24th of July

More July Fun! In the Utah Sun!

Cotton candy poodle.

On the July 24th we went over to the celebration in Monroe. We went to the parade and then the park. The kids had fun catching candy at the parade and riding the fire engine at the park. And the highlight of the day, petting the purple poodle. The dog looked like cotton candy. AMAZING. We will never forget sitting on the football field in the rain watching the fireworks with our umbrellas.

Grandpa and Grandma's Backyard

Yahtzee Tournament!

We spent almost every evening in July playing cards, night games and hanging out in my parent's backyard. It was so nice to sit outside. The kids loved jumping on the trampoline, swinging on the swings and bug hunting.

Phase Ten Wars!!

A few of the evenings it rained on us. We still enjoyed the outdoors. My parents backyard was filled with tons of flowers, beautiful trees and a garden. We loved it.

Brianna & Wade hanging with Grandpa and His dog Dolly.

A Night in Paradise

Jon and I went to the Venetian in Las Vegas for our 13th Anniversary. We had a blast. It was one of most beautiful hotels I have ever seen. It truly was paradise. Riley and Kade stayed with my mom and dad in Richfield and Cole and Bree stayed at Katie's House just down the street, in Las Vegas. It was just for one night but it was sooo relaxing. We went to the Blue Man Group. We ate and then ate some more. Gelato ice cream! Need I say more? My favorite part of the hiatus was sleeping in and ordering room service. Two things I never get. The best!!!

We met one of the Blue Men. We decided to forgive Him for spraying us with chewed up Twinkies. Only after we realized it was just bananas.

Happy 4th of July!

I guess I should have waited until after my vacation to start my Blog. I wanted to start with a bang! I am in Utah for the month of July and I have had a hard time getting on my parents computer. And figuring out how to add pictures is beyond my expertise. But I am really excited about starting to write down the good, bad and ugly of our summer trip to Utah.



I have spent the last couple of weeks visiting family. We have had a blast. My kids and I arrived in Richfield, Utah June 30th. Richfield is where I grew up and I have many ties still here and of course thousands of memories. We stayed for a few days, unloaded most of our luggage then we headed off to Salt Lake City. We met my Father and Mother-in-law in Spanish Fork at Jon's Brother's house. We went to lunch and went shopping. I picked Jon up at the airport at 10:00 p.m. in Salt Lake. The next morning we went to Lagoon ( Utah's amusement park). My kids had so much fun with their cousins. We don't get to spend a lot of time with the Pace cousins. It was extremely HOT. We found ways to cool off though. We spent 2 hours in the water park of Lagoon called "Laguna Beach".



Being at Lagoon always makes me feel like a kid again. They have new rides now, but I spent most of my time on my old favorites. The old rickety white wooden roller coaster. The Tidal Wave ( a giant boat that rocks forward and back). And of course, the sky ride that makes you wonder how you are it staying up in the air on a thin cable. It's was fun walking down memory lane with my kids. We all had a blast.



My Brother, Jon arrived from New Mexico that night. He stayed at the same Hotel and we did so he could catch a ride with us. We all woke up early on the 4th and headed back to Richfield. We arrived shortly after the parade started.



I have never missed Richfield's 4th of July. I have been there every year since my birth in 1974. I believe it is the best 4th celebration ever. Although how would I really know? I know nothing else.

The canons go off at 6:00 in the morning to wake you up. They are really HUGE fireworks but it sounds like a canon. The parade (mostly old John Deer Green tractors and beauty queens) is at 9:30. We then catch up with old friends and family at the city park. It's like a class and family reunioun all in one. There is games for the kids and lots of booths with yummy food. Have you ever tried a fried Twinky of Ding Dong?

They have kids races and the infamous fish grab. Which I'm sure PETA has not heard of yet. The fish grab consists of the fish hatchery people bringing the rainbow trout and dumping them in a huge man made tarp pool thing. Kids fight their way to catching a fish with their hands. And even though I cross my fingers every year and hope that they do not catch one, they always do. This year they were HUGE. Riley, Kade and Cole all caught one. Pictures to come.....

Next we venture to the swimming pool where all the Kids do the money dive. Riley and Kade did it this year and both were able to get around $2 in nickels, dimes and quarters. They love it.



We had a B-Que with my family. Then of course the mighty fireworks. This year was great. My brother in law, Jeremy brought tons of fireworks from the reservation. We had the best show in town. We watched the towns fireworks which were great then we continued our own private show late into the night. We went down the middle school so we could have the parking lot to have our fun. We cleaned up all the scraps of stuff and put them in the dumpster. Jeremy stayed a little longer than the rest of us. He threw some things in the dumpster that were still HOT. We heard the next day on the radio that a fire crew was called out to Red Hills Middle School to put out a fire in the dumpster, that occurred from the careless use of fireworks. Jeremy just about died. It really was funny. We went and checked out the dumpster. Luckily everything was OK. It was just a little warped.

Family Fun!

We had the King Family Reunion in Antimony this year. I love visiting Antimony. I believe it is one of the most wonderful places in the world. It's beautiful! I haven't been there since my grandpa died two years ago. I just love how peaceful it is there. Jon was loving the fact that there was no cell phone service. He was in need of a break. My Aunt Polly's family was in charge this year and they had so many fun activities planned. We stayed in a cabin just down the street from Grandma King's house.

The highlight was the mule "White Lightning". His name is ironic because he was so mellow. You could walk underneath him. Kids were on and off of him all day and He didn't even need a saddle. Cole fell off once and also got his eye scratched when White Lightning walked under a tree branch. However, that didn't stop Him.


We had a talent show and my kids sang "The cat came back." Bree dressed up like a cat and danced around. We watched a video of the last 20 years of reunions. It brought back so many memories. Lake Powell was my favorite past reunion.



We had a horseshoes contest. Uncle Bruce and I were on the same team. He was so competitive it was hilarious. Every time we would get a point He would dance around. We got beat by Eugene and Mellisa. But it was soooo close. They went on to win the whole thing. We had a tug-o-war with all the guys. In-laws against the out-laws. The out-laws won! I said it was because they had more weight behind them.

Riley and Jeremy had fun playing basketball.

The kids enjoyed jumping in the blow up toy. It had a huge slide. They played Volleyball, Basketball and Pool. They had a craft table and Bree and Madison spent a lot of time there. The last day they had an auction and we bought things to help put money into our reunion fund.


It was a blast catching up with all my cousins. And it was fun to see my younger cousins, who I've never gotten a chance to know, play so well with my kids. It was a weekend we will never forget.

Cole keeps asking, "When are we going back?"

My Poem For Grandma King

Dear Grandma,
I really don’t know where to start.
Memories with you I hold close to my heart.
You made me feel special in your unique ways.
Always there for me on all important days.
My birthdays, my baptism, graduation and prom.
And Miss Utah where I sang that ridiculous song.
Some of my favorite memories always will be,
Our family reunions, which meant so much to me.
Lake Powell where you pulled, I mean braided our hair.
We all looked Chinese but we didn't care.
Grandpa talked you into being pulled by a boat.
On a long yellow tube that you thought would just float.
It wasn’t long before we, in the boat, made you flip.
To me that was the best memory of all of our trips.
I always knew when we would round the bend,
Our journey to Grandma’s was almost to end.
The swing in the backyard, the old barn too.
The flowers, the dogs, the great mountain view.
The horse rides, the Merc, the mighty skunk smell.
The garden, the trees and the silver porch rail.
Salsa, apple jelly, mashed potatoes just for me.
Are just a few things I love about Antimony.
Grandma thank you for:
The love, hugs and kisses and the most wonderful thing
The great sense of belonging I felt as a King.
You’re the Best! I love you.
Mindy

The Start

I am extremely excited to start my blog. I want to be able to look back and remember the minutes that go by so quickly in my life. And for those of you who care, you can read the exciting and not so exciting minutes of my life. Thanks to my good friend Cara I now officially have a blog site. I grew up with a mom who was religious at keeping a journal, and a dad who absolutely loves history and especially family history. Even though my life is busy I also feel a need to write down events, moments and especially people who are a big part of my life. So here's to blogging. I'm giving it a try!

Cruising to Mexico

Fun in the sun!

Lee,Aimee, Me, Lori, Cara, Monica, Traci, Michelle, Angie
I had a fabulous trip with the girls from book club. We went on a 4 day cruise to Ensenada Mexico in June. I relaxed and ate lots of food. We danced the night away every night. One night Cara and I were so excited to dance and everyone else was people watching. We decided to start our own dance. Cara was dancing all the way to the club and I was laughing so hard that I doubled over then fell on the floor. It took me a while to get up. I was happy that everyone else was oblivious. So embarrassing. It was a blast. I think I laughed the whole entire time. A smile never left my face. My favorite was when we would tell people(when they asked)that we were with our book club and we had 35 kids between the 9 of us.
One of my favorite things we did was look at every single person on that ship as we tried to decide what character he/she would be in our book. (Twilight) "Is that Edward?" "Could that be Jasper?" "The werewolf is following us again!" I about lost it when Michelle and I were standing in line at the boats safety drill and we were tired and bored and Michelle said, " Behind you to the right, is the perfect Emmett." We started laughing so hard. There was never a dull moment. We were having fun even when we were bored. It was priceless.