Draper Days

This summer really has been filled with traditions that our family has! Draper Days isn't exactly a tradition but was one that got started kind of by accident. Since Travis and I got married and moved to Draper we have attened the parade they have every year. Its not like the one down town! It doesn't seem to be as crowded and I think we actually get some better shows here! How often do you get to see a blue tank? They have one in this parade!

Even though it is a smaller parade we still get up early to get some really good seats. By this I mean we are in shade the whole parade.

Laynie loves her Uncle Travis!!!! This two are always together!

Papa's Dave's favorite part of the parade!!

And of course our comic relief!!!

Camping out

Growing up in the Vallett family you learned how to camp! I don't mean just camping we did the whole hiking thing with it. Even though sometimes these hikes lead to tears we always had a fun family experiece. Counting how many mesquitos we could kill, squirrel stealing my sock with dad chasing after it, and dad reading by the camp fire are some of my fondest memories.

This is another tradition that is being passed down. As kids we each had our own pack that would hold our clothes and our sleeping bag. Dad never really made us carry much he took most of it. But he decided Gavin and Laynie needed to have this camping experience.

Gavin and Laynie each got there own back pack that included the sleeping bag, flashlight, and water bottle.

And Papa also set up a tent for them! Not exactly camping in the mountains but I think for their first time this was a great idea!

Even though they may not have made it the whole night outside I think they had a lot of fun! Thanks Papa!

Lots of Summer fun!!!

Ok I know that these are old but I needed to get them on here. Its better to be let then never, right! Becky and her sweet kids (Gavin and Laynie) came to visit for a little while this summer! And we made a trip to Wheeler Farm! This is always an adventure!

It first started out by Gavin chasing the ducks! Or should I say that Travis told him that he could pet the ducks and for some reason they wouldn't stay still for him!

Next we went and saw one of my most favorite animals! The PIG!!

They might be my favorite animal but MeMe has the gift. She is able to call them with this pig noise that she makes and YES they really do come to her! It is so amazing!

Aren't they so stinkin' cute! They thought it was fun to play in the water!

Laynie and Travis are always the best of friends. Here she is modeling his sunglasses!

Here Laynie is with Papa Paul, as Gaving refers to him as. Watch out Becky she likes to hang out with all the guys!

Look at that smile! This boy is always happy when he is riding his tractor! I think he is going to be a farmer some day!

Lost Pictures, Memories, and Traditions

So I'm very bummed out today! I finally decided to update my blog due to my brothers request and some of my pictures that I took I can't find them anywhere! If I find my Memorial Day pictures I will have to put those on here!

That day has always been very special for my family. Each year on Saturday before Memorial Day we get up bright and early go over and grab Grandma Edie! Then we make the long (ok so its not that long but as a kid it seemed like forever) trip down to Beaver to go and decorate the graves. When we were little Becky and I would make this trip every year with Grandma Edie and Grandpa Walt. Grandma always had treats for us to eat while we went down and some kind of entertainment. Grandpa was always the driver and had control over the air conditioning. And for some reason we always froze.

When we get down to Beaver we get all the flowers out and unloaded. The graves are next to be cleaned because Grandma would never let a single piece of grass stay on those headstones. Then we would make the trip to the river (its not really a river but at fast moving stream but once again as kid it seemed like it) to get the water. Yes, we would get the water from that! When we were little Grandpa usually got the water and we tried to help but as we got older he let us do it. We would grab the bucket and stick it in the water, one of us usually holding on to the other so we didn't fall in. Sometime we would successful and get the water other times we get wet. Most of the time the bucket came back half full and we would take several trips to get the amount of water that we needed.

One of the years that we were there we found a headstone that just said "Indian Princess". We have no idea who she is but each year we have placed some flowers there for her. We figured that she was a princess and should have some flowers also. So each year after that Grandma has specially got flowers just for her.

Since we have gotten older and Becky has moved away cute little MeMe has taken our places most years and instead of Grandpa going down it has been our parents, MeMe, and of course the cutest little lady Grandma Edie.

But this isn't over yet! Even after the graves are done we don't just leave and go home but we stop every year and get some food at Arshel's! This has been our spot each year! It's one of the best places to stop and eat in Beaver. So if you ever get the chance you should eat there!

This year was very special for me because I was able to take my dear husband Travis with us. It was fun to be able to share this adventure with him!

Thanks Grandma for the wonderful tradition that we have! This trip has always been special to me and I have loved spending that time with you!

Tulip Festival

Everyone that knows my mom knows that she loves flowers. She always has flowers on her table no matter what time of year it is (usually they match with the season). Thanksgiving point was holding their annual tulip fesitval so of coarse we had to go and see it. Here is some picutres of the flowers and how beautiful they were. You may just see some other beautitul flowers modeling with the tulips!

(See the extra beautiful flower)

(More beautiful flowers)

Our motto is "to always have a smile and a good laugh" (not really but I just made it that) so no matter where we are that always happens. If you look at the statue she looks like she is trying to put her foot in the water so MeMe thought she would do the samething but Mom thought it would be more fun to push MeMe in the water so yes that is what I caught her doing. Funny Flowers!

This was my favorite picture!

I WILL SURVIVE!!

For those of you that didn't know I have started working with Life Flight along with working at the hospital. So pretty much on my days off I get go and fly places. Sometimes they are a lot colder than here like Colorado, Wymoing or even Montana or warmer like down south to St. George. I usually perfer to go were there is warmth. But other than flying places, Life Flight also has us train in other areas in case something happens like our plane crashing, which doesn't happen that often I promise! But today we went out and trained for avalanches and how to stay warm if we are stuck in the snow. In other words it was Winter Survival training! Pretty much the day consisted of us doing a like of hiking, falling, and being covered in snow!

Here is my group! We are all the Adult Respiratory Therapist on the Salt Lake Life Flight team. There is only 9 of us total here in Salt Lake area. What you can't see behind us is the trench we had to dig and then cover with branches and tarps and then cover it with snow to see if it would hold. It had to be big enough for all of us to fit in. Just to give you an idea of how deep the snow was I'm actually standing behind the girls in front of me but have sunk in waist deep in the snow!

This is the opening to our trench and I have crawled up in to show that we can fit in. I don't really like being in closed areas so not knowing if this was going to fall on me made me nervous but at least for me I did have life flight people around.

I think the look on face explains it all. Being raised by a wonderful outdoors wildlife father he has taught us many things about being safe while outside. We were learning how to start a fire. Easy right! Well I don't know what she was doing but it wasn't easy! So thanks to being taught by my father I was able to start the fire first and not by doing it the way they showed us! What ever works to stay warm is all I can say!

I wish I had a picture to make my point about this story. But one of the things that we had to do was practice finding people that were buried in the snow. They had these beacons on and we had to use ours to find them. Well like I said earlier the snow was really deep and I'm not very tall. So one of the other girls and I were leading the way when she took a step and sunk waist deep. She wasn't able to get out so I was right behind her and I figured I had pretty good footing where I was standing. I was trying to help pull her out when next thing I knew the ground beneath us went and we were both over waist deep in the snow and unable to get out. If any of you have ever felt the snow shift and then give way beneath your feet it isn't a very good feeling. But I have never laughed so hard as both of us were like swimming, crawling, doing whatever we could to try to get out of this snow hole we were in. Luckily for us we had two guys in our group that had to wade over and half drag half lift us out because there was no way we could get out. So from then on out we weren't allowd to lead or tread the way.

Some of the other people in my group had some more pictures so hopefully I will get those soon and will be able to post some more! But it was a fun adventure that I'm happy I only have to do once a year!

After Summer Comes Fall

The Canyons

I just have to say that I am so happy that I grew up here in Utah! I think sometimes we forget what a beautiful state we really live in! Every year at the end of summer the Standiford family goes up Millcreek canyon and has a BBQ! We roast the hot dogs over an open fire and play in the stream! Well the kids play in the stream because I think it is to cold for the rest of us. But it does make for some fun pictures!

Chase Standiford

Picking up rocks to throw in the stream. Or maybe catching yourself as you fall in!

Brayden Dunn, so cute!

Having fun with the cousins!!

Chloe Standiford what do you say about those cheeks!

Almost all the grandchildren!

(Sorry Katherine didn't think about taking this until after you and Chase left)