Kanab 4th of July 2009

July 3, 2009

While I was growing up in Cedar City, Utah our family would often go to Kanab around the 4th of July. You see my Grandpa Jameson's birthday was on the 6th and we would help him celebrate. In the beginning we would go to Lake Powell around his birthday, boy did I look forward to those trips! As the years went on the the tradition changed a bit. When I was about 15 years old, my grandparents decided (actually I am not exactly sure how it all came to be, this is just my version) they were going to drive my Grandpa's 1950 something Chevy in the parade and the grandkids (most of us anyway) would follow beind in a golf cart type vehicle (it was bigger than a golf cart, but I'm not sure what to call it. At the time I called it a "Surrey" because it reminded me of the song from Oklahoma where it talked about a "Surrey with the fringe on top". The only similarity was the fringe:)!). That one time in the parade has taken on a life of its own and now nearly every year we go to Kanab for the 4th of July and participate in the parade. This year we had over 70 people there. It has turned into a reunion and we love it!

This year we got to Kanab on Friday, July 3 and we jumped right in! My dad will sometimes take everyone on a hike around the beautiful red hills of Kanab and this year was no exception. An hour or so after we arrived, Dad got us all together and we went hiking! We went up the canyon near where they shoot the fireworks off from.

Here we are at the base of the hill, getting ready to go. We had all ages and abilities come along.

As we were headed to the top we took a moment for a picture:).

What a beautiful view!

Here is Dad pointing out some "famous" landmarks.
I think he is showing us one of our former hikes.

You couldn't ask for a prettier hike:). We got started a little late and still needed sunlight to work on the float, so we headed back down sooner than we would have liked. Another year we will spend a little more time.

We all headed back to Uncle Richards house and started helping put together the floats. It is a good thing that the Lea Family head this up...or it probably wouldn't happen!

Me, Christy (Karl's wife), and Jamie (1st cousin...she designs our t-shirts every year!)

The kids were busy making their own masterpieces while
we worked on the floats (mostly we just did what they told us to do!).

Lindsay LOVES to draw and color!

We had a fun evening visiting and then headed back to the motel to get some rest before the BIG day! We stay at the Perry Lodge, which is a whole story by itself!

The 4th of JULY!!

The morning starts out with a few shots from the cannon at 6am to let everyone know that the day has started. Then the town hosts a 2 mile "fun run". Dave and I decided to run this year and guess what, we both took 1st in our age divisions! That was a first for me! Of course there were only 5 women in my age group of 40-49 year olds. In Dave's age bracket there was a whole page of names! Nevertheless the victory was sweet, even for me!

1st Place!

This is a long day to say the least, but very fun too. We start out pretty early. We have to get in line for the parade. So once we get there we have some time to hang out and wait for the start of the parade. It was really hot this year! Sometime I will remember to bring something to entertain us while we wait!

Lindsay loves sucking her thumb and twisting her hair with her other hand. She claims that she doesn't really suck it anymore, but it is such a habit...she does not even realize it is happening.

Those that can, bring bikes to ride in the parade. Some even get decorated!

Here is most (we are missing my sister's family the Wagner's) of the Hugh Family.
We (the Garners) are on the left.
Kent (my oldest brother) and his whole crew are next.
Then come Grandma & Grandpa Hugh (where it all started:)).
On the right is Karl (my other brother) and his family
with a cousin (Christy's nephew from Indiana).

Wow, my girls are getting taller. Next year I am sure that they will pass me up!

Grandma and Grandpa Hugh make this such a fun event! We hate missing out!

Lindsay and a couple of cousins.
Just waiting....

Samantha & Paige...more waiting!

Kent has his spot picked out and he stuck with it the whole time!

Karl explains the finer points of life to Dave...more waiting.

Jamie and I thought that Kent had a great idea...so we copied...more waiting!

Yeah!!! We finally get to go!

There is the big float!

We did win "Best Family" again this year!

We even had a little competition.

We had our own drum brigade!

Dave captured the parade from the street view.
I got to ride and capture from my comfy seat:)!

We went for a cool treat to Denny's Wigwam and a little shopping after the parade.

Later in the day it HAILED!!! It was CRAZY!

Then the weather cleared up and
we had a fun evening just eating and enjoying each other's company!

Dave and Samantha went shooting with a few others.
Aaron Jameson, who is in the Marines,
brought some of his guns and took a few out to check them out!

Uncle Kent, helping Samantha get the right feel!
Man that is a big gun.
It is probably good that I didn't go with them.

Of course we have to have the family "talent" show!

The fireworks were great! Lindsay wasn't even afraid this year!

Sparklers and our own fireworks ended the evening and
we were all thoroughly exhausted!

2nd half of June 2009

Monday June 22 we were up early and on our way to take Samantha up to Flagstaff for EFY.




Samantha was soooo excited! I can't believe how grown up she is getting! Thank goodness it was only for a week and not off to college for real! She had many friends that were at the same session she was in, including a cousin, from Mesa, who was a counselor. She also had a cousin who was there from Utah. I met my brother (who was dropping off his son) and picked up a couple of his other kids. Christy (my sister-in-law) was the Stake Camp Director for girls camp and it was this same week, so we offered to take their kids. We were excited to have cousins come and stay with us for almost a whole week! We started off our adventure with a stop at Slide Rock on the way home. Now that was quite the experience! Wish we would have had water shoes to help with the slippery rocks. They call it slide rock for a reason! Everyone got a little banged up, but it was fun nonetheless!





We were talking about Slide Rock just the other day (it is now September) and Lindsay said, "Oh yeah! That place hurts!" We spent a lot of time on our knees and bottoms. Our advice: Take water shoes or wear shoes with soles that don't slip and you don't care if they get wet!

Now with these cute cousins staying with us, I tried...heavy on the tried, to have some fun plans to keep us busy. I thought that the cousins would entertain each other pretty well, and they did for the most part, but unfortunately we had a little (okay a lot) of homesickness. I was feeling really bad until my brother told me that they get home sick when they are at their home with Grandma Hugh babysitting them.

The last day was the biggest hit though. We went to the rec. center in the morning and spent a few hours there and then on to the Cavenee's pool. Thank goodness we ended on a high note!












I'm still not sure if they will ever want to come back and stay with us without their parents again, it was pretty tramatic. Hopefully they will because we loved having them come!

Early (really early) Saturday morning we headed back to Flagstaff to take the kids back to their Grandparents (Christy's folks) and pick up Samantha.

I decided that since we were already on a trip that we should make an outing of it and so Dave planned a hike to the top of Mount Elden right there in Flagstaff.

It all started out great, but slowly deteriorated.

By the time we were 2/3rds of the way to the top we had nearly run out of water and the kids were ready to DIE. I thought Paige was going to have a full on heart attack right there on the side of the mountain (okay I really didn't, but she honestly thought and acted like she was on death's door). The best intentions don't always work out the way that we would like them too, but we tried! It will probably be one of the memories that our children will bring up later to prove that we were really out to torture them.

On June 29th it was time for the performance of the Cinderella play that Amber played Cinderella. Mary does the performances right there in her home. She was very complimentary of Amber and the heart and soul that she put into her character. I was so happy to see her come alive in the play and really display some talent. I know she has a lot of drama in her (I see it everyday:)) and I was glad for a positive place for her to display it!

Amber even got to sing a solo! She did great. I am so glad that most of my kids take after Dave in that area and can actually hold a tune!!

Amber looked beautiful and really shone. She loved every moment of the spotlight. We recorded the whole thing and I am sure that she would love to show it to anyone who asks. We have seen it several times already!

There you have the highlights of June 2009 at the Garner's!

Lindsay turns 6!

Here she is just 6 months old!

Now my 6 year old!

What a sweet girl my little Lindsay is! She is really the baby of the family. We have tried so hard to help her stop sucking her thumb (trips to the dentist are not happy days at our house because he keeps telling us that she better stop sucking her thumb or there will be major problems), but she just has a hard time. She tells me, "I want to mom, but my thumb just tastes delicious." Oh well, life goes on and eventually she will decide it is important to stop.?

Here are some of her other cute qualities:

• She is a great peacemaker. She will usually be the one who gives in and makes everything work. Sometimes she wonders why no one else does this, but not for long.
• She has the most incredible facial expressions. Her puppy dog eyes and mouth in a pout can melt any heart!
• She tells it like it is. Sometimes I wonder if she is really turning 13 instead of 6. She can sound so grown up.
• She is great at entertaining herself.
• She doesn't really like dressing up (I don't even think she really knows this about herself. She tries to like it when friends come over and want to play dress up, but the fun only last about 15 minutes for her and she NEVER just goes and plays with the dress ups on her own.
• She and Kent can be best friends. She really misses sharing a room with him. She mostly likes sharing with Amber (when she is nice that is:)).
  

Lindsay came into the world quickly. We were getting in the car to go to the hospital when I knew she was coming too fast. So, the paramedics delivered her in our bathroom. At church recently, the teacher asked the kids what hospital they born in and Lindsay came home very upset. She asked me why she had to be born at home in the bathroom instead of a hospital like everyone else. I told her one day she would appreciate the fact that she has an unusual birth story, hope I am right:)!

I will be taking treats to her class today. It will be fun to see how she is doing in school!

Happy Birthday!

June 2009

Girls Camp came early this year and we were leaving on Amber's Birthday. She was really bummed that we were going to be gone for her birthday. So we tried to celebrate for several days before we left:)! Here are some pictures of us at Red Robin for dinner.

YUM! Everything was good! It was fun to go out!

Amber liked the ice cream sunday. She even shared some!

After dinner we went home and opened card and presents! It was a great day!

We (Samantha, Paige & I) left for Girls Camp early Wednesday morning, June 3rd. Girls Camp was great. I had not been since I was a young women...so I had lots of reservations and concerns. My biggest concern was that I was going to forget something or not get something done just because I didn't know what I was doing. Well it all worked out and for the most part I was pretty (I am trying to think if I should say sane or in control...neither one really works) okay with how things went. I only got frustrated once and now I look back and could kick myself for how silly that really was. Oh well. I know that life is a learning experience and I am going to keep trying to learn to loosen up. I can look back and see what I needed to have done...next step, do the right thing in the right moment! (Good advice, now how do I apply it to my whole life?). Pine, Arizona is where camp is and it is beautiful. The days were warm and the nights were cool. Actually little cold in the middle of the night and most of us got a little cold. Fortunately there were "real" bathrooms with running water and everything. They even have showers, but we were each only allowed one for the whole week. The stake provided the food and most of the classes, etc. So really it was not very stressful and mostly fun. I think all of the girls had a fun time and I have lots of ideas for next year!

Here we are ready to go! It is off to Girls Camp!

This was Bishop's Day. The whole Bridlegate crew!

When we got back from camp there was not much time to rest. Summer was in full swing. Kent and Lindsay started swimming lessons and Samantha started a two week project that I will get into in a minute. I signed Amber up for a week long performance with the Gilbert Fine Arts Association (GFFA). I wanted her to have some acting experience. In the end she choose to be a stage manager and wasn't on the stage at all...go figure! I can't remember exactly what Paige was doing those two weeks, but she must have kept busy:)! On to Samantha...

Samantha wanted to earn some money this summer. Last year she did a cleaning service. She did several jobs for people, but wasn't very aggressive about getting more work. So we did some brainstorming and she decided on doing a 2 week theater camp for kids. She worked up the fliers and gave them out to lots of friends and family (she was better at getting the word out this year). She had two classes. An older group who met 3 days a week for a couple hours in the afternoon and a younger group who met 2 days a week for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I could write a ton about this, but I will refrain and just try and sum it up. They put a performance on at the end of the 2 weeks. It turned out cute, of course there were lots of glitches, but I think she did a great job pulling it off for her first time! Overall it was hard work, but a great experience. In fact, at the beginning when the families paid her she was concerned because she hadn't done much at that point. Fast forward to the post performance. I asked her if she felt like she had earned the money then and she said she definitely had.

We had the performance at the Church
and spent most of the afternoon getting everything ready.

Here are the boys waiting to go on stage.

In the younger group we had divided the kids up into two groups
and each group did the same two plays.
So the audience had to watch each play twice,
but it gave each child a lot of time on the stage!

Here is the end of the evening! WHEW!! We made it through!
Everyone did great and hopefully they all had fun!

On June20th our stake was assigned to help work on the Temple Grounds, so we took our kids and joined in. Dave and I had actually gone on a long bike ride that morning and so we were a bit late joining the clean up crew. In fact they were just finishing up. However, they were able to find some plants for us to plant and so we were able to serve despite our tardiness:)!


We got our tools and equipment and off we went!


Hopefully we put the plants in the right spots...it was kind of hard to tell.


All in all, it only took about 30 minutes to do our job. Not too bad.




I know Paige had a few things going on in June and one thing I know for sure was that we had signed her up for a guard start class with a friend. She had a fun time learning to be a life guard. There were kids of all ages in the class and she thinks that she wants to do it again next summer.

As for Amber and her acting. I was feeling sad that I had paid so much money for her to be behind the scenes, but fortunately, my friend Mary did a play for her sing and swim (she does this for free for the kids that are her kids ages just for the experience...she is extraordinarily amazing!)this summer. They worked on a short musical version of Cinderella and Amber got to be the lead. In my next blog entry you will see more about this along with the performance pictures.

Well, that is the first 1/2 (actually a little more than half) of June....more to come!

Time to start blogging again!

Now that I have taken a "summer break," I am back. I know that this is the only way that I am going to get a family history done. I have seen the books made from blogs and they are incredible.

Since my triathlon, life has been a little crazy. I am probably going to just have to sum up some of the main events because I am not patient enough to go back through the months and write details about everything. So here is the sum up for May 2009:

CRAZY, CRAZY & CRAZY. I am sure most families that have kids involved in any type of baseball/softball feel my pain. Actually, I know that my pain and craziness did not even touch some of the others I know who had more kids involved, but alas this is our story...so here it is! Fortunately, I had friends with kids on every (scratch that), both (now that I remember the truth...I only had 2 kids playing...it seemed like a lot more at the time) teams. Most of them had 2 kids playing too. We helped each other by taking kids to the games many of the weeks. Some weeks my kids had a parent at their games and some weeks they didn't and some weeks they had two (those were pretty unusual). Of course there were Choir performances, Orchestra Concerts (Paige had 4 this year and I made it to 1/2 of the last one...too many conflicts!), school programs, graduations and promotions. Then to top it all off I had Girls Camp preparation and Dave had "Survivor Man" (priest activity) prep. Dave and the Priests left on Memorial Day and came home on Thursday, May 28th. Samantha, Paige and I left the following Wednesday for Girls Camp. On the last Saturday in May I ran 17 miles trying to prepare for a marathon. The next day my knee (IT band) hurt. UGH! No marathon for me until it heals up.

Here are some highlights in pictures:

Kent and Lindsay had patriotic programs at the beginning of the month. I almost missed Kent's because I didn't write it down correctly on my all powerful calendar!

Mother's day was heavenly!

Dave did this amazing Mother's day card for me. It was the BEST!!!

Samantha at her Choir concert (winning several awards).

This is one intense ball player. Amber really loved playing softball and her coaches named her the "Most Teachable Player". What a great compliment!

I tell you what...WOW! Check out these batting stances :)!

I just had to include this picture! It cracked me up!!

Paige "Graduates from Elementary School", it is onto JUNIOR HIGH!!!

Somewhere on my computer are the pictures of Lindsay "graduating" from Kindergarten and Samantha's "Promotion" from 8th grade, but for some reason I can't get them onto my blog. However it was a very "productive" month!!