UTAH TRIP

Morgan and I took a trip to Utah for a Watkins Family Reunion. We carpooled with my parents and left Thursday, July 30th. We arrived early Friday morning at the Watkins Family cabin in Provo Canyon. After a decent amount of sleep, my parents left to run errands and go to a family meeting while Morgan and I entertained ourselves with fishing, shooting, and watching the movie "Holes".

Here's some pictures of us shooting.

This is what the target looked like after I shot it.

Morgan shooting. Check out his focus.

This is what the target looked like after Morgan shot it. Hmmm, something tells me he has done this before.

Chris came up Friday afternoon with a couple pizzas and so we ate and visited for a little while and then he took Morgan out fishing.

Chris happened to come across a couple of fish while showing Morgan how it was done.

Fish #1.

Fish #2.

Chris and Morgan crossed the creek on slippery rocks and logs and I didn't want to risk it knowing my body is unbalanced due to it's, how do you say, "out of proportion"ness, so they went on without me and lo and behold....

Morgan caught a fish!

Saturday Morning I woke up to pieces of bark hitting the window by our bed at the cabin. I got up and looked out the window and there was Morgan standing there holding up a fish! I went downstairs to take a picture. Morgan just loved being able to fish. He sure was getting the hang of it! He caught a couple more that morning.

My sister Leslie and her husband Jason and their family arrived early Saturday morning.

We all ate lunch and hung out until it was time to go to the reunion. Maddy (niece #3) was enjoying sucking on her foot.

WATKINS FAMILY REUNION

Saturday evening, we attended the Watkins Family Reunion in Bountiful, UT at my Uncle Mark & Aunt Laurels house. The reunion's theme this year was an indian theme. During the program, all of the children participated in a parade and later a lot of the families shared their talent(s). It was a great program!

The Bountiful Temple was just up the street so after the reunion we went and took a few pictures. It's such a beautiful temple.

Sunday evening we had the wonderful opportunity, along with most of our relatives from the previous day, to go to a small fireside to listen to Elder Richard G. Scott. It was a question & answer fireside. It was amazing to be in the presence of an apostle and to hear his testimony. My parents, Morgan and I were able to snag a picture with my Grandpa and Elder Scott afterwards. (Elder Scott's wife who is deceased, is my Grandpa's sister. That is why we had this opportunity to see him. It was in a way the 2nd half of the family reunion.)

Monday morning, Morgan and I took the girls and Adam out to go fishing and Morgan caught one within the first 5 minutes.

Mya (niece #1) caught a huge fish but it wriggled off the hook just before Morgan could get his hands on it. She had the biggest smile on her face.

Adam fished a little too. He was so adorable.

Brianna (niece #2) caught a little fish too. I just love this picture. Little girl, huge pole, small fish.

Brianna and her fish.

TARGET SHOOTING

Later that day everyone got their turn with shooting the bbgun.

Even Adam tried it!

Mya and Brianna just loved being around Morgan. He is so good with kids. He is going to be a wonderful father.

Maddy in the air having fun with my dad.

Morgan and Jason had some male bonding time as they built a dam to create a really nice fishing hole. It took them a couple of hours.

The finished product.

Even though the water was freezing cold they decided to each take a dip! Crazies!

BRRRRRRRRR!

They both felt pretty manly!

Monday night my dad told one of his classic stories of Mr. Stewart. While he was telling the story (in the dark) my brother Chris ("Mr. Stewart") left the cabin and went up the road to an abandoned cabin to wait for us. After the story was finished we went on a "Midnight Hike" and Brianna was clinging to Morgan as we walked up the road leading to Stewart's cabin. It was hilarious! The story involved flashing lights and as we were walking up to the cabin, lights were flashing in the window of the abandoned cabin. My mom and Mya who was on my moms back, walked right into the cabin without any cares. One by one most everyone went into the cabin with the flashing lights. I believe it was just my dad, Morgan and Brianna and I that were left outside the cabin. Then the ghost of "Mr. Stewart" flashed his face in the window a few times! I would've been freaked out had I been a little kid but it was so hilarious! Chris then came out to show Brianna that it was him and not some ghost and she was okay. She then went into the cabin and flashed her face in front the window for us. It was great!

We went back to the cabin and visited. Chris put Adam to sleep. It was cute.

Tuesday morning just before we left we got a couple of pictures taken in front of the cabin.

*SIDE NOTE*

Morgan caught a fish just before departure back to California. He caught this fish in the same fishing hole that he and Jason had created the night before. I just had to mention that because I thought it was amazing that fish travel that quickly in the creek behind the cabin.

On the way home...

...we stopped to get a picture of Mt. Timp and took some pictures of the beautiful aspen trees and sunflowers.

There was a storm just outside of Reno where we got some pictures of lightening off in the distance.

Cool huh?

We had a wonderful time with my parents, Chris and Leslie, Jason and their kids. We always love spending time at the cabin.

Happy Birthday to My Love!

Morgan's birthday was yesterday, Sunday the 26th of July. On Saturday I surprised Morgan by waking him up at 6:45 am and taking him up to Stumpy Meadows Lake (a little past Union Valley Resevoir). I had purchased an inflatable raft the day before hoping to take him fishing and perhaps paddle around the lake. The fishing part didn't really work out because the raft wasn't as hefty and as big as I had hoped it would be. Even then, we still paddled around a little bit and even got out and swam a little. It was nice to be up in the mountains and see the beautiful scenery.

Here's a picture of Morgan blowing up our little raft. We were both laughing most of the time while we were blowing it up knowing it was going to be more of an adventure than actually working out as planned.

Yup, a little squishy.

After we were done with paddling around and swimming, we put the raft up to dry while we ate lunch.

We played the famous game of "War" in the back seat.

It's a beautiful lake.

We arrived home to the wonderful aroma of "Chicken and Stuffing" in the crockpot. Morgan loves that stuff! My mom was so nice to come over to our place while we were gone and make the crockpot meal so that it would be done by the time we got home. Thanks Mom!

I then had Morgan open up his gifts. We are trying to cut back on our budget so they were homemade mostly, which is actually what he had asked for...he's so cute. I framed the dedicatory blessing of our little home which had been done just after we had moved in. I also gave him "Family Home Evening in a Jar!" It has different songs and topics/lessons for our Monday Nights. I also gave him a half finished cross stitch that I am still working on, which will eventually say "Home Sweet Home".

We then took a nap because of the early day and later went over to my parents to celebrate his birthday with them. We had cake and icecream and Morgan opened up a couple more gifts from my parents. They got him a 100 piece drill set and a hair cutting kit (we're always borrowing my parents hair cutting kit, so now we finally have our own!) :)

Don't you just love the candle!!???

I just fall more and more in love my husband everyday. He makes everyday so wonderful. He is so positive and optimistic and such a wonderful example of love, charity, and service. I am so grateful for him and for the blessing that he is in my life. I love him so much! Happy Birthday my love! I hope you enjoyed your birthday!

Celebrating My Mom's Birthday

Sunday, July 19th we celebrated my Mom's birthday at our family friends house, the Reynolds. We had a wonderful stuffed pork chop dinner and visited a lot and ate Pear Cake! We had an enjoyable time. The following evening Morgan and I had my parents over for dinner and Family Home Evening. We ate, visited and taught my parents how to play Domino's! It was a lot of fun.

I'm so grateful for my mom and all that she has done for me. She is such a wonderful example and I hope that someday I can follow in her footsteps and be the wonderful person she is.

I LOVE YOU MOM!

B O W L I N G

We forgot to post the fun we had on July 4th. We went bowling! It was the first time that we had gone bowling since we were married. Surprisingly there weren't very many people there during the day on Saturday, July 4th. We played a couple games.

You gotta love the bowling shoes.

Check out his form!

I love my best friend!

IT'S A.......

....IT!

Today Morgan and I went in for my 22 week ultrasound which normally would tell us if it's a boy or a girl BUT our lil' baby decided to play HOUDINI and wouldn't show us anything! It's legs were crossed at the thighs and there is no tellin' what it is. I even rolled over on my side for a few minutes and poked at my tummy hoping it would move and spread those legs but to no avail. So, the ultrasound tech said she thinks it's a girl and is 80% sure but to not buy pink just yet. So, long story short, our baby is still an "it".

Everything else looked healthy and normal, the heart, kidneys, bladder, brain, spine, diaphram, etc, so we are grateful to know that the baby is healthy. Below are some pictures from the ultrasound.

This first picture is a profile shot and our baby's mouth is open.

These next few pictures are 4D pictures of our lil' one. As you can see he or she is very camera shy.

This last picture is obviously of the spine.

Oh, there are stories to tell about spines. We just found out that Morgan has a severe case of Scoliosis. His left leg is 1 & 3/8" shorter than his right, causing one hip to be a lot higher than the other and a distinct curve in his spine. Luckily, his back went out a couple weeks ago, causing him to go to the chiropractor and that is where he found out and saw in his x-ray the reason for his back pain. I say "luckily his back went out" because had it not and he'd gone on with his life for 20 or so years, his back would've been done for. We're praying that the "Spinal Reconstruction" that he is involved in in the next 4 months will recorrect most of the damage.

GARDEN UPDATE

So here are before and after pictures of our garden. We finished our garden in May sometime and now it is starting to show signs of the actual veggies!

This was just after we finished planting the garden in May.

These next two pictures were taken June 18, so a couple of weeks ago. It's amazing how much it has grown since then!

These pictures I took today, the 2nd of July. This first picture is of the grow box with 1 pumpkin plant, 2 watermelon plants and 4 strawberry plants. The watermelon plants are taking over!!

We are realizing now that we should have dug up another iris bed so that we could have more room. But this is how we learn. It is so fun to have a garden and we can't wait to start eating it!