Leslie

Our sister-in-law Leslie is from Peru and just a few weeks ago she was sworn in as a citizen of the United States! They came here from Hawaii for her ceremony, and Justin threw her a party that night. It was Americana-themed of course, and he even quizzed us with the same questions about America that Leslie had studied so hard. Our prizes for answering the questions correct were bags of M&Ms, and while Kyle walked away with more than any of us, Leslie was the only one that knew all the answers. There was supposed to be a re-enactment of the Revolutionary war but I don't think that ever happened. There was, however, a blown up obstacle course, which resulted in the brothers racing each other at the end of the night. I even took a shot at it, but we won't talk about that.

Bentlee's expression shows how we all feel about Justin's family. We're always sad to send them back to Hawaii!

Labor Day

Labor Day is always a fun weekend for us. We celebrate at Payson Onion Days (yes, Onion) with the Haskell's. As of last year, it is tradition for Kyle and Justin to run in the 5K. This time Wes and Tyler joined them (Tyler made the decision about 10 minutes before the race began) and they were all rock stars. Not only did Kyle beat his time from last year WHILE pushing Bentlee in a big stroller, he came in 3rd place in his age group! Tyler got 2nd in his age group, and Justin, who was pushing a stroller with both of his girls, came in 2nd as well. After some breakfast a few showers, we headed to the parade. I love parades. Bentlee had fun, especially when we actually opened the candy and let her eat it. Tabitha and Eliza were sporting their new dresses they wore days before for their mommy's ceremony. Can you say adorable??

Abby taught Bentlee that it is customary to wave during parades

After the parade we headed to Grandma and Grandmpa's for a BBQ. The girl's took our annual trip to the craft show downtown, and later the boys held their annual tennis tournament. As always, it was a fun day!

Jeremy's visit

My brother is applying for a job here in Salt Lake, and before he made the final decision to apply, he came to Utah this summer to check it out. Which means Uncle Jeremy stayed with US for a whole week! It took Bentlee about 30 seconds to start following him around. Any time he would leave the room she'd throw her hands up in the air and say, "Uh oh!" And every time he walked back in she would beam. She LOVES house guests.

We did lots of fun things to assure him that Utah is a fun place to live.

1. We went to Seven Peaks (a water park) in Salt Lake. We went the day of the Rubber Ducky Derby for the Make a Wish Foundation, so we had free tickets. I happen to have a small fear of big water slides, so Bentlee and I watched the duckies race while Jeremy and Kyle played on the slides.

You won't believe me, but I promise this picture is real

Eventually we made our way over to some slides that I was willing to go on, and even found some kiddie slides for Bentlee that were faster and much more slippery than we realized. She officially takes after mommy in the water slide department and had some choice words gibberish for us when her head came up out of the water.

Bentlee got her own wristband, and it's things like this that really get me...

2. The next day we went to the cabin with the Wiggins and Wardell's for a couple nights. Jeremy went wake boarding for the first time, and got up on his third try.

As always, we ate yummy food and lounged around

We didn't even take time to do our hair

3. We weren't about to let Uncle Jeremy get bored, so as soon as we returned from the cabin we headed to the Living Planet Aquarium. Out of all the cool things that were there (ie: sting rays, sharks, octopus, otters, penguins, etc.) the trout were her favorite. She's pretty easy to please.

Oh, and the penguins were her other favorite. Not the real ones that we saw through the glass, but these on the wall...

4. Perhaps the most exciting event of the week was after I dropped Jeremy off with Martin at ARUP and my car broke down in the middle of Salt Lake City. Not only did it ruin my shopping plans, but it took away a little bit of Jeremy's time with Martin which was the whole reason for his trip. They saw everything that Jeremy really wanted to, but Martin was going to show him around the University he could potentially attend and take him to lunch. The good news, despite Martin's sweet offers to drive us home, is that we took the train home, something Bentlee and I hadn't yet done. And of course, she was a fan:

5. We went to Cafe Rio (obviously). And, we went a second time. This picture was taken at the airport right before we flew with Jeremy back to Michigan. Unfortunately airport Cafe Rio is NOT the same. Lesson learned.

6. We also took Jeremy tubing down the Provo River, which we don't have pictures of. That day was Kyle's birthday, so more on that later.

Not bad for an 8 day trip right? The one thing he had requested doing was hiking, but the timing never worked out. I promised him we would take him on some cool hikes if/when he moves here in January. We'll be SO excited to have Uncle Jeremy so close to us!

Playing ouside

My childhood memories are awesome. Many of them involve the outdoors, and most of them involve my cousins. We used to "swap kids" just about every weekend and all summer long. We had so much fun together playing in the "treehouse" in our front yard and riding our cars (aka our bikes) around and around and around our driveway, through the make-believe car wash and drive thru. Some of my very fondest memories are of my Grandma and Grandpa Hinton's house on the lake where we would spend countless hours outside. I had so much fun watching Bentlee play with her Nana and Papa and cousins in Michigan. From fishing with papa and watering flowers with Nana, to riding "bikes" (MY old bike) with Skyler and Gracie. It warmed my heart because I know this is just the start of SO many fun times ahead of her.

She even helped Nana water flowers and feed the cat. These pictures are so cute I can hardly stand it.

Looking for Nana

Fishing with Papa

One of my favorite pictures ever. I think my mom and sister have ones of all the girls smiling.

One of my other favorite pictures. This shows my dad in his most glorious state. Outside, on his way to go fishing, and with his family. Life doesn't get much better than that for him. 

My dad was excited to catch the biggest bluegill he has seen in the pond, as well as the biggest bass. Technically, I think Skyler and Mitch caught them. But still.

Gracie wandered off with Jeremy at some point and picked flowers for Nana. Jeremy gave her the water bottle as a vase. It was precious watching her hurrying home to present them.

Dad was so excited the night we went fishing because we discovered there were big bass in the pond that my dad hadn't known about. When Mitch came to Alma we went fishing again Friday night. My dad tried hard to help the girls catch a bass but they kept breaking the line. Mitch was the only one to get a big one. Naturally, at the very same time I caught one of the smallest fish to be caught that weekend. (My dad is holding it for me in the picture above). The next morning my dad and Mitch set out on their own, this time even more serious about these bass. But he weekend would not have been exciting enough without a little trip to Urgent Care, so Mitch hooked his finger. And in his finger it stayed for about 3 hours until the people of Urgent Care finally released him. Mitch needed a tetanus shot anyway, so he had them take the hook out which was a very good thing because it turns out when you get hooked, you have to bring the hook ALL the way out of your skin so they can cut off the little barb, and then unhook it back through. Ahhhhhh.

 In case you were hoping for a visual:

My dad was about to cut the worm off when I stopped him for a picture. Especially considering how he feels about anything of the needle family, Mitch was a good sport!

More Michigan pictures

You didn't really think that was all did you?

At our Hinton get-together we held our annual duck turtle mounting contest. Unfortunately I was busy chasing a 16 month old around the pool so I didn't get pictures, and I might get in trouble by two of my aunts if I post the two videos that were taken. So, I guess this will do.

A Michigan trip wouldn't be complete without lunch with Nana. It's fun, even when she does hog the baby.

Watching as the Prosser's drove away Saturday night :(

It's not often that Bentlee falls asleep in her car seat so it was especially surprising that she did every day in Michigan WHILE facing forward, something she hadn't started doing yet in Utah

I guess we just partied too hard for the babies

Aunt Gail came over one night and hung out with us

She read the girls a funny story on her phone

Bentlee loves Pizza Sams as much as everyone else in town!

At the Wieferich family reunion. Aunt Diane gave in and took her back to the park once mommy got tired of it.

Playing UNO with Jeremy and Gracie

We spent one morning at Grandma and Bernie's, and per Skyler and Gracie's request, asked for pancakes. While we were eating, we received a message from Brianne and Carlee asking if we wanted to meet at Grandma's later that week for pancakes, which of course we did. I think this picture describes how we all feel about Grandma's pancakes...

"Mo!"

I love that in this video Bentlee is reserving the seat for Nana while Gracie's saving it for me. So much love.