Edits..... Lots of Erika :)

Some of these could be repeats, but I'm okay with that :). I don't know who actually looks at this anymore, but I know a lot of the people who can, are very talented photographers, so please let me know what you think, if there's something I could improve especially!

Stowell Family Reunion/Campout

This year's reunion was probably my favorite so far!  And I love reunions so that's saying a lot!  It was so fun to do a campout first.  The Wright Family did such a good job.  I wish they could do it every year :)  HA!  I bet they do too!


TOP TEN FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT THIS REUNION:
10- Watching the big high school kids tell fortunes and then watching Charity get hers done.... she's way too young for that stuff :)
9- Playing BS again for the first time in a million years!  Nate's first time and he still kicked everyone's trash.... so annoying!
8- Noah's potty break!!!  That was just hilarious!  I'll give more details in a minute.
7- Tie Dying shirts!!  Haven't done that in years too!  And they turned out SO GOOD!  Nate's was the best of course.... so annoying! He didn't even have to try!
6- Watching Luke watch Tangled on the "big screen" from behind!  So smart!
5- The food!  SO GOOD!
4- Seeing Steve as himself again!  He was such a blast and just so fun to be with the whole time!!  And I loved that he went and bought his own tent and mattress and stuff for the reuion.  What a stud.
3- Sitting up late laughing at Lana's stories.  Just like the old days.
2- Watching Bradley and Matt get along so well.  I can't believe they're almost the same size!
1- The Stowellympics was a blast! Even though I failed at pretty much everything I competed in!  Well, I did beat a few people at arm wrestling.... apparently there's still a little muscle in there somewhere!
0- Watching Kelly and Emily with the two little girls, just playing like they'd known each other forever :) So cute.
-1 - Talking with MaryLen.  She's so awesome!
-2 - Seeing Uncle Forrest take the cake in the Watermelon eating contest.  That was priceless.  I had no idea he had that in him!
-3 - Hearing Aunt Danny's voice.... always reminds me of Grandma.

I know, I did too many :)  It was a lot of fun!


Nate and I obsessed over these planes that kept flying overhead.  They were SO LOUD and so old.... they looked really cool though!





Nate's nature photo shoot.



Erika played in the water and got SOAKED!  She sure had a lot of fun just wandering around getting into everything.  It was nice that there was so much room for her to roam :)



Lukey told me how bored he was about every 5 minutes.  No wii.  I'm hoping he grows out of this.  "There's nothing fun for me here!" when I would tell him he couldn't use Daddy's phone.  I think he had more fun the second day with the Stowellympics..... He's a funny kid.  But he did love his "wed sleeping bag"!  He put himself to bed that night, all excited to be sleeping in it!  They all slept SO WELL actually.  Pretty miraculous.  Although, they usually do well when we're camping.... I'm not sure why :) but no complaints!



This picture just makes me laugh :).  Noah had a blast!  Especially once Charlie got there.... they were all over the place.  I think that at one point they were thinking they were going to sleep in the same tent together.... cute boys. 



doesn't this look cool! 




I have really loved getting to know Heather and Jessica a little better over the last few years.... they were always the little little kids when we went to the reunions.... now that we're all in the same stage in life, with our little kids, we have lots in common.  I love it.  They're such sweet, talented moms. 



Bradley spent about 90% of his time by/in the fire pit.  The kid is fearless.  It's weird, but I totally trusted him and felt like he would be careful.  Don't get me wrong, I stressed out about it enough for a million people, but I feel like he needs a little room to grow.  He sure showed me.  Didn't have any problems.  Didn't even melt his rubber crocs!









Kelly was a big girl the whole time :)  I'm pretty sure she loves that status.  She was sweet with the little girls, and I think she had some fun with Amanda and Emily too. 



Nate won and excelled at EVERYTHING he attempted.  As usual.  Is it wrong to want to see him fail at SOMETHING??  He's just perfect.  I love him.  It was fun to watch him beat everyone at arm wrestling even though I knew he was going to be in pain for a week after.  He's fun to watch :) 







Charity seemed to be torn between listening to the adult gossip, shadowing the older girls, or playing with the girls her age.  She never quite knows what she wants to do ;)  But she seemed to really love the Stowellympics.  She got into everything.  All of my kids did actually, it was a lot of fun.  Charity's allergies were out of control most of the time, so that was an obstacle.  She's been so good at dealing with it all this season. 







I love this picture of Brad in the seed spitting contest!  What a cool kid!




Charity took this one.... I love it!  These last pictures were all hers as well.





only Luke could have a straight face while wearing these glasses :)

Random Pictures

these first two are from our field trip to Mueller Park with the ward friends



This is Kelly FINALLY rocking Erika.  She had been begging us for days to let her rock her and finally Erika was in the mood to do it.  She usually puts up quite the fight before falling asleep, so this isn't an option.  I think Nate actually got her most of the way asleep and then handed her to Kelly.... but anyway, it's still the sweetest thing in the world to see one of your sweet little angels enjoying and holding another one :)  I love it.

Future Memories

- Wednesday the 29th was our field trip up to Mueller Park for Hotdogs and Marshmallows!  There were 30 kids, so it was insane! but we had such a good time!  The river was pretty high, so no playing in the water.  The kids mostly ran around looking for bugs and tried to keep cool.  Even though it was overcast we were cooking! 

- Thursday we were invited to go up and watch how the Krispy Kreme donuts are made!  That was pretty fun, and the free donut wasn't too bad either!  Then we all caravaned over to the Castle Park.  It was WAY too hot for that park, but we stayed for at least an hour and half.... kinda crazy.  Good times though. 

- Friday we spent most of the day trying to clean the house for the suspected inspection from our Landlord.  Luckily they called and changed it to Tuesday, but then we had to cram and pack for our Reunion/Campout.  I will do a whole post on the campout, but it is important to me to note that I packed for an overnight trip for 8 people in less than 2 hours!  Counting the time to make cookies!  Almost had it out in the car and ready to go when Nate got home, but not quite.  But it was all in a nice little pile and ready to go when he walked in the door.  I was just proud of myself that I was able to do it all!

- Sunday we got to go up to Nate's parents' house and see Rob and Heather.  They were in town for the holiday.  It's always good to see them.  We also had a visit from a member of the Stake Presidency.  That was enough to stress me out.  Not sure how I feel about that one still.  I guess it could be worse : )

- Monday was our big day to celebrate, 4th of July is one of my favorites!  We were surprised to find out that most of the fun things we had planned (traditions) were done on the 2nd for some reason.  That was a huge bummer!  No parade for us.  We spent most of the morning cleaning (ugh.) for our inspection the next morning, then finally got to celebrate by going to a barbecue with Nate's family, and then watching the West Jordan Fireworks.  I'm so glad we made the effort to go see the fireworks even though that wasn't our normal place.  It was a really good show and a lot of fun!  Not for Erika of course.  She was "GARE!" the whole time.  She's very scared of anything fire.  In fact earlier in the evening when the cousins were letting off parachute guy fireworks, she was LOVING it until she noticed that they had to light them with fire.  The fun was ALL over then.  There was no going back either.  I had to bury her in the blanket, with my arms around her, my hand over her ear to muffle the booms even more, and she actually put her arms around my neck also.  It was pretty traumatic.  While we were waiting for the show to start all of the neighborhood fireworks were going off and she was not a big fan.  Luckily she fell asleep just before the official ones started, and slept through the whole thing.  Not sure how she did that.  Could have been the motrin I gave her for her burn.  She burned her hand in the hot water at Lynn's house.  It must have been pretty painful because Erika is generally pretty tough.  If she cries a lot it's usually her mad cry, and this time it was definitely a sad one.  So I could tell she was in a lot of pain.  Her hand looked red, but seemed to go back to its normal color pretty quickly.  She's still talking about it a day later.... not sure if it hurts or if she just remembers the pain.  Poor little girl.  She really had a rough day.  Not a 4th of July she'll want to remember.  Which is fine since she's 1 :).  I loved it.  It turned out better than I had thought it would considering everything went wrong :).  That's just how it goes sometimes :)

Future Memories

- We didn't set the alarm clock right, so I missed Tuesday's workout.  That was a bummer and always throws off my groove.  But I was trying to not let it.  We still managed to pull off a really fun day.  The movie they were playing at the Summer Movies thing was lame, so we decided we would take it easy in the morning, not having to rush to get to the 10:00, and just go out to the dollar movie in Sugar house and see a movie that we wanted to see.  Or THEY wanted to see, I should say.  I didn't really care.  So we stopped at Free Lunch at Washington Elementary and then went up to see Hoodwinked Too.  It really wasn't that bad.  Erika fell asleep on the way there and slept through the buying of the tickets and popcorn, and even the first twenty minutes or so, and that was nice.  She didn't love the last..... OOHH..... 45 minutes of it though, so those were spent going in and out and playing with the track lights, crying..... good thing it was only a dollar right?  But the older kids did perfect!  They all seemed to like it and were entertained!  I think any movie with Kronk as the voice is a movie worth seeing :)  That voice just does it all!  I don't even know his first name, but whatever, it's hilarious! 

- Wednesday the girls got to go to Temple Square with their Activity Days class.  That was fun for them!  They both liked seeing the statue of Christ.  Kelly called it the outer space part :).  The boys and I went on a "field trip" with the friends from our ward to the International Peace Gardens.  I took a bunch of pictures, but I didn't really like any of them.  Kinda bummed me out.  I'm still trying to make myself feel welcome in this ward.  It's so hard when you're renting.  But we have fun with them!

- Thursday was a pretty fun day too!  Park with Grandma and Sarah and her boys.  Then snow cones.  Then sprinklers with my new/old friend Becky.  That was a lot of fun.  Becky and I have become friends through blogs and facebook and stuff.  We had all these opportunities to be friends in High School and when we both worked at the pool, but never really did.  Her mom is in our ward and she was visiting from VA with her new baby, so we had to steal a visit from her!  I got to hold her 4 week old baby!  Did it make me baby hungry?  No, because you can't be made baby hungry when you already are 24/7.  I know there's something seriously wrong with me.  Charity and Kelly have inherited the same problem apparently.  They keep begging me to have another one now.  Funny girls.  We'll see.  Eventually I'm sure. 
After the sprinklers, Chris and Stephanie and their little girl Sophie came over for a Barbecue.  That was a lot of fun, too!  The kids spent the whole time showing off their tricks around the yard.  I spent the time wishing we had more fun Summer stuff to play on back there!  Nate made the most delicious food!  Good visiting, Good times.