TARZAN

After being in Northern Utah we headed back down to my mom's outside of St. George. We were able to take the girls to Tuacahn again & it did not disappoint, as usual! This is one of our favorite things to do. If you ever have the chance to go - I highly recommend it! This year they had the rights to Disney's Tarzan & it was amazing. The girls loved every minute of it & they both said it was their favorite we've seen so far.

KHALA - Tarzan's "Mom"

TURK - Tarzan's best friend

TARZAN & JANE

I'm so sick that this picture is blurry! This same thing happened when Kylie had her picture take with Belle after Beauty & the Beast in this same spot. UGH!! Oh well - you get the gist of it.

The staging was tremendous. Turk stole the show - he was hilarious! They had monkeys swinging above the audience & all over the stage. Very entertaining! Loving Tuacahn so much may also have something to do with the frozen lemonades & the caramel nuggets. We look forward to those every year as well!

CACHE VALLEY CONT'D

We've been without internet for awhile & now we're back in business!! Now I can continue where I left off on our Utah jaunt over the summer. You know you're excited! ;) I forgot a couple of pics from my Cache Valley post, so here they are.

In the spirit of wanting/NEEDING certain things. {Primarily amazing chandeliers.} Here's another thing I want/NEED. This was directly in front of the opening gates of the Logan Temple. This house had the most amazing looking fence. Simple, yet it looked like something out of Alice in Wonderland. I loved it!!

Then, there was this lovely shot I took while driving out of the valley. We got hit with a storm & it was gorgeous!

Lastly, is my favorite pic of the day of my girls. Again, I wish I would have known that the Logan Temple was going to be a photo shoot worthy place. Maybe next year!

GRANDDAD & WALLIS'

This is my Granddad Carroll...

As I've said before he is an amazing man!! He can tell the most interesting, crazy stories. I could sit & listen to him all day. I always tell myself that I'm going to tape record him next time I'm there & I always forget. It makes me so mad! He has amazing stories of living in Japan, visiting China & Thailand, and sooo many more!

One story I do remember this time is one about Henry B. Eyring's dad. There's a book about him called The Mormon Scientist. It's my Granddad's favorite book. Eyring was his Professor in college & he worked closely with him his last two years of college. In fact, I finally asked what my Granddad's degree is actually in this time & it was in Physical Science. (The science of theories he said.) Eyring told my Granddad the following story....

He was at a conference of some sort with 15 of the most revered scientists. One of which was Albert Einstein. When they came out for a lunch break Eyring was approached by a reporter & asked if he believed in God. He quickly replied YES. The reporter was confused how a scientist could believe in God. The reporter asked if any of the other scientists believed in a higher being of some kind & Eyring replied, "I don't know, but I'll ask."

When he returned back into the room he asked the scientists if they believed in a God of some kind. Every single one of those highly decorated scientists believed in one. How about that? So much for scientists not being allowed to believe in God. I loved that story - so interesting to me! Even Einstein!

Everytime we go to his home we have a blast playing in his beautiful yard. The girls live to have tea parties in the front yard. They said it reminded them of something out of the new Alice in Wonderland this time. We had a fun game of hide n' seek & the girls had a blast watching their dad do cartwheels in the backyard! Yah - that was classic!!

Our friends the Wallis' live about 5 minutes from my Granddad. We always try to get together with them while we're here. We went to Kneader's for dinner & had fun hanging out in their front yard. We joked with the cars passing by that we were waiting for a parade to come through with our line of chairs. A couple of their neighbors even came back by & threw candy at us. It was histerical! {Their oldest was at Scout Camp, so we missed seeing Christian.}

CACHE VALLEY

The day after Josh & Sarah's wedding we drove out to Cache Valley. Erik & I have been getting into the whole family history thing & Erik was excited to check some things out in this area. His Dad's Great Grandpa (Headstone photo in the middle) was baptised in England & moved his family to the states. They ended out coming out West & were one of 7 families to settle Wellsville, Utah. He ran a freighting company out of Wellsville that included bringing people out West. The cemetery there has a lot of Erik's relatives - including his Grandpa.

After the cemetery we drove out to Logan. We looked all over for the house that Erik's mom grew up in to find out that it has been torn down. :( We took the girls to the Logan Temple & if I would have known it would be the best place EVER to take awesome photos I would have been better prepared on wardrobe. Oh well! It was still a lot of fun to take pictures. In fact, Kylie took the kissy photo of Erik & I. She told us she was going to have to take the photo with her eyes closed. After she took it she said, "That was wrong on sooo many levels!" Erik & I were dying! She's hilarious!

Now here's some details of the Logan Temple. Again, for a project I hope to get to some day! Like the chandalier in the last post - I NEED the lamppost in the bottom right photo! :)

UTAH....again

We ended up making two trips to Utah this summer. Long story short - we just did. On our second trip we went all the way up North. And I mean all the way, but more on that later. First, we headed to the Salt Lake area. Erik's cousin was married in the Salt Lake temple on Tuesday June 29th & they were gracious enough to invite to all the festivities.

We stayed at my Granddad Carroll's house. (He's one of the coolest men alive! He's always so welcoming to us.) Check out the bedhead on Kylie...

After getting ready it was off to the temple. We arrived early & were able to do a quick tour of the Convention Center. At least up to the roof which is our favorite part! Erik's younger cousin Nate watched the girls so that we could go into the sealing. Which, of course, was awesome! I am a horrible photographer though because I only got one photo of the couple & it's from far away when they first walked out. Shame on me! (Forget the typo on the date. I'm too lazy to fix it since I JUST noticed it!)

Here's some random close-ups of the temple. It's for a project I have in mind, but we'll see if I ever get to it. I still like to look at them. Also, maybe this is common knowledge & we all know I'm not the brightest. But, did you know that the big dipper is on the Salt Lake temple. That was news to me this trip.

After the luncheon we had some time to kill. Erik's Aunt Louise & Uncle Ron were so kind & bought us dessert at the Garden Room in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Because of timing we were starving & it was hot outside, so that was wonderful! Then, we headed to the luncheon just down a few floors. It was a great luncheon with food & entertainment! Then, it was time to go & I found this AMAZING room as we were walking out of the building. The picture does not do it justice! Especially since it's dark & blurry, but you get the idea.

I want... no, I NEED that chandelier!! Remember that for Christmas everyone!

JUNK

I love looking at the pictures on my camera & finding the most random photos. Here's such an example...

My girls think these photos are hilarious. They do them often. They turn the screen saver mode on the xbox & then take pictures like they're being sucked into a vortex or something. They are nutty!

Then, there's some proof that Nui definitely belongs in my home. I believe he has OCD. Check out his dish...(Not sure why this photo keeps flipping on me. Sorry.)

He always pushes his food to one side as he eats it. It keeps his bowl cleaner & in order. That's my kind of dog!! ;)

ZIONS

For this trip to St. George we were trying to think of something different to do. Since we generally enjoy hiking together Erik thought it would be fun to go to Zion's this year. Only thing was that he wanted to go with Rennie & the kids since she knows that place REALLY well. Luckily, it all worked out & we had a blast!

We ate lunch at a nearby park area before heading into Zion's. I love the picture of the kids hand in hand as we walk into the park! Not to mention the group picture of the kids & Creed's grump face! I love that kid!!

This is probably my favorite picture of the day because if you look at the bottom left corner you will see Creed on the ground. Not sure why, but this was hilarious to me when I found it!

You'll notice in this picture at the bottom is a picture of Rennie jumping a little stream with Memphis in tow. She was nuts & making me nervous. If you blow it up & look close - Memphis looks nervous, too. And then Carter's face in the photo with all the kids & their sticks is classic, too! He looks like he's about to karate chop everyone with his stick!

After all of our hiking we got some ice cream & it was delish. Thanks again Ren for the fun day!!