Utah

Most of our summer was spent in Utah.  John did an externship at a dental office in Moab during the week and joined us for the weekends.  We spent the month going from place to place visiting family and friends.  Our first stop was to Grandma Trujillo's house.  We left on a Sunday evening straight through and got to her house on Monday to spend an afternoon.  She got to meet Karlee who we named "Pearl" after Grandma Trujillo.  We had a good time visiting and the kids weren't shy.  Grandma was without a hearing aid due to it getting fixed so she had a hard time talking to the kids.  We made the most of it and had a family home evening with her.  We all bore our testimonies.  We had our traditional homemade tortillas.  Grandma also taught John how to make them again and then he made a batch with her by the side helping.  We all LOVE the tortillas and they last only one minute and then both batches were gone!  Grandma showed us her love of peanut butter mixed with pancake syrup spread on the tortilla.  My kids thought that was DELISH!  Since that visit we have had homemade tortillas almost weekly and the kids love the peanut butter and syrup!

We said goodbye to Grandma and headed on to Springville.  We spent  the fourth of July and the days that followed with John's family.  The kids got to do lots of swimming and we had lots of food off the grill.  My kids love seeing all of the aunts that spoil them and Grandma and Grandpa.

While we were in Monroe we spent lots of time enjoying the horses across the road and feeding them carrots.  We were always seeing, chipmunks, bunnies and deer.  We would take 4-wheeler rides daily and most of them involved going down the street to see the baby goats and feed them weeds.  One day John got out the 22 and was shooting in the back yard and helped each of the kids to shoot the gun.  We also took multiple trips down the road to the hot springs and then would jump in the canal to cool off and then warm up again in the hot springs.

We finished our trip off with a visit to Idaho to see Grandma and Grandpa.  We always look forward to our visits in their home.  The kids know their is a shoe box full of OLD toys and they look forward to it each time.  I love the card games and visiting and night as well as all the good food I get served at every meal.  We always love eating from Grandpas garden.  We had a great time with them visiting the farm, having FHE where we each answered different questions to get to know each other better, and swimming at their YMCA pool which has a diving board, lazy river,  and slide that the kids love!

We had our traditional Bagley Family slip n slide party.  It was a cloudy day so we were worried but it was warm enough and we had a great time.  The kids get more brave every year.  Lantz didn't ever stop and Zak loved going with all his big boy cousins.  I never saw him the whole day he just stayed with his buddies and riding down on top of them all!

We got to go to one of our favorite places, the Desert Star dinner theater.  We can always count on them for a fun night of laughter.  All of our siblings, their spouses, and John's parents joined us so we had quite the crowd to enjoy the night.   We also go to have both side of our families spend a night doing lazer tag.  Of course I was on the winning team!

We were able to go to the Ute Stampede again this year.  I never missed a year until we moved here and then I missed every year.  It was good to go back.  My favorite is always the beginning with the sky diver!  The kids loved the rodeo and they especially loved getting pictures and autographs from the rodeo queens!  Some of Johns family came to join us for the rodeo to experience one for the first time.

One of my proudest moments happened on the 24th of July.  Layne invited us to Salina to watch Ciera in a rodeo.  The whole family decided to go watch and participate.  My kids herd about mutton busitn (riding a sheep) and they wanted to sign up.  We got there and started to watch and I think we all got a litttle nervous about what it would entail.  I was so proud of my kids they never backed out or got scared.  Zak went first he rode backwards with his feet crossed around the sheep's head and holding on tight.  He stayed for a good ride and then after his head bounced his teeth he decided to let go.  Makelle went next and stayed on too!  If you ask her if it was fun she will try to hide a smile and say "it was stupid"!!

We spent lots of time at the pool with both sets of families.  Our favorite spot was the Manti pool with slides and a lazy river.  It was fun to swim while looking up at the Manti temple.  We also spent a day at Palisades Reservoir in Manti. The kids had fun playing with the Holder cousins in the water and the sand.  They also got to play on a paddle boat  for an hour driving it around all by themselves and jumping off.  It was a great day.  Karlee rolled over for the first time while she was on the beach hanging out!

The kids lost lots of teeth while we were gone.  The tooth fairy had to follow us the whole trip and now he is broke!