Huckleberries

The weekend before school started was prime time for picking Huckleberries so we headed up to Grace on Friday night. We love picking huckleberries every year, it's one of the great things about being back in the west. We headed up to our special spot around 11:00 and were joined by Sarah and her boys, Kenny's cousins Shannon, Lance, and Danny, Kenny's parents and later Kingston's came up. We found some good areas and were able to get about a gallon of berries. I love sitting in the huckleberry bushes with family visiting and just enjoying the great outdoors. It's so relaxing to me.

I didn't take many pictures, but here's one of the kids roasting hot dogs.

Gracie was sooooo messy.

In true Newbry fashion the huckleberry picking turned into a huge event complete with a screen tent, fire pit, and way too much food. We roasted hot dogs, cooked hamburgers, made smores, and roasted starbursts. It was great. I LOVE huckleberry picking.

Fun At The Logan Pool

So, the last day we were in Logan we went to the local pool. Logan has the greatest pool for little kids I think I've ever seen. They have this huge pool that shallow enough that Hannah can touch in most of it. I can just let Sarah and Ben wander the pool and know they're safe. The kids and I, along with my Mom, went to the pool around 4:00 and we were joined by my cousin Kristin and her two boys. Later my Aunt Cindy and Dad arrived. It was a lot of fun swimming and enjoying the warm weather.

The pool also has 2 water slides. The kids LOVED the water slides. Gracie wasn't old enough (you have to be 2 and she won't be 2 until October) so the first time I went down I took just the 3 oldest along with Kristin and her son Braden (he's 2 months older than Ben.) When Hannah, who sat on my lap, and I got to the bottom we found Gracie standing with Grandma crying. She was sooooo sad that she had been left out. I decided to take her, even though she's not yet 2, and Kristin was kind enough to take Hannah on her lap. I had so much fun taking Gracie down. She laughed and laughed and screamed and screamed the entire way down. I've never had so much fun on a water slide.

Ben heading down the slide.

Hannah's turn on the slide.

After the second time down the slide I told the kids we needed to take a break and that we would slide again. It didn't take too long for us to get back to the slide. This time Braden didn't want to go so I had to have Hannah, who luckily was tall enough, go alone. Hannah didn't want to go down by herself, but with a little push from Mommy she went down. She had a great time and wanted to go over and over again. We took a break to have some pizza, but we spent most of the rest of the evening on the water slide.

Sarah Sliding

Mommy and Gracie's turn

The last slide of the evening Sarah Kate got brave enough to go down the fast slide by herself. Everyone went down the slower slide and when it was Sarah's turn I didn't see her. By the time the second, not Sarah kid came down it donned on me where she was. I looked over at the steep slide just in time to see her sit down. Grandpa and I cheered for her the entire way down. I was so proud of her, it was such a huge thing for Sarah because she's normally so scared of everything. As I bonus I went on the fast slide with her one more time, just the 2 of us. She had a blast and felt very cool. She even had to call Daddy and tell him what she did. Go Sarah.

It was a wonderful few days at Grandma and Grandpa's and we were so glad we went. We'll have to do it again next year.

A Week at Grandma's

The week before school started I decided to take a trip to Logan to spend some time with my parents. Kenny stayed home to do some work, and I took all 5 kids to Mom and Dad's for 3 1/2 days. We had a lot of fun and by the time we came home the kids were exhausted, and so was I. Both my parents had to work during the day, but we were kept very busy at night enjoying some sites of Logan and time with family.

Monday night we had a BBQ in the back yard with my family. My brother made a trip up from Salt Lake to spend the evening with us. The kids love playing with Uncle Ryan and he always leaves worn out. He asks me how I do it and I just tell him I'm not as cool as him, they don't play with me like they play with Uncle Ryan. We also picked raspberries, with a little help from Uncle Ryan, and made raspberry shake with Grandpa. It was a great night.

Picking raspberries with Uncle Ryan

More raspberry picking

Hannah making shakes with Grandpa

Tuesday night we met my Aunt Cindy, cousin Kristin and her family, and my cousin Daniel and his family at Willow Park for a picnic. Tuesday happened to be my cousin Daniel's birthday so my Aunt Cindy brought a cake for him. My kids were really confused at first about it being Daniel's birthday. I think we may have to call him Uncle Daniel to keep the confusion to a minimum.

Daniel and his son Luke getting ready to blow out the candles.

My cute little baby Daniel

Will, my cousin Kristin's boy

After our picnic the kids played on the toys for awhile and then we went to see the animals at the park. There aren't many animals in Willow Park, but there were enough to make the kids happy. They even got to feed the ducks right out of their hands which they thought was cool.

Feeding the ducks through the fence.

Gracie LOVED pushing the empty stroller. She was actually pretty good at it by the time we were done.

More Fun with Nancy

Hannah and Aunt Nancy

After the fun at the zoo everyone went to Chuck-a-rama for dinner. We were joined by even more family members and there was probably close to 40 of us so they gave us our own room, which was good. Dinner was a lot of fun, but dinner with 5 little kids is always an adventure. Luckily there were a lot of other kids around to entertain out kids and to help us realize we weren't the only crazy ones.

The kids eating dinner with Kingston cousins.

Alixa, Kenny's cousins wife, with her daughter baby Jenna and her nephew baby Luke. These babies are 5 days apart and our Daniel was born right in the middle of them.

After dinner Kingstons, Michael and Sarah, Nancy, her daughter Loni with her 3 little girls and her other daughter Jolie and husband Rob all went to the park. The kids had a blast playing with each other and it was a good way to end a very fun day.

Gracie playing at the park.

Kenny and Uncle Cory helping Sarah and cousin Missy on the teeter totter.

Ben and Missy teeter tottering with Gracie (and a little help from Daddy.)

Playing on the tire swing.

Zooing It With Nancy

Kenny's Aunt Nancy was in the West for a few weeks. We liked to think of Nancy and her husband Bruce as our east coast grandparents when we lived in Virginia. They live in Delaware and we often went to their house to see them back in the day. Nancy happens to be one of my favorite people so we wanted to make it a point to see her while she was in town. On Saturday August 15th Nancy and many others from Kenny's family were going to Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake. We have wanted to go there since moving back so we thought we'd tag along. The kids had a blast and it was so nice to see so many of Kenny's family.

Gracie with Nancy's Granddaughter Juliet. They're only 2 months apart and they enjoyed playing with each other.

Ben and cousin Travis sitting on the trunk of the big elephant.

The kids and I looking at the elephant with Grandma Newbry

Ben and Hannah watching the Rhino's with Uncle Michael, Aunt Sarah, Travis and Trent.

My cute little baby Daniel.

Another cute picture of Dan. Isn't he adorable?

Ben and the giraffes.

We stopped at the McDonald's in the zoo and got the kids an ice cream. They were BIG!

Father Son Campout

Friday the 14th was the father son campout in our ward. We were going to the zoo in Salt Lake the next day so Kenny wasn't going to take Ben. Ben was NOT happy about this and promised if Daddy would still take him then he would be a good boy at the zoo and he wouldn't be tired at all. Well, Kenny has a hard time passing up a camping trip and who can say no to such a cute boy, so around 5:00 they headed to Rire Reservoir.

They had a wonderful time. First they went on a hike. Ben said it was a very dangerous hike and they could have died on it. I doubt it, but to a 5 year old it may have been more intense. They went down to the water, but didn't get in. There was too many other things to do. They ate a lovely hamburger dinner, did a little wrestling, and Ben got to play with the new twin 5 year old boys in our ward, Gavin and Ryker. They watched the sun set, apparently Ben had never watched the sun actually set behind the mountains and he thought this was really, really cool. When it got dark there was a campfire where the boy scouts put on a skit and sang songs. Ben was in heaven as he loves to sing and be goofy. Kenny said it was a wonderful campout. Ben got to do whatever he wanted with Daddy and he loved it. The next morning they got up early to cook the pancakes, Kenny's the best pancake cooker I know, and then they headed home so we could go to the zoo. I think they'll definitely be going back next year.

While the boys, minus Dan of course, were at the campout, the girls and I were having some girl time. We had some lovely mac and cheese casserole for dinner, yummy! We made brownies (a very girly thing to do) and played the ducky game on the PlayStation. Around 8:30 I put the little girls to bed and Sarah Kate and I stayed up to play Princess Monopoly Junior. It was actually a very fun game, well if you're playing it with your kids, and I would recommend it if you have girls. Sarah learn how to play it quickly and she won both games that we played, though she tried very hard to let me win the last one. After that we went through the school supplies to make sure we had everything and then it was time for her to go to bed. The whole thing was good for our little family. It was nice for Ben to have some one on one time with Daddy and for me to have some time with my girls.

'Blue Hat, Green Hat'

Have you ever read the book 'Blue Hat, Green Hat' by Sandra Boynton? It's a board book that's been a favorite book for all of my kids. It show 4 different animals wearing different color articles of clothing on. Three of the animals have their clothes on right, but the poor turkey just doesn't know how to wear his clothes. He stands in his hat, puts his shirt on as pants, puts his pants on as a hat, and so on. My kids think it's hillarious.

So, recently they've been acting just like the poor turkey. Their favorite is to put their clean underwear on their head. They come out of their bedroom naked with their underwear on their head. It's very, very funny. The other day I told Hannah to go get dressed. I was in the kitchen and she came in with her skirt outfit on completely wrong. She had the cutest little smile on her face that I just had to laugh and take a picture. I love the silliness of little kids. It reminded me so much of the book I just had blog about it.

Hannah with her clothes on funny. Skirt as a shirt and shirt as pants. She thought she was soooo funny.

Yellowstone Again

A cool shot Kenny took at one of the geyser's as it was getting dark.

When it comes to Yellowstone I'm beginning to compare us to Kenny's family when it comes to Disneyland. They all love Disneyland and go there a couple times a year. We've found ourselves doing the same thing only with Yellowstone. Sunday evening, after we got back from Salt Lake, Kenny got a phone call from his friend Andy. He, his brother Jon, and their families were in town at the Walmart. They were on their way to Yellowstone and wanted to stop by. Luckily I had just had one of those crazy Mommy moments when I made the kids clean up because I couldn't take it any longer. That meant when they came over the house was already clean. :) Jon and his wife Allison where here from the Netherlands and the two families wanted to go to Yellowstone. We were so glad they decided to stop by. It was so much fun to visit with them and to catch up. They ended up inviting us to go to Yellowstone the next day.

Gracie looking at the mud pots at Artists Paintpots

The group, plus a few others, looking at the mud pots.

Hannah and Andy's son Bryson headed back to the car.

They drove on that night to West Yellowstone while we stayed home and drove up the next morning. We all spent Monday in the park seeing as much as we could. It was a lot of fun to see the park with friends, some of who haven't been to the park since they were kids. The kids really enjoyed playing with friends and just having other kids to hang out with. We were so grateful they invited us.

Ben and Jon's boy Chase playing around at lunch time. They're only a few months apart and it was fun for Ben to have so many boys to play with.

The adults watching the kids play near the river after our lunch picnic.

The older kids!
Sarah, Chase, Jaxon, Ben, Bailey, and Dylan
This picture is missing 5 kids; my 3 youngest and Jon and Andy's youngest.


It was a long day and the kids were tired. Hannah looked so cute I couldn't resist taking her picture.

The kids looking at mud pots at mud volcano.

July 24th

Gracie learned to LOVE floaties. She swam all around the pool and was so sad when it was time to get out.

We had a wonderful 24th of July weekend. We headed down to Salt Lake on Friday the 24th and found ourselves hanging out with Kenny's family. My sister-in-law Mindy invited everyone to her house for the weekend and was nice enough to reserve the neighborhood clubhouse where we were all able to swim. We spent most of the 24th at the pool enjoying swimming and visiting with family. Everyone (except April and JJ because they also live in Salt Lake) went to Mindy's house to spend the night. We put the kids to bed and Kenny and I stayed up playing cards with my Sister-in-law Sarah and Mother-in-law Helen for awhile.

Sarah and Savannah eating outside the clubhouse.

Ben serving Trent out the clubhouse window. The kids loved serving each other.

Hannah being silly eating dinner with Cadence.

This is how baby Dan spent most of the weekend.

The next day was a hot day and we were very grateful for the pool. Before swimming we did a little shopping and then met the family at a nearby park for a picnic. After the picnic we went to Gardner Village to feed the ducks. By the time we were done feeding the ducks we were very, very hot so we all went to the pool to cool down and have some fun. We were originally going to go home that night, but both Kenny and I were really tired. We thought it best to stay one more night. We headed out early Sunday morning. Overall it was a great weekend with the family.

Feeding the ducks at Gardner Village.

Sarah, Hannah, Zack, and Cadence watching the ducks.

Hannah riding the rocket with Aunt Mindy.

Sarah spent most of the pool time jumping in.

Ben LOVED the rocket.

Gracie playing with baby Carlie. Their only a year apart.