August

We had a very fun and busy August!  We swam and golfed almost everyday in addition to activies with cousins and friends.  Here is the month in pictures:

We met cousins at Kennecott Copper Mine.  This is such an interesting place!  Grandma bought all the kids a souvenir from the gift shop.  Macy later named this as one of her favorite summer outings.

These are pictures from Bud's campouts, he is almost an Eagle Scout!

Rosie and Coleman had two Lemonade Stands this summer.  They spent hours making signs and fliers. The first time they made $30!  (Thanks in part to a very generous tip from Grandpa and charging a dollar a cup until I made them charge less.)  The second time Macy came over to help sell.  I could hear the three of them yelling at cars from inside my house.  This time they only made $3, but they didn't care.  It was a hot day and their little faces were very red and sweaty.

When we golf in the evenings, Jono and I challenge the kids to a matchplay round.  Jono hits onto the green and I putt against the best score of the three kids.  Jono and I usually win (to be honest it is basically us against Bud; Rosie and Coleman can't yet compete in this game), but on this night the kids beat us!  They all wore yellow and were determined to take us down.  Coleman also scored his personal best, 43 on a nine hole par 3 course.  He was so excited.  Rosie was not so excited, her personal best is 42 so Coleman is quickly catching up to her.

Coleman lost two more teeth on the bottom, but still has his top teeth. 
 He is losing them out of order!

We made many loaves of zucchini bread, with zucchini from our garden and our neighbor's garden.  Coleman loves to cook and was so thrilled that I let him use a sharp knife (gasp!) to cut the zucchini.  Below is our favorite dinner in August, tomato cheese bagels.  We had the best tomatoes ever from our garden.  I love that these tomatoes were heart-shaped when sliced.

We love summer meals, with fresh fruit and veggies from our garden and the Farmer's Market (we go every Saturday morning).  Oettli burgers are one of our favorite meals, along with tomato-cottage cheese, corn on the cob and fruit.  Coleman ate his whole meal using his fingers!  He has developed an aversion to silverware and napkins, instead wiping his dirty fingers on his shorts.  Coleman loves food and eats so much he has a fat stomach after he eats!

This is another of our favorite summer meals, 
tuna pasta salad-- yum!!

We had so much fun at the Ute Fan Fest!

Read more...

Lagoon

One of the highlights of the summer for the Oettli kids is going to Lagoon.  They love it!  We picked the perfect day in August to go; it was not too hot and not too crowded.  We arrived at Lagoon just as it was opening, and stayed almost until closing and rode everything we wanted without waiting in any long lines.  It was such a fun, fun day!

The catch-phrase of the day was "Coleman is insane!"  He was tall enough this year to ride everything, and he did.  He rode Wicked, Collosus, Jet Star 2, the Wild Mouse, the Spider and the White Roller Coaster!  Jono met us in the late afternoon, and after riding the Jet Star and White Roller Coaster said he was done.  That left me to sit by Coleman on the rest of the crazy rides.  We also rode our favorite Rattlesnake Rapids (multiple times), the Log Ride, the Bat, Bombora, Dragon, Sky Ride, Tilt-a-Whirl, Tidal Wave, the swings, and spent hours in Lagoon-a-Beach.  We packed it all in!  Understandably, Coleman zonked out in the car just as soon as Jono entered the freeway to go home.

Read more...

East Canyon

When I was growing up, our family had many magical getaways to East Canyon.  I have many wonderful memories of staying overnight in the cabins, playing in the stream and fishing in the pond.  Rebecca and I made up a new word while up there, "poop-a-ca-ca" and laughed so hard we hyperventilated.

Fast forward to this past summer and we went back to make more memories; this time with the grandchildren.  Grandpa set up a giant tent and camped with the older grandkids.  (More than a few of them where TERRIFIED of bears, and couldn't believe Rosie snuck beef jerky into the tent!)  We fished in the pond and roasted hot dogs and smore's by the fire.  It was so incredibly fun!

The kids spent two nights in the cabin with Grammy, Grandpa and cousins.  They explored the stream and got very muddy, played miniature golf, swam and shopped in the little gift shop.  They loved it!  

We also went boating twice this summer at the East Canyon Reservoir.  The kids loved riding the tubes and swimming in the lake and a great time was had by all.  You can tell from the pictures that the cousins (and best uncles ever Greg and Jonny-Boy) tried every combination possible on the tubes.  Some rides were very slow and some very fast; but everyone got lots of turns on the tubes.  Like I wrote earlier, these are magical days!

Read more...