Fourth of July Fun

Before I begin with our activties for the 4th of July, I need to deliver some crazy news. Cedar City has a Beach! Yep, thats right......Forget St. Thomas (angie), forget Kauai (ashley), forget Maui (sharla), forget even the beach of Tibble Fork (sydna).....you have not lived until you've felt the grainy sand between your toes at the Beach on the Leigh Hill!!! The proof is in the picture...

Now, on to the fourth. I love going to Cedar for the 4th of July. So many fun memories during that time in Cedar City. Its fun to watch my girls experience those same traditions. We had tons of fun with family at Grandma's house, the parade, the festival at the park, and now the Beach. I'm still in shock about that last one. You gotta see it to believe it....

Jay Ray strikin' a pose. I think he actually may be tooting in this photo. Poor Sheri

Megs and Trey enjoying the barbecue

The older kids got the best seat in the house for the dinner.

Nate and Alisha put on a great Barbecue for all of us. I'm still thinking of that yummy pink salad with Marshmellows. It was a hit.

The newest member of the Triple Deuce Artilary Battalion. Trev just returned from AIT training and told us some fun stories from Boot Camp.

Ole' Crusher Himself enjoying the Barbecue. (See Sharla's Blog for explanation)

Sleeping at Grandma's with all the cousins is like one big slumber party. Lots of fun.

Here we are all lined up for the big parade on the 4th.

Main Street in Cedar City

We love to go to the park after the parade and the first place we hit is the "Fishing Pond"

My favorite 5 women in the world. Megan Fox comes in a close 6th. Oh wait, my mom takes the 6th spot....Megan comes in a close 7th. (I'm just joking Donna, tee hee)

The fourth of july wouldn't be complete without cotton candy.

That stuff is so dang hard to eat. But its so fun to try!

We ran into Huddy and Amalia working the Cotton Candy booth at the park. Huddy was covered in fluffy pink strands of cotton candy. Amalia kept saying he was extra sweet for her!

We painted Kortney's chubby toes red for the fourth.

And by the end of the day, this is how it ended. Nicole passed out in the Middle of eating one of her parade candies. I guess thats why they call them 'Now and Laters'! Look at those Rosy Candy Lips. Classic!

Build and Grow Project

The other day we went to Lowes to buy a lawn mower. As we walked out of the store we noticed a sign that said, "saturday, Saturday, SATURDAY.....MONSTER TRUCK SATURDAY!" featuring a fun building project for kids. In a house full of girls, this manly project called out my name. Oh baby...I needed to sign up my 4 girls to build....MONSTER TRUCKS.

We arrived at the store at 10 AM Saturday morning all decked out with pink pony tails and red finger nail polish. The girls quickly strapped on their Lowes building aprons, grabbed their miniature hammers, and began building their wooden trucks. We ran into Lori Chamblerlain (Brent's daughter who now lives in St. George) and used the same work table as her family.

After a noisy 25 minutes of 50 kids pounding away with their hammers, our monster trucks were built. The building kits even came with paper cars that the trucks could 'crush'.

The kids enjoyed putting stickers on their completed trucks and even received a cool certificate that stated they were, "Certified Monster Truck Builders" as well as a free frosty at Wendy's. The girls had a blast and thanks to Lowes I received a nice dose of masculinity for a change.

Angel's Landing

While exploring Zion in 1916, LDS pioneer Frederick Fisher looked up at the great monolith and exclaimed, "Only an Angel could land on it."


Last week was National Park week which meant free admission to any NP in the country. I took advantage of the freebie and drove to Zion Canyon on Saturday to hike Angel's Landing. It was a perfect 80 degrees and blue skies the whole day.

The First 2 miles are deceivingly easy and safe. The hike is very fast in this first section.

The Great White Throne is the looming White Sandstone Mountain directly to the East of Angel's.

This is where the hike gets exciting. The narrow fin of sandstone leading out to the top of Angels.

Hiking up the Sandstone fin. A woman stumbled and fell to her death just last month on this part of the hike. The shadows of the canyon appear as black voids of space in this picture. In person, this was an Awesome view looking deep into the canyons below. I wish I had Angie Harding's camera to really do it justice.

The views of Zion Canyon are breathtaking from high up on the cliffs. I noticed most hikers just kept their head down and trudged along staring at their feet the whole time...I kept thinking, "My gosh, stop for a second and LOOK UP to enjoy the amazing views along the way!"

This is the famous "Step of Faith" on Angel's. My camera did not capture the horror of this particular rock. Many hikers have stopped and turned around at this very spot; refusing to go any further. The East (left) side of the rock is a 1200 ft drop to the canyon bottom below.

I voted this as my favorite spot for a chain. The shadows of the canyon messed up this photo but take my word for it, you definitely would not want to have a misstep on this section!

Finally made it to the top. As I stood for this picture, one woman passing by told me I was crazy.....all I could think was "Ah... my dad would be so proud right now!...and my mom would be freaking out." I can't count how many times I have hiked in Zion and heard my dad utter the phrase, "Whatever you do, don't tell mom!"

Looking way down at the main road from the top.

A couple other "crazy" hikers inching their way out to the edge. Fortunately it was not windy on Saturday. A gust of wind on the edge could really ruin your day

The view as I started my descent from off the top.

The virgin river from 900 feet up.

Can't wait to hike it again!

The Forbidden Fruit

I'm convinced that Eve's forbidden fruit was actually little DQ blizzards dangling from the limbs of the tree. Those tasty little treats are devilishly delicious! They also happen to be BOGO $.25 cents this week to celebrate their anniversary at your local Dairy Queen. Happy Birthday Blizzard! We're happy you were born 25 delicious years ago. For FHE tonight we decided we better join in on the festivities and wish this cold dessert a big Happy B-day.


I wanted to line up the girls with their Blizzards for a fun picture. However, after I snapped the photo I realized that Kaitlyn was experiencing a blizzard brain freeze the very moment I pushed the button. I got a little frustrated and told her to smile through the pain. I really needed this shot because my blizzard was quickly melting in the other room. The following picture shows Kaitlyn attempting to smile through her tears!

Finally Mom came to the rescue and told the girls a silly joke to get their cute smiles below. Colie and Jessy's eyes close into little crecent moon shapes when they smile big just like their moms'. I think its darling!

So...one 'Hawaiian', one 'Banana Cream Pie' and one 'Oooey Gooey Carmel Brownie' Blizzard later and they were all cold, happy, campers.

Our New Baby!

KORTNEY RYAN GRAF

weighing in at 8 lbs. 10 oz.

and a Graf size of 21 in. long!

Here are a few pics from the hospital. Ryan looks a little in shock from the experience we had there. Good times!

They gave her a cute little Valentines hat. Sorry for my frightening appearance. This is what I look like when my water breaks and I have a baby without any drugs.

All of her big sisters came to visit in the hospital. Kortney was even nice enough to bring them some gifts. (Kaitlyn informed me that the baby could not go to the store and buy the gifts so how could they be from her?) Poor Kate was a little under the weather with a fever that spread throughout the family over the next week.

They all love holding their new baby sis!

Apparently she likes to pose for the camera! We might have a diva on our hands. Oh wait we already have three of those in our family. (I am not included in that number!)

We all love her lots!

We are Not naming the baby Bella

The final 6 weeks

Don't worry, this picture is not Donna's belly. I just thought it was so amazing. It's probably photo-shopped but that little footprint is just too much! One of our favorite things to see right after the baby is born is to watch the little tike stretch out for the first time. They are so cramped in that little confined space of the uterus...I'm sure it feels great for them to finally stretch out. The pregnancy is going well but Donna can't wait for it to be over with. I feel so bad watching Donna in the last month of pregnancy and knowing how uncomfortable she is day and night as the baby is rapidly growing. We are happy we are finished (probably) after this last one. I always get so worried that everything will be okay with mom and baby. From a husband's perspective, it is hard to watch your wife experience pain and you cannot offer any help. Donna assures me that Her perspective during labor is much worse. I guess I'll take her word for it. I have to remind myself that this process is natural and mother nature is in charge. I was always amazed at our previous doctor, the late Dr. Steven Fielding in Cedar City and how he seemed so calm during the birth process of Kaitlyn and Jessica. I was always freaking out and trying not to faint and he was usually smiling and calm. We are fortunate to have a very good OB Doc here in St. George who has lots of experience. We need your help with our little name poll on our side bar. We are having a hard time deciding the right name for this baby.