The tradition continues!

For as long as I can remember, we have gone to the Bountiful Parade celebrating Pioneer Day. Growing up my Grandma and Grandpa Barlow lived in Bountiful. Every year they would save us a spot for the parade. It was the highlight of our year to come to the parade and catch our summer supply of candy. This is the famous 'parade picture' that was taken at the parade many years ago. I love this picture as it truly captures the great spirit of my grandparents.

Oh, how I miss them so!

Then my family moved to Bountiful and we kept going to the parade. Now we continue the parade tradition with our kids and enjoy it more and more each year. My dad now goes early in the morning, just like his dad did, to save us a great spot. Thanks Dad for keeping the tradition alive!!

One of the coolest things that they do at this parade is hand out little flags to all of the kids. It definitly sparks my patriotic heart to look down the street and see hundreds of kids waving their flags. I love this picture of Lauren!! She's my patriotic girl!



Anyone who has been to a parade understands this picture. You can't believe the amount of stuff, garbage, bags, blankets, chairs, food, candy and things that you need for a small parade event. Oh....but we still love it and keep bringing it every year!



And of course, we can't forget the candy foraging that goes on. The kids favorite floats are the ones that throw candy. And as a young boy (Connor) your cool kid status is measured by the amount of candy you can grab. Oh yeah, Connor's the coolest and he also makes sure his little buddy (Cody) gets in on the goods as well. He has found that the 'wave your arms and yell like crazy' technique works the best.



We must also mention the Cody factor. Here I am rescuing him from imminent danger. This is a practice that I have mastered over the past 2 years and implement many times a day. He loves the loud sirens, bands, and horses(he ran out to pet them in this picture:)). My parade favorites have got to be the flag passing by, the Highway Patrol motorcycles and the bagpipes.



I am grateful for the tradition, the family time, the fun and the memories!!

A fun day off

Last week Tony had a random day off so we decided to head to the cool air of the mountains. Since we haven't been camping yet this year we have all been craving the outdoors. We packed a lunch, snacks, a cooler full of drinks and loaded up the 4-wheeler for a day of fun. We headed up Farmington Canyon and drove to the top. The views are spectacular and we even ran into big patches of snow. The kids thought this was awesome - snow in July!!

We set up camp and then went hiking, exploring and rode the 4-wheeler all day. The kids love the bugs, dirt, sticks, leaves, dirt, streams, rocks, dirt, squirrels, flowers and anything else that nature has to offer. Lauren even acquired a pet caterpillar for the day.

The kids love the 4-wheeler and I am getting braver and better at driving it. I am still not as fun as dad to ride with though. We also ran into the issue of a 2 year old who has to go to the bathroom when there are no bathrooms in sight. What do you do?? Well......this-

Now our only issue is that whenever we are outside and Cody needs to go to the bathroom he thinks he can just pull his pants down and go. When we are in the yard I don't care so much, but at the park the other mom's don't seem too happy about it :). We did find one outhouse that was not so pleasant. I think it was Lauren's first time using an outhouse because she says to me "Mom, someone forgot to flush".

Did I mention that my kids love the dirt?? They all got sooooo dirty and Cody definitely wins the prize!! He was, well, a filthy dirty baby. But, they love it and it is nothing a good scrub down won't fix (gotta love the brown ring around the tub).


Now, for those of you who know my husband (the great outdoors man), a trip to the mountains would not be complete until we all got to shoot some targets. The kids love this and I enjoy it a little bit. It does bring back memories of shooting with my family growing up. All in all we had a fabulous day and it was a nice "camping fix" for all of us.

No more stinky diapers!

I am so happy to announce that Cody is potty-trained!! No more poopy diapers, saggy-wet diapers, or diapering paraphernalia to carry with me everywhere I go. He loves wearing underwear and is so proud of himself. It has been a fairly easy process (my tender mercy) and he has been the easiest of the kids to potty train. We have been having him sit on the potty and he would occasionally pee, but nothing consistent. About 2 weeks ago he woke up and I was getting him dressed and was tired of putting diapers on my 2 year old who is as big as a 4 year old(I could barely lift him up onto the changing table anymore and he has been too big for it for a while now). So I found some of Connor's old underwear, put it on him, and basically said "Don't pee in the underwear". I then decided I should probably stay home for the day and started pumping him full of fluids. To my surprise, he would just run into the bathroom when he needed to go. It was like he had worn underwear his whole life. He would announce "I HAVE TO GO PEE" and we would both run to the bathroom and he would go. Just like that. Every half an hour. So, I cut back on the fluids and he's been going ever since. Now I will catch him in there going on his own. I guess this is one benefit of having a highly independent child. Now, don't all you mom's out there toilet paper my house thinking I had it too easy. We have had our accidents here and there and the poop thing has been a little tricky. But as my sister has said, " You deserve one thing to be easy with Cody since everything else isn't". And there is nothing cuter than a little boy running around the house in his underwear!!!

God Bless the USA

I love the 4th of July!!! I am a really patriotic person and love to celebrate the freedoms of my beloved country. I think it was the trip to Washington D.C. when I was young that instilled in me a love of my country. And then all the summers I would help my Grandpa Barlow hang his flag on the front porch. Add in my love of patriotic music!! And I can't forget seeing the Statue of Liberty on our girl's trip to New York (it literally brought tears to my eyes. She is beautiful!). All these experiences lie dear in my heart and thus have all contributed to my love of our country. As a family it is tradition that we all wear festive clothes. Some years it is cute homemade shirts, other years it's store bought clothes. This year I went for the latter. My kids love their 'red, white, and blue' clothes and enjoy dressing alike for a day. This year we had a BBQ at my parents where the kids swam and ran through the sprinklers. Then we went to see the fireworks at Lagoon. It was a blast!! The kids loved their glow in the dark necklaces, bracelets and earrings. The only downer was that Tony got sick as we were waiting for the fireworks and had to go home early. We still had a great time and the kids loved the fireworks!! I found a quote from President Hinckley that I think sums it all up......."God Bless America, for she is His creation."

You Go Girls!!!

So, my friends and I ran a 5K on Saturday for our 'Syracuse Days' celebration. It was so much fun and a great accomplishment for me! I know, I know.... you are all thinking "Kathy is not a runner". I enjoy working out every day doing aerobics, weights, biking, and walking, but I have never enjoyed running (Too many years of being forced to run the track in High School). The 5K idea all came about a few weeks ago in a presidency meeting. My sweet secretary Joni threw out the idea that we should all run together as a presidency. How do you say no to such a nice request of doing something that would strengthen and unite your presidency?? Hence, I started running, loved the 5K, and have kept running. I might just keep it up until the next 5K (you ready girls??). After the run all of our families joined us for the parade. I've never seen so much candy, water bottles, t-shirts and stuff thrown out. The kids loved it!! There were some older men with white beards driving tractors and Cody would shout ,"It's Christmas!", thinking they were Santa. Later in the evening we all gathered again for the concert and fireworks. So, don't be surprised if you see me out running now and feel free to come along!!