The Christensen Family

Monday, October 24, 2016

July 4th Weekend 2016

Coming straight from the Blad reunion, our family and Micah's family met up with April's family and my mom and Tom at the reservoir in Altamont for jet-skiing. Joe and Missy were still around, and they drove all the way up the canyon to jetski with us before they had to go down and fly back to Hawaii.

April's family and Micah's family stayed at my house that weekend and we had a lot of fun with them! They joined us for church and we did a family home evening with paperbag skits and scripture stories. Everyone had a bag with a scripture story in it and several random items that they had to incorporate into their retelling of the scripture story. Everyone did an awesome job!

Rexton is a lion for Daniel in the Lion's den. Great mane!

Devon was Captain Moroni with the Title of Liberty. Spencer was Amalakiah.

We woke up early so Spencer could teach us all how to fish and fly fish. That was so fun and everyone was successful at catching a fish. We went to Little Montes Creek which is only 5 minutes away from our house.

We all went home to get ready to go to the parade in Neola, but Steve and Spencer lingered another half hour trying to catch "the big one." Steve had actually caught a little fish earlier and a huge fish swam up from the bottom and swallowed that fish on his line, but since Steve had snagged the little fish, it came out of the big fish as he was reeling it in and "the big one" got away. Too bad. They never did catch that fish again, but they could see it down there.

We had fun at the parade, then ate out at Hideout Steakhouse where we could cook our own steak on a rock, then everyone went home. We watched fireworks later that night at constitution park. What a fun and full weekend!

Blad Reunion July 2016

The Blads are my step-mom's side of the family. They have a reunion every year, and this year it was close enough to home and budget friendly that we were able to go. They held the reunion at the park in Kanosh, and people could either camp out at one of the Blad reletive's yards in town or find their own lodging elsewhere. We opted to camp out at Grandpa Blad's backyard, along with Micah's family, Trent's family, My dad, Debby, Emmy, and Stockton. And if you thought their backyard was full, all you had to do was go in the house. And we all shared 2 bathrooms. It all worked out, especially since we were at the park the entire day. They fed us breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 2 days. There were bounce-slides set up, water kickball, huge sprinkler, and 4 games of corn hole. They also brought in a DJ on the last night and held a dance under the pavillion. We had so much fun!

Corn Hole game. Steve was pretty good!

Playing this with Steve made me want to get one.

Left to right: Amara, Emmy, Lily. Stockton in the background.

Corn hole competitions all day long! It's a very popular game with the Blads.

Afternoon popsicles!

Lastly, I'll leave you with a really cool, really creepy, picture Steve took from Grandpa Blad's backyard. That spider is carrying all her babies on her abdomen! EEEEKKK!

Sunday, October 23, 2016

The Rest of June: Visits, Horses, Nature, and Ashley's Wedding

Father's Day breakfast with Steve and his dad

Remember Father's Day this year? Me neither. That was 4 months ago, and it feels like years. And that is why I'm thankful I took pictures. We had Steve's parents come that weekend and we had a lovely time with them.

Father's Day dinner with Tom, Steve and Steve's dad.

Father's Day dinner: Steak (Tom's favorite), Potatoes (Steve's dad's favorite), and warm freshly baked rolls (Steve's favorite). Also pictured: sauteed mushrooms, buttered carrots, and cooked green beans (a good-intentioned, and delicious attempt to balance this meal).

Before Steve's parents headed out of town, they took a side trip with us to go watch Lily and Amara at their horse riding lessons. Grandpa even had his cowboy hat!

This summer, we participated in the 101 things to see and do in the Uintah Basin Contest. Many of the photos you'll see from this summer were activities we did to check off another thing off that list. I can tell you now, since I just found out not too long ago that we won the contest! We did 77 of the 101 things!

Fishing with Sarah Hall and her kids at Matt Warner Reservoir- an absolutely BEAUTIFUL place! We didn't catch a thing though. The trip was worth it for the wildlife viewing and the amazing scenery.

A pic of the drive up to Matt Warner Reservoir

Look what else we saw on our drive!

This little guy was just moseying along the side of the road. There were deer everywhere.

I love how this bird has the perfect plank position.

We also went up Dry Fork Canyon on another outing and hiked some of the Flume Trail and took pics.

We love the Outlaw Outdoor Theater. They put on one play every year, and it plays for a week or so. This year it the play was "Camelot." It was kinda dumb, actually, but the actors and directors did a wonderful job. It was the storyline that was lacking desperately.

We played kid games at Myton Days. It's such a small town that the lines weren't very long ;)

Nearby the Myton Days celebration, we found a geocache in the cemetery up the street. We signed our names in the little book provided and put it back for another person to search for.

I remember when I was a kid, my dad let us kids have a chance to drive the van whenever we would go on an adventure in the middle of nowhere. So, I thought I'd do the same for my kids.

We fished at Pelican Lake for a time. Caught nothing but a tree and some lake slime.

Our trips to Ouray Bird Refuge have always provided us with great wildlife viewing.

This antelope was limping a bit. Wonder what happened?

Look carefully in the shadow beneath the bird and you'll see the eggs.

Taking pics of dragonflies.

We went to Fantasy Canyon on a very hot day. We were shade seekers, and there was very little shade to be found.

Amara checked out a bunch of books from the library and read them all in a week. Grandma Debby pays her $5 per novel up to $20/month. She and Lily love that and turn in book reports to her each month. Both girls love reading

And to end the month of June, we attended the wedding of my step-sister, Ashley. It was a beautiful wedding and she was a beautiful bride. She and Jared were married in the Draper temple and had their luncheon and reception at Cedar Ridge, which was just gorgeous! We took advantage of the scenery and took some family photos along with some wedding photos.