Sulphur Creek

There are only so many ways to stay cool in the middle of the desert in southern Utah, luckily we were camping not far from a stream which gave us the chance to go splash!  

No shoes now, was not a problem at all.

I thought we'd just find a wide section of the river and wade with our ankles.  I was shocked when we walked up river far enough to find a natural water slide!  Rats, now I wish I had worn my swimming suit too!  Cambrie and McKenzie were the first ones to test it out.  When they didn't complain about sore bottoms or a shallow landing, we decided that we'd send the other kids too.  

They went up and down the waterslide a few times before venturing farther upstream.  I couldn't really see what was above the ridge but it looked like they were having fun.  Well, Daxton being Daxton, he didn't want to be left out and screamed to follow his siblings.  I helped him up (those rocks were crazy slippery), and was pleasantly surprised to see a series of smaller waterfalls that were perfectly Daxton-sized.  The kid went non-stop.  

When the bigger kids laid down on the rocks to warm up a bit, he followed suit, but then was right back to the waterfalls.  

We had a kid-ferrying system to get him from the bottom of the slide to the top:  I pulled him out of the water then handed him up to my mom on an upper ledge, who handed him off to Alan who was closer to the start of the slide.  It worked really well, and then the adults weren't slipping all over the place.  I forgot to bring a swimming diaper so the kid was just in his normal Huggies.  It was sooo saturated his swimming suit wouldn't even stay on his body.  I left it on for awhile just to give him some padding on those rocks, but eventually it was better to just take it off.  Words of advice: don't toss highly saturated diapers unless you want a fun cleaning job.  

Even Andrew came and joined the party.  

Peter was a kid-ferrier for a bit until he slipped and went tumbling into the large pool.  Even though he wasn't planning on swimming, he was wet anyway.  I loved it because I could almost count the splashing as the kids' baths for the day!

Hanging out with Grandma.

At the beginning of the trail.  I guess laying in sand kind of negates their baths huh?  So much for clean kids!

Cohab Canyon

After a super quick two-day turnaround from our England trip, we were on the road again!  This time we ditched the fancy fascinators for our hiking shoes and met the Johnson family down in Capitol Reef.  No sooner had we said, "Hello!" to everyone, than we geared up for our first adventure of the week: Cohab Canyon.  Andrew lives in Torrey (a quick 15 min. drive from the park), and is friends with all of the park rangers so he definitely knows his way around.  He was kind enough to share his know-how and his gear to take us on as many excursions as we wanted while we were there.  I know he doesn't read this but I'm going to say it anyway.  Thank you Andrew!  

The whole crew hiked up Cohab Canyon, pregnant ladies, toddlers, grandmas and all.  

On the way up Andrew would stop for the random geology or history lesson of the area.  He knows a lot. 

Once we were a good way up the canyon, we found a nice shaded spot for the young kids and supervising mothers to hang out.  The rest of us climbed up further to Third Wife to test out our canyoneering and repelling skills.  The views were beautiful!  There is a certain charm and beauty to the red rocks of southern Utah.  Exploring the area this way with ropes and harnesses makes it that much more astounding.  

What goes up, gets to come back down!

We decided to let Cambrie come with us and I was super proud of her.  After climbing to the top of the canyon, we had to scamper down some rocks before the first drop.  Well, the first drop was the biggest one and you could tell Cambrie was a bit nervous about the whole thing.  Once she learned to trust her gear she had no problem.  

She looks so happy here just telling me a story.  I don't even remember what it was, but it was such a great morning with her.

Our faithful guide teaching us the ropes, literally!  We were all much more knowledgeable and confident at the end of our week.  In fact, we could actually help!  The first trip we were all rookies who needed a bit of hand holding.  

Our last drop put us right back at home base for the kids.  We had taken long enough that they had headed back to camp.  Well, it was my mom, Camille and Grandma Stratford who had to haul down McKenzie, Faye, Kelton, Sam, Daxton, and Emma.  Not an easy task!  

We shouldn't have been worried though.  They were happily back at camp munching on fresh apricots they had just picked from the trees there in the campground.  Those looked delicious!

Chilling on Clarence Road

Here are the leftovers.  The pictures that, last year, I was really good about grouping into stories.  This year, let's face it, I'm behind so it's a lump post.

Let's go back two weeks to when we first arrived in England.  Bruce and Leesa's car is just a five seat hatchback.  Well, if you do the math with me you'll realize that with Bruce at work there are still six kids, five suitcases, four backpacks, one stroller, and one bike that needed to fit in that car.  It was a very squishy ride to the rental car center to pick up our minivan for the rest of our stay.

Leesa's ward has a lot of expats that live there.  I swear they all are moving away this summer, which means there's a huge influx of unnecessary stuff left behind.  Leesa picked up a bike that was just Kelton's size.  He rode it around the backyard pretty much every day.

Circus trick!

Daxton had fun mopping the floor with the Swiffer, "scrub, scrub, scrub.."

The boys all dressed up for Father's Day.

And this was how Cambrie delivered Papa's card to him, on his head.

Daxton wanted marshmallows, and I needed a laugh, so I made a trail of them on the kitchen floor.  He picked up every one of them with his mouth.  I wish I had made it more challenging because it was great to watch.

Making noodles for chicken noodle soup with Nana.  Best noodle soup ever!

Last summer Lynda and Steve were tiling their pool and it was out of commission.  Well, now that it was done they were very anxious for the kids to come over any play.  They even had an entire shed full of floaties for the kids!  The most popular one was the alligator.  With his ring, Daxton was pretty self-sufficient.  So we figured with a noodle, a ring, and an alligator he could ride it too.  Look at that smile!  He played in the water the most out of any of the kids.

Hiding under the alligator as a shaded spot.

Two girls, one gator.

They may or may not have taken turns pushing each other into the pool.

Well, Daxton wanted to be pushed in too. That kid never wants to be left out.

Lynda even made cookies for the kids.  Apparently cookies are more of an American thing than a UK thing, so it was a sweet gesture.

They have a fish pond in their backyard which was Kelton's favorite place to hang out.  Some of the fish in that pond are at least 19 years old.  Some of them are dark enough that you don't even know they're in there until they come up splashing for their food.

They have been such wonderful neighbors!

Who knew that drawing on a rug would keep the kids entertained so long?

Story time with Papa.  Paddington was a big hit this trip.

Sunday rolls with Nana...

..for Sunday dinner with the sister missionaries!  

More goofy moments like dinner in the family room.

And silly faces with Papa.

Our last night there we celebrated birthdays for Kelton, Cambrie, and me.  

Kelton ended up with Paddington, Bendy (the dinosaur from the Museum of Natural History), some glowing dinosaur stars, and some more cars and track.  

Cambrie has a huge influx to her rubber duck collection.  She has ducks from Spain, Big Ben, Tower Guard, a bag pipe player, and Scotland.  She also found a compass on Portobello Road, hair chalk, and a soccer shoe M&M box.  

I have a beautiful cake stand from Kensington.  (Sorry there isn't a picture of that set up, I was feeling incredibly sick and didn't pose for pictures.)  It was a great finale to our second English trip.  Who would have thought we'd celebrate out there twice!