More from Zion

What?  This was just two years ago?  I guess you could definitely say Garrett has gone through a growth spurt.  I will post some more recent pictures of these guys soon and you will see what I mean.  This was a hike we took in Zion.  I don't remember the name of it.

The first few pictures are in front of a tunnel, before we crossed the street and headed up on our hike.

Brad (on the end) leaves on a mission to Seattle, Washington in August of this year.  Time flies.

on the way up, looking down at where we parked 

cute couple, beautiful view

I love this guy

All of us

Sad to say goodbye

It was so fun to get to visit these guys, and we are so glad they joined us for some time at Zion's National Park before we headed out on a National Parks tour across Southern Utah.

It's hard to say Goodbye

WARNING:  This post contains a lot of pictures of people hugging.

We love Uncle Jesse.  He is Britt's youngest brother and his unit was just deployed to Afghanistan.  Our family had decided to say our farewells after the Barton Family Reunion the weekend before he flew out, but at the last minute, we decided to go see him off at the airport.

Getting to the airport was amazingly difficult, but it was so worth it!

This is Jesse with all his sisters

I wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch Garrett's hug 

Kaiden hugs his uncle goodbye 

 Jesse gives his mom a big hug

 And a good one from his dad

love from Becky 

Shondell 

Gracee 

 Hannah

Trent 

Ashlynn 

Brad

Carson

Jennilyn

Ryan 

some of his nieces, Oaklee, Tyler, Gracee, and Olivia

Rachel gets a hug in

loving on his sweet wife

Kimberlee didn't ever want to let go

Kimberlee's dad gave them some advice

Grandma Barton shares some words of wisdom with Jesse and Kim

goodbye for now 

getting on the plane

waiting for the plane to take off

It was kind of a surreal experience.  We were so excited and proud of him, and of course, sad and anxious at the same time.  We wish him all the best.  In a way, this will be the mission he did not get to serve, and we all expect wonderful things from him.  Jesse, you and Kimberlee are in our prayers.  We love you!!!

Fourth of July Fun and Festivities

It has been such a fun Fourth of July holiday.  This really is one of my favorite times of the year.  Blanding sure knows how to put on a fun celebration.  This year was no exception.  My brother Drew and his family have been visiting from Brazil.  Chrislynn and Nancy also came down with their kids.  We have had a lot of family fun together.  Some of us participated in the 5K and Fun Run in the morning.  Whose idea was it to get up and run at 6:30 in the morning?  Oh yeah, that was me.  Garrett and I ran it.  Also, Kim and Worthy ran in it (and as you can see from this picture, lots of our friends, including Jenifer and Jade Warren).  Tyler, Rachel, Drew, Isaac and Stella ran in the Fun Run.  None of us won any awards, or even any of the prize drawings.  But we all had a good time.

the runners pose with their Fun Run ribbons

We enjoyed the Rotary Club breakfast, too.  Then we headed over to watch the parade.  The blankets we had left out to save our spots were drenched from the morning rain.  This week our area participated in a special fast to petition Heavenly Father for more moisture in our area.  Kind of a nice reminder that prayers are answered.  My niece Stella couldn't help but notice (in church it was mentioned multiple times) that we sure pray for rain a lot around here.  We definitely need it. The skies cleared just in time for the parade.  And we all enjoyed watching it.

 Look who is back in Blanding!  We are all so thrilled to have our Morgan home!

 And we have loved getting to see our Hughes cousins again these past few weeks while they were visiting from Alaska.  I have more pictures of our visits with them that I promise I will post soon.

 lovely Sophia

Tyler did NOT want her picture taken 

 Richie was loving all over his sister Grace

There's a patriotic pair 

love this girl 

yeah, she really didn't want her picture taken (think Sophia is embarrassed to be seen with her?)

After the parade was over, we headed down to the park for the Fair.  We got some food from Salvacion Bradford's booth, ate quickly, and then hurried back to the pool for Diving for Dollars and Swim Races.  I did not take any pictures.  The kids had fun diving.  It was pretty chaotic.  Then, Stella, Isaac and Olivia participated in the swim races.  Olivia did well in her heat.  Stella and Isaac finished in the top five.  Their swim lessons seem to be paying off.

I was pretty tired by then, so we headed back home for a little rest.  Then, some of us joined the Macdonald family for a barbeque at their house and a washers tournament.  It was a lot of fun, even though none of the teams we were on won.  

Back home, we watched a movie for a little while, waiting for the fireworks.  We watched them from our lawn, with most of the Glover extended family coming over to join us.  Some of us visited our neighbors, the Rays for cake and ice cream and their own little fireworks display while we waited.  It is fun to be part of such an awesome neighborhood.

And it has been wonderful to get to spend more time with my awesome family, too, especially since they have been so far away.  We love them.  And we love America!

I thought I would try blogging again

I can't believe I did not post one single time in the whole month of May!  I do have about ten drafts saved right now in Blogger, but I haven't taken the time to add any words to the pictures. What is my excuse? 

May is a busy month, yes, but that isn't really it.

I am certainly not lacking in things to blog about, either.

I don't necessarily have writer's block, or anything like that.

Yes, I have been in a bit of a funk lately (well, more like a lot of a funk) and I don't like posting to my blog when I feel like my sadness bleeds through my writing, but that is not really it, either.

The truth is when I have been on my computer, I tend to watch Netflix and Hulu, instead of writing blog posts.

Also, I had a coupon for 20% off a book from Blurb, so I have been busily completing my 2011 Blog Book, which is awesome, by the way! Happy Late Mother's Day to me. (I can do that while watching a show on my computer; I can also upload photos for blog posts; I just can't type the words for blog posts.) I may like multi-tasking, but those are just two things I am not capable of doing at once.

So, I recently got a new keyboard for my iPad, since the one I purchased in November didn't seem to be working properly. They exchanged it straight across when I showed them it wasn't working, and the new one was only ten dollars more, and it has better features than the other one, so yay for that.

I also recently sent my camera back to be worked on. I pay for that extended warranty that is supposed to cover everything, and since it hasn't been working very well for me, I decided to try to do something about it. The other option was to run over the camera with my car and ask for a replacement, preferably a Nykon this time. I freaking HATE this camera. But maybe they can fix whatever is wrong with it and I can stop hating it. The girl at the Inkley's Camera place tried to deter me. She told me I wouldn't get it back for 6 weeks or more. But I paid for that extra coverage, dangitt!!! so they better take care of it for me.

Anyway, to tell you the truth, summer is not yet agreeing with me. For one thing, this stupid wind keeps harrassing us. Then, two weeks ago, I was dog sick, and my house that I have managed to keep relatively tidy turned into a disaster area. Having the kids home all the time (at least they would go swimming if it wasn't so flipping windy!) is not helping.

Then there is the fact that my sister Kd (who I love and adore) introduced me to the Settlers of Catan iPad App. My husband now officially hates my iPad. No matter what else I am doing, I have to have a Settlers game going at the same time. I am sure it is annoying, but it is totally addicting. I am sorry. I promise to try to get some real posting done soon. Oh, and those of you who have been posting, even if I have not commented, I still read your blogs and I love reading about what is going on in your lives. Please don't stop. :)