We try to visit family in Minnesota at least once a year, and July is usually the best time. Good weather, the 4th of July holiday, and of course the kids are out of school.

For the last couple of years Kari and the kids go to the Timps for a weekend of camping and hiking. And visiting Timpanogos cave. Without me. Looks like they had a really good time though. Aspen, Tai, Rex, and Kai came along this year as well.

The last day of school for the year. Bring on Summer!

Tegan and Serisa spent nearly every Monday of the school year at evening dance class. This year they were at Parley’s Park Elemenatary (closer to Serisa’s house). Thanks again to Melissa Nestor (Dancing Little Stars) for all the time and coordination.

I can’t remember who, where, or why, but this facepaint was pretty fantastic.

Jarrett graduated from grad school, and we went to celebrate. Congrats Uncle J!

The kids do swimming lessons in the spring, usually two sessions in a row. Here’s a few highlights from the last day. Tory’s class had a mini swim meet, racing each of the 4 strokes. Freestyle Tory gets a third place ribbon, but check the end of the video, he actually comes in second… Breaststroke […]

It’s become an annual tradition to spend Easter with our Park City friends, hoping for sunny warm weather to mark the end of winter. This year the McCains hosted at their new house in Prospector. Fun day for the kids and the adults.

We go to Shepherd of the Mountains church in Park City. Our Pastor (Pastor Steve) believes that first communion should come when ever the kids feel they’re ready. So after a quick class with Pastor Steve and a communion bread bake session, we decided to have the kids first communion come on Easter Sunday. The […]

North Wash is becoming a traditional place for our kid canyoneering adventures due to it’s easy access to a wide variety of canyons. I’m a bit short on pictures here, but this gallery contains images from our day in Horseplay. Horseplay is rated 2A, which essentially means it’s dry and easy. None of us had […]

Since the skiing conditions have been less than stellar this winter, we decided to head down to Zion for Presidents weekend with the Lesters. The 70 degree weather was a nice break from the cold, although it hasn’t been all that harsh so far. The first day we hiked Angels Landing, sort of. The sheer […]

It was another year for the joint party for Tory and Tegan. They asked to do it so I guess we’ll keep it up until they say otherwise. This year they wanted to go to Black Diamond Gymnastics, which included an hour and a half with two coaches and it was a lot of fun. […]

Here’s a few pics from the early part of this winter.

Thanksgiving was spent in Minnesota this year. It was a relatively quick trip, spending a couple of days at each grandparents house. On Thanksgiving day a bunch of the Landgrens came to my folks house, so it was filled to the brim. Very nice to see Grandma Jeane, Bill & Trudy, Tom & Louise, as […]

What started out as a fun afternoon sledding in the back yard turned into absolute horror as Tegan fell off the sled and split her head open. Okay ‘absolute horror’ might be a stretch. She was a big girl about it all and gave her patented “I’m Tough!”:

This post has absolutely nothing to do with the kids except for the fact that Kari and I had a couple days alone, sans kids. We hiked Mt. Timpanogos to celebrate our 12th anniversary. We went during the Republican Shutdown of the government. The campgrounds were closed but we got lucky. The trailhead was open […]

Tegan’s first year of soccer. They played ever Saturday – she started a bit slow, but really enjoyed it overall. Here’s her team, The Orange Tigers: Tegan Bella Tegan Sierra Isabelle Bailey Coach Andy

Tory’s 1st grade year of soccer concluded this week, and I was amazed at how much better the kids were this year. This is the first time they look like they’re playing the game rather than just mauling the ball. Here’s Tory’s Black Knights team: Alex Blake Christian Cooper Dillon Eldon Tanner Tory Coach Michelle

Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus came to Salt Lake and the kids somehow found out about it. So we went! My folks were in town at the time so they came too. The show was absolutely amazing – for the most part. I wasn’t too keen on the animal stuff – I’m not […]

Spent the weekend climbing with friends – at City of Rocks in Idaho. It was our first time up there and even though I didn’t get many pictures, we certainly had a good time. The kids were only sorta excited to be on rope climbing, but even sorta is a start. I had fun as […]

Kari and Michelle teamed up with a few other girls to run the Dirty Dash – dressing up as bridesmaids and running thorough the muck. Sam and I brought the kids down to cheer them on, but unfortunately we never saw them! Turns out they ran it even slower than we could have guessed. The […]

We were lucky enough to go to a second SLC Bees game this summer, this time with our neighbors the Jacksons (Russ, Julie, and Luke). Luke is a year older than Tory and they ride the bus together. We sat in the outfield so the kids could ride the train. After the game was the […]

Yep, it’s that time of year again. Thank goodness!

I don’t know if I had to work or what, but Kari and the kids headed down Sundance way for a weekend near Mt. Timpanogos all by themselves. It looks like they had a ton of fun hiking, exploring, and even spelunking a bit. I’ll try to caption these the best I can.

At least one SLC Bees game a summer is becoming a tradition. This year we went with the counselors from the bible camp at our church, as well as Pastor Steve. Later in the game we went and sat in the outfield, which is basically a big lawn where the kids can run crazy. Might […]

It’s been another great year for our covered veggie garden. We also had a bit of luck growing garlic over the winter. Here’s a few mid-summer harvest pics.

Kari and I have been kayaking ever since we lived in Maine, but had never been on an extended raft trip. What better way to get the kids out and about than pile camping gear in a boat and float down a river? We headed out with the DeFords and the Lesters for 3 days […]

The kids love pillow pets. They have about 10 of the critters and wanted to post about them. So here it is. Actually we should do a post of all the ones they have, with names and pictures. For another time… check the Pillow Pets tag for potentially more one day. These pics here are […]

The Canyons resort throws off their fireworks on the 3rd of July every year, and it’s getting bigger and bigger each year. So we’re lucky to have our friends the DeFord’s living so close we can avoid the traffic and parking headaches. They invited a bunch of us over for dinner before the concert, and […]

Last spring we built an open raised bed garden behind our covered garden with the intent of planting raspberries. The Battle Lake raspberries we brought home from my parents house last July never made it (not even close) so last fall we planted garlic as an experiment. The garlic made it, and Kari added a […]

We took a quick trip to Minnesota in June to see Marcus and Lindsey get married, and celebrate Jacob’s high school graduation. The 4th of July is definitely a better time to visit Minnesota in the summer, but it was nice to see everyone. I made the mistake of leaving after visiting the Moe’s while […]

Grandma Moe hired a photographer to take photos of the family, so we took the opportunity to snap a few of our own with the kids dressed up. Some of these are sweet, most are weird or goofy. There are a lot of them so scroll through at your own risk.

Every Monday during the school year Tegan went to dance class after school. This dance recital was the culmination of all that hard work. Serisa was in the same class as Tegan. Seneca was in a different class, which is why she has a different dress. There were tons of kids in about 10 classes, […]

When we go canyoneering it usually means the kids hang at camp with an adult or two while the rest of the adults go adventuring. We wanted to shift that focus towards a kid centered trip. We thought it would just be us but quite a few of our friends thought it was a great […]

Easter was early this year (I think) but thankfully the weather was warm and sunny. We spent the day relaxing in the back yard while the kids hunted down elusive eggs and treats.

Tory was awarded a certificate of excellence along with some of his friends and neighbors. Our neighbors Calvin and Luke were also awarded. Good on you kiddos!

Tory said he wanted to ski the terrain park. I didn’t think he’d hit any of the tricks… pardon the poor camera work, I wasn’t prepared to keep up apparently.

Their birthdays being 5 days apart, celebrations overlap and get shared. This year we had a party at our house, with sledding, games, and a special box of doom with brains and goo and treats hidden inside. It was a ton of fun. The adults had an evening soup fest later on too. On Tegan’s […]

I resolve to keep this site updated, on time this year.

Christmas season pics and stuff.