Hannah turns 10! (at least she did on July 24th)

Wow, can that be right? Well, she is starting to have tantrums like a teenager so I guess we are headed in that direction! Hannah is a great helper. She likes to stay busy which can be exhausting since she is always complaining that she is bored. She likes to do all sorts of projects and crafts and is really good at creating things. She loves to laugh and make others laugh as well. She has A LOT of energy! We sure love her! It was fun having Ginger and Jaikka still here to celebrate her birthday. We ate lasagna that our friend Debbie picked up from Roma Imports (yum) and then had oreo ice cream cake. Heather and Amaya Flynn came to share in that.She got a Kindle. She was very happy!

Isaac's baptism

Hard to believe that my baby was baptized this year. I was so proud of him. He has been scared of the water and getting his head wet (yes, I do teach swim lessons). I had babied him the last couple years and didn't force him. I will dunk anybody else's kid though! I tried to take him to a pool as often as I could all summer to get him more comfortable. He was nervous but did great! Ginger and Jaikka were able to come down and help make it a great weekend. To celebrate, he wanted to go to The Cove, an indoor swimming center that has a wave pool and out for pizza. It was a lot of fun.No, I am not pregnant, it is just my dressed pushed up by Isaac.
I sure wish Jaikka would pose for a picture...ha!Isaac getting ready for the wave to come.

Aztec Ruins, Aztec New Mexico

On our last day of exploring, we stopped in Aztec, New Mexico to see the Aztec Ruins. After seeing Mesa Verde, they were not quite as spectacular but still cool to see.They must have been pretty short!Then it was on to Justin's Aunt Jean and Uncle Dean's house in Las Lunas, New Mexico. We stayed there for the night before heading home. We always love seeing them. It was so nice to be able to see almost all of our family memebers along the way. I wonder what adventure next summer will bring!

Mesa Verda

When we first planned this trip, we thought after seeing Black Canyon of the Gunnison, we would have dinner and then drive the short couple hours to Durango in the dark and stay the night there to get a head start on seeing Mesa Verde the next day. I am so glad we decided to just stay in Cortez instead and drive to Mese Verde the next morning. If we had driven in the dark, we would have missed the beautiful scenery going up and around Tamarron Ski resort. It was BEAUTIFUL.Justin has been wanting to go to Mesa Verde since a long time. He has talked about it since we have been married. We finally planned a route that included it. I had heard that they were large dwellings but I never expected what I saw. Just amazing. It is awesome to look at them and imagine the kind of life that was lead. Communities built around families and protecting/providing for them. It is pretty awesome. Justin really wanted to see the Cliff Palace so we bought tickets for a tour but had some time to look around before it was time for that so we headed over to the Spruce Treehouse. We just saw a little part of the dwellings at Mesa Verde but what we saw was very impressive.We got to go down into one of the several kivas (underground rooms used for spiritual ceremonies)Ready to start our tour of Cliff Palace!Waiting to listen to the tour guide tell us the rules and give us lots of fun facts. So interesting.
The tour guide picked Nathan to show how to grind stone. I can't imagine doing that all day!Climbing down to the Cliff Palace was pretty easy on a path and then some steep metal stairs. Climbing back up out of it was more fun!!Mesa Verde is just awesome! So glad we finally made it. Thanks Justin! We stayed in Durango that night. The kids were excited to swim in the outdoor pool but a big storm came just as they got in. We settled on pizza in the room instead. It was a long day but very fun. We tried to get to be early so we would have energy for our last day of exploring the next day.

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park (road trip continued)

I talked to my mom and dad tonight and they let me know they checked my blog to see how I was doing. They didn't find out a lot since the last thing I had posted was when we were with them in July!! Sorry mom and dad. I will try and catch up on the rest of 2011 and stay caught up for 2012. That can be my New Year's Resolution. After we left Utah, we headed to Colorado. We drove through Colorado National Monument. It was more beautiful red rock cliffs.</ a>Then we continued our drive to Montrose, Colorado where we would stay the night after driving through Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It was raining all afternoon and getting late in the day so we hoped we would be able to stay dry and get there before the visitor's center closed. We got both. The rain had stopped but the sky was dark and air cool and everything was still open. All I can say about this place is it is spectacular!! If you ever get a chance to visit, do it! The pictures do not do it justice!
We could have walked for miles along the canyon edge. Since it was so late, we just went on some of the trails that the visitor guide recommended. The trails were cool. You had no idea when walking out on them that you were walking right out on the edge until you looked back and could see the overlook you had just come from.
Justin likes to wear BSU clothing on travel days because it is fun to have people approach us and talk about BSU football. We made one lady very happy. Her son who lives in Alabama or somewhere like that is a big BSU fan. She just HAD to take a picture of our family to show her son that she met some REAL fans that were from Idaho. It was cute. We had her snap a family picture for us as well. I hadn't realized that all but Isaac had on BSU attire:)

We had a nice meal at a Mexican restaurant in town and then went for a swim at the hotel. It was a good day.

Unplanned mini Thompson reunion! 07/05/11 to 07/07/11

My parents had originally planned to come down to Tucson for Isaac's baptism in July. However, when they were unexpectedly called to serve a mission in El Salvador, their plans changed. They would no longer be able to come down. The only chance we would have to see them before they left would be to make a detour in our route from Allen's back to Tucson. I happened to see that Tracy posted on Facebook that he was in Salt Lake for a family getaway and talked him into staying another day and meeting us and mom and dad. It was so nice to see them. I miss my family so much. It is hard only seeing my brother every couple of years. Tuesday morning we said goodbye to Kelley and Allen and drove to Orem Utah. What a beautiful drive! My aunt and uncle (AnnaVee and Farrell) live in Orem and let us stay with them. It was good to see them too. All but one of their kids came by. I hadn't seen those cousins in a long time. We drove up to the Provo temple. I had never seen it before. We also showed the kids where the MTC was where Grandma and Grandpa Parker had been and where Grandma and Grandpa Thompson would soon be.

I do have cute parents! They are such great examples to me. It is exciting for them to serve a mission. They have wanted to do this for a while now. Dad always wanted to go back to South America. Mom was always terrified she would be proselyting in Spanish (which she is not fluent in). They get the best of both. They will be serving in the San Salvador temple speaking Spanish but living in an apartment gated in on the temple grounds. Mom is already getting quite good at her Spanish.

I think Nathan will definitely be taller than Grandma when they return. This picture makes me smile. Isaac has always been a "little Lon". He takes after his grandpa so much....in build, in looks and in attitude. I'm a little scared about that:) They both love to tease!

The temple grounds are always so pretty. The flowers were beautiful.

The view from the steps over Provo was pretty too.

The next morning we met Tracy, Sarah and their kids at Bridle Veil Falls. It was a beautiful day.

Kayla and her kids met us there too. It was so nice to see her. I think it had been almost two years!! We need to get together more often! She will always be my best friend even when we don't see each other and go months without talking. Being cousins helps so we can keep track of our families.

Hannah and Ruby hit it off immediately. Such cute girls!

The kids had a blast climbing the logs and rocks and getting WET.

Sarah got to get wet too to help Eisley.

Dad and Tracy decided they needed a better look from the top of the falls. Too bad they didn't know there was a trail! They found it on the way down..ha.

Kayla's oldest, Simon, went with them. He helped lead the way. Dad says he beat him to the top (always a competition) but this picture shows otherwise;) Sorry dad!

I wish I had known they were going. I would have loved to have gone with them. I had ran back to the car to get the camera bag.

After they had been back for about 10 minutes, dad told Tracy and Justin that he was seeing black spots. Seconds later, he kind of stepped back and then went down. He passed out. Nathan's leg broke his fall. Bad for Nathan because it hurt his knee for a couple days but good for dad because he did not hit his head. It was so scary. Justin immediately called 911 and Tracy yelled for a doctor or nurse and also had to get mom who had started walking back to the car. I was bent over him kind of slapping his face and yelling at him. He came to for a second and then went out again. I honestly thought to myself "my dad is going to die right here in front of me and my kids and there is not a thing I can do about it". It was very scary. Luckily, a nurse happened to be there with her family and came to help. Dad came to. He wanted to get up like nothing happened but let her keep him down for a little bit. We were all scared that he would be mad when he found out the ambulance was on its way:)

The response crew was awesome. They were all very nice and gave the kids gloves to play with. I was very thankful they came so fast and that dad let them check him out....if nothing else but for mom's sake! They think it was just him climbing

up the high elevation and coming down mixed with his Plavix to thin his blood. He was tired but ready to go on with the rest of the day. What a blessing!!

We ate lunch at Cafe Rio (YUM) and then headed to Thanksgiving Point to the Dinosaur/discovery Museum. It was great!

There was so much to look at and for the kids to touch and play with. They had a lot of cool fossils and replicas.

The kids got to make a fossil while dad and Justin watched a short 3D movie about T-Rex.

Ashton, Nathan, Isaac, Chandler, Eisley and Hannah

The kids LOVED playing in the sand and water building dinosaur habitats. I think they could have stayed there for hours...in fact, I think we were there for about an hour!

They all worked really well together. It was nice for the moms and dads and grandma and grandpa to sit and relax and chat while the kids were busy.

That night we went back to Tracy's hotel and let the kids swim. They headed home with mom and dad the next morning to go to the Thompson reunion in Jerome. Mom and dad were actually in charge. It would have been nice if we could have drive up for that too but we needed to start our trip back. We really missed not being able to see Shayla, Justin and their kids and Ginger and Jaikka!