Labor Day fun

As I have previously mentioned, we madea trip up to the Redwood Forest for Labor Day. It's almost exactly half way between our house and Wayne's parents. They met us at the campground. We stayed just north of Crescent City at a KOA inside the Redwood Forest. We were on the West side of the Smith River but just minutes from the Jedidiah Smith entrance. If you are at all familiar with this area we were about 4 minutes away from Stout Grove which is where Return of the Jedi was filmed. Jackie is always good to pack what has come to be called the "Gramma Box" it's always filled with goodies for the kids to choose from. The kids love his tradition, especially when they are the only grandkids around and everything in the box has been customized to their own likings.
Wayne and his mom Jackie in the middle of Stout Grove.
Eating and visiting at our amazingly beautiful campsite.
Gramma Jackie hikin with the kids. They are about to cross the big foot bridge that crosses over the Smith river from the Jedidiah Smith park to Stout Grove.
Britt and Jay proud that they had tricked all of us. We were'nt sure which way they had gone and they were actually on top of the overturned tree listening to our quandry.

Britt and Wayne walking toward the playground at our campsite.
Gramm and the kids walk over to swing and play tether ball. (Wayne won of course)
These chickens and goats belong to the campsite owners. The kids loved walking over to th animals.
Ally wading in the Smith River on the Stout Grove side. Jay in tree climbing heaven.

I have lots of pictures and adventures to blog about if I could just add a few more hours to each day!

More adventures....

Jay turned 11 this year. I can hardly believe it! He now gets to go to 11 year old scouts, which makes life a little easier, because it's the same day and time as YW--no more driving to and fro! LOVE IT!!! Jay has never been a "t-shirt & jean" boy--he is pretty particular about what he will wear and it has to fit him "just right" I was thrilled when he was happy about this outfit I picked out for his birthday. (not an easy feat)

Jay wanted 2 giant ZINGER cakes. I made these cakes in bread pans, and then I took REDI-WHIP and filled them with cream and then frosted them. Jay was thrilled. His idea was that 2 ZINGERS would like an 11. Everyone loved them!Britt and Ally did all the wrapping of Jay's presents. School started just a few days after Jay's birthday so we've yet to have a friend party. (I promised will have one...stay tuned for that) This is Britt's last year of middle school--yes I'm in denial about that too! She is part of the Leadeship team this year and LOVED helping out at registation.
Britt was put at the cashier table. She loved every minute of this opportunity. She came home humored by a mom who bought a $7 planner and paid with $100 bill.
After a long day of registration duties the girls came back to our house for a little R&R! It ended up being a big whip cream fight. Of course I loved every minute of it!First Day of School...Britt 8th grade...Ally 2nd grade (yes denial)...Jay 5th grade... could we just not talk about it. Man, why do they have to grow up so fast?Redwood Forest fun... I never really blog about my cute hubby. For Labor Day we drove up to the Redwoods and met Waynes parents at a campground and had sooo much fun. Wayne loves relaxing and being with the kids. (he's really just a big kid himself)Wayne's mom said that when Wayne was a kid he would have stood at the Lake all day and skipped rocks...sure enough, we went over to STOUT GROVE and had to cross the Smith River and Wayne was skipping rocks. (he's actually pretty awesome--he got 7 skips with one rock)If you aren't familiar with STOUT GROVE it's where Return of the Jedi was filmed. It was amazing. I actually want to watch the movie again so I can see if I recognize anything. Leave it to my husband to hang from the root of a giant redwood.I have lots more picures to post of this adventure and this last weekend we went to one of our families favorites spots --Crissy Field. I'm off to a YW presidency meeting so I'm out of time for now. I'll be posting a lot in the next few days so please check back. Ally finally finished her first post by herself on her blog so please check that out too and leave her comments. I figure we can get some reading practice in too. Happy September!!!

SUMMER ADVENTURES...part 2

Our trip to Utah was a lot of fun. Hold on again as you scroll through another long posting of pictures... remember we talked about the patience thing...

While we were in Utah, we were able to go to a Sorensen Family Reunion. This is a 4 generation picture. My Grandma is 1 of 2 from her generation that were in attendance--they might be the only 2 surviving. (I'll have to ask my Dad) It was fun to get to spend the day with my Grandma. While we were in a picture taking mood we also took a 3 generation picture with my Mom.
If you've never been you should make a trip to Cabella's. It's just the funnest outdoor store ever. I think the closest one to us here in Cali is in Reno. My kids had so much fun looking at the stuffed animals and all the big fish. We even had fun looking at all the camping stuff. Now that Jay is an 11 year old Scout and Britt will be doing overnighters at Girls Camp we need to invest in some of this stuff. We had a great time. (even the candy store was great)
The kids loved the shooting range. I thought that it was a couple of dollars a child so I got like $6 worth of quarters. It turned out to only be .50 cents a round. We all had a great time shooting. My Dad was awesome, he got a perfect score every time! (proud daughter moment) Jay consistently got 18 or 19 out of 20 until his final round he got a perfect 20 (proud mother moment) We figured it was the perfect ending to our adventure.
Wayne's brother and family live just up the street from the Cabella's in Utah. We decided to make a trip up to see them. John was gone golfing but we got in a little visit with his family. Ally had so much fun she didn't want to leave. Next time we are there we'll have to plan a sleepover with them. There's never enough time to get everything in!!!
We also got to visit with Wayne's younger brother Jeffrey. I'll probably get in trouble by someone for saying this but Jeffrey is my favorite Cannon brother. He's just so great! My kids adore him and I always have such a good time chatting with him. We went to dinner and then the mall and then we stood in the parking lot and just visited.
While we were visiting in the parking lot of Fashion Place Mall, it got a little chilly! Ally kept playing in and out of the car and was chatting with all of her imaginary friends. We all got a kick out of just standing and watching Ally. My kids also sang in my parents ward Sacrament meeting on Sunday. Jeffrey was a good Uncle and came to hear them. Thanks Jeff for the fun visit!

My parents work in the Salt Lake Temple and on Saturday morning my Dad had arranged that Britt and I could do baptisms together. It was such a neat experience. I knew I would cry at some point in this whole ordeal, but I didn't think I'd cry when I did. As we came up through the Conference Center parking lot to cross the street to the Temple is when it hit me. It was really strange I just got overwhelmed with emotion. It was so cool to be walking with my daughter who was worthy through her choices to enter the Temple. It was really neat to be able to share that with just her EARLY on a Saturday morning. Britt thought it was very cool to be able to go through what she calls the "secret" door to the baptistry. If you've never been, you enter through a door near the flagpole on Temple Square. You even get to ring a doorbell. Britt thought that was very cool! My Dad was able to do the baptisms and confirmations. This was definitely one for the memory book! It was a great morning!
We hiked up to Donut Falls in Little Cottonwood Canyon. My Grandparents used to have a cabin near here and I spent so much of my childhood up there. I have always talked about my cabin days to my children and so they wanted to go and see it. Well, Grandma's cabin has been torn down and now there are like 3 cabins there and we couldn't even get to the creek where I used to play. Donut Falls had totally changed. It was very strange, I actually felt old!If you don't remember or you've never been to Donut Falls it used to be different. You used to be able to go under the falls. It was cave like and if you wanted you could take a shower. You used to be able to see where the falls came through the rock (hence Donut Falls) Well, the whole West side of the mountain had collapsed into the creek bed.(snow damage I assume) I don't know how long it's been this way but it was not how it looked in my memory so my kids thought I was delusional.One thing that hadn't changed was how beautiful the view is. I love being in the mountains, and hearing the water and the trees and the occasional bird or wood creature. How could anyone believe that there isn't a God? I don't get it!

We hiked across the creek at the bottom of the falls so that we could get a glimpse of the water falling through the hole in the rock.
Brittany and Jay hiked a little higher than my heart could handle, but I knew I would've done the same thing at their age so I tried to relax.
My Dad was good to help Ally across. She was a little nervous crossing the water. Which totally surprised me, but I guess the concept could be a little scary to a 7 year old.
Here Jay got a little more wet than he planned. You can go to his blog and I'll have him tell you about this experience. He was a good sport and never cried even though I know it hurt him. (mom's can see it in their faces)

My Dad hiked the fossil mountain with Jay. They went up as far as they could. (again I got nervous but what was I to do?) The rock was pretty slippery and when they were coming back down Jay decided it was faster to just slide down on his bottom. He's such a boy!!
When you go hiking with my Dad you tend to stop a lot and take pictures of flowers and things in nature. I was pretty proud of myself for capturing not only flowers but a butterfly and a bee. I think I'm going to blow this picture up and frame it for my wall!
I am rarely in pictures...mainly because I'm the photographer but really it's because I like Donut Falls don't look like I used to and I don't like looking at myself. My Dad was good to make me stand on the bridge and get a shot with my kids.
This is a shot of Ally at a birthday party she went to this summer. It was at a Bouncy House place and they had different themed rooms. Ally loved the Karaoke room with costumes. Here she is jamming out to High School Musical.

I still have a few more adventures to post. We have had a great summer and it's still not over.

Stay tuned for more....