Preston, Cayden, Jared, Ryan and Brett playing on Grandma and Grandpa Dimond's Hammock.
Ryan cooling off in the water. It was hot in Utah, but at least it was a dry heat.
Grandpa Dimond sharing the secrets of life with Jared.
Cayden, Brett and Jared playing in Jill and Cameron's backyard. The kids loved playing with Cayden and Preston. They could not get enough.
Cayden playing in his backyard.
Uncle Cameron, Cayden and Aunt Jill roasting marshmallows in their backyard.
While we were in Utah some of us had the opportunity to attend 2 missionary home comings and one missionary farewell. I missed the farewell because I was working to pay for all these fun and exciting activities as well as the plane tickets, but that is enough whining from me. One of the missionaries that came home while parts of our family was vacationing was O.D. Miller. The Miller boys have gone by their initials for as long as I have known them. I think it is a cowboy thing. O.D. returned home from the Phoenix, AZ mission. This is a picture of the group the day he came home. I had not arrived yet. In the picture is Jan, Frank, Christy, Brett, Ryan, L.B. Miller (O.D.'s brother), Suzanne (Mom), Barry (Dad), Aunt Lola, Uncle Bryant and Kim.
While I have not ever ridden a bull before, one of the inevitable consequences of getting on one is you are going to fall off. At least that has been my observations up to this point. This is OD demonstrating this principle.
After observing the manly-man bull riding experience, OD and LB taught the boys a little something about roping and even gave them a rope to share. Brett and Jared had some spending money available for vacation and one of the things they wanted was their OWN rope. So, Lori took the kids to Reams and bought the cowboy boots and two additional ropes so they could all play cowboy. They look like serious drug-store cowboys in their shorts and boots.
This is a close-up of Ryan in his boots and shorts. He is stylin'.
While at the Miller's house, Brett and Jared were invited to ride in Uncle Bryant's wagon in the Herriman Parade. Ryan rode with them over to the parade starting location, but we did not think everyone in the wagon was ready for Ryan. So, Ryan watched the parade and collected candy while Brett and Jared rode in the wagon. They had a blast!
Uncle Bryant waiting for the Herriman parade to start. Uncle Bryant is on the left.
My Cousin, Cody Smith, came home from his mission while we were there and I was able to attend his homecoming talk. I know missionaries do not have homecomings anymore like they used to, so we really attended his ward's Sacrament Meeting and listened to him give a talk on a subject along with a Stake High Councilman. This practice steals the thunder from the High Councilman because he knows all the extra people attending Sacrament Meeting that day are not there to see him, but it is a reasonable compromise given the Church policy of no more missionary farewell's and homecomings. After Sacrament meeting we went over to Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Scott's house and had some lunch and visiting. This is some of the group visiting. Because there are those with their backs to the camera, I will not try and identify everyone in the picture according to order. Angela, Dan, Shelby, Aunt Deane, Gina and Ami.
I did finally make it to Utah for vacation and this is me talking with Troy at the luncheon held for Cody.
In this picture is Uncle Bob, Robbie, Nicholas and the backs of Mason and Dallas. Robbie has his own web site at rcskim.com. It is worth the effort to go to the site and check it out. By the way, Robbie is available for any ladies out there that might be interested. Since there are only about 2 people besides myself that ever look at this site and both of them are married, my pitch on Robbie's behalf I am sure is wasted.
Nathan and Brett hanging out at the luncheon. Brett thinks Nathan is the coolest!
Morgan at the luncheon. She is such a cutie!
This is a picture of all of Cody's cousins that were still left at the luncheon when the picture was taken. From left to right, Ami, Troy, Gina, Cody, Jeff, Angela, me and Robbie. Cody served in the Houston North mission so he was just a short distance from where we live. But, due to the mission rules we were not allowed to even take him to lunch. Mission rules are bit strange and illogical at times. So, we went all the way to Utah so we would be allowed to speak with him.
While in Utah we went to a private fishing pond near Payson. We had an absolute blast fishing. In about 2 hours we caught 17 fish. I was really glad my dad came with us to help keep the boys fishing. Since we are out of state, we paid about the same as we would have for an out of state fishing licence. This way we spent the short time we had available "catching" rather than merely "fishing". This is Ryan admiring his catch.
This is Brett with one of the many fish he caught.
Jared with one of the many fish he caught. Jared turned out to be our top fisherman of the day.
Another picture of Ryan with one of the fish he caught. I had to do the catching and then he would help me reel it is. It was fun for both of us.
This is us cleaning the fish we caught. The guy that was working at the pond would have cleaned them for us, but one of the manly-man things Brett and Jared wanted to do was use their knifes to clean the fish. Brett really got into it, but Jared discovered that his fascination with gutting the fish waned upon seeing the guts. I appreciate his concerns though. I thought I wanted to be a doctor when I grew-up but when I got home from my mission and I had not out-grown my tendency to pass-out at the sight of blood, I decided to be a Chemical Engineer instead. Jared liked using his knife to cut them though.
Brett eagerly learning the art of fish gutting from Grandpa Sorensen.
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