Teens

I have been working on getting my own photography blog going, but, until it's up and running, I'll post some pics here! This is my most recent "practice" photo shoot with my niece and some of her cute friends. I had so much fun with them. Oh, to be 15 again!

Summer fun

I'm trying to catch up on my blogging, so I'm including 3 different events into one post. Here goes...
We went to stay at a cabin with some friends and neighbors on June 19-20. We had a fun time chatting, staying in from the cold weather and RAIN, playing games, and just relaxing. However, we brought the boat, and Kevin couldn't pass up the opportunity to get out on the water, even though it was about 41 degrees or so. He and Frank got in the freezing water for some reason, and did some knee boarding.... for a few minutes anyways.


And, this is what summer is all about, right? Going swimming with the kids! I've tried to take them as often as I could before school starts back up again.


And this is our most recent boat trip. We went to Utah Lake w/ our friends, the Cole's. Besides the fact that some of the kids threw up on the way there, and Heidi got hit in the head with a knee board, I think we all still had a good time!

Playgroup

In my ward, we have a playgroup every week during the summer. We go to a local park, museum, or local attraction. Yesterday we went to Tracy Aviary, and Liberty Park to play in the water. Here are a few fun pics. I hope you moms don't mind me sharing some pics of your kids!
This will probably be the last one Bailee will get to go to, since she starts school on Monday!

A hard day

Well, Saturday was kind of a rough day for us. We started the day out well, going to the family reunion on my mom's side of the family. We went swimming in Lehi, and had fun. Until Kevin came out of the locker room and said someone had stolen his wallet out of his shorts pocket. They had lockers there, but we didn't bring a padlock. I was so ticked! People like that just make me so mad. How can you sleep at night knowing you took someone's personal property? I felt so violated. So I was in my locker room getting ready, and the thought came to me, "have Kevin check the garbage cans". So I suggested this to him. He went back into the locker room, and most of the garbages were full of nasty food and what not. He just pulled the whole bag out and looked to see if he could see it. Well, lo and behold, in the second one he pulled out, there was his wallet, in the very bottom! He got it out, and the only thing missing was his cash, which was about $30. All of his credit cards and his license and everything else was still there. I'm so thankful he found it! But I'm still ticked at the morons who took it. What idiots.

After swimming, we headed over to a park in Lehi to catch up, mingle, eat, and play with relatives. Just as I was getting relaxed, my dad came over to me and told me that Kim, the owner of the property where we are keeping our horses, just called him, and my horse, Honeybear, has colic, and was going downhill pretty fast. Colic is a gastrointestinal condition that happens to horses, and it's pretty common. The best thing to do is get them up and walking immediately, or they can die. I had to make the decision to leave the family reunion and drive back down to West Valley to get her up and moving. My dad and I went, and Kev stayed with the kids at the reunion. Kim kept calling saying Honeybear keeps closing her eyes and wants to give up.
Just a little history about Honeybear: she's 6 years old and has been healthy all her life, but this past winter, she lost all of her weight, and has been horribly skinny for months now. We've taken her in to the vet, and they couldn't find the problem. We've been trying to get her weight back up for months, with no luck.
Here's a picture of what she has looked like recently, ribs and backbone sticking out. It's so sad to see her this way!


So back to the story: We got to West Valley to find Kim pulling her as hard as she could to keep walking and not lay down. I took her from there and the vet was on his way. It was so hard to keep trying to pull her and keep her from lying down. I kept this up for 20-25 minutes. It was SO hard! It was horribly hot outside, my mouth was dry, I was tired, but I couldn't stop. My dad was with me and he was helping. The vet finally got there, right as she laid down again. He gave her a sedative to help with the pain in her stomach. She was just lying there moaning. It was so hard to see her that way, and not know what to do to help her.


After the sedative helped with the pain, she stood up on her own, but you could tell she was very weak. The vet checked her gums, and they were very pale. She wasn't in good shape. The vet said the sedative would wear off in about 45 minutes or so, then she'd probably be in pain again, wanting to lie down.
Surgery would be an option for a normal horse, but due to her weight problem, she wouldn't survive through surgery. So came the decision. The awful decision of whether or not we should put her down.

It was such a hard decision to make, but I think we were just delaying the inevitable. The hardest part for me was telling her good-bye for the last time. It wasn't when she was lying down moaning on the ground, it was when she was standing up, just trying to eat some grass, acting like she normally does. I know she's just an animal, but she was such a sweet horse, and she was my friend. I have some fun memories with her. She took me up Timpanogos on a beautiful fall day in October of 2006, and she also took me on a great ride up in the Uintas. She was very gentle with kids, and I could even trust her to let the little ones lead her around all by themselves. Not many horses are that gentle. Just the other day, Bailee, Trinidee, and their cousin, Toby, were taking turns holding the rope and just walking around with her following. That's about all we could do with her lately since she was too weak for a rider.

I told the kids today, and Bailee cried with me, saying she'll come back to earth when we come back to the earth. She's so sweet! Trinidee said she'll miss her.

I'll miss her too.

Family Pictures

We had our friend Mindy take our family pictures on June 25. I can't believe it's taken me this long to get them posted on my blog! I did, however, get them posted on facebook and 3 family websites, so a lot of you may have already seen these. :)
Thanks, Mindy, we had a lot of fun with you!
So in these pics, Bailee is about 6 1/2, Trinidee is almost 5, and Ryker is 20 months.

Evian

Have y'all seen this?

Jackson Hole

We took a trip to Jackson Hole over the 4th of July to visit my brother Shane and his family. My whole family was there except for my brother Kody and his family, and my sister Season and her family. We missed them!

The first day we took the boat across Jenny Lake to hike to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. We actually did that exact same thing last year on the 4th, but some of the family wasn't there last year, so we did it again.

On the 4th, my brother took me, my dad, and my sister Brianne for a fun trail run. We did about 5 1/2 miles. Trail running is something I don't get to do enough of. It's a lot different on your muscles, and my lower legs were pretty sore the next day from all the uneven ground. It was awesome though. Then we all went to the parade in Jackson. The kids loved it. Then we did a little bit of shopping in downtown Jackson, then headed to the local pool for some swimming. Bailee loves to go underwater and swim. She didn't have her goggles on, and smacked her face right into the wall while she was underwater. She came up screaming and bleeding. It knocked her front tooth loose. It's still loose now (10 days later), and it's crooked. It's a baby tooth, so I'm guessing it will just come out soon. Poor thing. :( After swimming we headed to Bubba's BBQ for dinner. The ribs were yummy! Then we headed to a park to wait for the fireworks show. They had some fun toys at the park. The adults were playing on them as much as the kids!

The next morning, my dad, Shane, Brianne, and I took a hike up Death Canyon. It was about 9 miles round-trip, and it was SO spectacular! We saw a couple of moose, and Shane spotted Bear poop. We had seen a bear last year up in the Tetons, but we didn't get to see one this year. This trail goes right alongside a HUGE waterfall for a good portion on the hike, then up to a meadow when you get above it. There's also a forest rangers cabin up there. It was just beautiful.

We had a great weekend of mingling, relaxing, exploring, & letting the kids play with their cousins. Thanks, Shane & Dawna for your hospitality!

Kindergarten Graduation

Bailee graduated from Kindergarten on July 2, 2009! I can't believe it. She's going to be a 1st grader. Time really flies by...
Here is her class at their last field trip. We went to Wheeler Farm. I'm glad I was able to go with her. She didn't want me to leave afterwards though. She asked me to stay with her at school the rest of the day. I know the time will probably come that she's not going to want me around as much anymore. I'll have to hold on to these moments the best I can.


At her graduation, Ryker went to sit down by her on the floor with the rest of her class. He loves his big sister!





She did so good in Kindergarten. She scored very high on her report card, she's way above average, and we couldn't be more excited for her.
Congrats, Bailee! We're so proud of you!

Chapman Family Reunion

I'm a bit behind on my blogging if you can't tell, but I'm slowly catching up. Over the weekend of June 26 & 27, we held our annual Gaylen Chapman family reunion with Kevin's immediate family, (parents and brothers & sisters). Kevin is the second to the youngest of 6 kids.

Friday evening, we started it off with swimming at a friends pool. It was nice because it was like a private pool party, we were the only ones there. After swimming, we went to Kevin's parents for scones. Then the plan was to camp out in the back yard, but it was pouring rain, so a lot of us just went home and slept. (They live about 5 miles from us). The girls slept over at grandma's though.

Saturday morning we participated in the WestFest 5K race. A lot of the family did the race, and the rest of them watched kids, and came to cheer us on. The kids even participated in the kids fun run.
Here's our numbers if you'd like to know:
Kevin finished in 23:48- 3rd in the stroller division
I finished in 24:57- 5th in my age division
Kyle (Kevin's brother) finished in 21:41- 2nd in the stroller division
Brianne (My sister, Kyle's wife) finished in 22:52- Get this, she was the overall Female winner!! She was the fastest female in the entire race, and she had just had a baby 5 weeks before that! Impossible.

After the 5K, we went back to Kev's parents for a brunch. Then we went home to clean up for the Oquirrh Temple Open House. (It was during that time that the BEE encounter happened. If you don't know about it, just stroll down to my post about the bees.) The open house was at 4:00, and it was beautiful. It was the second time I was able to go, since I went with the youth in the ward a few weeks ago.

After the open house, we went to Kyle and Brianne's for a BBQ, program, and the West Fest Fireworks show. They live close to where they set them off, so we could just watch from their back yard. Each family did something for the program, and we played games. Kevin, Jessi and I had a marshmallow eating contest, and I was able to fit 11 large marshmallows in my mouth! I won. But none of us could stop gagging. Good times.

Then we had the fireworks show. It was a great weekend!

What does a cow say?

I recorded this video back on June 24, when Ryker was about 20 months old. I've tried to post it almost every day since then, but it wouldn't ever work. Talk about frustration! Today I realized the file was too big, so I shortened it.
Here are some of the things Ryker can do and say at 20 months. Oh, and it was about this same time that we took his binky away. It was rough the first couple of nights, but he's done wonderfully! It's so nice not to have to worry about finding the binkies all the time. And he's still young enough to take naps. I took the binky away from Bailee and Trinidee when they were older, and that was the same time they stopped taking naps! I think I waited too long with them. But it's a relief to have it gone now with Ryker. Sometimes I wish I had it for him during church though. (Especially today!) It was nice to have that little device to "plug" his mouth and make him quiet.