Oh but wait....

yes we managed to squeeze in a few other things that could not be left out....

 Namely.....

Hot Air Balloons.....ok so we just saw it we didn't ride it....but apparently it is on Andrew's bucket list so hey you never know.....

Little Cottonwood Canyon & Snowbird (no riding ski lifts this time....but we did manage to billow smoke from our  brakes on the drive down so had an impromptu stop!) Still, snow in July was pretty exciting.....

Rainbows.....well one rainbow.....that turned into a double rainbow and very briefly we saw the entire arch too....it was pretty cool...well we thought so:)

an afternoon in the lovely Liberty Park.....

 

.......we went to my very favorite store (Whole Foods)....yeah yeah, it could have been the only food store we could find, but it still is my very favorite grocery store......and this one was extra cool with this wrought iron staircase/water tower thing out front....

 

...which of course the kids had to climb and pose all over.....

so we had our delicious picnic lunch (although the "healthy" mayo was not a huge success.....) 

 played lacrosse.....well I'm not totally sure this part was lacrosse....

but between the newly discovered lacrosse skills and a bikini clad lady sleeping in the middle of the field (ok they were playing there long before she came and planted herself right in the middle of them) ...the boys definitely amused themselves....

  all the kids climbed trees.....well attempted to climb trees.....Andrew actually had to step in and launch most of the kids into the tree:)

  Utah was fun - a little cooler (though a lot warmer than I expected!!) than AZ and lots of fun things to do every day.....the girls had tons and tons of fun, thanks mainly to Sydney:) and the boys loved their camps and EFY and getting to hang out with each other and with Tanner and Andrew and I loved doing stuff with Merlin and Shannon (including hanging a TV....they have only just moved into the house!)

 

....and of course getting to try out some of Merlin's favorite food places:)

Good times:)

Salt Lake City......

It's surprisingly nondescript as you turn off the freeway and then all of a sudden you see the Temple in the midst of lots of other tall office and apartment buildings....it's like an ocean of tranquility in the middle of a busy city.....

we came one day with Shannon and Sydney and Tanner and another day with all the boys (nephews included) who were back from their various camps....

 

we went to the Joseph Smith memorial building....

 

and both the new and old tabernacles.....the garden roof was pretty cool....(well it was baking hot actually and our guide was sweating bullets....)

there was some pretty amazing stuff inside the new conference center....

 

although the couple of hour tour one day was a little too lengthy for the little kids amongst us.....and we towards the end we found ourselves more than a little amused at some of the paintings on display.....I blame it on tiredness hysteria (is there such a thing??)

....moving on to beautiful flowers in the gardens all around the temple.....

we also ate lunch in the Lion House.....and somehow found ourselves sucked into another tour - this time of the Beehive house....where Sam thought the guide had told him that they held F.A.G nights (she said F.H.E. but honestly it did sound like F.A.G!!) and so we dissolved into another round of giggling....wow we were on a roll:)

so we headed back to another late, movies, hanging out and chatting night at the Jensens....last one before heading home:(

Andrew's musings....

HI everyone-

Just a quick note to say "hello" - Facebook is an OK medium but not perfect and Mum is temporally off it now as well.

Things are going well here in sunny Arizona although I'm surprised how fast life is passing by.  We had a great week in Utah recently for Daniel to go to EFY (Especially for Youth) and Jordan to Lacrosse camp. 

In Daniel's word's, "EFY was AWESOME" - I think he was able to be enriched spiritually and met some cute girls as well (I think the feedback from Josh was similar a few years back!).

Jordan had lots of fun with Jack and Sam at Lacrosse camp and it felt a little weird to be leaving him in a dorm for college students but there you go.  All made it through with only good memories.  Daniel wants to do it again next year.

Whilst they were there Victoria, myself and the girls hung out at Merlin's place and enjoyed the weather and the sights of Utah.  It really is a nice place.

Work is going well and I'm enjoying learning new skills etc.  - it's nice working with Aidan every day too.  Very unusual for sure.  Most days we ride in/home together have multiple meetings in the office, go to lunch and hang out on weekends (Laura typically cooks Sunday Lunch which is great). 

Congratulations Jacinta and Ben on the new baby - I hope you are over the stress of the "delivery" Ben - I know it can be stressful for us men!

Anyhow, not sure where to start / end but thought I should start something.  Obviously I think you all know that Victoria's Dad has come down with Leukemia and we are busy trying to get some money together so she can go and see him in a few weeks…bummer - remember him in your prayers pls.

take care - love ange

PS The images of the apostles are paintings below.  We had a good laugh in the quality differential between the prior artist and the current one!  The guide said that some of them have/want theirs redone.

- the canyon is Bryce Canyon - the company I work for manages the hotel there so we get good rates (incentive to visit) - here's one of the cabins.

Park City....

We managed to convince Shannon and her kids, Tanner and Sydney to join us on our adventures as we headed up to Park City ......

Another day and another set of ski lifts.....

(at least this time we didn't have to ride the lift back down,....but once I saw the little yellow sled I was supposed to use instead, I wasn't so sure it was a good trade off!!)

 Abbie was very excited that she was tall enough to ride all by herself......me, I was glad to have Amelia to hang on to...she is fearless:))

Shannon, Tanner and Sydney all got in line for the zipline ride.....they had an amazingly long wait....we managed to grab sno cones (not very good ones...but then we're biased!) and take a ride on the coaster before they were done......I can't say I wasn't even more worried about the coaster......luckily the last words of the lady working there as we rode up had been....."don't worry there is no way this coaster can come off the rails so just enjoy"......without hearing that I might have had a heart attack......

 (yep that's Andrew and Abbie riding up behind us!!) ......Amelia just wanted to go faster and 'helped' push the lever as far as they would go!!!!!

And we managed to be waiting at the bottom of the zipline to watch as Shannon, Sydney and Tanner made their descent:)

 yes, I think we all had a crazy, fun, tiring day....

Next: we spent two different days in down town Salt Lake area but I'll throw them all in together...:)

And then there were four....

We were down to us and the girls.....and I don't think the girls minded one bit:)

We were staying with our good friends Merlin and Shannon (Andrew served his mission with both of them way back in the day and then we got to hang out for a few years in Georgia together too...so happy times:) Abbie and Amelia were in girl heaven with their daughter Sydney who played with them, made cupcakes them, taught them how to cartwheel, had "room" sleepovers, made friendship bracelets and generally entertained them:)) We also managed to spend a few days out having some fun with them too.....

we spent our first day at Sundance drove up past Aspen Grove and into the mountains a little, walked around the resort and took the ski lift up to the top......

and went on a "bear hunt" with the girls around a trail at the top of the mountain (that book has long been a favorite with my kids!)

 the girls sang Justin Bieber "Baby" with their little bit of swagger... in this "sound of music" setting (ok so where didn't they sing it - it was definitely the song of the vacation!)

the views were just amazing.....

Can I just mention how green it was??? You appreciate the quality of green stuff a little more after living in AZ - yeah we have some grass and trees and bushes that are green - but not this kind of lucious green:))

so we played in the green fields a little....

 

and did I mention that Amelia was on the look out for bears????

now the part I was worried about was the ride back down the ski lift....I had noticed the steep ascent and was a little queasy at the thought of going back the same way we came - there is a drop off right at the top and it goes almost vertical - not like we were in seatbelts or anything!!....ok so the picture doesn't quite do it justice....or maybe I am just a big wimp....but we made it safely with the girls holding my hand tightly (for me not for them!!) 

the girls are the best of friends and it is so fun to hang out with just them and their cute craziness.....:)

Next stop: Park City!!

EFY

So whilst Jordan and co were signing in for lacrosse camp, Daniel was signing in for his very first EFY...I think they were all excited at this point to be freed from parental control and were itching to go see their rooms....(Daniel's was much nicer than the other boys!!!)

Daniel got all his gear and was the last one to be dropped off....

 

he soon met up with his room mate and friends from the ward....

 and was anxious for us to disappear so he could get on with being all cool and 14:)

 He had a great time...and has a number of new additions to his facebook friends:)

Lacrosse Camp....

Jordan, Jack and Sam all went to Lacrosse camp at BYU....we took them all together and got them registered and settled in their dorms.....the very smelly and pretty icky dorm rooms.....(I was glad Laura was not there to see it!) Jack looked at his bed after I made it for him and said he felt like a homeless guy with a really old worn and holey blanket....I hear they are tearing them down once some new building is finished....I can see why!!)

 And then we left them to it for the week...kind parents that we are:) OK so they were more than excited to be left for the week.....well until they discovered how far they had to walk to the practice fields every day:) But by the end of the week they had made it through unscathed, a little more tan (ok maybe sunburned more than tanned) and definitely full of smiles and funny experiences to share.....