Home Sweet Home

After being on vacation for a month, it is good to be home. Being away always seems to make me appreciate my own place. I think the kids are glad to be home too. I've posted a month's worth of pictures (there are so many more, but I'll refrain). I don't have many from the Dude Ranch. After a month, I think I got tired of taking pictures and so I'll have to bum some from everyone else. But we had a great time.

Now we are leaving for Dallas tonight. Toby is having back surgery on Tuesday. We would appreciate you keeping him in your prayers. Toby has scoliosis and so they are fusing together portions of his upper spine. We have a great doctor, but it is always a little scary, for Toby and for me. Earl has come to take care of Isaac and Aspen at home and we are glad that he could help out. We'll be in Dallas for about a week. We'll keep you posted.

Dude Ranch

For the Brunner Family Reunion we all went to the Windwalker Guest Ranch in Spring City, Utah. We had a great time with all the cousins and all the fun things there were to do. Everyone got to ride horses, shoot a bow, BB guns, a 22 and clay pigeons with the shot guns. The boys had lassoing lessons. We roasted marshmallows every night, were entertained by a cowboy singer, watched the wranglers break a colt, looked at the stars with Nate's telescope, got caught in the rain during a wagon ride into town, and even went swimming. Some of the adults went to the Manti temple. We played horseshoes and lots of pool. We went fishing and caught some trout. (Which were delicious). Toby skipped rocks (always a favorite past time, unfortunately for the serious fishermen). All in all it was a great vacation.

More Vacation

We went to Temple Square on Sunday. Unfortunately, Isaac forgot his shoes (he thought they were in the car but they obviously weren't) so we had to carry two kids. But it was a nice Sabbath Day activity.

Aunt Kris has a great climbing tree in her back yard. The kids spent a lot of time in the tree.

Ice Blocking

This was probably one of the kids' funnest activities. I used to go ice blocking as a kid and wanted to let my kids in on the fun. All you need is a block of ice, a towel, and a big grassy hill. Simply put the towel over the top of the ice, sit on it and slide down the hill. Just remember when choosing a hill to go down, you will have to carry the ice back up it. We went to Sugarhouse park, which has many lovely hills and it was near Hannah's house.

Road Trip Part Deux

On our way across America we stopped in St. Louis to see the Momument to Westward Expansion (The St. Louis Arch). It is probably the place that I liked best to see during our whole trip. It was very cool. We then got to visit with Leslie and Tom. Ellen kept my kids entertained and Aspen keeps saying she wants to go back and visit again.
Next we stopped in Denver to visit Matt and Kristi and Andrew and Mandy. Hazel loved having someone her size to play with! Katie (the dog) was a little scary for her though. One day she get over it I'm sure.
We drove to Dinosaur National Monument next. But the quarry has been shut down due to structural damage and so we werent able to see anything. We did buy slushies from some local kids in Dinosaur, Colorado and take pictures with the dinosaur statues.(I wish they would have noted that in big letters on their web site. It was a long drive out of the way for a slushie.)
We finally made it to Jake's house in Idaho Falls. They kids had fun running through the sprinklers. We went fourwheeling (my boys' favorite activity) and huckleberry picking (which was short lived due to lots of poison ivy in the bushes); but the berries were great.
Katanya is the cutest little girl! I think she got fatter in the 3 days I saw her. She is such a good baby.

We had fun feeding the ducks on the Snake River.

Hazel and Cruz had fun too.

DC

My children are worth millions!

My kids thought that the blue water at the Navy Memorial (Which we found by accident the day we walked and walked and walked trying to find somewhere to eat that wasn't $10 a plate (which by the way doesn't exist anywhere near the Mall)) anyway, the blue water was cool.

My kids have just discovered the Muppet Show and so it was fun for them to see the actual Muppets themselves at the smithsonian.

Road Trip!!!!

This summer I decided to take the kids on a good all american road trip across the USA. We drove more than 6500 miles in 3 1/2 weeks across 15 states. We saw license plates from 44 different states and 1 from Canada. We got to see family members that we haven't seen for a long time, the first time for some of them. Thanks so much to Joan, Hester, Traci, Leslie, Kristi, Erika, Jacob and Kris for sharing their hospitality with us. One day we'll go back as we didn't have time to see everything. Maybe we'll fly next time.

The kids in the Great Smoky Mountains.


In front of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (where they print the money) and Aspen in front of a Calder mobile at the art museum.

We saw the Washington Monument, but missed getting tickets to go to the top. On Sunday we went to Arlington National Cemetery and saw the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

We did a lot of walking and the kids' favorite place to rest was the fountain at the sculpture garden. Everyone cooled their feet in the water. We stopped here often.

We rode the Metro everyday to go into DC. The kids loved it.

The kids loved the dyed blue water at the Navy Memorial, which we found by accident while walking for an hour trying to find somewhere to eat that wasn't a rip off. (Not possible anywhere near the National Mall).

We went to Baltimore to see the Aquarium there. It is one of the best aquariums I've seen. On the top floor is a rain forest.

One of the most spectacular sights to see while driving is the DC Temple appearing above the trees as you round the curve on the beltway. Although we saw it during the day, it is amazing at night. Apparently many accidents occur there because people are too busy looking at the temple instead of driving.