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)

State Fair

Utah State Fair

For some reason growing up I have always loved animals! It hasn't really mattered what animal it is but I love them! We have always had a dog in our house and livng by Brother Drake and his farm that made me just love them. So for some reason as a little girl I always wanted a horse (and still do, should have been a country girl). But I use to tell my dad that it was a dream of mine to be a cow girl and be a barrel racer in the rodeo! So to help with that my parents took us to Wyoming when we were younger to go and ride the horses. I didn't have the best experience since I fell off the horse but it didn't make me love them any less. When Travis proposed to me he took me horse back riding at a friends ranch (Walt Christensen). So my love for horses grew! Walt every year at the state fair takes some of his horses and shows them off, also known as show horses. So we thought that we would go and watch!

This is Walt and one of his horses and buggie (however you spell it)

At the fair they have all the different animals like; rabbits, cows, goats, sheep etc. Well they had one of the biggest cows there. She weighed over 3000 pounds! Let's just say she was huge. It was a good thing she was that big since there was kids all around her and sitting on her. She was probably to fat to stand up and get them off. So here she is!!

She probably doesn't look that big in the picture but she was HUGE!!!

July 24th!

Pioneer Day!

Every year for the last many years it has been a tradition for the Standiford family to go out on the parade route downtown and stay the night to save our spot for the parade. So the last couple of years Travis and I have stayed out on the route and saved the spots. For those of you that have never done that it isn't a night were you plan on getting any sleep! But it is a lot of fun to see all the crazy people out and what they do that night! Well this time our night got started early! We had this homeless man come up and ask for money! He gave us this great story about needing the money to go get a room to sleep in that night! Well Travis and I didn't have any money on us but we gave him a gatorade instead. He sat there and talked to us for a while! He was nice enough not to come to close because he told us that he had fleas and he didn't want them to get on us. Its sad to say but he was missing most of his teeth also! After he left we did have a good laugh about the stories that he was telling us. But he didn't leave for long, instead he brought us one of his friends. I was thinking "great, what did we get ourselves into." Well instead of asking for anything he brought his friend to play us some music to thank us for being nice and giving him a drink! This guy just sat right down next to me and started playing music!!

That is the best picture I could get with my phone because I didn't really want him to think I was taking the picture. But he sat there for a good half an hour and played songs and told us stories. Most of the time I couldn't understand a thing he was saying! The blanket that he sat on was quickly removed and replaced by another blanket.

I'm sad to say that we forgot our camera so I don't have any pictures of the parade but I think we were to tired to even take any by the time that it passed! But there was some great floats I guess you will just have to take my word on that!

July 4th

After the baseball game Murray has a big firework show! There was a little time between the game and before the fireworks started so we brought some games to play! One of them is a water game! Let's just say that if you try really hard you don't have to get wet, but even when you try some people don't play nice and end up getting you wet! It may not have all been from the game but from the left over balloons that ended up being used to break on people!

Poor MeMe! She got it the worst! Luckily for us she is nice even when everyone is picking on her! She still smiles and laughs! And lucky for me Travis knows better not to get me wet so instead he and Brandt soaked MeMe!

Just waiting!And waiting!!

Ah here we go!

It was worth the wait!

Not summer without Baseball!!

July 4th!!

Our family are huge baseball fans! Well at least the girls are! We have been and always will be! So of coarse during the summer you have to go at least to one baseball game! MeMe is dating Brandt who is a baseball player but the funny thing is the pictures I took aren't of him but of his brother Tyler! Just happened to be who was playing before we watched the fireworks!
This is our family and the Anderson family! I wasn't able to get a picture of anyone eating a hot dog but MeMe is drinking one of our favorite drinks, slushy Dr. Pepper! Ummm!!

All smiles at the game!! :)

Being a typical boy!!

Why is it when boys go outside they think that nobody can see them and they can do whatever they want! When Joel was little he and a couple of the neighbor boys stood at the top of the driveway and were trying to see who could pee the furthest! Yes, my mother was mortified but was trying not to laugh at the same time! So Gavin was outside playing with the dog when I took this picture!

Ok, so Becky doesn't die, no he isn't actually peeing but from the way the picture took it sure looks like he is! It just reminded me of Joel (and yes that story about him is true!! he he he).

The ZOO!!

Well when you go to the zoo you go and see the animals! Sometimes I forget that the most wild animals are the ones that you take with you! Well, my family really aren't that wild but we do like to have some fun! When Becky, Jamie, Gavin, and Laynie come during the summer we like to take the kids to the zoo!

(Sorry Becky it was either this one or the one were Laynie isn't looking at all)

It was time to go for a ride!!!Now for the real animals!!!

Gavin does this move he calls the "scorpion"! While we were at the zoo one of the animals did the same move!

Of coarse it had to be the elephant! Ardy's favorite animal!!

Graduation

MeMe's Graduation!!!

I can't believe that she is finally old enough to graduate! I'm sure she will be embarassed by this but I will always remember my sister as being the baby girl that would sleep in the cardboard box! If you want the details to that story you will have to ask us someday about that!

Bomber

Bomber

So I'm sitting here at home and it is all peaceful and quiet and then I hear this loud noise. I ignored it the first time, then it came again and again. I went outside and sure enough there was four fighter planes and a bomber plane flying circles over my house! It was pretty cool but scary at the same time. They did over a half an hour of this flight plane before they finally went north. So much for my quiet and peaceful time!

That is looking right over my house! You can only see the two fighter planes but there is two more by the other wing behind the house. They were going pretty fast so that is the best picture I could get!

Ducklings

"Ugly Duckling"

So last month we realized that we had a duck that was hiding in our bushes. Well one of the times that she got up Travis went out there and looked and sure enough she was sitting on some eggs. There wasn't just a few but we counted and there was 17 eggs hiding there. So after some serious waiting we finally have some ducklings! Yeah!!!!

There is some more hiding under the bush that you can't see! But we didn't want to disturb them so these are the only ones that we could get a picture of!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

Since Travis and I don't have kids of our own we still didn't want to miss out on the coloring the eggs this year. So we thought we would borrow some kids for the night! My brother and sister-in-law were very nice to let us take their kids for the night and color some eggs with them. I guess this good practice for when we have our own kids! It also taught me some things to do and not to do!

1. Don't let your husband go and buy the eggs without you! Yep, we had four dozen eggs to color!

2. Don't let your husband get started decorating the eggs with the kids without you! Or you walk into the house and see this!

3. Keep a very close eye on them while they color the eggs! We had a couple of dropped eggs!

4. Remind them that they can't eat the eggs until after they are peeled!

5. And last but not least, remember to just have fun!!!

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope everyone remembered to wear their green! Well I got the day off of work so I got to stay home! Yeah! But I also had a surprise today! I found out that I was married to a Leprechaun!

Okay maybe not a leprechaun but maybe a dwarf or something along that line!

Let me explain these pictures! Our aptartment has a retarded heater! It only works about 5% of the time! It turns on and off when it wants. We are sitting here freezing and I turn to look at Travis and this is how he was sitting. You are always taught that you lose most of your heat through your head so he had his head covered. But with his hoody over his ears it was making it harder to hear the TV so he pushed it behind his ears. And yep I had to take the picture of him. Its a good thing he doesn't look at my blog or he would probably not be happy that I put these on here! Oh well, it is sure funny! My husband the leprechaun! (Dwarf, elf, etc.)

BYU Dancesport

Biggest Ballroom Competition in Utah

For those of you that don't know much about ballroom except for watching it on "Dancing with the stars", it's a real competitive sport. There is a few dancers on "Dancing with the stars" that are from Utah! But every year in March BYU has their big competition where people from all over come and compete! When I say all over I mean all over the world. During this time of the year it can be bring about bad moods, anxious moms, and sick stomachs! But it also brings cheering and big smiles! Our family has not competed in this competition for a few years so Joel took it upon himself to take a class at BYU that has their ballroom students compete in this!

Joel was competing in the Bronze 180 (Cha Cha)! In this category there was 188 couples! So there was 376 people on the floor in this picutre. There weren't competing at this moment they were trying to show how hard this competition was and how many people were signed up to compete! That's right Joel had to compete against all of these people!

The way they judge this, since most of them its their first competition and probably their first dance class, is if they can stay on rhythm and if they do the steps correct. Seems easy right! Well its a bit harder than that! I took pictures of Joel and his partner, Whitney, doing some of the dance moves.

This move is called the chase. Well at least we know he is being chased by at least one girl! He he he! I couldn't help it I had to say that!

This is the sweetheart!

This is the butterfly!

The competition was a blast and Joel made it to the final twelve! Congratulations! Remember I said there was 188 couples! Great job Joel!!!