Aani's Baptism

Aani Sophia was baptized on August 1, 2015! Her birthday is in June, but she wanted to wait until August, so her cousins, who do the Hill Cumorah Pageant for most of July, could be there.

It was a special, spiritual day. Aani is a wonderful girl. She has a gift for making friends; she makes friends easily wherever she goes. She has a great sense of humor- she gets jokes and sees the humor in funny situations. She's a good sister to her siblings. She's quick and bright, and loves school. She can be a stinker, too, but mostly she's pretty fantastic.

We love her to pieces, and thank Heavenly Father for her.

Cute matchy-match.

Grandma makes the girls these pillows when they get baptized

Nana gave Aani her scriptures and cute scripture case!

A round of Telestrations

Gotsta have bacon!

Harmony & Ava Flave

Stockton, Haylee, Oakley and Hope

Stocky-poo

Haylee giving Ava cheer lessons with Walmart bags as pom-poms. :)

Utah Randomness Pt 3, Lake Powell

Our Tour de Utah wasn't exactly full of weird, random places. We did touristy stuff that we've never done, or never done with the kids. We had never been to Lake Powell. We're not boaters and probably never will be, so we googled "What to do at Lake Powell without a boat". 

We found a guy who will take you out on the lake for the day in his boat and do whatever  you want. He provided food, sunscreen, towels, and all the know-how. He was also endlessly patient with our non-boater ways. We had a blast! The kids loved tubing, and they loved just riding on the boat. Totally worth it to pay this guy to do everything- all we had to do was show up and have a great time. 

P.S. Wanna feel old? Try water-skiing or wake-boarding for the first time since you were a teenager. Nils and I were crippled for a good week after this. We could barely move our arms. It was ridiculous, especially since neither of us could even get up for more than half a second. Pathetic! But fun pathetic!

Utah Randomness Pt 2, Bryce Canyon

We went on a Tour de Southern Utah for our summer vacation this year. We started out in Bryce Canyon, which is really just so cool. We were able to do a couple of hikes- my favorite was Queen's Garden and Navajo Loop. I felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie. 

Nils told Anders he would pay him $10 to carry Ava the last half mile of the hike- which was steep uphill climbing the whole way. It was rough for the ol' boy, but he wanted that money. When he would stop to take a break, Ava would say, "Anders, we've had enough breaks." Such a peach. 

He made it, but made sure we all knew how difficult it was. Good times!

This place is unreal.

Our second hike was to Mossy Cave, which was shorter and a little less specacular, but there was a river running by us the whole time. It was shallow so the kids played in it. Ava started getting swept away, and I couldn't believe how fast it carried her. She was screaming, "It's too strong!" Scary! We rescued her and all is well.

 She lived to tell the tale.

We were quite blown away by how spectacular Bryce Canyon is. The kids were over it in a couple of days, but Nils and I agreed that we would love to go back sans children to camp, hike, and explore.

Also, there were German tourists everywhere. It was so unexpected. Asian tourists? Sure. German tourists? Not used to that. Welcome, Germans, to our strange, beautiful land. Enjoy your complementary Wonder Bread and Frosted Flakes at the crappy hotel's "breakfast buffet". So embarrassing. At least the nature didn't disappoint. :)