Salt Lake City Part 4

That evening, after the candy factory, we went to Mill Creek Canyon to get out of the heat and have a picnic dinner.  I couldn't believe that a 10 minute drive could make it so much cooler!  

Sara, Sam, Andrew, Tim, Ashley and Josh

Sara, Kim and Marshall
Kim brought wood from a tree they had chopped down for the fire.  It was still green so it didn't burn well and smoked tons.  We scouted around for dry wood to burn, more on that later.

Sara and Tim

The kids had fun stomping around the woods and playing near the creek.  It really was a nice respite from the heat.

Sam

Josh

Drew

Nate, Drew and Daniel

Natalie

Laney, Richard and Susanna
The girls had fun walking around with Daddy.

Laney

Susanna

Sam and Ashley
All three of my older boys love this girl.  She is truly one of their best buds!  I love watching all there friendships develop.  It really does feel like we are with family.  Who doesn't need more cousins, right?

Richard and John

There were some great battles fought that night too.

The ladies, Steph, Kim and Amy

Kim still trying to get the fire going while John smoked some hot dogs.

Ashley found a cool little snake.  The kids all took turns wearing around their wrists and fingers.  

Ash, Nate Josh, Dan and Sara

Amy helped the little girls make a fairy house.  They worked on it for a long time.  It turned out really cute!

Kim found a dead, dried out tree and enlisted Sam and Rich in pulling it down for fire wood.  They managed to pull it down right on to Rich. Poor guy!  He was fine.  This is Kim's "oops!" face right after it happened.

Once they got the tree down, they had no way to chop it up.  The boys stomped off some of the branches, but mostly we couldn't use it.  Oh well.  It sure was exciting though!

Drew

Boys sure love fire!

Drew

Nate and Sara

Kim was not thrilled to have the snake on her arm.  She told Ashley she couldn't bring the snake home to add to their collection of animals.  She didn't, she had Josh put it in his back pack and bring it home for her.  Since then I have heard that the snake escaped and is wondering around the Loveridge house freely.  Eeek!

Zannazoo

It was a wonderful evening.  I look forward to doing it again next year!

Salt Lake City Goodbyes

After a wonderful week with the Bytheways, sadly, it was time to say goodbye.

Sam and Ashley

The kids always have fun bringing little thank you gift for them.  We brought water balloons for the boys, jewelry for the girls.

Andrew

Matthew

Bethany

Lots of love going around

Natalie

I love this lady!  She makes my heart smile!!!

Nathan, Matthew and Drew

Drew, John and Laney

Kim made this beautiful nest necklace for me and wrote this sweet poem to go with it.  It made me teary!  I can't believe how soon my kids are going to start leaving my nest!

Kim and John, thank you for your hospitality and love and thanks to your parents too.  We are truly blessed to have such great friends!!!

This was the last night in our hotel.  We only got one room with two queen beds and a little love seat, so this is how the kids slept.  I remembered hearing that this was how the pioneers did it so we gave it a try.  We rotated who slept on the love seat.  It worked out great.  No complaints.  

We packed up the next morning and picked up Ashley to take with Sam, Josh and Tim to "Especially for Youth" at BYU in Provo for the week.

Donald Duck's Toy Train

 Recently my mom came across some of my dad's baby things.  One which was his favorite childhood book, Donald Duck's Toy Train.  He came over one evening and read it to the kids.  I don't remember where Sara was, but everyone else gathered around to hear him read it.  So sweet!