New Mexico

When you live in New Mexico, sometimes when you're on your way to church this is what you see...

 

 

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Utah Week 2

Week 2: Aspen Grove
(Ya-week 2 before week 1. I don't have any pictures from week 1 yet)

 

In July we went to Aspen Grove for our Esplin family reunion. All the kids were separated into age groups. Every day they would do fun activities with their age groups. We arrived at Aspen Grove Saturday afternoon. We got our stuff settled in at the Beckman lodge, and then spent the evening wandering around the camp and meeting our groups. Since the college students working at Aspen Grove stay there they have their own branch. We had sacrament meeting and the kids went off to primary/YM YW. In the afternoon the kids met their groups and played church games like, Gadianton Robbers (the Sunday version of Mafia).

 

Monday was the first "official" day of activities. The kids met their groups at 9:15am and came back in time for lunch at 12:00 and 12:30 (there were two waves of meals and the food was really good).
 

 Brynn and cousin Lindsey

 Brynn's group went swimming after going to arts and crafts. Somewhere along the way Brynn left her swimsuit somewhere. She searched and searched but we did not find it until that night in the arts and crafts STORE.



Kaitlyn with cousins Andrew and Elise

The adults did the ropes course while the kids were in their groups.



 

 

 

After lunch, they had Aspen Follies. We didn't know what it was, so we all got there late. It was sad we were late because it was AWESOME!! There was super fun activities that they timed us for, and we competed with the other families at aspen grove.

 

Trying to catch the flying water balloons after Aspen Follies



That night there was a family talent show (we didn't do anything but it was fun to watch)

 

On Tuesday the kids met with their groups again and then came back for lunch again. After lunch the kids went back to the groups and swam/went to crafts/did the climbing tower/went on a hike/etc.

 

Kaitlyn's group went on a hike to Stewart Falls. The water was freezing!!


 

 

 They all ran under the waterfall so they got wet

 which was nice for the hot hike back!

 

 

Brynn's group did the ropes course!

 

  

That night it was Frontier Night. At Frontier Night they had a train, tomahawk throwing, archery, cowboy village (a play place), and pioneer games. They also had a pie eating contest.

 

Big kids on the train

 

 On Wednesday Kaitlyn did the ropes course, while all the other kids and the adults went on a hike. At night there were Minute-To-Win-It games at the amphitheater. Brynn and Jared were both picked to do them.

 

Brynn stacking the blocks on her head.

Jared bending to pick up the cereal box that's been cut up

Even later there was a movie played for younger kids (12 years olds and under) while the teens and young adults had night games at the field.

Getting ready for night games!

Thursday was our last full day at Aspen Grove. There was swimming, crafts, group activities, family activities, and all the usual things. In the afternoon they had Water Frolics. Water Frolics are games in the pool that you compete with other teams/families.

Synchronized swimming

 That night there was the family dance, and then the Teen dance. Before the family dance we had family pictures. During our pictures it started raining (of course) and the kids ran all the way to the Emerald Dining Hall, where they were having the dance. Our family arrived there soaked, and most of us didn't stay because we were all to tired, or sick (we had the stomach bug go around).

 

Teen group




Kaitlyn, Elise, Shelby (friend), and their counselors

Nate with the cousins that are in his group

Friday was the last day. We packed up, said goodbye to most of the cousins, and then left to Grandma and Grandpa Esplin's house.

The kids had such a fun time hanging out with cousins and friends. They did a bunch of other activities that I couldn't remember what day it was on:

Jared going down the slip-n-slide



Kaitlyn and Elise with their friends playing with the "slingshot"



Esplin Basketball Team

 Nate did the climbing tower

 

 

Jared did the ropes course



Ellie playing with her group

Posted by: Kaitlyn



School Started

The first day of school for the older kids was August 13.

 

Kaitlyn started 8th grade this year at Desert Ridge! She got in to show choir this year, and is excited to do that.

 

Brynn started 6th grade this year at Desert Ridge, her first year of middle school. She is doing orchestra this year!

 

Jared started 4th grade this year, and is happy to have Ms. Sutphin as his teacher. (Brynn had her too)

 

 

Ellie started 2nd grade and got Ms. Harding as a teacher. We've never had her before but she seems very nice.

 

Nathan's first day of school was August 14th.

 

Nathan is at his second year of preschool at Dennis Chavez and loves it! His teachers, Ms. Sandy and Ms. Melissa are great.

 

Posted by: Kaitlyn

We Moved!

Yes! We have finally moved into a new house! It has more bedrooms (the twins don't have to sleep in the closet!), and a huge backyard. It definitely needs some work, but thanks to Max and Cheryl we got a lot done our first week here. We're so glad they came to help us get moved in.

Our new house:

 

 

 

How much stuff can one person have in their pantry! We had more than 20 boxes! 

 

 

  

 

On Saturday we started on some yard work in our front yard

 The kids were so determined to get rid of the goat heads. They are evil! They duct taped a cut up camping pad to their shoes and stomped around the yard. This is NOT an easy job, but it worked really well.

 

 

Even the twins "helped"

 

 

Look at all those goat heads----and there are still TONS more!
Thanks to everyone who helped us move!

Posted By: Kaitlyn

 

Quotes

 

Kaitlyn: Ewwww! Looks like something Miley Cyrus would wear!

Brynn: No. Miley Cyrus doesn't wear anything!

 

Nate: Mom! I just saw a big thing of GREEN thunder. But don't worry no one was killed.

Nate: I think I need a popsicle because my mouth is really hot.

 

In Utah we passed the 'G' on the mountain for Pleasant Grove. Nate saw it and said," I don't know why but it looks like there's some number on the mountain. That's weird!"

 

Right when we arrived in Utah, Jared said the prayer, Betsy and her kids were there and immediately

after it Reid(Cousin) asked," Are you Jewish?"

(????)

Nate: Those fireworks almost exploded that house!

Aubree is very picky and does not like little girls picking her up. During our family reunion all the girls wanted to hold her. Bree learned soon that an approaching girl probably meant like she was going to be held, so every time she saw them coming she would give them a mean look and scream at them, or yell, "NO! STOP! DON'T!

 

Jared: (While talking about mowing lawns to earn money) People won't trust me unless I show them a picture of grandma's yard after I mowed it.

Nate: This house is SO big I think I'm gonna DIE!

Kaitlyn: Right after they split the wards up everybody moves away! We're going to turn into a branch!

 
While we were at the dentist's office, we were watching the kids get their teeth cleaned and Kylie started screaming, "Poopy, poopy!"
 

CMT

CMT (Children's Music Theater) was great this year! All the kids had so much fun. The show was a "Broadway Extravaganza" so instead of preforming a play the kids sang and danced to a bunch of Broadway shows. It took so much work to put together, and we'd love to thank Sharee Gariety and the Shepherds for being amazing directors. It was great!





The stage looked amazing-especially the backdrop!

 

 

More Quotes

Kaitlyn: Mom, I'm having a crisis!

Mom: What?

Kaitlyn: I cant figure out if I should wear my long coral dress with my jean jacket, or my shorter coral dress with my jean jacket.

Mom: You haven't worn your long one in a while.

Kaitlyn: Ya, but I haven't worn my short one in a long time either-so you see my dilemma!

(Oh boy)

  

While doing our Spring Break Chore Party we were weeding our front yard, something that definetly needed to be done. When the kids finished up at our house they started doing the neighbors. One of our neighbors has a lot of weeds. While attempting to pick them all, Brynn said, "What if they want their weeds?"

Nate: I want machos! (Nachos)

Ellie (After going to the hospital for what we thought was appendicitis she came home and everybody was asking about her): I'm poplear! (Popular)

Ellie: What! I'm going to the hospital. Now I can tell my friends I went to the hospital!

 

Kaitlyn: I just want to inform you that we risk our lives when we play the piano.

(It's true. Our piano bench is definitely not the safest.)

Nate: Uno, Tres, Dos!

(Kaitlyn and Mom said the same thing at the same time) 
Nate: (To mom) You should have jinxed her!

 

Jared: Nate! You can't cry in football. If you cry you'll get fired!
(After a very hard day, Nate was continually crying. Obviously, Jared was tired of all of it.)

Nate: Ellie, if you don't stop I'll call you Joe!
(okay?)

Ellie: Mom, when people give Dad the tithing will he buy a bull?
Mom: A bowl?
Ellie: Ya, a bull. That can like carry blocks to build the temple.
(We had to explain to her where the tithing goes, and that now we use tractors.)