Oregon Trail

We just returned from our yearly trip out to Cottage Grove, Oregon to visit Sam's grandmother. We went out with Sam's parents. We spent a week out there picking blackberries, visiting family and flying kites at the coast. It was fun to introduce Lily to Grandma Spady. Lily even favored Grandma by taking her first steps while we were out there. Sarah got spoiled by Grandma as usual. Grandma stocks up on crayons, fun little notepads, stickers and all kinds of little toys. Sarah spent most of her time playing with a little bottle of bubbles in the shape of a bunny. She took it everywhere we went. Driving in the car, we would suddenly have bubbles floating in front of our faces. The girls traveled pretty well, but by the last day driving home they were more than ready to be out of the car. Vacations are fun, but it's good to be home.

Here are just a few pictures of over a thousand that we took while we were out there. That's right, over a thousand pictures. So, I realize that this post is heavy on pictures, but it could be worse.

Lily adored Grandma Spady.

Sarah and Lily exploring Grandma Spady's backyard.

We found this great little park with a river running next to it. Everyone had a lot of fun playing in the water and skipping rocks.

Grandpa Hacking was a great sport and kept Lily occupied. She loved playing with sticks and chewing on river rocks. Thats one way to cut teeth.

Thank goodness grandpa had a strong grip.

On the way home from the park, we stopped and picked blackberries. Lily tried them for the first time and it was all I could do to keep up with her.

The next day we went out to the coast. Lily loved the feel of the sand. She also wouldn't stop putting it in her mouth. Between her new found love of blackberries and her penchant for eating sand, we changed some great diapers in the following days.

Grandma Spady gives us seashells to "plant" on the beach for Sarah to find. She's going to think that finding shells is always that easy.

Grandma and Grandpa going for a walk on the beach.

We went to the Wildlife Safari in Winston the next day. It is a drive through wild animal park. We saw all kinds of animals wandering around different enclosures. It was a lot of fun. Animals were crossing the road in front of and behind our car.

We watched this brown bear swim around for awhile.

Lily and Dad and Grandma Hacking were outside in the backyard enjoying some wonderful Oregon rain.

We say goodbye to Grandma Spady for another year.

Fun at the County Fair

This past week was the Davis County Fair. We were able to go two nights in a row. We had dinner with Sam's mom and brother at the county employee dinner and the next night went to see our nephew Andrew show his lamb that he has been raising. This is his second year showing a lamb at the fair and he did a great job. We had a lot of fun and I loved eating almost an entire funnel cake all by myself. Sam went through the Army Strong challenge. He got to ride in a helicopter flight simulator, did 60 push ups to win a hat and went through their tactical operations simulator. We did indeed have a wild time at the fair.

Andrew with his lamb.

Sarah loved the petting farm.

Sarah and Daddy milking a cow.

We also got to see my dad while he was working the Ogden Standard Examiner booth at the fair. The girls were excited to see Grandpa John.

Lily enjoying some of Mommy's funnel cake.

And what is a fair without cotton candy. Sarah loved it. Even if she found out later that it also came in the color pink.

Catching Up

Since I have been such a slacker and haven't posted anything for so long, I will have to try and catch up on a few things and vow to do better from now on. We have had a wonderful and busy spring and summer and are now gearing up for fall and the start of the school year. Sarah will be starting Pre-school and is going to be taking dance lessons. We picked up her dance clothes and she can hardly wait until next week for her first class. Lily is now 9 months old and is extremely busy. She is standing on her own and I fear will be walking any day. She is so much fun and has so much personality. Sam is getting ready for the Lotoja bike ride in September so he is spending as much time as he can on his bike. I'm acting as support crew so I'm pretty nervous as well. Here are a few pictures to catch everyone up on what we have been doing for the past oh, seven months or so.

In May Sam ran the Ogden half Marathon. He did great and the girls and I had fun cheering him on.

This spring we also went to Yellowstone. We saw a lot of wildlife and enjoyed the time together as a family. Sarah was disappointed that the "park" didn't have any slides but she said she had fun anyway.

This is one of the four bears that we saw in one day in Yellowstone. We were very excited to see so many.

Yellowstone is such a beautiful place. It gave me a wonderful opportunity to try out my new camera.

Sam ran the Ragnar Wasatch Back Relay. It is a relay race from Logan to Park City. It's really just an all day, all night party with twelve friends. He had a lot of fun and was very tired the next day.

Here he is with the guys in his van. They were called the Army of Twelve since 10 out of the 12 guys were in the armed forces. Sam and his friend Chad (the one on the far right) were the only civilians.

Of course, the 4th of July is one of our favorite holidays and the highlight of our summer. We had a great time with family visiting and all the wonderful events here in Kaysville.

Sam helps cook breakfast with the Kaysville Civic Committee every year. This year we had his cousin Ryan and family staying with us for the weekend and Ryan was able to help out. We loved having Ryan's family here, and not just because Ryan cooked for us all weekend (thanks again for the sushi and the tamales) or because his girls took care of my kids almost the entire time.

We really enjoyed having them and it was fun to spend the day with family.

Stephanie and Lily at the parade.

Lily loves Grandpa John.

We've had a lot more fun this spring and summer but those will have to go in a future post because this one is already too long. I promise I will do better for those few who check this blog periodically.

In the beginning

I have been told recently that because we have children we are practically required to have a blog. Although I am not that computer savvy, I have decided to make the attempt at blogging so that we might preserve some of our family memories. First I must explain a little about our title, "Works of ART". We do consider our two girls to be beautiful works of art, but ART also stands for Assisted Reproductive Technologies. We have done IVF (Invitro Fertilization) in order to get both of our children so they are truly works of ART. We are so very grateful that we live in a time where medical technology has made this possible. What a wonderful time we live in.