Gardner Village and Thanksgiving Point Farm Country

Captain America and Grandpa at Gardner Village

Ryder & Annie

 Ryder dancing up on the stage- real shy kid I've got here ha ha

 my wonderful family

 The gang at our annual Gardner Village outing

Thanksgiving Point Farm Country with some of my fam

 Ryder was so stoked to finally ride a horse.  He asked for one for his birthday after this and kept asking why his horse wasn't running when he said Yee Haw!  He is pretty funny.

 Nana and some of her Grandbabies : )

 Ryder and Cam in jail.  Wow I wish I had one of these at home sometimes : ) 

State Fair

Sorry I am a bit behind!  Things have been crazy!  We actually bought a house so regular craziness is now on steroids : )  Here are some pics from the state fair with some friends awhile back!

Here is Issac - of course he had to be the one to get the massive Turkey leg (which really tasted like ham)!

Ryder and Grandpa touching the massive pig!!!

 Ryder playing the ring toss, the workers gave him a basket just to play around with!

 Issac and Melinda playing ring toss

 Christian and Jayden supervising the ring toss

 Robb and Bianca trying the ring toss

 At the end of the day no one got a single ring on a bottle from the ring toss.  They just took all us poor peoples money!!!  So Christian and Ryder went to the guns instead.

 The gang: us, Issac, Melinda and baby Beckham, Bianca and Robb

 Gotta love the state fair.  Always a good time

 Ryder was a little hesitant to do the big yellow slide but at the end of the night I made him do it anyway.  He has the fear of almighty in his facial expression but as soon as he got to the bottom he said it was awesome and wanted to do it again.  That is why as a parent you force your kids to do things . . . and you hope that your plan works!

ZOO DAY!

So today was Zoo Day!  I LOVE the Zoo!  Grandma asked if the kiddos wanted to spend a morning at the Zoo with her and of course they said yes!  So CarolLynne, Danos ended up coming as well (Christians brother), me and both kiddos.  It was a beautiful day, not too hot and not too busy!

Ryder and Grandma

 It was nice to have Uncle Danos there because he just carried Ryder!  Thanks Danos!

 I have never seen such active animals at the Zoo!  This Polar Bear was totally playing with the kids.  He kept diving under the water, coming up to the glass then pushing off to swim on his back.  He did it like 20 times in a row!  (Ryder and Danos are on the right.)  You could not get more up close and personal than this with out fearing for your life! ha ha Ryder LOVED it!

 Ryder's favorite book right now is Brown Bear, so he was really excited to see the brown bears. 

 Me and my boy checking out the giraffes

 If you do not have a picture of yourself drinking from this exact fountain at the Zoo when you were a kid, you have had a neglected childhood! : )

 That is a Gorilla behind us . . . somewhere - oh wait!  It's behind the flash reflection ha ha.  Cute picture of Ryder though.

 Oh there is the big Gorilla!  It was lunch time so we got to see a lot of the animals up close in their rooms for lunch!

 After Ryder's Polar Bear experience he HAD to ride the Polar Bear on the Carousel.  And of course, we roped Uncle Danos into riding along!

 Me, "Hey Ryder, What does a Polar Bear say?" Ryder, "Rrrraaaaaaarrrrrr!!!!"  

 Grandma and Jayden watching us on the carousel.

Lake Powell

We had our yearly Lake Powell trip and took Ryder with us for his 3rd year now!  Crazy how time flies.  We did leave Jayden home with my parents though so we only went for a couple days.  2 days is still a blast!  Our friends Issac and Melinda came down with us and left their sweet baby Beckham too.  It was a lot of fun!  Sorry...lots of pics!

Ryder and Issac just chillin

Mommy surfing for the 1 time of year that I do ha ha.

Ryder cruising with Grandma and Grandpa

Christian showing off his white bod!  Blinding right?!  Cute though : )

His request for Lake Powell treats: Cheeze its and Twizzlers.  So this is him eating his twizzlers while he surfs.

Ryder loves pretending that he is the captain!  Here he is driving the boat, too bad it isn't on and we are tied up to the houseboat! ha ha

Nap time with my boy!  He turns 3 in November so any chance I get to snuggle with him I totally take advantage of it.  I love him so much and he was soooo good on this trip!

Our little fam... minus 1!

Ryder with Issac and Melinda being silly!  PEACE!  Really?!!! Look at that background!  I LOVE LAKE POWELL!

Ryder being silly in his Big Boy Briefs!

Superman!

We only go boating 1-3 times a year MAX but somehow Christian gets up and skis like he does it all the time!

Great skier, so fun to watch!

Just going for a drive to the one spot we found with cell service so I could call and check up on my baby girl!  There were 3 other mommys on the boat doing the same thing!  Wow life changes so fast, one day we are down there with all our friends with no responsibility or care in the world and now we all have babies and can only do Lake Powell for a couple days.  Oh well, I LOVE my life!

Ryder and his Uncle Danos

Ryder and Grandpa on our hike up to Rainbow Bridge

Rainbow Bridge

Ha ha we all just laughed at how tall Christian looks in this!

We went on the most amazing ride.  We went up through this canyon and at some points it was just as wide as our wave runner so we could touch both walls at the same time!  So cool but I didn't take my camera! UGH!

Ryder & his Aunt Annie that he loves so much!

Much better round 2, I even let go of the rope for like 5 seconds ha ha!

Surfing as a massive rain storm starts to hit!

Cute little tan : )

Driving the houseboat with Grandpa.  It was raining too hard to drive outside on the top.

Life is good

Ryder likes to stretch with me, it is so cute and he is still so flexible.

Trying to get my boy warm after his swim

Good 'ole tube session! Faster and more crazy each year.

Wake boarding for my first time! wahoo!

Apparently people thought my water bottle storage place was a bit funny.  I had no pockets...what do you expect!

Danos, Randy & us... the rest of the group went to rainbow earlier in the week.

Catching some air.. woo woo!