbed the highest of all.

We attempted lunch when the wind decided that if the sun couldn't make us take our jackets off with his warmth, the he would try to blow them off of us. We had our picnic in the shelter of our vehicles, and then decided to head to a calmer clime.

Romney and Scott introduced us to Nielson's Frozen Custard. A delicious way to rinse the sand from our teeth. Full of creamy goodness we attempted one more shot at the great outdoors. We drove up the road to try and squeeze our custard-full bellies through "the crack."

I found it a little overwhelming to be stick between two giant slabs of sandstone to the back and front, a whiny three year old to one side, and an anxious six year old to the other. But actually it was fun to do. The boys thought it was the best part of the trip and all the kids went through over and over again. Jocelyn took a liking to Isaac, or IceWick as he was known to her. They were little buddies.

We all went back to the house then and cleaned up. Isaac lost his very first tooth that evening.

Dale and Daniel joined us from their trip to Goblin Valley. We ate and played games. There was Spot It--that was my favorite, Wacky Six--a game similar to Nerts (whatever that is), BuzzerWizzer--trivia, and Funny Bones--what we are playing in these pictures.

Sunday, after sour dough pancakes (recipe please) we cleaned up (and fished rocks out of the pool) and drove over for a walk around the beautiful St. George Temple. I love how the brilliant white contrasts with the red rocks, green trees, and blue skies. If you had been there you could have done some amazing things with your camera!


Afterward we went back to the crack hoping to find a little bit of heat to bask in to enjoy Romney's phenomenal chicken salad (recipe please also). The Gardner girls and family headed back north and the rest of us delayed a few more hours to play Zombies in the sun.

We hope you and the sick baby got some good rest, but we missed you then and we miss you now.

Love,
Heather