Family time in Blanding

The Monday before the 4th of July Jensen, Oakley, Addi, and I headed down to Blanding. My mom and dad had been up our way for the weekend so they left their car for Matt and the other kids to bring down later in the week and drove our Suburban pulling our four-wheeler trailer. Between Price and Green River my dad started seeing rubber flying so he pulled over. Not a pretty sight. This is what one of the tires on the trailer looked like.

It was really hot out so I tried to help by holding an umbrella over my dad's head to give him a little shade. Hopefully it helped a little.

That night I saw the dress that I wore to my Jr. Prom and decided to try it on. Unbelievably it fit! My mom still has her Jr. Prom dress and it fits her also so we had a little fashion show. Gotta love those huge puffy sleeves!
Deco and Kera decided to have their baby while we were in Blanding (okay, they didn't really decide, if it had been their choice they would have had her a week or two sooner). We woke up to the news that Aleyah Jenelle Lyman had been born at 12:40 a.m. We were so excited for them. We didn't get to visit her until the next week when we got home.

I stole these two pictures from Noelle. She did a great job and it definitely didn't hurt that Aleyah is so beautiful!


I had been wanting to get Addi's hair cut for a while but never seemed to find the time. I decided since I had a little extra time while I was down there I'd get her a hair appt. It was the first haircut she's ever had.

We cut it into a bob and I love how it looks.

Since Carter's birthday is two days after Christmas Kristi quite often has a 1/2 birthday party for him in the summer. She was having his party the week while we were down and since Noelle (who was also in Blanding for the week) and I had just finished our cake decorating class she recruited us to make the cake. We made a cupcake cake shaped and decorated like a baseball diamond. We were pretty happy with how it turned out. Unfortunately it's the only thing that turned out for the party. The party was at the park and the kids were supposed to play baseball and play on our water slide. It was really windy and cold and even started raining during the party. The kids mostly just huddled under the pavilion and we wrapped up the party after only one hour. Carter's response when asked if he had a good birthday party, "it wasn't the best." Gotta love how honest a 7-year-old is!

Later that night we headed back to the park for a family picnic. Luckily the weather had cleared up and it was a beautiful evening. My cousin Mark Lyman and his family were in Blanding for a couple of days. We don't see them very often because they've been living in Nebraska. It was a lot of fun visiting with them. All the cousins really hit it off and had a lot of fun playing together.

Dad, Grandma, Uncle Mark, and Mom

Matthew, Allie, Jeremy, Kristi, and the back of Noelle's head

Mark's daughter with Scout

Maxon, Carter, and Oakley

Addi, Carter, and Oakley posing in front of "the hole." They insisted I take a picture of "the hole."

Thursday night Matt, Kolton, Alexi, Kristin (Kolton's friend who is a girl:), Trent, Stacy, and Taylor all made it down to Blanding. On Friday morning we all headed out to the Dam for some swimming, four-wheeling, and picnicking. Noelle, Kristi, and I rode our bikes out. Then we swam across the Dam and back before eating lunch. After a little more time playing in the water we headed back on our bikes. I'm not sure it was the best idea to do it the day before we were going to run a 5k. My legs were so tired and sore the next day!

On Sunday night Mark's sister Rachel and her family made it to Blanding for a visit. Again, the cousins all hit it off and had a great time playing games. Here they are playing Duck, Duck, Goose.

I love Rachel to death. I haven't seen her for three years because they've been living in Michigan. But this week they moved to New Mexico. Hopefully now that they're living closer we'll get to see her and her family more often. It was so great visiting with her.