The Rockwood's Maiden Voyage

 We picked up a used tent trailer and took it on its maiden voyage to Pine Valley on Friday.  The girls were very excited to head for the hills for the first time with it!  Who knew a minivan could double as a truck?!?

This beautiful rainbow was in the skies of St. George as we left.

Donna whipped up some of her dutch oven potatoes for dinner.

Kortney was extra happy on the trip.  She wouldn't sleep throughout the night which turned into a very long night for mom-n-dad.  Too much excitement for a two year old.

The girls were anxious to try out the new beds in the tent trailer.  A mountain lion had been spotted in the campground this summer so the girls felt safe in the trailer.

Morning finally came and I cooked up some bacon and eggs for the kids. 

We went on a fun hike the next morning and looked for animals in the wild forest.  We found this cool log that we could "Walk the Beam" like Gabby.  Our girls have loved the Olympics this summer.

Looking for frogs is always great fun

We came across some cute chipmunks during our hike and chased them up the trees

Fishing in Pine Valley Reservior

Unlike Kyle, we never seem to catch any fish so we resort to seeing who can "Catch" the longest piece of seaweed!  Kortney drug in this beast and was very proud of herself.

The new campground is very family friendly and includes hiking trails with benches.  We loved the camping adventure and are already planning the next one.

Justin's Wedding and City Creek

We enjoyed our trip to Salt Lake this week. One of the highlights was touring Temple Square and I always like going to the Admin Building to see if we can "Run" into anybody there. The last time I was there I met President Monson. We got lucky this time around and the girls got to meet President Uchtdorf. He was very gracious and had the girls give him a high five. I wish I would have snapped a quick picture.

I feel bad I didn't have my camera at Justin's wedding. Everything turned out really nice. Andrea and Justin make a great couple. It was fun to visit with so many of the family that we don't see all that often. The next day we went to the grand opening of City Creek Center.

Chik-Fil-A served up a delicious lunch at the new food court.

Look who visited the Disney Store! That is the Presiding Bishop of the Church.

There was lots of media at City Creek. It was fun to talk with some of the news reporters we watch on TV.

There was a waiting line at the Disney store and the girls kept saying it felt like they were at Disneyland! They loved it.

Miss Utah has a baby?

The girls got butterfly face paints at Macy's

The Church did such a great job with this development. It is absolutely beautiful. We loved the live music all throughout the mall.

New Years Eve

For New Years we traveled North to Utah County to visit family. We stopped at the ice rink in Provo and the girls tried Ice Skating for the first time. They used these skate aids which made it really fun for them.

We met up with Mike and his family at the rink telepathically. We both happened to show up with our families at exactly 3PM on New Years Eve. We had lots of fun skating around, trying not to crash into people and fall down.

Next we were off to Kim and Shaun's house to partay with the fam.

Colby hadn't even drank any bubbly yet and he is already 1 sheet to the wind.

We ate a yummy dinner. I'm still dreaming of that delicious fruit and cream dish Sydna made.

Now we're talkin' I'm not sure what the brocolli is doing amongst all this goodness. Are those gummy bears by the twizzlers? Just for the record, Shaun had purchased a 6 pound bag of those puppies and I would be surprised if there was more than a couple ounces left by midnight!

Phase 10 Baby!

The cousins all raced outside at the stroke of midnight with their pots and pans.

Now we break out the Bubbly. Kassy: 2 Sheets to the Wind.

Kim: 3 Sheets to the Wind. Even Little Macy was puttin' it back at midnight.

The next day we gathered at Mike's ward to repent of our midnight misdeeds...and join Matt and Ashley for the blessing of little Jake. Afterwards we met at Mike's seminary to enjoy a luncheon. It was great to see so many of our Northern Utah family. We always have lots of fun together.

Beautiful Heartbreak

Growin' Butterflys!

Donna and I finally gave in to those commercials about butterflys and purchased the kit for $20 bucks. A few days later this little container showed up in our mailbox complete with 5 tiny caterpillars. The girls were so excited to get bugs in the mail and were pretty fascinated with how fast those little critters grew.

After about a week we noticed one of the caterpillars crawled to the top and instinctively dropped into a J shape and held very still. Within 12 hours a hard chrysalis formed around its body.

We waited patiently for 1 week for the butterflys to hatch from their chrysalis'

And then.....the first butterfly crawled out and unfolded her wings!

The girls were very impressed with how beautiful their butterflys were.

Little Kort kept trying to eat them! This butterfly narrowly escaped her chubby fingers to live another day. Soon we released them into the wild. We all had a blast growin' butterflys.