Sunday, August 16, 2015

Summer Birthdays

I've been trying to get caught up on all of the goings on this past month.  We have had four birthdays in the past few weeks.  We started out with Sarah, who turned twenty-five on July 22nd.  A few of us got together at The Spaghetti Factory in Trolley Square and celebrated!  

Sarah wanted a new paper cutter and paper for her scrapbooking.
She has used it a lot since then:)

Pasta....yum!

Kendra turned twenty-four on July 30th, the day that we all traveled to Montana.  We celebrated that night with a donut cake (her request:) and presents!

We forgot the candles but had enough donuts for a small army!

Henry turned one on August 8th and Skylar turned twenty-five on August 10th.  Sarah threw a big party at her parents home for the two of them last Monday night.  We had meatball subs, cheese potatoes, and watermelon.  Sharon bought this crown for Sky so he could be "king of the night"!


Birthday boy

Sarah went to a lot of work for the night.  Henry loves the book "Little Blue Truck" so that was the theme of the party.  Aren't these cuppies so cute?  Sarah made pig, sheep, rooster, hen and cow cupcakes!  She also hung pictures of Henry around the room in every month of his life!

She also made a special picture wall of and for Skylar!

Henry opening his presents with a little help from daddy.
A play lawnmower from the Rigbys which Henry loved!!  (So did Rafe:)

Skylar got some new waders from us!  (Well ok, Rick actually bought them but they were from me too:)  He was super excited to get them!

Me playing with my precious little ones!

The happy couple.

Henry getting a taste of his cake.

Twenty-five candles!!!

Good times!!

Saturday, August 15, 2015

2015 Hafen Reunion

Last week was the Hafen Reunion.  It was Kelly and Deanna's turn to host and so it was held up at their cabin at Kolob Lake.  It was a beautiful drive from La Verkin up to the cabin with us partly driving through Zion Natl Park.  Rick and I stayed in Kelly's sister's cabin just a mile from theirs.  We  stayed with my dad and mom as well as Scott and Kathy.  It worked out well for us so we didn't have to travel back to St. George for the night.  

Jen, Trish and Cassie huddled up on the couch.

Grandma Hafen holding baby Harper.

Pete and Terri with three of their grandkids
(Peyton, Carson, and Brinlee)


A group shot (sorry I needed a flash for this one)
Vickie, Kathy, Tori, Jake, Mikey, Lance, and Jonathon

Another group shot
Rick, Garrett, Jordan, Jeremy, Ashley, and Grandpa Hafen
Vickie and Baby Tucker

After a good night's rest we met in the meadow for a little horseback riding.  The kids sure enjoyed this activity.  A couple of adults got a little ride as well.  Deanna brought out a table so the kids could frost some cookies.  Some of the adults enjoyed that as well:)

Grandpa and Grandma Hafen getting a little adventurous.

The horse riding event with Tori in the foreground.

Some of the group frosting cookies.

Visiting on the deck and waiting for lunch.

The camping area.

After horse riding we met back at the cabin where the kids made rockets out of 2 liter bottles and got to shoot them up in the air.  Some of them really went far.  After a nice bbq lunch was served we had a short family council.  I feel bad that I didn't get a family picture.  It was a nice time visiting with family.

Yellowstone Reunion

A few weeks ago our family had a little reunion in Montana close to Yellowstone Park.  We stayed in a beautiful cabin about 30 minutes northeast of West Yellowstone.  The cabin was situated in a beautiful setting right above the Madison River.  We had a wonderful view of the mountains and river out the back wall of windows.  The cabin had three bedrooms, two baths, an open kitchen-family room, and a nice loft upstairs.  There was also a studio apt above the garage.  The best thing about this place though, was the huge deck that overlooked the river.  We got to watch the guys out fishing in the river and would hoop and holler as they pulled in a fish.  It was great. The boys especially loved it!! The weather was nice.  It was warm during the days and then it cooled off right nicely at night.  Except for the first night we carried in our food and cooked.  Sarah, Kendra and I took turns cooking the dinner meals so that worked out great.

We arrived on a Thursday evening and enjoyed hanging out at the cabin.  Friday after the boys fished all morning we ventured into West Yellowstone for some shopping.  I bought a couple of stick horses and some t-shirts for the kids.  We all enjoyed an ice cream cone!  After getting back to the cabin Kendra made a taco salad dinner with some watermelon as a side.

Saturday was another day of fishing in the morning and then another drive up to WY.  On the way, we stopped briefly at Quake Lake to learn about how it was created.  It was a sad event that occurred in 1959 with campers getting caught in an earthquake and the landslide that blocked the river creating  the lake.  (Before leaving on Monday I asked Rick to take me to the visitor's center to learn more about the history)  When we got to WY we went to the grizzly park at the entrance to the park.  It was fun to see the bears in action.  They got right into the water and started playing with each other.  Pretty interesting!  The wolves were all asleep so even though we got to see them.....not much excitement there.  They were pretty though.  At the exhibit there was also a bird exhibit.  We got to see golden and bald eagles, owls, and others.  I like seeing them.  They are such beautiful creatures.  While a few of us wanted to do a little more shopping the rest of went back to the cabin.  Sarah made us a wonderful dinner of pulled pork sandwiches and sides.  The boys fished (again) before their licenses were to expire that night.  

Sunday we got up bright and early to catch church in WY.  The church was PACKED!  People were sitting to the back of the cultural hall.  It felt like a Stake Conference!  Apparently because WY is a tourist town,  this is a common occurrence throughout the summertime.  After church we drove into the park (we purchased tickets the day before) and had a picnic lunch and then drove over to the Old Faithful geyser.  That's always nice to see:)  Then we traveled around the lower part of the park seeing buffalo, elk and yes, even a bear (from a distance)  We didn't arrive back to the cabin until 7:30 and Rick and I were in charge of dinner.  We had a fun dinner of dutch oven chicken and potatoes, corn on the cob, and watermelon....with some peach cobbler for dessert.  It was a little later than we are used to eating but it sure was good after a long day.

Next morning we cleaned up and headed home.  
Here are some random pictures of the trip......


Alyssia, Kaitlyn, John and Haivyn shopping in WY.

Rafe admiring the guns and knives.

Henry playing with a bear.

The Skylar Phelps family taking a break from shopping.

Rafe on grandpa's shoulders watching the bears play.

The Brach Boman family.

The John Riding family.

Rick and I

Sky, Sarah, and Henry at the hot pots.

The kiddos sporting their new t-shirts from grandma.

Rafe and Scout getting a bath in the farm style kitchen sink.

Rick and Skylar our fishing on the river.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Days of 47 Rodeo

When Rick and I were on our road trip and had just been to the Calgary Stampede Rick received an e-mail from a guy he works with at Energy Solutions Arena to see if we wanted to get tickets to the Days of '47 Rodeo.  Well after experiencing the fun of one rodeo we were definitely ready for another one:)  We got tickets on the second row on the floor which sounds pretty good (and would be for a Jazz game ) but we were sitting in front of the arena fence.  Not so good.  It was nice that we got to be close to all of the action though.  

The Bomans came along too.  Rafe is our little cowboy and he loved watching the cowboys get bucked off the horses.  He also loved the barrel racers!  After each one he'd say, "Again, Grandpa?"  Meaning am I gonna see another one:)  It was really cute!  He also loved watching the steer wrestlers and the ropers.  He kept a straight face most of the time but that little boy was in HEAVEN!

Rick and I in our cowboy getup.  My hat got smashed on our trip:(

Rafe watching the bull riders.

Luckily Scout was wearing a big headband.  It was super loud in the arena and we were able to cover her ears with it.

A group shot
We all really enjoyed ourselves!!