Birthdays

Crysania is now 12, watch out world here she comes

This year Crysania got to have a big party at home with all the friends, we had a house full of pre-teen girls and it went surprisingly well.

Mary made the cake as per Crysania's request

Elijah's 7th Birthday

Josh Brennan Bowen Crysania and Elijah at Jumping Jacks

Its the big "10" for Bowen

Lots of fun at Nickle City, Sarah loved driving the race car

Brandon, Bowen, Crysania and Elijah

Happy 3rd Birthday Sarah

So much fun with all the friends and Cousins

Green River

Family trip to green river, although while we were there it was more like the red river, because of some flash flooding further north.Crystal Geyser is supposed to be pretty cool when it goes off, but it is random and all we got to see was some bubbling and a small stream of water coming out the side of the pipe.
Super cool "waterfalls" by the crystal geyser

Goblin Valley was super fun and we went on the best day, warm with a nice cloud cover. Luckily we left right before the wind started picking up and it started to rain.


This is what Elijah thought about riding in the car so much!

We were going to stay three nights but the second night it started to rain right after I started cooking dinner. It rained for a few hours while we hung out in the car and let the food cook in the dutch oven under an umbrella. The rain stopped right when it was time to eat, but picked up off and on again through out the night. We decided we didn't want to risk another night in the rain so we headed home, stopping in price on the way to see the dinosaur museum.

Capital Reef

Time again for the best part of summer, the annual Benson family camping trip. The kids have so much fun playing with their cousins, and this year we even had a Piñata to celebrate some birthdays.The waterfall was the best part of the trip, until Elijah got to a place where he couldn't touch and I decided to try to help him fully dressed with a camera in my hand. I saved Elijah and the Camera but got soaking wet up to my armpits.


The hike to the arch was a lot harder than the kids thought it would be, but everyone made it.
Aspen and Sarah were inseparable on the trip, it was nice to have a willing babysitter.

June fun

Hogle Zoo trip, Bowen got picked to go up on stage at the Discovery Land show. Watching the bird show

Elijah has had the training wheels on his bike and he finally asked me to take them off. So we took them off and I went in the house to put on my shoes, thinking I would be doing some running behind him while he practiced learning to ride. But by the time I got outside he had already figured it out and was riding like a pro!! So when Bowen got done playing his game he decided to go outside and try riding and he was able to get right on and ride as well, now he keeps saying he didn't know it would be so easy to learn to ride and how fun riding his bike is.

Happy Birthday to me!!

Yum, Strawberry short cake for me

A time to Learn

Summer School



Family Home evening with the Pickerings
We love to dance!

Cute Sarah

My Pretty Girl

She is going to be walking soon (I hope!)One of Sarahs favorite things to do is sit in my chair and "read" any book that is sitting on the side table, which just happens to usually be the Book of MormonSarah loves to use a spoon and gets mad if you forget to give her one when she is eating.

Hawaii-the final chapter

Day 7 Thursday

Hanamura Bay

We ended up getting to the bay a little later in the day so there were not very many people there, and then it started to rain so pretty much every one left and we had the beach mostly to ourself. The water was kinda cool so I only stayed in the water for about 45 minutes and was shivering by the time I got out.

Snorkeling with the fishes.Some cool fish

Bowen thought this one was a shark

When everyone left the beach the mongoose came out to play (and collect the garbage that was lying around) Moroni followed the Mongoose around with a camera for about an hour and finally got a really good shot.

On friday we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center and the LDS Temple, the was being renovated so we didn't get to go through a session, but we did go to the visitors center.

Hawaiian dancers at the PCC

Climbing the Palm trees.

Fresh flower Lei's

Our smoothies in a pineapple, the best part about the Luau, all the rest of the food was barely edible.

Saturday Day 9 our final day on the Island. We went hiking with Liz and her family to a beautiful little waterfall.

A beautiful view of the valley (and some people kissing)Liz, Maddoz, Cambrie, Jamey, and Kya

This is my favorite picture from the whole trip

(could be cause I am half way hidden behind Moroni so I look alot skinnier :)

Well that is the end of our Hawaii trip, we left Saturday night at 10:30 and didn't get home until 1:30 pm on Sunday, needless to say I was a little sleep deprived, and it took me a week to get over the jet lag. Can't wait to go again next year :)