Sanderson Fun: july in review

calendar quotes:

when asked to leave his home and settle a new area..."i pledge to you this day that we have every intention of living first by covenant and then, and only then, by comfort and convenience." -pioneer in "Undaunted"

"are there no rocky roads to travel, no rugged mountains to climb, no trails to blaze, no rivers to ford? or is there a very real need today for that pioneer spirit to guide us away from the dangers that threaten our society?" -President Monson
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july was a bunch of fun...we headed (that is me and the kids) to washington for a week of fun at our anderson reunion. i barely made the drive there( me and christy traveled together with our 9 kids together)-i did real well until the last 1/2 hour but of course they all welcomed us in with a bunch of fireworks...we all laughed that washington must not be going through the recession because everyone had huge expensive fireworks. crazy! my brother in law blake made this contraption while we were there out of my dads lumber in the yard-

the kids would catapult water balloons and balls(no kids) across the fence into the school yard, kent would have loved this. and then for family home evening we headed to a park by my sisters house for a game of relieval bear...my kids had so much fun-we would play this hide and seek game with some good friends of ours growing up, here is brooke and her cousin hiding in the brush-

we played two rounds of boys against girls (i think the boys won both times). i got caught and released from jail and thought i got hidden before anyone got me but koy snuck up behind me and said, "i found you mom!" he's hauling me back to jail and he just couldn't of been prouder of himself-

here's most of the group in our camo.

the next day we all headed to the lake, where my dad had 2 boats with drivers waiting to entertain us all day long. the kids loved boating. i don't think the tubes were ever empty...all thumbs up!

i snuck a picture of our triplets...kelsi, brent and tyrel on shore. i have tons of baby pictures of these three but it's been a while. i'm glad they are still good buddies and the boys put up with kelsi:) you would never guess kelsi is the oldest compared to these big football boys-

the next day we headed to the beach, i just loved this picture of kaden and brenden sleeping with their nerf guns. kaden was so obsessed with nerf while we were there and brenden had some pretty cool guns-

our beach experience was about as perfect as it could get, we all could never remember a warmer day than our first. here's my brooke doing a cartwheel, anytime there is open space...i love it! and notice my dad back there, he immediately draws his circle for his fort that we all build and watch the tide destroy: i love that some things never change!

the kids loved the water...not me, it was still like make me want to cry cold-i ran out one time to get pictures and then i was the beach bum for the next couple of days. i was glad i had sisters who would take my kids out swimming. kelsi loves the ocean-(ahhhh, just look at that joyful face)

we had a friend come visit our campfire at nights...he loved marshmellows!

our second day we woke up to find that our cars had been broken into, those of us that left them unlocked anyways. purses, cameras, gps, all gone...but everyone seemed to not let it get them down. we spent the whole day playing at the beach again, it was colder but everyone just put on their wetsuits-

we built castles and caves and tunnels...and told pirate treasure hunting stories!

we even got to search for some treasure that jack black the one-eyed, one-armed, and one-legged pirate had left for us, my dad is telling all the kids the story here-

we came back to my parents home to celebrate some july birthdays, kaden was so excited to get a nerf sword from my mom-

and then saturday morning all the girls got up and went garage selling, we had a blast! and then we took the kids to chuck e cheese...it kind of made me sad when we got home from this super awesome washington week that when people asked my little kids what there favorite part was, they said "chuck e cheese"- (seriously!)

we came home to rexburg on an all nighter leaving at about 6pm and arriving at 6 am. but we arrived to find warm weather at last...we made it to rigby lake a few times this month-

and we were able to have brenden come and stay with us for 2 weeks, we loved having him here. he and kaden are a lot alike, huh?

kaden had his birthday, he turned 11...he wanted a 39 clues (the book series he's reading) party treasure hunt, it was pretty tricky and made him think! he found a set of golf clubs for his treasure-

such a sweet boy! the kids invented their own personal swimming pools this year, they have had so much fun in these rusty old barrels...i love my goofy kids-

kaden graduated from cub scouts to boy scouts and also earned his arrow of light-

then we headed to swim camp at green canyon for the last week of the month, my kids look forward to swim camp all year. they all did well in their classes, kaden passed the last level(6) and brooke and koy will actually both be in the same level next year(3). kelsi and kaden did a diving class and they both did so well, i think i might actually take it next year. kelsi won the competition this year-

while we were in washington we started calling koy and his little cousin tyree, thing 1 and thing 2, because they can both be a little trouble together...it stuck and they were called that all through swim camp week, even by their teacher-

we of course had to go on a few hikes, these started out because you can't get reception unless you climb to the tallest hill but the kids all like them so much we plan them now! this year i had the great idea to hike to this abandoned cabin that i could see from the road on one of my bike rides, well to make a long story short: we got lost! we did find the abandoned house on the way back down from our hike, it was right by our pick-up...we were too busy talking to notice on the way up (woops)! here's a pick-up full...