Summer So Far

So I'm pretty behind on blog posts for this summer and here's a little list of what we've done this summer:

• Aspen Grove family trip (covered that)
• Brooke's 17th birthday
• girls camp - Happily Ever After was our theme and our ward was the princess Anastasia
• Week at the cabin for the 4th of July
• Chris Isaak concert at the baseball stadium
• High Valley Soccer Tournament and staying at condo at Moose Hollow - Jared and Kamryn loved it and want to move there
• Outing to Dinosaur Museum with friends
• Family wedding - Paul's brother, Steve's daughter Emily got married to Stephen De Shazer in the Mt Timpanogos temple. It was great to have them out here visiting from Pennsylvania for the wedding.
• Butlerville Days parade and super slip n slide at our house afterwards
• Youth conference - at SUU in Cedar City and doing the narrows at Zions
• Swimming lessons for Jared and Kamryn

Most of that was in July and definitely kept us very busy. I can't believe it will be August tomorrow and we only have 3 weeks left of this summer.

A new son

BEFORE

AFTER

Justin had not had a haircut for a year! He was finally ready to cut it off and was tired of how long it took to wash it. (plus he had an appt with the bishop to start on his mission papers)

It ended up being quite a traumatic experience for me. I've always cut his hair but this time was tough. It was hard cutting off all those beautiful curls. I didn't even know where to start so I just stared cutting off big chunks of hair until most of it was gone and I could do a regular hair cut. Cutting it meant a lot of things and the hardest part was thinking about him being gone for 2 years. I'm excited for him to serve a mission but there sure are a lot of mixed feelings for me personally.

More Aspen Grove Favorites

Family photo at Aspen Grove

The above photo we couldn't find Justin anywhere

Luckily for this one we found him

Definitely my favorite photo of the trip

Justin enjoyed the arts and crafts center

Taylor on the ropes course

I guess this is enough of Aspen Grove. It was such a great week with our family, immediate and extended. Hopefully we can go again someday.

(now maybe I can catch up on the rest of our summer activities)

Aspen Grove Favorites

These are some of my favorite photos and activities from our family trip to Aspen Grove.

They are in no particular order, just ones I liked .

On Monday afternoon there were the Aspen Follies out on the big ball field. We competed as the whole Shingleton family against other family groups. We rotated around all the challenges and did all the games. We were timed against other family groups. Jared got soaked during the water challenge and LOVED it, although the above picture makes it hard to tell.

Cousin pictures. The kids had SO MUCH fun with their cousins and were so sad when it was time to go home.

One of the great activities during the Aspen Follies

Dodge ball competition between the adults and the young adults/teens. This was great fun and very competitive.

Hanging out with family was a blast!

More fun cousin time

Eating lunch outside. Eating at Aspen Grove was great - buffet style meals in the dining room. The kids loved eating with their cousins and getting to pick out what they wanted. The best part was that I didn't have to cook for a whole week.

PS I tried to do something different with the layout on this post and it didn't go very well.

Fantastic Fourth

Paul and I with Jared and Kamryn

at Silver Lake on the 4th of July

We were lucky to be able to spend the 4th at the cabin this year.

It started out overcast and rainy, its like its May up there still.

Its been a tradition to go to the breakfast at the church and watch the parade for years.

This year we changed that up a little -

we did our own big breakfast at the cabin

and then went to the parade.

The kids loved watching the small town parade and getting lots of candy.

Thanks to my sister for taking this great picture

of Paul and Kamryn at Silver Lake.

We went over there after the parade and made our way around the lake

with the mud and snow on a lot of the trail.

Some of us that were there for the "hike"

around Silver Lake

The kids love to climb on this big rock!