Thanksgiving 2018

We started out our Thanksgiving Day with a run. Every year the Utah Food Bank sponsors the "Human Race." It's a 5K and registration is a donation to the food bank. 

We also ran this race in 2017

After the race, we ran into cousin Stuart and his wife. That was a fun surprise!

Then it was time to begin meal prep where we were hosting G'ma and G'pa Dewey, brothers Geoff and Mike and Aunt Cheryl.

And just to keep things real, the smoke detector went off more than once because of spillage in the oven. Yay. Good times!

I love these times and snapshots of family together. Geoff and my mom. And all the hugs that go around. Life on this earth doesn't last forever and I'm so grateful for the times we have together and the love we share.

After the Dewey side of the family went home, we trekked over to Grady's home and spent time with Brown cousins. Its the best, to have a strong relationship with cousins.

Time with Grandpa Brown. Somehow he always draws the grandchildren to him with his masterful storytelling and his ability to listen deeply to others.

Random January

It was so fun to have DJ and Kim and their family visit. We went bowling, which was great fun. Carter and Bryce are good friends and have a lot in common, like difficulty in taking a picture.

Syd's been seeing a lot of Ben and basketball lately.

We spent a day out of school with Sarah, Dallin and their boys and this is the only picture I took.

Jan 18- on the way home from school, we pass a house with a huge dog in the back yard. The kids get a kick out of provoking the dog.

Honestly though, it doesn't take a lot to get the dog barking.

Did you see the way the fence expands when the dog jumps? And then did you see the dog's head over the top of the fence? It scares me every time.

When cousins come to visit

We got to hang out with our Texas cousins!!!

One evening, Kim and I took the boys to Nickel City and had pizza and played arcade games.  

Dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's was a full house!

And our Ohio cousins visited also!

Carter also joined Bryce for soccer practice and had a blast!

Can't get enough of these cousins. Love them!

June/July stuff

Real quick:

For all the July birthdays (Park, me, mom) we went to see Spiderman: Homecoming. 

It was super fun.

We got to spend time with Texas cousins!

Sterling and I always leave a check-in paper for whoever is out later than we are on the weekend. I love the answers Sydney gave to the closing questions.

Q: Who loves you the most?

A: Hmmm. Heavenly Father.

Q: And why?

A: He knows me the best.

We went to the Sandy amphitheater and watched "Beauty and the Beast." We are always grateful to for the opportunity to go and spend the time together. It was kind of stormy but luckily, although it sprinkled a little here and there through the performance, it didn't start raining until the show had finished. What a blessing.

Apricot Festival 2017

Apricot Festival 2017 was a blast!

It bumped it up a few weeks and celebrated with the Fourth of July instead of Pioneer day. This allowed us to go to the Freedom Fest Hot Air Balloon display in Provo. It makes for an early morning. And a little chilly. But that only made the the big fires lighting up the balloons feel even better!

Here are the die-hards that woke early! 

(Saratoga Browns, Ellsworths, Carrolls, Lehi Browns.)

Then we headed to the "Y" trail head. Look at all those balloons in the background!

Later in the day we went to "This Is The Place" heritage park. 

One of the main objectives was to see the Heber C. Kimball house. 
(Grand-dad's Grandpa)

We invited the missionaries to dinner and they shared a nice message and their testimonies before they left.

The traditional picture at the Apricot Place street sign.

Presenting the Apricot Award from Audra to Carolyn.

She ran the Boston marathon this year and is just plain awesome!

SIBLINGS

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Two truths and a lie game with the newly weds.

Nelson & Ciara

Alison & Brandon

Stuart & Michelle

Ben & Camille

Let's do it again next year!!!!

April stuff

Bryce is quite the amazing young guy. All on his own, he cut out each of these letters and taped them on my door. He has such a tender, beautiful heart and the best hugs!

During spring break, we followed Sterling on a one-day trip to Beaver. Lots of time in the car. But the time was together so it was worth it. On the way, we stopped at a turkey farm. Pretty awesome. 

We had two cousins get married in April. Stuart and Ben. The kids were able to take a day off of school and attend Ben's wedding at the Payson Temple. We had fun at the luncheon reception place with our Ellsworth cousins before everyone else arrived. 

We also got to visit with Shelby Bradshaw and her mom, who were visiting their family and cousin who was competing in the Miss Eagle Mountain contest. It was a fun show and even more fun to visit with friends.

On a Sunday afternoon, before going to dinner with family, Bryce kicked his soccer ball and hit the front window. Luckily its a double pane window and he only broke the outer pane but sheesh. That's a sickening feeling to hear shattering glass.

Rachel has been texting my mom a lot. It just cracks me up. And the gifs take it to a whole new level. 

And here is some video of Syd's mad dancing skills. The first part is Syd and company doing Just Dance on the computer. The second part is Syd doing homework with Lexi. I'm not sure how much homework got done that day.