A Different Kind of Beauty.

This is a little hidden secret in Grand Junction. The Colorado National Monument. And let me tell you: It's grand. Sheer-walled canyons, towering red sandstone mountains and glorious valleys that host a beautiful myriad of wild animals. Yes, even snakes.

Lets face it. I'm a tree lover. It's a weird quirk that I have made peace with. That is one of the many reasons I love my home town: Farmington. When visiting I make Justin take the "scenic tree route". You will never find trees like the ones that live there. I have searched for 9 years up here in the Denver area and have found only 2 that come in a close second place.

This is an interesting specimen. Dead, but interesting.

The Dinosaur Hike!

There is surprisingly quite a few things to do in Grand Junction. For instance we got a bee in our bonet to go for a walk and we ended up picnicking and hiking on a prehistoric dinosaur trail. If Nathan can hike this in his flip-flops, anyone can do it!

These are some vertebrates! They're real:

This was the view from the top. It was worth helping the little ones trudge up the dirt trail.
This is Justin's brother and his cute little family with one in the oven I might add:).

Go Dads!

A beautiful desert lizard for lack of a better name. I can appreciate anything as long as it's NOT a snake.

I might mention that at girls camp, in the river that I was tubing in, there was a 6 foot HUGE snake next to me. That night I slept very safe and cozy lodged in between 2 of my girls. Yes, they even let me hop inside their sleeping bag with them. I owe them big, perhaps a trip to Belize. That should suffice.

A Little Slice Of Heaven!

This has been our view off our deck almost every evening this summer (when it's not raining). The kids eat Popsicles, Justin and I whip up a batch of frozen hot chocolate, and we try to savor the moment!

The Little Things...

I was at girls camp this week and it was the first time I've ever left my little guys. It was a blast but I can't explain the feeling I had sometimes. It was like I was physically craving to squish their little bodies, smell their hair, plaster them with millions of kisses, and I was DYING to hear their cute giggles!

I never knew how bad I would miss hearing Nathan belt out, "I Am A Naughty Child of God", or have a conversation that goes like this:

Nathan: Mom, my tummy hurts.
Me: What's wrong with it?
Nathan: I guess there must be lots of mustaches in it.
Me: eeewwwww! That's probably the sickest way I've ever heard a stomach ache being described. Are you going to be okay?
Nathan: Yea, but there's just lots in my tummy.

Justin's 30th!!!

We headed down to the Royal Gorge to do a little white water rafting and celebrate Justin's big 3-0! It surpassed all our expectations! I didn't expect it to be that beautiful!

At one point, we were going through class 4 and a class 5 rapid and an ex Guam fighter pilot, in his cherry red helicopter, was was loosing someones lunch in the canyon above us. Over to the left, a tram was coming down the world's steepest slope and the train full of passengers were going by on the tracks next to the river. Over to our right we almost slammed into a wall- peed our pants, died laughing, (when we knew we were going to be safe), and looked up to see the bridge hundreds of feet above us. It was breathtaking!

Half the fun was going with these guys! Brandon even made a great guide- who knew?! I've never seen anyone appreciate a gourmet sandwich the way Cody does and watch out- she 's got moves!

Nathan decided dad needed a tough crocodile cake but I think it turned out to be the worlds friendliest lizard!

Simple.

I forgot how fun it was to fly a kite! All you need is a little breeze- seriously, with the new "kite technology" you can get it up with very little effort, a beautiful evening, and lots of giggles!

The best part was watching Nathan "man" a kite for the first time! This is his mother speaking so of course I thought it was hilarious!

GOING:

GOING:GONE!!!

Busted!

This was fairly easy to clean up:

This entire bottle of suntan lotion however, was not!

Ridding Along In My Automobile!

Josh brought his go cart to the high school so that we could give the kids rides and laugh!

This was just way to much fun! I can't remember laughing so hard at Kami's stalls, mom not being able to find the brake, Aunt Jeri ripping over the speed bumps, and seeing the kids heads bobble back and forth when they rode with their dads.

GG and some of her Great Grandkiddos. They just love her and were loving spending the night at her house!

Mr. Kadden and his toothless smile!

Double Whammy!

It pays to have both sides of the family in one place! We got to see mom's side too! We had a birthday party for Doug in the middle of all the festivities at GG's house! These are all of the cousins that were there together!

Lovin' on Aunt Martha!

Look at that face!

Making up for lost time!

The three Amigos sipin' Lemonade in the back yard.

Makin' Us Laugh!

I was getting him situated on the floor and missed taking pictures of the synchronized swimming act! Shoot! He missed all of the annual Cardon talent show.

Singing "I looked out on Grandpa's FARM."
My pictures are dark because I was all the way in the back with Kendall.

Our talented Irish dancers wooed the crowd leaving us wanting more!

You will notice the cutest girls in the entire world doing their special number joined by none other than Tanner Cardon himself! One minute he was all the way in the back with me and the next I look up and he has joined the ladies on stage! Priceless! Or maybe his priceless moment was when he could not find the bathroom at the park and decided that the grass in front of everybody would just have to do! I love him!

Natalie and Mike doing a rendition of Phantom of the Opera that would have made the actual stars on Broadway very proud!

It was so fun to see everyone and their cute kids!