That's How We Roll ...

Everyone hears about how the Evans family takes their golf carts up to the farm in Heber but they tend to get a little confused because none of us knows what a tee time is let alone being interested in actually swinging a club. For those who haven't taken the time to spend a little time up on the farm and as a final tribute to Summer 2009 ... This is how we roll.

With Uncle Troy at the wheel of the TRD Limo Cart and Carson navigating, no one gets lost on the farm.

If you can see over the steering wheel then your good to go.

Cousin Rykley always drives safely and yields to pedestrians.

All lined up like a car show.

Ready to rock & roll.

Some girls drive ...

And some just sit and look pretty...

or walk.

Are you still a little confused about what this is all about?

Well, check out the videos and see if that helps!

I wish that I could report that no golf carts were harmed in the making of this blog but alas, we witnessed the utter destruction of a transmission and a shorted electrical system (water cannons & golf carts don't mix). Details are intentionally omitted to protect the guilty and slightly inebriated. Besides, repairs are now complete and all evidence destroyed. See ya'll next summer!

That's a wrap!

Well, I guess since the sno-shack is closed and labor day is finished - I guess that means that summer is officially over. That is so sad!!

I haven't blogged in a bit, and I'm not sure why. It might be because I have been kinda busy, but I think it is mostly because I haven't been very good at taking pictures lately. We did have a fun summer and finished up August with some fun family reunions, lots of birthdays and a couple adventures.

Paul got the golf-cart rebuild finished and even re-upholstered the seats - aren't they fancy!! We took the golf-cart to the Evan's family reunion and had a lot of fun racing it around the farm and going up the mountain. The Evan's family reunion was a lot of fun - and we got to see the unveiling of Uncle Troy's limo golf cart - quite the ride!!

Speaking of rides- Carson and Jaedyn got this new battery powered Jeep! It's nice because there are 2 seats, instead of just the one that the sand-rail has.

My cousin Kami got married in August - which is a nice time for the family to get cleaned up and take some pictures. It was a REALLY hot day and we melted a little bit, but the kids had fun running around the park and over-dosing on cookies and punch. I spent the two days before the wedding baking cookies - using my Aunt Patty's recipes. There was a minor mishap with the butter cookies because I had never made them before and wasn't sure exactly how they were supposed to turn out, but they still tasted good so it was o.k.

Kelsi has been the flower girl at pretty much all the Swanson girls weddings and this was no exception. She is such a pretty young lady!

Here is the Swanson gang - minus just a few. Grandma would be proud!

A Labor day tradition - the Fort Bridger Rendezvous!
I thought we could get away with just going up to the rendezvous in Fort BuenaVentura, but that wasn't feeding Paul's 'mountain man' fix - so we drove up to Fort Bridger Wyoming to the "real" rendezvous. We had a good time, despite getting rained on. I also continued with my Labor Day tradition of going up to Swiss Days in Midway Utah. It worked out so that only Ashley, Kelsi and I could go, but we had a fun girls day out. Grandma Honey was so sweet and watched all 4 of the kids for us (I think she only went a little crazy by the time it was over) so we got to enjoy ourselves, look around and not have to push strollers through the crowds. We all bought some cute things. I bought a few things for Jaedyn's room and of course the traditional ties for Paul. I was really into the stripes this year - so watch out for Paul's 6 new stripped ties - he has already gotten some comments at church about them! On Sunday we went up to Heber to spend the night. It might be our last time up to Heber this year - so that was sad. Madison got to come up with us this time and I think her and Kelsi both had fun riding the golf-carts around. Mary and Fred treated us to a Don Pedro's mexican dinner too! It was a fun weekend, I just wish we had known about the Swanson camp out up to Duchesne a little earlier so we could have joined them - maybe next year.

August is the month that pretty much everyone on the Evans side of the family has a birthday. The birthday's included Scott, Wendy, Karen, Rykley, Bryton, Austin, Kaleb and myself. For my birthday Michelle included my celebration in with Rykley's - despite my protests. It was a fun time. I also kept my birthday going by taking the kids swimming on my actual birthday. Kelsi made me Shepherds pie for dinner (my favorite), and then my sweet husband took me to Pei Wei for dinner and to see The Time Travelers Wife at the movie theatre. It was a good birthday!

September is also starting to get a few birthdays in it too. Daxton celebrated his 1st birthday on September 5th!! Ashley did such a cute job with his party - she always does. The theme was sports - and Grandma Honey made some cute baseball, basketball and soccer ball cakes. Ashley made yummy Navajo tacos and had a football shaped pinata for the kids.

Jaedyn really enjoyed the Navajo Tacos!!

This past Monday my sister and I took the kids to Wheeler Farm so that we could get out of the house. Carson and Tavin terrorized the animals by screaming at them and chasing them. They also had SO MUCH energy to burn off - they were running around the whole farm. We fed the ducks some bread and corn and Jaedyn was even brave enough to feed the ducks/geese. Thanks Ashley for a good time!!

Some other fun things that happened this past month were: Kelsi got to go boating for the Bishop's challenge, Kelsi started 7th grade!, Carson started preschool!, we hosted a party for some of Paul's co-workers, we did yard work and took a load of garbage to the dumps, we went up to Hobble Creek for the ward camp out, we took a lot of golf-cart rides through the neighborhood and down the canal road, I made some jam and Paul got some challenges at his work taken care of.

Summer - this isn't "Goodbye" it's "See ya Next Year!"

Girls camp

A couple of weeks ago Kelsi got to go to girls camp for the first time! She was so excited! The Camp Theme this year was V.I.T.A.L.S - Virtue in Thought, Action, Language - and each Ward was assigned as a type of medical personnel - our Ward were the Podiatrists and did a lot of fun things with the "feet" theme. Kelsi has some GREAT Young Women's Leaders and had a wonderful time up at camp. I am now in the Relief Society Presidency and therefore was able to go up on Thursday night to visit the girls - do their hair and nails and eat dinner. I was so grateful for the opportunity to see Kelsi at camp and to get to visit with her - since I was missing her! I am so grateful that Kelsi is such a virtuous girl and always does her best at everything. She is so sweet and friendly and so responsible. It has been a good thing for her to be in Young Women's. I am so glad that she has such good influences in her life.

Carson is 3!!

Carson turned three this past Monday. He is such a fun kid! He has such a mind of his own and is so smart, curious, loving and BUSY. I love Carson SO MUCH, and even though I wasn't too sure about having a boy I wouldn't trade him for ANYTHING!! I just love looking back at the past three years and seeing how much Carson has grown and changed. I thought I would share some pictures......

We decided that we had better do something on Carson's actual birthday because he had been waiting for so long for his birthday and was so excited about it. We decided to take him to McDonalds for dinner and then we went over to Gene Fullmer to go swimming. I know that he wanted to go swimming because EVERY TIME we've driven by the swimming pool this summer he says "I want to go there". We had a really good time swimming and Jaedyn even enjoyed being in the pool. When we came home we had to have orange birthday cake and orange ice cream. He also wanted to make sure that we were going to sing to him. He is so funny! He will be really surprised when he gets another birthday on Sunday with the whole family.

Happy Birthday Monkey Man!!

Staycation

This past 24th of July we decided to stay around town and enjoy some of the activities a little closer to home. Paul took Thursday the 23rd off from work so we decided to start our "Staycation" that day. We also had Paul's son Austin come stay with us for the weekend - so we had 2 - 12 years old along too! Thursday was Bountiful City's Handcart Days - so we weren't sure what we were in for, but decided to give it a try. They had a cute carnival at the park with some fun rides for the kids and some yummy food. It was REALLY hot so we were melting a little bit, but that's ok. Carson really like the train that they had, as well as the Shark slide. The kids used up all the tickets and got a few small prizes.


After the carnival Bountiful hosted their Handcart Days Parade. This was a full blown parade with clowns, floats, marching bands, bag pipes (my favorite) and the city services (Fire, Police) along with a bunch of other things. We found a semi-shady place to put our chairs on the bank's front lawn - which had the sprinklers turn on during the parade! It was funny to see everyone scramble to get off the grass when they turned on. We also had a small mishap at the parade. Paul took Jaedyn around walking, and being the curious girl that she is found a small hole inside the brick-work of a building. She stuck her finger inside and out came a bunch of wasps. They were chasing her and Paul and Jaedyn ended up getting stung on her cheek and on her thumb. She wasn't too happy about this and was crying and shaking her hand trying to get the pain to stop. I felt really bad for her, but was glad that she didn't have any allergic reactions to the stings. After the parade we decided to take a little drive into downtown Salt Lake to see all the crazy people sleeping out for the BIG parade. It was crazy just how many people were sleeping outside. It was fun to honk and wave at them - even though we drove the wrong way into Liberty Park (luckily we didn't get yelled at).

Patriotic Girl!

On Friday the 24th of July we took a drive up to Fort Buenaventura in Ogden for their Pioneers skills and crafts days. They had people showing all different kinds of pioneers skills like lace making, wool spinning, goat milking, fire starting. They also had some fun things for the kids to do like a scavenger hunt, a candy cannon and a canoe that you could paddle around a small pond. We got some bottles with yummy homemade root beer and cream soda and Carson got to ride the train. Carson, Jaedyn and I made a new friend in the park while waiting for the others to ride the canoe- a cute lady that was waiting for her family to get done on the canoes also. Carson got candy from this lady and she was kind enough to toss the ball to Carson for a few minutes. After the Fort we went down to Jordan Landing for their "Taste of Jordan Landing". It was a carnival of sorts that you paid a few bucks to get into and you could sample food from some of the restaurants in the Jordan Landing. Paul REALLY enjoyed the Sushi and the Crab Legs (from Joes Crab Shack). Austin really liked the Rumbi Grill and Sonic. He got 6 drinks from Sonic with his remaining tickets. This was a really fun event and I was glad to go because they were collecting cans for the Utah Food Bank. We really enjoyed ourselves on Friday, but wore ourselves out. We came home and watched Paul Blart Mall Cop and made ice cream sundaes rather than going to Heber like we had planned. We saw a few of the neighbors lighting fireworks, but didn't actually make it out to see fireworks! We aren't used to playing THIS hard.

Paul enjoying the Sushi!!

Austin enjoying Sonic!!!

It wouldn't be the Pioneer holiday without going up to This is the Place Heritage Park. I've said this before and I'll say it again - we always have so much fun up there! They had their usual displays and the whole place was decorated with flags. They had some crafts for the kids to do and we always like to ride the train. Carson rode a pony all by himself. They have a new Indian exhibit up there that was really neat to see. It is so nice to be able to look back at how our country and state were founded by the pioneers. I am grateful to our ancestors and their sacrifices to allow us to enjoy life today.

Kelsi trying to beat the heat with ice cream.

After we went to Heritage Park we went to Paul's co-workers wedding reception. They had a fun Luau theme with a big blow up slide for the kids.

We had a really busy weekend, and really wore ourselves out, but I was glad to be able to enjoy some of the city events and not to have to pack, do laundry, travel or be away from home.
Sometimes it is nice to stay home. I love my family and am glad that we got to spend time together this past weekend. Hooray for Holidays!!!