11 kids together = F U N !!!

We did a kid swap for 3 days with Jeff & Emily during the summer. In July we headed to Las Vegas for 3 days while the kids had fun at their cousins house. Then on August 13th it was our turn to watch their kids. My kids were so excited for this day to arrive. It is actually pretty sad that we live 5 minutes away from them and see them if we are lucky once a month.

Camille had a great time making brownies with Bradley & Ashlyn's help. She is such a little mom making sure they all have on aprons and wash their hands.
Cadan is all about cars - he will carry them around everywhere he goes. Bradley doesn't usually care much for them until he sees Cadan playing. They had a great time together.

The boys usually were downstairs watching TV, playing the Wii or PlayStation. I wasn't too strict on how much time they spent doing either of these as long as they were not fighting and having fun.

Byron put together a tool case for Bradley and he practically carries it around with him everywhere. He absolutely loves hammering nails into a piece of wood. Below Cadan and Bradley are having fun taking turns hammering.

Alyssa couldn't get enough of this bike. She recently learned how to ride a bike and loved that this bike was just her size.

One of the days we ended up going to the park. This was a great way for all of the children to get out any unused energy. I stayed at the playground area with the younger children while the older ones went on a bike ride around the park. Between bikes and scooters, everyone had something to ride.

Cadan & Bradley enjoying their wagon ride to and from the park.

The kids also had a great time playing outside in the water. It wasn't the hottest day, but didn't stop them from having a great time.

Alyssa found out that this ramp was a nice and warm place to lay out on.

Cadan didn't stay in the water very long - instead he had fun playing with these roller skates.

Tanner & Cooper soaking it up in the sun.

Here are Ashlyn (in back), Alyssa and Parker hanging out. I told them that they had to try out on their own instead of bringing 11 towels outside. They were very diligent at drying off so they could come in.

Everyone had a great time together. There was practically no fighting the whole time. The only stressful time was when everyone was told to go to bed. Bedtime didn't happen at the hour I wished both nights, but they all eventually fell asleep. I didn't grow up living next to any of my cousins, so it is fun to let the kids enjoy this time in their lives.

Jared & Danielle visit

On August 12th - we were lucky enough to have Jared & Danielle all to ourselves for a day of fun. We headed to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum in the morning. We hadn't been there as a family for so long and Jared's had never been there. It was a nice and relaxing break. Every area was a new adventure. My kids especially enjoyed being with Jade & Tavis.

My crazy boys Johnathan, Tanner, Carter & Parker.

Tavis had such a cute dinosaur hat that he brought with him from Oregon. He fit right into the museum with it on.

Cute Jade - she is one hard cookie to get a good picture of. It tried and tried to no avail. Camille has a camera and ended up taking this picture - I love it.

I absolutely love this picture!! There was a mirror behind us that made for a cool picture.

The sand was a huge hit also. The kids all loved playing in it for about 45 minutes.

Jade & Tavis in the sand.

Jared being a awesome uncle and playing with Johnathan & Tanner.

How much do we all weigh?

Carter by the scary shark.

Tavis absolutely loves sharks and loved this exhibit.

Jared, Danielle & their cute family!

After we left the museum, we headed back to my house for lunch and then the adults left for some fun. We went to American Fork to eat at one of Jared & Danielle's favorite restaurants, La Carretta. We met Byron there and enjoyed some adult conversation for a change. I have to admit that the food was a little different than food I am used to, but pleasantly good. We loved having them over for a day and just wish they lived closer. Thanks for the good times Jared & Danielle.

First Annual John & Sharon Beck Reunion!!!

Our first Beck Family Reunion was held on August 7th and 8th. We went to Diamond Fork campground. I loved that it was so close to home. We packed up the night before so as soon as Byron got off work on Friday, we could head out. We arrived around 5:30 p.m. As we were arriving some yummy tinfoil dinners were being prepared. There was some water that ran close to our camp - I enjoyed taking the kids down by it and letting them throw some rocks in.

Here is Eric being an awesome cook with some corn on the cob and tinfoil dinners. I honestly have never tried better corn on the cob - it melted in my mouth. The tinfoil dinners were awesome also. I didn't even feel like we were camping due to the great tasting food.

Tanner & Bradley enjoying the outdoors.

Here are some fun pictures of the kids eating dinner with their cousins.

Bradley had a piece of corn that had a long handle for him to hold onto it due to the way it was shucked. He would carry it around while were were eating and even put it on the seat of the picnic table while he went to do something else. The long part he stuck into the picnic table seat and it stood up on its own. We all got a good laugh out of him.

After dinner, we watched some old Beck family videos. Byron was around Bradley's age in most of them and every time Bradley saw Byron in the video he would yell out, "Bradley." It was really cute.

The whole family watching the videos.

The kids had a great time roasting marshmallows. They loved every part of it and became big sticky messes afterwards.

THE SKUNK: Around 9:30 p.m., I was heading to the bathroom with Parker. We had another campsite really close to us. As I walked past their campsite they were all up on the picnic tables looking worried. They proceeded to tell me that there was a skunk right by me in the parking lot. They had a hose that they were spraying to get it to leave. I was so grateful for my flashlight. I started shining it around the cars and sure enough out comes a skunk and runs away. At that point I decided that we weren't heading to the bathrooms, but back to camp. We ended up telling all of the family about our discovery. About 5 minutes later Camille was walking over to get a chair when sure enough there was that darn skunk in our camp. Almost the whole camp jumped onto the picnic tables and had flashlights trying to find that pesky animal. I'm sure we were quite the sight:). The skunk meandered around for a few minutes then left camp. A lot of the children had never seen a skunk before and were quite worried. Luckily he left and didn't end up coming back.

Saturday morning, was spent having fun creating boondoggle key chains, puzzles, play dough, bingo, and having some water fun.

Bradley also wouldn't let his "Uncle Eric" out of his sight. He loves to follow him around making sure he does everything that he does. Bradley had to eat next to him and even help him while he was playing bingo.


Bradley and Cadan were so cute together. They were enjoying the freedom of camping and discovering new things together.
Around 12:00 p.m., we headed down to the water. Eric was nice enough to go in with the kids so Byron & I didn't have to. Most of the kids ended up going across the stream with Eric's help- the current was very strong. Everybody had a great time!

Johnathan ended up falling in soaking himself - he was a great sport! He even let me take a picture of him freezing cold.

Bradley loves looking at Timothy and loves holding him. I have never had a child interested at such a young age in holding another child. He does amazingly well and can't get enough of him.We all had a great time and are excited to be starting a new tradition with just our immediate family. What a worth while tradition where the cousins/siblings can spend quality time together. (We missed you Emily & Cooper.)

More water fun and Adamson Family Reunion

Somebody in my ward told me about a fun new water park in Highland. We ended up going before school started and had a blast. There were quite a few people there, but not so many that the kids couldn't have fun. It took Bradley about 45 minutes to warm up where he would go into the water, but once he started he wouldn't come out. He didn't ever get his head wet, but would splash around in the water. We had a great time.

On August 3rd we had our Karl & Mary Adamson reunion at the Bink's house. They are always so nice to let us come and take over their home. They have such a beautiful yard and house. The kids absolutely LOVED being able to go swimming. We had swam so much the previous week at Palm Springs, but this didn't make it less enjoyable for them at all. Their 2 favorite parts of pools were available to them - a diving board and slide. These 2 options weren't available in Palm Springs, so they couldn't get enough of them.

Carter & Parker are way too daring. My cousin, David Adamson, had a great time convincing them to do tricks off the diving board. They were both doing flips and having the time of their lives. Luckily David trying to convince them in doing back flips didn't go over very well for them. All of the kids also loved going off the slide. Bradley and I got in for a short 15 minutes but then decided to eat instead. We had a great time visiting with all the family that came.

I took some of the following pictures off of my Uncle Robbie's facebook - thanks for taking great pictures. Most of mine were in motion, so they turned out blurry.

Jared & Tavis - it was fun seeing Jared, Danielle, Tavis and Jade. They came up for Danielle's family reunion and were lucky enough to be here during this reunion also.

Bradley, Byron & I - I love this picture.

Carter is jumping off the diving board.

Dallin, Myles, Rose & Allyson

Fuego

The day before we left for Palm Springs, I was at Wal-Mart doing some last minute shopping with Parker. While we were in the check out line, the guy in front of us said, "Would your son like to have a turtle?" I replied, "You mean a real turtle?" He then pulled out a plastic bag and showed me a real turtle inside this bag. I guess he went to PetsMart to give the turtle to them, but they wouldn't take it. His son has many different reptiles and this was just one that they were getting rid of. I quickly called Byron and asked him if he wanted a turtle. He was perplexed as I was, but said, "Yeah." Byron has a HUGE fetish with turtles. He collects them from everywhere he goes and puts them on his desk at work. He has also been talking for quite some time about getting some nice aquariums in our basement which will hold quite a few different kinds. Byron was pretty pumped. I talked to the guy for about 1 minute total to get the quick lowdown on what he eats and how to take care of him.

That evening we bought a 50 gallon aquarium for him, some heat light, UVB light, food dishes and all of the other fun stuff for a turtle. Now our free turtle turned into a HUGE expense:). Byron & the kids have been so excited about this turtle. I have decided that I will take a turtle any day over a rabbit or other animal - there is no smell involved and pretty much no clean-up. The only daily thing we need to do is give fresh food/water and make sure he gets outside every few days.

Melissa came over the day we got the turtle and asked Byron what "fire" was in Spanish. We soon named our turtle "Fuego" ("fire" in Spanish) since he has such beautiful markings under him. He has some beautiful red and yellow stripes. We took him to a vet to figure out what type of turtle we have and weren't really able to find out much. The vet said that our turtle is malnourished (he probably wasn't fed calcium) and his shell is a little deformed. So they can't tell the age. He thought he was probably an ornate 3 toed box turtle, but the more we looked into that type of turtle it didn't seem to fit. These turtles are vegetarians, and Fuego loves to eat mill worms. We decided after looking at pictures and descriptions of turtles on the Internet that we have a "Central American Ornate Wood Turtle."

We love taking him into the back yard and watching him go. I am amazed by how fast he actually is. He will walk all over the back yard going into the sandbox, around the grass and usually ends up in the flower beds taking a nap. He has been really fun. Once a week Byron puts him into a container with water (not covering his head) that he seems to love. He will just swim around and seem to have a great time. These turtles aren't solely water turtles, but love to get in water once in a while.

We have also loved watching him eat. Byron set up the camcorder yesterday to record him eating. He was so cute drinking his water and eating the spinach and mill worms we had set out for him. He won't eat when he sees us watching him so the camcorder worked well.