Kevin and Sonja's Joys

Every year my mom's family puts together a family history book. I have to say that I don't get excited to write up a history for each member of our family but I love it when it's done. Now, we have a history of Kevin and I for ten years and one for each year of the children. I love reading about all of my relatives and learning from them even though they are far away.



This is one of the pictures a friend took for us at church so I can put it in our family history.



Here' another picture.



I took this one in our back yard. We had so much fun with the green color this year. We are so blessed to have friends who gave us the girl's dresses.



One of my weight watchers leaders was so kind to let us come to her house which is right down the street to go on her pontoon boat. Her kids are teenagers now and very busy so she doesn't get out much on the boat. We sure loved it.



Kamren was our navigator and found a turtle for us. He loved putting down the anchor when we stopped to swim. Ashleigh loved the treats she gave us after the boat ride and Brynn loved to honk the horn over and over.



Kam's favorite part was driving the boat.



Ash loved the water. She was the first to jump off the pontoon boat and couldn't get enough. She is a little fish.



Brynn's favorite part was playing with the dog. She had fun chasing the cat away too.


We are so happy to have such beautiful weather here.

We started out the day with spending some time with our friends at a free party in the park. It was like Halloween in the summer time. They had so many free things for the kids. They even gave us free lunch.



Our friends invited us over for a fun swim on this beautiful day.



Brynn is a total water baby. She loves to play in it.



We have a tradition that we started a few years ago to dress up like pioneers and have fried bread and simple foods like the pioneers did. We usually eat outside but this time we set a blanket up in the living room and pretended we had a campfire going.



Ashleigh and Kamren really loved dressing up and singing pioneer songs.

I completely forgot it was Pioneer Day. I kept thinking it was on Saturday because the broadcast was on Saturday. I'm glad my friend reminded me of this special day. I am so grateful for the pioneers who sacrificed so much for the gospel. They have left an amazing legacy of faith that I strive to follow.



I just love how Ashleigh gets excited about everything. I was trying organize clothes for next summer to make sure I had enough for her and Brynn and she just comments on how cute everything is. She is so happy to help me out.



I love how Kamren loves to try new things and he does so well at everything. He is not afraid to experience life. I continue to watch him challenge himself in sports and also with his bike.



I love how Brynn asks to go outside each morning so she can say hi to the person who is outside. She always wants to make everyone smile. She is sunshine! I also love how she wants to play in the dirt all the time. She just loves to create things with sand or dirt.



Kamren has been wanting a skateboard for sometime but he spends his money very quickly and never earns enough to buy one from the store. Kevin found one at a garage sale while we were running this morning for $4. He was so excited to have the money to purchase it. He was so excited that he had to have it in his bedroom to sleep with.

33 States down 17 to go. I've always had a goal to visit all 50 states by age 50. Kevin is so sweet to reach this goal with me. It is so much fun to learn about the USA. It is truly the promised land. We are so blessed to be here.
We've never been to West Virginia so Kevin found a great cabin that we thought would be fun to visit.



We started our trip out by trying our hot tub. We literally got in it at least twice a day. It was like a huge bath tub to the kids. We loved the water.



We visited Hawk's Nest State Park which was so beautiful. We rode the tramway down and tried the jet boats to see the New River Gorge Bridge. We also took a little hike to see a waterfall and we saw a deer. The weather was so nice the whole week we were there.



Kamren and Ashleigh loved the jet boat ride at Hawk's Nest State Park. Brynn was a little nervous but she made it.



We loved hiking around and exploring through nature. This was one of the trails we did near our home.



Here's the New River Gorge bridge. It is the second largest arch bridge in the world.




We got a closer look at the New River Gorge Bridge by going down a really windy road and we walked a smaller bridge at a lower level. It was well worth the trip down.



Say Cheese! Kevin set up the camera to get one more picture of us by the bridge.



This is by Summersville lake where we saw many butterflies. They were so beautiful. Each of the children were able to to have one on them. They loved it!



There is lots of history in West Virginia. We went to Carnifex Ferry State Battlefield where we learned a little bit more about the Civil War.



We learned that this state is full of coal. We went through a tour of a coal mine and what the miners went through. We have deep respect for all those that sacrificed so we could have coal.



There was a children's museum that we went to after we toured the Coal Mine.



Hey, I'm flying. Kamren loved the children's museum.



We are grateful for the Coal Miners!



We had a blast at the Summersville Lake. The kids loved getting thrown by dad.



The waterfalls are so beautiful.



The Grist Mill was a neat thing to learn about. The man was so kind to give us cornmeal from the mill.



We took the kids on our own tour to the State Capitol. They had fun walking on the roof.





Ashleigh and Brynn are waiting patiently to say goodbye to Kamren and I as we went White Water Rafting.



I love hiking with my daddy! We went exploring Babcock State Park.

We didn't want to end our vacation because we had a great time as a family. It will definitely be a great memory for our family and we're glad we went to West Virginia.

We had so much on the 4th of July as a family. We started off going to our Ward pancake breakfast at a nearby park.

The kids reminded me to hang up the American flag and we put some in our flower pots too. We sang lots of patriotic songs and we all dressed in blue together with a few accents of red. Ashleigh is our little color coordinator.



We went to the parade and the kids favorite part was catching all the candy. It was a little long but it was still fun to do something with the community.



We had a blast watching the fireworks. We couldn't believe that Brynn stayed awake the whole entire time. Ashleigh was so cute as she had a comment after each firework. We met up with some good friends who were visiting from out of town.



We had so much fun making little care packages for those who are serving across seas for our country. I thought that was a great activity they planned before the firework show started. They all got to write a letter or color a picture for them.




We concluded the day with doing our traditional sparklers and Kevin took the kids camping in our backyard. That is our way of camping. We don't have to pack the whole house to camp and the kids are happy to be in a tent in nature. I stayed in our nice comfortable bed and had Brynn sleep in her bed. She wouldn't do so well in a tent yet.

I'm so grateful for America. I absolutely love our freedom and I love to pass on this great love to our children. They truly love this special day and I hope that by traveling through different states they will continue to love this special land and truly see how blessed we are to be in this free country.

The kids loved every minute with their grandparents.



Ashleigh loved making rings with grandma. She absolutely loved going on a date with grandpa.



Kamren loved his bike rides with grandpa because he shared the coolest stories. He loved being read to by grandma.



Brynn loved getting lots of hugs.



Kevin took Monday off so we could spend more time with mom and dad. Brynn loved going swimming at the Y while Kamren and Ashleigh took swimming lessons.



Ashleigh didn't like swim lessons last summer but she can't wait for them each day. Kamren is quite the swimmer and Brynn just loves to jump in the water the whole time.