Ward Campout

We had our ward campout back in August. . . I'm slowly catching up! We had a great time and here are some pictures from that night.



This is Nathan with his friends Nathan and Josh having a good time fishing in the Snake River. Yeah, we have a lot of fun with the Nathans. They call each other by their last name. . . it's so funny! Now all their other friends do it, too. : )





Here's Lily with Bryson, doing some fishing.




We don't have a tent big enough to fit us all, so we had to borrow another and split up, the girls tent and the boys tent!

The Elder's Quorum was in charge of breakfast. . . Bryson's a great pancake flipper. :)

Anyway, it was a fun time to spend camping with friends in the ward!

Our trip to Chesterfield

So, I'm a bit behind on blogging, things have been busy and I have started using Facebook, too. Anyway, here's our great trip to Chesterfield, Idaho. What??? You've never heard of it?? That's because it's a small farming community with not even a gas station to it's name. It is a great place and Bryson lived there until he was seven. His parents recently retired and have spent the summer in the nice cool Idaho weather to escape the hot Mesquite summer. So, we had a little Perkins reunion there and it was great! We started our trip by taking a pit stop in Twin Falls and went through the temple open house. By the way, we took this trip back in July. The temple is beautiful and after going through it, we drove out to Shoshone Falls, literally 5 minutes from the temple, to see it, since there is a beautiful mural of them inside the temple.







We woke up to a very CHILLY morning on July 24th. I forgot that it is much cooler over on that side of the state and was totally unprepared. We were all in summer pajamas and I didn't bring a single jacket, pants, or anything warm for anyone.







There's a Pioneer Day pancake breakfast, parade, and races (the kind where people run on the grass kind of races) in the thriving metropolis of Bancroft, the nearby town (population 350) every year. We had a great time at the parade! I heard it has grown over the years. It went down mainstreet, and then turned around and went back, so we got to see it twice! They do know how to throw candy, we got more candy from that parade than we got at Halloween!







Here'a little warm up race with some of the Perkins before the real thing.







Bryson or Brad??? I caught the lucky photo finish on camera.







We got Lily up on a horse for a ride. She enjoyed it once she was up there! It was hard to get her to get on it, though.





We roasted hot dogs and marshmellows. . .;

We toured the historic town sites. . .

Chesterfield was settled by Mormon pioneers and is one of the few that is still around in a similar condition that it was when it was settled. There are still many of the original townsite buildings and cabins. This is the Perkins Cabin, built by one of Bryson's ancestors.

Kara was staying with us at the time and got to come with us. :) Kayla is always looking for something to eat. . .

We had 13 of the 15 grandkids there! Here are Cameron and Nathan. They are 3 months apart and like to call each other on the phone and talk every now and then. It was so nice to see everyone since we are so far away from them!

We also had fun four-wheeling! I didn't get a picture posted, but Nathan and Lily were practically glued to the seats! They loved it! We had so much fun spending time with family!!

Photo Shoot

My sister, Kara, stayed with us for almost the whole month of July, and she went home on Sunday. :( It was sooooooooooooo great to have her here! She loves playing with the kids and it was great to have a babysitter when we had things to do at night! Before church on Sunday, I took a few pictures of her with the kids. Kayla was taking a nap. . .

So, this one was supposed to be of just Kara and Lily, but Nathan stuck his head in right as I took the picture. . . it turned out to be his most normal smile in all the pictures I took of him!

I also have several of Lily will silly faces!

Isn't that one sweet!

I asked Nathan to sit down on the stool and smile. This is what I got from him. . .

There's a good one!

I have no idea what Lily is doing there. These kids were so hyper when we were taking pictures, their faces were always moving!

We've had lots of adventures in July, but I'm going to be working my way backwards. Goodbye Kara, happy birthday today, and we miss you!

Happy 7th Anniversary!

Bryson and I were married 7 years ago today! Time sure flies! They have been wonderful years and I am so lucky to be married to him!! Thanks, Bryson, I love you!!!

Book of Bryson

So, Bryson just started his own blog. I would highly recommend checking it out. Here's the link : http://bookofbryson.blogspot.com/ . He is very creative for a left-brained attorney! :)

Trip to Utah Part 2

As we drove into Salt Lake, we stopped to visit Grandma Tate. Bryson's parents came down for a couple days, too, so it was great to see them and have a little 4th of July picnic out back. The kids were very excited to see them, but they are very shy at first, so it always takes a bit for them to warm up to even grandparents sometimes.

Here is another reason for our trip to Utah. My sister, Jana, had her baby and blessed her on Sunday. Baby Kate is such a cutie! We enjoyed spending time with them and all of Brad's family, too.

And, here's another reason for our trip. Baby Johnny, Bryson's brother, Brad and Keriann had a little boy a couple months ago. We had a great time eating dinner with them and Bryson's mom, Julie, in Brad's backyard. We also got to visit with Brad and Keriann on Sunday after church. We are excited for them and their new adventure as parents!

Here is Bryson in a Nathan sandwich! This is one of our good friends and one of Bryson's former roommates from our BYU days. Nate is getting married in August! Yea! We are super excited for him. We got to meet his beautiful fiance, too. Good luck and congrats to them!!

Here is the most recent family picture of my side. Boy, we sure seem to be growing in numbers fast!

And here are the proud grandparents with all of their grandkids. Wow, five in the last 4 1/2 years. And from only 2 daugters so far!

I have to add how fast Kayla is growing. She's at the beginning stages of crawling, the kind of lift, hop and scoot around the floor. She gets up on to her hands and sometimes knees, but is still a little unsure of what to do.

Weekend in Utah Part l

We spent this last weekend in Utah visiting with family and friends. On Saturday, we went to Thanksgiving Point with the Rob and Dani, some friends that we made while Bryson was in law school. The kids all had a great time, along with the adults. :)

Here's Lily standing on the dinosaur scale. The first picture I took her head was straight, but I couldn't see her face because her hat was low, so, here is the picture where she lifted her head up. :)

Who can resist taking a picture in front of a shark like this? These are our friends, Rob, Dani, Liam and Lance with us. We had a great time with them at Thanksgiving Point, along with a traditional Cafe Rio lunch afterwards. Yummy. I wish we had one here!

At the end of the exhibit, there were two big sandbox areas where the kids could use the brushes to find buried bones. Nathan really enjoyed that part.

What a great shot! Bryson is the real photographer in our family. This is Nathan and Liam examining there stretched pennies stamped with a dinosaur outside the building .

We had a great time!! Thanks Rob and Dani!