Duck Fork Quick post #2

(this really is a short post I took over 125 pictures and have just posted 10 a very hard task if you ask me!)

The weekend of the 24th we went camping with my parents and my Older brother's family. Normally we camp at Pete's Hole above Joe's Valley but this year my Dad decided on Duck Fork and Wood Tick Flat. The last time I remember camping here was with my Grandma and Grandpa Orr when I was like 12 or so. It was a total trip down memory lane and luckily we had brought our 4 wheeler to go down those lanes.
Jeremy had lost a tie down on the way up to camp and decided to take his 4 wheeler to go back looking for it...umm the roads were a little bit dusty. But he totally pulls of the mad scientist look and thus gets an A.

Will and Abby were inseparable this time around and went hiking everywhere. Abby was always gathering flowers wherever she went.

The flowers were unbelievable this year. They were fragrant and oh so vibrant I only wish I were a better photographer so that you could get the grand effect. It was beautiful.
Our campground had this super cool tee-pee that we thought the kids would love playing. Turns out they were scared it would tip over but still made for something cool to look at.

Jeremy loved taking the kids for 4 wheeler rides and Abby loved to go. She got to wear a cool "blue hat" and go and pick flowers every where (honestly I wouldn't let them pick flowers but they were in overabundance this year.)

Abby looking super cool in her blue hat and oh so ready to go!
Some of Abby's flowers that she picked. I'm not sure if there are many of those white flowers left Abby picked millions of them and cried her eyes out when I made her leave them there but luckily I have a bush that grows the same sort of flowers in my backyard.

This was the coolest trail I've ever been on. There were so many beautiful shades of purple. I took most of the pictures on the back of the 4-wheeler while we were moving otherwise I'd have stopped for hours and hours setting up the right shot. It was so gorgeous and a fun ride too! Lots of streams to go through and a bridge and some good climbs. It was marvelous!
My mom and Dad with all of their grandkids. They sure had a great time playing together and Mom took the kids for hikes while Dad was deteremined to have each kid catch a fish. Whenever we go to the Mountains now Abby asks where's Grandpa because she's pretty sure that's where he lives. I'm pretty sure she's close to right.

3 quick posts post 1 The Fray

So I have soo soo sooo much to post so I've selected just five of my favorite shots from each event and posted them. Mid-July Me and Jeremy were able to go to The Fray with Jeremy's brother and wife. We had such a great time and made me really miss the early days of our marriage and hanging out with them with less kids around. We started the night out at Texas Roadhouse my new fav place to eat....I like me some steak!

Sorry Mike. Tricia looked way too cute in this picture and since you can't seem to keep your eyes open in any picture you get to look kind of funny.


After Dinner we got to the concert and went to go get something sweet to snack on. Tricia paid the outrages amount of $5.00 for a bag of Cotton Candy and I grabbed a strawberry banana smoothie for the enormous amount of 5 bucks as well. Jeremy was frugal and smuggled peanuts in his cargo pockets of his shorts from texas roadhouse.


but at least my purchase made for a great photo!

It's alright to say it, awwww we look so cute! um ya you'd better believe it.

We listened to great music. Laughed at some seriously drunk people and all in all had a ridiculously good time. Enough so that I think we'll do it again sometime soon!

Today's funny moment. Pretty sure this is going to be it for the day but please read and enjoy!
Read this.

Randomness abroad in abundance

Alright, for my eight loyal readers I give you my random post. As of lately I've been obsessed with clouds and sky and the different color of blues that come with the different areas of Utah. I'm really not that great with my camera yet but I've been trying to capture the different shades and moods of the skies.


I loved this one because I thought that the sky and mountains were so grinding against each other. If they were to continue their pattern into each other there would be a cool plaid sky/mountain effect.

I loved the sky and lighting of this particular picture Lizzie was just putting on sunscreen. I don't know why I even took this picture but I love the lighting.

At The Fray concert it started out so blue and then these dark clouds started rolling in only to make a beautiful sunset with strips of colors everywhere.
These are the kind of blue skies I just love. A dark blue with wispy clouds as if one of my kids got into the q-tips again and shredded them all over the sky.

The girls took swim lessons after the 4th of July and Lizzie discovered that she's part fish and Abby discovered why the little Mermaid wanted to get out of the water so bad. Abby hated putting her face in the water consequently Abby didn't pass her class but Lizzie passed with flying colors. At least Abby's class was absolutely adorable. Abby was the smallest and one of the youngest by quite a bit but she still had a good time playing with her "friends"
Lizzie was great to watch after Abby and make sure that she had a good time at the pool every day.

Jeremy was lucky enough to take a week off of work and have a "staycation" with us. It was super cool to be able to go around locally and have fun with Jeremy. We went and spent an evening in the mountains, went swimming, finally made it to Lagoon, had bbq's with friends, made an outing to the discovery museum and other such funness (i'm saying that's a word despite the red squiggily line).

Enter picture of Will dressed as a cow-boy, not the kind with a hat and boots but a boy dressed as a cow pushing a pretend lawn mower...yes he is adorable.

Lizzie channeled her inner-cowgirl and did her best to get the super plastic horse to move.

Will was truly at home driving the kids around in the stationary car. Abby brandishing her "got milk" gangsta sign..
When we were at the discovery museum it was opening night of Harry Potter and the half blood prince thus they had an entire show of Harry Potter Magic. The staff was dressed in wizarding robes and this guy carried around his trantula. All other kids hid behind parents when the spider came close except for Lizzie who insited on holding the huge hairy arachnid. Seriously that girl has some serious gumption!
This witch was awesome! They showed the kids how to make dragon toothpaste, snow, snakes and other cool stuff. They had a drawing afterwards and Lizzie won a flashlight with the dark mark on it...ya that's cool.

At one of our great bbq's Will and some other boys found lots of mud to play in. Will thought his beloved bear would like to play with him. After soaking the bear in the mud Will went to put the bear back in his mouth where the bear permantly resides. Will discovered he didn't like the taste of muddy bear ears and threw him to the ground in the ultimate sign of rejection.

Luckily bear was washed and Will now chews happily on it's ears and nose with glee.

Thanks for sticking with me through this random post. I still need to post official posts of our staycation, lagoon, The Fray and camping but this should hold you over till then. Thanks again to all eight of you who read. Please leave more comments on what else you'd like to see on this haphazard blog.

I should Blog tell me what I should do though.

I have so much to blog about and so many pictures to post so I'm asking you my 3 regular readers, which would you like me to post first.
Please Leave your comment with your prefrence.
1) Lagoon (sorry no pix of the anyone puking.)
2) The Fray Concert which includes absolutely no pictures of the kids where as it was a kidless zone
3) Camping at Duck Fork with lots of pictures of the amazing scenery
4) Discovery Museum with a special Harry Potter theme.
5) Randomness...which could include swim lessons, strawberries, and some other random junk

And just so this isn't a Lazy Post here's a picture:

We FLIP for America!

So it's Friday I'm only posting this a week late. There were so many good pictures and I wanted to weed through them and post my favorites. Our 4th of July this year was incredibly stellar! It started out with me waking up some what early to run the 5k before the race. I was nervous it was going to be sweaty hot but luckily the weather cooperated and gave us beautiful weather for the entire day. I ran the race in 26 minutes..not too shabby (although my running buddy smoked me by three minutes and ended up taking first in our division..GO MINDY! You rock!) Mindy and I then sat and watched the parade with our families, I wasn't there to get the kids ready for the race thus no camera, thus no pix of Tooele's awesome parade. The kids got so much candy and we had such a good time chatting it up with the Adults it really was a lot like the parades that I remember going to as a kid which makes me so happy because I know a lot of parades are changing so i sure hope Tooele keeps it up! After the parade we got home we found that the Sweet Jumps had been to our house and had delivered the WATERSLIDE..at first we were going to wait to start it up till the kids ate lunch..umm ya that didn't last for long.

As soon as the slide went up the block party began. We had so many great friends come and join us and have fun in the slide.


We handed out popsicles and let the kids just go at the slide. We noticed Abby wasn't going down so Jeremy put on his suit and took her down.


Ya she wasn't a big fan. I think her exact words were "OH! NO! Make it STOP! I'm all DONE!

Luckily Abby still loves her Daddy!!!

She found a pretty good way to stay cool.


Jeremy and I both had some fun going down the slide we even went down together which I'm guessing could be metaphorical but right now It was just F*U*N!!!
We also had some face painting going on. I don't know how I missed taking a picture of Lizzie when was all said and done but she had so many things painted on her she looked like a hard core biker but at least all the colors were patriotic!

We had to get pictures of these babies together last year at the block party all 4 fit into a pack-n-play and were content to just lay on their back and kick. Now they're all toddlers running around as fast as their little legs could carry them. They were so cute together.

And of course my favorite tradition of the block party..the ceremony of singing Happy Birthday to America complete with it's on giant cupcake tower. This year we had over 150 cupcakes and there were only 10 left when the party was over.

I really think the 4th of July is becoming at least in the top three of my favorite holidays. We love our neighbors and it's so great to be able to have time to celebrate with them. We are so grateful for this blessed nation and all the many joys and freedoms we experince here. We're also grateful for those who continue to serve and protect this land and the liberties it possesses. We cannot wait to celebrate again next year!

My kids are cute

I've always known my kids are cute. Now someone else was able to take pictures to show it. These are just a few of the pictures Brooke was able to take but I can't wait to see the rest of them. Brooke is amazingly talented and I cannot wait to see what else she does with my girls. Till then here's a few shots let me know which one is your favorite. here's the link

The Rawlings are going camping.

(Warning: super long,,,ok amazing long post, but the pictures really do make it, so feel free to scroll through and ignore my comentary unless you want to know what I was thinking, which come on you are a little curious, I mean why else would you be reading this..)

The Rawlings family decided to branch out this year and got together for a family camp-out. Jeremy's little sister Stacey just finished building their home just a 1/4 mile from Glendale Reservoir( just outside Preston ID) and luckily enough Dustin's dad owns some lake front property for us to camp on. It was a beautiful location and we had lots of fun toys to play with but most importantly lots of fun people to play with. We started out by pitching our tents in the hay field.
The view from our camp. The lake was just great and luckily enough our little cove was nice and private enough to help us feel secluded.


The kids had a great time playing hide and go seek in the hay field. It was so fun to watch them wade through the alfalfa only to trip and lose total sight of them.

Leah and Abby found dandelions and made wishes until dark.


It was so nice to get out in the country.

My favorite part of camp had to be everyone sitting around the campfire. Dave played the guitar and we sang along (only in the Rawlings family would you hear all 4 part harmony to camp songs). It was so awesome.

Everyone had fun singing songs, listening to Tammy and Dave sing some of their favorites and hearing funny stories.

Will wandered the entire camp convincing people to give him more cookies, except Will can't quite say cookie yet instead he sounds like some sort of alien saying "ccccckkkkkkeee"

And what would camp be without delicious smores. Oh they're making me hungry just looking at them....
Nice and golden.



We sang songs until the kids couldn't keep their eyes open any longer and tucked them into their sleeping bags. When the adults decided to hit the hay (some of us literally) we noticed a ruckous party starting up. After about an hour of the party getting way too loud and me singing along with "knocking on heaven's door" in my head Dave and Jeremy went to have a "chat" with the camp. When they arrived they were welcomed by some puking drunks who were kind of enough to turn their music down a tad. Their party didn't die till about 4 in the morning but it was still nice to sleep in the cool of the mtns for at least a few hours. I woke up with the sun and decided to go for a scenic run around the lake. It was glorious! After a good hearty mountain breakfast we waited for the air to warm up and took some 4 wheeler rides.


Lizzie and Savanah waited so patiently to get their swimsuits on but I couldn't resist these pictures. They sure are the best of friends.

Grandma had a great idea and decided to bring some beads for the kids to make bracelets. All the girls where so excited the boys were a little less than thrilled but...


That didn't stop these work worn hands. Dave was so great to help the girls make their beautiful jewelry and even helped them pick out the beads.

Seriously Dave is such a wonderful Grandpa and would never let a silly thing like pink beads get in the way of spending time with his beloved grandaughters.

Each girl had a blast stringing the beads, trying on different styles and most importantly talking together.

The results were F*A*B*U*L*O*U*S!!



The boys found something equally awesome to do and picked up a whole bunch of really good skipping rocks!
Ethan was learning from the master skipper himself.

Jeremy sure can skip a rock. I lost count of his farthest skipped rock but it was a long long way!

The other uncles were able to take some the kids for 4 wheeler rides

Dustin even had the brilliant idea to let the girls "pick flowers" on one of their rides. What a great uncle.

Soon enough it was warm enough for boat and jet ski rides...Sorry I was too busy playing to take pictures so this is about all I have of people getting the water. Thanks again to Dustin and his Dad for the loaner on the boat and Jet Skis. What a blast!

Soon enough the sun was setting on our little family campout and it was time to go home. So we cleaned up camp and took off to our perspective homes. Amanda and Curt were blessing Kambria in Logan on Sunday and we all wanted to make sure we were well rested for the big day.

I rode up to the top of a hill close to Stacey and Dustin's and took some shots of the beautiful scenery. This is where we camped and the Lake that I ran around. It was so beautiful. I so love Cache Valley and just couldn't get over how green it was...I guess I've been in the desert too long.


The girls wanted to pick flowers just one more time so we let them go.


It was such a good time and I can't wait to do it again. I hope everyone else had a good time. Maybe we should make it a tradition??? What do y'all think?