Utah, Utah and more Utah!!!

The fam and I had the amazing opportunity to go home to Utah!! This is the trip I have been waiting for ever since I moved to Delaware.  This trip was absolutely the BEST trip ever and we all had a fabulous time visiting with family, friends and just re exploring Utah.  We made several wonderful trips to the Riverwoods Mall splash pad!!  Jane wasted NO time jumping right in :)

 What a sweet smile Beckham!!

 While in Utah, we had the wonderful opportunity to go to Idaho for the very last "Harper Camp". This has been going on for 60 years and has turned into an impossibly large event.  The whole town of Ketchum Idaho was saturated with Harpers from all over the place :) It was a lot of fun to be there!  Here is me and Beckham with my sweet Grandpa Harper!!!

 The kids LOVED having time to spend with Grammy!!

 Beckham was getting a little too adventurous with the pool and was having a grand ol time jumping in with all his might and giving his mama a heart attack :-/

 Here are Edward and Jane sitting on the high chairs at the restaurant.

 On our last day, we had a picnic at a beautiful little park.  Of course, swim suits or not, the kids had to partake of the splash pad fun!!

 Here are Ryan and the kids in awe of the lush, gorgeous, green lawn at the Dick's house...grass in NOT like that in Delaware...

 We were very excited to explore temple square and the new City Creek Mall!!  It was amazing!!

 Love it!!!

 They had so many really artistic and cool fountains.

 And the view of the temple is always stunning!

Here are Jane and Beckham with all their cousins from the Dick side of our family (minus Emma, Jacob and Jack).  Such a beautiful bunch of kids :)

                                                       The Dick Clan :)

 Of course, we made a trip up Provo Canyon to Sundance!!!  It is just so beautiful up there and I have sooooo many amazing memories up that canyon!!  It was really quite magical (i know I am nerdy)

 We rode up the chair lift and was in awe of Utah's beauty!!

 I was thrilled to meet my darling little nephew, Tyson, as well as all of his sweet family, whom I miss a lot!!

 Me and sweet little Mae at Malawi's pizza!!

 We just HAD to hit Bridal Veil falls!!

 It was fun to do fireworks with Ryan's family!!  It made me miss holidays in Utah our family!! I had so much fun!!

 The kids did do!!

 One of the highlights of my trip was going to see my mom in the play "Crazy for You" at the Hale Center Theater!!  She was amazing and it was so special to be there with all my siblings and my daughter, Jane!!

 We had lunch with my dear cousin Natalie and my fam at the Orem Mall!! This was a darling picture of my newest sweet niece, Claire, with Jane!!

 One of our last nights in Utah and this is what I found...

On our way to the airport, we HAD to stop to see our dear friends who lived one house away from us in Delaware until not too long ago they moved back to Utah.  Jane and Addy were such dear friends...

 I miss my sweet friend Christa so much.  She is what made Dover feel like home for me...and she is greatly missed there :(

Every moment of this trip was so wonderful and I feel so blessed to have been able to go!!! I didn't even get pictures of my brothers Matthew and Bryan who were there in Utah,  nor with my Best Friend and SISTER, Christina :( But I had so much fun.  I just LOVE my family and friends so much and am so grateful for the place I grew up- Utah is so wonderful!!

A Dover 4th of July and Fruit Loops!!

      Our first Fourth of July in Dover was simply fabulous!!  Ryan and I were lame and really didn't have much planned for our 4th until my wonderful brother, Bryan, and sister-in-law, Wendy, (and Jack, of course) decided they were going to come to Dover to spend the holiday with us!!  I was so excited to be able to once again spend this family holiday with some family:)

Bryan, Wendy and Jack met us at our AF base pool around lunch time where we had a blast swimming with the kids!!  No pics of that :(  Then later, after naps, we went into downtown Dover for the parade.  Ryan was super stoked for it.....

 It was VERY hot...and the parade was underwhelming...but we still had fun and made some great memories!!

 Here's the whole gang:)

 Here is the one and only "float", if you can call it that, in the Dover parade.....haha!!

 Jack really loved Elmo and was so sad when he left.

 After the parade we cooled off and had dinner at Red Lobster!!  The kids were well behaved and we just had a nice time:)

 Dover may have had a crappy parade...but they delivered on the fireworks and put on a great fireworks show:)  It was a perfect night- eating ice cream and watching the firworks:)

 Beckham was enthralled the whole time!

 Jane was a goof ball, as usual!  She LOVED having Wendy, Bryan and Jack with us and didn't want them to go home:)

 Thanks for making our 4th of July wonderful by coming to spend the day with us Bryan, Wendy and Jack!!!

I just had to throw this in...this is the lovely mess Beckham made the other day, coupled with a super cute "I'm in trouble" face to go with it!!

 AND...here he is cleaning it up :)

Ryan's C17 Adventure!!

Ryan got the amazing opportunity to go on a C17 refueling mission!!!  Pharmacists rarely get to go on these missions, so Ryan was super excited that he had this opportunity!!  C17 jet engine airplanes are HUGE and are used to ship cargo of all kinds to troops overseas.  Here he is...giddy as a school boy...to get going!!

Here's a picture of the cockpit with the four pilots...

The next few pictures were taken during the refueling part of the mission!!  This fuel plane was only 30 feet above the C17 Ryan was riding in.  The pilots had to be very careful to move with the plane above.  If it dipped, they had to dip, if it turned, they turned. The fact that it started to rain didn't help things.  Ryan said several times the plane above would hit turbulence and suddenly lose air, coming dangerously close to their plane- eeek!!

They were so close to the fueling plane that Ryan was able to get this sweet picture of  the guy in a pit at the bottom of the plane controlling the refueling hose.  This dude's super concentrated face cracks me up!!

Well, Ryan got home late from the mission and raved about how amazing it was!!!  I am glad he had such a cool opportunity :)

As a side note, we finished our June camping themed "summer camp" with Mother Goose Time.  I had so much fun doing this with my kids and I am looking forward to doing it in the fall with Beckham and a few of his friends from church!!  It will be a lot of fun!! Here are the kids with their rainbow art projects, their finished "camping journals"- or letter books, and our camp time memory book!!

A lot of Adventure Around these Parts...

 This past week has been an adventurous one!!!  We took a quick day trip to Wilkes Barra, PA to see the live version of How to Train Your Dragon. It was a long...but insanely BEAUTIFUL drive!! To keep the kiddos happy during the drive we had a "hurricane" in the car.  Jane and Beckham thought that was super fun!!

 We chowed down on popcorn and treats while we waited.  Ryan and the kids were very excited to see the dragons...  so was I :)

 Needless to say, it was worth the drive and the wait!!  The dragons were stunning!!  They looked so real! Here is "Toothless" the dragon with Hiccup and Astrid riding him :)

 The "terrible terror" dragon.  He breathed fire and walked around and just looked and acted so real!

 can't remember his name...but he was so cool!! It took a lot of hugs and kisses and convincing that these dragons were not real to prompt Beckham to actually look at them.  Yes, the poor boy was absolutely terrified for the first few minutes...But he warmed up eventually :)

 Here is Hiccup's dad.  He came out right by us.  His outfit was amazing!

After the show we went to a Hibachi grill for dinner!! The kids loved watching the guy cook our food.  They thought he was the coolest guy ever!







We had a fabulous time!!!  More pics about Ryan's C17 adventure in a few days!!

Hooray for daddies and Mother Goose!!

 I have been doing a little "summer camp" with my kids all this month!!  They have been having a blast and can't wait for "Mother Goose Time" every day :) Mother Goose Time is the curriculum I have been using and it is super fun!!  The theme of our camp has been, camping!  The kids can't wait to go on a REAL camp out once we've reached the end of our camp together. 

 We have done all sorts of camping crafts, we have learned letters, played games and had music time every day!!  Here are some of the darling crafts!!

 The kids at circle time with their "crackly fire log" crafts!!

 On Racoon day, being sneaky racoons looking for our letter "R" cards around the room!!

 Now that the month is almost over...I am actually sad that our camp will be over and I KNOW the kids will miss it.  They ask me every day when it is time for  "Mother Goose Time."  This has been a blast! I just hope our grand finale camp out goes smoothly, too :)

It was Father's Day a week ago!! As usual, I took this opportunity to try something new and to have fun!!  I surprised Ryan with this special Father's Day "dinner"...

 Well, they are really cupcakes made to look like a tv dinner :) HAHA I loved seeing the surprised look on Ryan's face when I gave them to him acting like this was his real dinner.  He ranged from confused to amused to confused again...to relieved!!

 After my little gag, I let Ryan eat his real Father's Day dinner.  We had a delicious thai steak stir fry (that reminded him of his mission :), rice and pot stickers!!  I think it was a hit...with the adults at least :)

 Here's the fam chowing down the tv dinner cupcakes!! They tasted better than they looked :)

Summer is off to a great start!!!