Summer Fun!

WASATCH BACK 2011

The weekend after the Utah Valley Marathon was the 2011 Wasatch Back Relay. I wasn't planning on running it until just a few weeks before but I'm glad that I did. Dare I say it was the best yet????

The start line...Natascha's in there somewhere!

My first leg. I really didn't know what to expect after having run the marathon the week before so I was a little nervous but I did pretty good! I kept telling myself that after 26.2, 6.7 isn't too bad!

Heather even flew up from Texas to run it again!

I LOVE this picture of Lindsay! She for sure won the award for the person who slept the most. She's just like TJ in that she can sleep anywhere! I think its a Loomis thing...LouLou's the same!

Our van...Lindsay, Heather, Me, Sheree, Natascha and Claire!

Trying to catch some zzzzzz's at the finish line while we waited for the rest of our team!

The whole team, plus some random lady in pink!

BYU BASKETBALL CAMP

So this year Jackson was old enough to attend BYU basketball camp and actually stay in the dorms for the week! That seemed pretty crazy to me and I was super worried about him and his friends actually surviving it but they all did great! They found their way around, remembered to eat, remembered to shower and had an AWESOME time! Jackson even won a Camp All-Star T-shirt!

Steven, Jackson, Curtis and Brigham. Steven and Jackson roomed together and Brigham and Curtis were together. Jackson and Steven were also on the same floor as another teammate, Cam and another friend Ross attended camp too!

BRINKERHOFF FAMILY FUN--OUR TRIP TO DENVER

The beginning of July started with a much anticipated trip to Denver! We had been planning this reunion of sorts since December of 2010 so we had been looking forward to the fun for a long time! And, as usual, our family gathering didn't disappoint! We had an absolute blast! Here's a peek at our week in Denver!

Pedicures!!!!!!

Lunch on the back porch!

A haircut from Papa

Hanging out in our July 4th garb!

Reading

Working

I'm not sure what to call this so I'll explain. Matt bought a small basketball hoop that hooked over the top of a closet. The house is laid out so that the microwave in the kitchen and the hoop were facing each other so of course TJ had to create a game of it. He actually said that it was a game that he had played as a kid at the house he grew up in. Anyways, the object of the game was to see if you could start the microwave timer at 2 seconds, run, shoot and make the basket in that amount of time. If you made 2 seconds then your time dropped down to 1 second. This game was an instant hit and we probably played it for a good 2 hours! Even Lindsay, Lou Lou and I got in on the action, even though I was total SPAZZ and could not make it in 2 seconds. All I know was that it was GOOD TIMES!!!!

Snuggling

Speaking of Good Times....YUM!

Eating...lots and lots of eating!

For the actual 4th of July celebration we headed up to a town in the mountains called Idaho Springs. Let me tell you, it might have been filled with the weirdest people I've ever seen! Regardless of the weirdness though we had a great time eating at Beau Joe's Pizza (YUMMY), eating gelato (YUMMY) and watching a fabulous fireworks show!

Me and 2 of my people

Just waiting to be seated for dinner. Aren't they a festive looking bunch?

Madison and Brady! Cute kiddo's!

This was cute!

Me and my beautiful Nanny!

Phil and Ali with John and Patty in the background.

Savannah was not in love with the fireworks. She held on to Colton for dear life!!!!! Notice the death grip on his shirt!

The day after our July 4th fun we headed out to rage at Waterworld! As usual it was a total BLAST! However, not many pictures...its hard to take pictures when you're busy raging!

Lunch break!

Danielson...LOVE this boy!

So we're hanging out one night and Lindsay asks Jackson to get her the biggest glass of ice water he can find. Matt decides he wanted a big glass too. This is what Jackson came up with. Brilliant if you ask me. Also, hilarious!

Some other mentionable moments from our week in Denver...

-going to the fancy new Target with underground parking and an escalator for your cart

-Alison's baby shower. I don't have pictures of the shower because Lindsay was in charge of being the photographer but it was a good time! Lots of people came and Alison scored in the gift department!

-The Nertz tournament...the reigning champs, Lindsay and Colton, were finally upset by Matt and Erin. It was EPIC! But no worries...when we're all together at Thanksgiving, the nertz trophy will be claimed by me and TJ!

-And, for possibly the first time ever, we did not go to Red Robin for dinner! We ALWAYS go to Red Robin when we're all together so the fact that we didn't was kind of strange!

All in all it was a fabulous trip! We can't wait to all be together again at Thanksgiving in Utah! Woo-Hoo!!!!!

MILLER FAMILY FUN--OUR TRIP TO CANADA

This year, before our trek up to the Great White North, Nicole and Marilee decided to spend a few days in Utah. So here's a brief rundown of our fun with the Miller family!

A Visit with Gongy

Arrival at the cabin

Hanging out with cousins!

Playing Basketball

Making Ice Cream!

Being crazy!

Sleeping

Fun on the boat

Fun in the water

Getting Ice Cream---Tiger ice cream is the BEST! For those who don't know Tiger ice cream is orange flavored ice cream with streaks of black licorice. It is so good and not sold in the U.S.A. I know most of you think it sounds sick but don't knock it till you try it! The funny thing about it is I don't even like black licorice!

Being Cute

Playing beach volleyball

Some more of being cute

Watching beach volleyball

Hot Tubbing...how many kids can you shove in a hot tub???

Celebrating birthday's! Reecey's 4th and Avery's 2nd

Fishing...unfortunately for us there were no fish caught this year but Reecey held a worm and Natalie and Tyler both caught a turtle!

Adult night out!

Shooting!

Shopping at our favorite store! This little store is THE BEST board shop I've ever been in! Love love LOVE IT!

Being foolish!

FAMILY BBQ

The weekend we returned home from Canada was a big one for our family. Before we had left for Canada TJ had been asked to meet with a member of our Stake Presidency where he was called to be a counsellor in the bishopric. Since we were leaving town the ordination of TJ to High Priest and the setting apart for his new calling would take place the weekend we got home from our vacation so TJ's parents drove over from Denver to be able to participate in those events! Since almost the whole family, on both sides, was here, we of course had to have a BBQ! It was so much fun to be able to prolong our goodbyes and spend a wonderful day together!

Cute Joshie

Sitting around, chatting and eating

My handsome Dad

This picture cracks me up. Julie is hilarious!

Cute, fun, football boys!

JULY 24th--NEIGHBORHOOD FIREWORKS

Okay, so I know that a lot of people will make this claim, but I'm the only one that its true for...We live in THE BEST neighborhood in the world! Seriously! Its true! We have the best neighbors ever and its a constant party in the summer with everyone coming outside in the evenings for the adults to chat and the kids to play. For the 24th of July some of our neighbors had purchased some AMAZING and possibly illegal fireworks! Needless to say, we had a BLAST!!!! (no pun intended)

FREEZER JAM

For years and years I've wanted to make freezer jam and this is the year I finally did it! My mom, Lindsay and I made Strawberry and Raspberry and it turned out soooooooooo yummy! I can't remember ever eating yummier raspberries!

BRADY'S BROKEN ARM

This little accident for sure doesn't fall under the category of 'Summer Fun' but it did happen in the summer so I'm including it!

So one Sunday evening we were outside hanging with the neighbors when Brady asked to go to the park behind our house. I told him no but then he said that he could see Madison over there with Lindsay and Colton so could he ride his bike over. I told him he could and about 15 minutes later Colton come walking up to me from the back of my house, which is funny in and of itself since he had to scale a rock wall from the park to get to my house from the back, and told me that Brady fell and his wrist looks kind of funky. Of course neither Lindsay and Colton could gauge the seriousness of the fall from Brady's reaction since he always reacts like he's going to die when he gets hurt, but since the wrist looked weird Colton decided to come and get me. TJ had left to go to Chicago on business earlier that afternoon so I left my other kids playing with the neighbors, hopped in the car and headed down to the park. As soon as I saw Brady's wrist I knew something was wrong so I loaded him up and before I headed to the hospital I headed over to my friend Kristi's house. Kristi is an RN and I figured she could help decide if I should go straight to the hospital or if I could get by with going to the after hours at my doctor's office. After fighting with Brady to look at it, her and her husband (who is a nurse anesthetist) determined to the best of their knowledge that it was broken and that we needed to head to the hospital. Lindsay joined me for moral support, I called my mom to come and take care of the other kids and off we went!

Poor little Brady was being so brave and thankfully we didn't have to wait too long. It was actually funny because when we walked into the ER the triage nurse came out and called some other people over to check in. They saw Brady holding his arm with a tear stained face and told her that we could go ahead of them since he looked really hurt. The nurse looked at Brady and then back at them and asked what they were there for and it turned out that one of them was having difficulty breathing!!!!! The nurse told them that that was very serious and since they were there first they had priority. I thought it was so nice of them to give up their place in 'line' but I had to chuckle because not being able to breathe is significantly more serious then a broken wrist! In fact, when Jackson would have to go to the ER for breathing problems we would inevitably jump several other people there because of the seriousness of it. Anyways, that was kind of funny!

Once we got back there we got the x-rays and even though the tech couldn't tell us anything, both Lindsay and I could see the break pretty clearly. Even Brady could tell it was broken when he looked at it! After the x-rays we sat for a few minutes and then were lead into a room where the on-call orthopedic surgeon was already waiting for us! It was crazy! He was in jeans, a harley davidson T-shirt and a cap and was standing there waiting for us! Both Lindsay and I were a bit confused until he told us who he was but even then we were surprised because how often is a doctor waiting on the patient in an ER? We actually didn't even see an actual ER doctor since the Orthopedic surgeon was there on another case and didn't want to wait around for the ER doc to check Brady out first! Lucky for me that saved us money and time! Anyways, he explained Brady had a buckle fracture on his ulna and radius and that I had a choice. He said, as best as I can remember, "I can get a nurse in here to start an IV, which is uncomfortable and sometimes difficult to get on a child. Then we can pump him with fluids and medication to sedate him that will cost you a lot of money and time, or I can set the bones right now by pushing on them for about 5 seconds. What would you like to do?" So even though the mommy in me was screaming, sedate him! sedate him! I knew that would probably be harder on him and much more time consuming so I opted to have the dr. set it without any medication. I warned him that Brady was very very strong though so he called in 2 other nurses and the 3 of us held him down while the dr. set the bones and splint his arm. It took more like 10-15 seconds and poor Brady was SCREAMING with me and Lindsay crying but then it was over, Brady had a cool splint on his arm and we were on our way with instructions to go to the Dr's office to get it casted in a couple of days!

So the total time in the cast was 5 weeks and he's got 2 more to go. We chose a waterproof cast which is the most brilliant thing ever and Brady's doing great! His school work is a little sloppy, since its his right hand, but other then that he hasn't skipped a beat! I didn't get pictures at the hospital, but here are some of him getting his cast on!

It was a little painful when the cast went on so his face is a bit tearstained, but overall it wasn't too bad!

So there you have it! There are some highlights of our summer! It was awesome, and as usual, went way too fast, but now we're having fun with football, homework and waking up early and looking forward to more fall like weather. I can't believe how fast time flies so I'm trying to soak it all in!!!!!!