Crazy Cousin Time...

we went to this crazy fun indoor everything place in utah. rollerskating, and bouncey houses galore! video games, and swimming, and climbing tunnels around half the building. these boys look exhausted!


it was hot, duh...and the water fountain broke while we were here. thankfully aunt shelley saved the day with otter pops!


this very bouncey thing has been the sight of several accidents, that i have witnessed for a few of the cousins. this time, toran made it out alive.


near the end of our adventure here, the boys were a little stir crazy, so i challenged them to pretend they were indiana jones and race through this insanity of a bouncey house. at first caleb was cruising...


...but he got all caught on plastic and didn't slide down so fast. the winner is: TORAN JONES!


we spent some time at a great new kids museum. caleb was in charge of the lighting during one of the girls' plays...


i have no idea what the play was about. i did try to follow the storyline, but to no avail. cabes did great giving them the proper lighting...


of course haven's favorite spot was the water location. it's pretty nifty. lots of tubes and balls and water. why whouldn't she love it?


cabes had a great time here with haves. they had to share 1 ball as there was a little boy who was "collecting" (stealing) them somewhere...i guess he was preparing for the stock market crash a little early...

now, this boy was hoarding balls, but only the purple ones. don't really know the answer to that one either, but toran and the cousins had a great time using the up once they hunted them all down!


toran is a bit of an animal-lover. and it doesn't matter if they breathe or are stuffed...he'll even dress up like one! chase is wearing one of the dog outfits while i assume toran is sending some chicken mail...


the construction pits was one of my favorite places here. i think glenn and i were both imagining our playroom with these cool toys!


cabes did work together, atleast with our family. there was a small scuffle with an outsider, but i think he was silenced...did you see that block move?


haven loved sliding the blocks down the tube, and wanted to get in herself. especially after caleb did!

Seeing the Sights in Utah...

this beautiful globe is a time capsule, that can be found inside the gorgeous joseph smith memorial building. here ciela and toran are pointing to buffalo!


a couple of crazy kids we found being ridiculous in a very fancy place!!


everything looks peaceful here, but they are only tricking you! it got crazy, fast up here!


haven konked out after a few attractions. she is an inexperienced traveler.


the kids by the conference center. there are about a zillion doors here, but you can actually only use 1 of them! aagghhh!!!!


by the river on the conference center roof. our tour guide reminded our kids a few times of all the rules. like not getting too close to the edge (ignored), and staying away from the water (what did you say?) not climbing (whatever!)...


you can sense from this picture the draining heat that we were in up there. i felt badly for the tour guide in his nice suit, and no water bottle! check out the wonderful view!


pretty ciela by one of the lovely statues by the church headquarters building. the flower gardens here are overwhelming!


this is what our awesome boys are like half of the time. and about half of the vacation! they are just as sweet as those flowers!

While In Utah...

we went to the beautiful conference center while we were in utah. they have paintings displayed of all the book of mormon story pictures. really cool.



toran checking out "the man". the idea of this shot was better than the actual shot!


you can see our reflection. that's me taking the picture and our little fam. the tour guide is on the right side and the rest of the tour on the left. what you can't see is that between the mirror and us is a huge opening that goes down to the first floor. i think we are on the 3rd. with a beautiful piece of art that is suspended and goes to the floor. wow!


on the roof on the conference center they have 2 very large prisms, or things like prisms. and in the right spot in the seating area, rainbows are splayed on the seats. it was way prettier than you can sense from the picture here!


there is a little river that is on the roof of the conference center, and it runs down forming a waterfall from the roof. it looked very inviting in the very hot heat!


we went to the hogle zoo with some family, and the kids played on this ornately carved elephant, that also made noises at you!


of course what is a hot zoo day without cold stuff ? maybe the only thing that's $1 here.


glenn with our nephew atticus! he is the 2nd newest little ashworth, and growing into his crazy little self.


i forced my family and lizzy's to go to the This is the Place moonument. and who knew there are like 10 other monuments there as well? we saw a few of them. i don't remember which one this is...


this one made me cry. with the sweet family in prayer. kind of wanted to take a picture of family praying by them, but thought that might look a little wrong-o. caleb is definitely all done with this day!

On the Way to Utah...

on our way to utah, we had a layover in detroit, and since i had recently been through this airport in the spring, i had a couple of ideas of what to show the kiddos! the boys and haven loved riding on this indoor train that goes from one end to another end of the large terminal building. ciela was a little less excited. we rode it a few times, until the hunger won over play time.


in the center of part of a terminal is this huge, and beautiful, black marble bowl-shaped fountain. the water did all sorts of dances. the best one was when the water would "jump" out like fish and land on the opposite side of the bowl. it was amazing.


throughout the airport were several little play areas for kids. we camped out for a couple hours in a pirate ship spot. haven and cabes had a great time dismanteling the ship and building it back up.


while we waited to board our plane to utah, the kids hung and climbed and swung like the little monkeys they are. ciela even participated in this great fun. if i hadn't been wearing a dress, i would have joined in!

the Lost Havens!

i found a little pile of "lost" haven pictures. they are soo cute, because well she is, so i had to put them up before they became just part of our photo archives!
here she is watching a movie on the i-pod. the first and only time that has ever happened!


for her birthday, she got this absolutely ridiculous haven-sized dora. crazy. yes, i bought it. she loves this doll! she brushes her teeth--with toothpaste, she is sporting a white mouth now!--and she walks her around the house in this stroller that she barely fits into! but most of the time haven shares her crib with this most perfect of sleep buddies! all cuddling, and no hogging of the covers!


when haven and i went back home, we saw some family. and haven had such a fantastic time with little cousin mary scarlet. they giggled and slid down the slide. mary showed her several crazy upside-down-backwards moves! crazy girlies!


haven having a little easter egg hunt with my parents and sister and neice. no snow for this one!


this is at the zoo, and the first time haven ever walked up to nana and just grabbed her hand. my mom was thrilled!!

Tears For the Little Man (from the Little Mama)

not the best picture of our wondrous caleb, but it is official: he is a kindegartner!


here is the procession line, and when i first started crying. i really can't get used to this little man growing up. i am not certain why i never had such a hard time with ciela and toran, but for months now i have been working on this little emotion!


cabes is on the end singing. they did such a great job teaching the kids such fun songs at page 1. and caleb LOVES to sing them all the time! it is so sweet!


they read aloud what each child wanted to do with their life when they were all grown up...it took awhile! all of the kids were trying so hard to be still and polite.
caleb said: i want to live in oregon (they pronounce it o-ree-gone) because it's more fun there, i want to have a red van, i want to have 11 boys and 11 girls and marry briana (a sweet girl from his class) and have a job making transformers move! love it!


cabes and his best buddy from page 1 preschool! we are gonna miss that place!

Race For the Cure!

a few weeks ago i did something fairly amazing for me! i ran in the susan g. komen 5k. big for me seeing as how i am not a runner (although working hard to change that!) here are some of the fun ladies i ran with, before we ran...



and here we are post-run! all hot and red. or i guess pink would be a better shade, huh? i completed in just over 29 minutes. not too horrid for a first-timer. running was amazing. i ended getting in my own zone, and not really staying with my pack, but i would at times be behind a whole wall of runners wearing shirts all saying the same thing : in remembrance of...
the same person. several times i choked up, and started crying. it was really hard to run, but then i would remember my amazing aunt who beat the cancer twice, and think "there is no way i can stop when she never did!" i am truly blessed to have been able to run, and have great friends who motivated me to participate in the first place! you guys rock!!

Trying to Find the Eternal Flame

it seems like i am forever playing "catch-up" on this blog! a while ago we went to see the eternal flame, and as we were getting all bug sprayed up for the hike, a lovely monarch butterfly stopped by! a small story here: we never made it to that actual flame, because one must follow the directions at the trailhead for that to happen. we ended up going on a pioneer worthy trek up a huge steep hill, with our double stroller being our personal handcart! it was a great hike!


this precious little fluttery thing flew around all of us and landed on glenn, then quickly flew to the tall weeds growing nearby. my shots are nothing compared to my awesome sister angie's, who photos anything beautifully, but at least i am trying with my sad specimen of a camera! although, since that was donated to us, it is much better than anything we could afford! however, none of the shots with actual people turned out. i need lessons i suppose.