Monday, July 27, 2009

Kylee is 22!

Kylee Ann was born two weeks late on July 27, 1987. She was a greatly anticipated by her parents, grandparents and many other family members. She was always a good-natured, happy baby, and a joy to have in our home.


She had two best friends growing up in Mesa, who remain wonderful friends today. Madison and Alyssa. They've done a great job of keeping in touch over the years, and are still some of her favorite people. Alyssa's married with a little baby, and Madison is on a mission.
Growing up, Kylee loved reading, learning, playing, and having fun. She had a fear of many things as a young child- including fire trucks (and anything w/ a siren), Santa Claus, dressing up for Halloween, the vacuum- but she was always brave at amusement parks and trying sports or other adventures. She discovered American Girl dolls a little late in life, so only got to enjoy playing with hers for a year or two before she decided she was too old for dolls.
Once she overcame her fear of dressing up for Halloween (it was actually only one year- when she was two) she had a lot of fun gathering candy in her creative costumes.
She took violin lessons for 2-3 years, until she decided it was too hard to carry her violin back and forth to school, and she knew she didn't want to get up extra early in high school to take orchestra. She took piano lessons for about 10 years, and dance lessons for about 12 years.
Ky had a lot of fun during her 4 years at Logan High School. She participated in Volleyball for two years, and cheer for two years. She had a great group of friends, and had a lot of fun attending all the dances.
Even after quitting piano lessons, she continued playing the piano- maybe even more than when she was taking lessons!
Her great love for Llamas came about the time the movie "The Emperors New Groove" came out. She's still crazy about them, and dreams of owning her own one day.
It was a highlight for Mike to be down on the football field doing stats while she was down there cheering for two yearsl.
Her senior year she was able to travel to NYC with her choir to sing in Carnegie Hall. I loved being there with her experiencing all there is to see and do.

After high school, she attended USU for a year, then went on a 5 month adventure to Juneau Alaska with 4 friends to work at Del Sol- a tourist shop. She had a wonderful time and has some lifelong memories, and friends.
Here's who was waiting for her at the airport when she got home from Alaska, and he hasn't left her side since!

Seven months later, we joyfully witnessed the marriage of Kylee to Brody Hatch in the Logan Temple. It was a perfect day, and it's been a blessing and so much fun to have them live close by for the last 2 1/2 years. Family has always been a big part of Kylee's life. She's always been especially close to her two grandmothers,
her Aunt Stacie,
cousin Sydney,
and cousin Lindsey.

She's always been a terrific sister to Jessica,
and her brothers Jake and Cam.



The addition of Brody to our family has only made it all the more fun and exciting!


as has the addition of this little guy. . . only now he's a big guy. . .and needless to say, he belongs to Kylee and Brody, and not me :)
Kylee and Brody celebrated their graduation from USU this past December.
In the past year, we've enjoyed their company on trips to NYC and Washington DC
and our cruise to the Mexican Riveria.
Most recently, they added more fun to our camping trip to Provo Canyon, 7 peaks and Timp Cave.
They've gotten into climbing this past year, and go as often as possible. They also have new mountain bikes that they love taking out whenever they can. They love to ski/snowboard, wakeboard, camp, hike- they're up for anything.
As you can see, Kylee's been a light and joy in our lives ever since the day she was born. I love her for her kindness, compassion, example, friendliness, positiveness, persistence, adventure and love. Thanks Ky for being such a wonderful daughter and friend. I love you.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Family Photos

Sunday we went to the Bundy's for dinner, games and some new family pictures courtesy of Lindsey. We didn't have much daylight left by the time we got to our location, and the sky looked like rain was coming, so we hurried to get them all done in about 20 minutes- and the rain did come just as we were finishing up at the second location- the red barn. I am so happy with how they turned out, and am so grateful for Linny's time and expertise in doing them for us.



Sunday, July 19, 2009

Fun Camping Trip

Our family had the funnest camping trip a few weeks ago. We were lucky to find two slow days for the kids and all their activities. We stayed at an awesome place in Provo Canyon that Von recommended called Hope Campground. It was so beautiful and secluded. We loved it. We arrived the first night to get set up and make delicious tin-foil dinners. Von joined us for the evening, and we enjoyed her help in getting set up and the meal made, and being able to visit with her and catch up on our families happenings.



The next morning, after a quick detour to the Municipal court to see His Honor Rick in action, we headed to 7 peaks waterpark for 6 hours. We had an enjoyable time, but then the crowds got to be too much to take, so we left, picked up some Little Ceasars pizza, and went to a nearby park to eat and relax.
We didn't do this next activity until the next day, but I messed up on my uploading. . . Ky and Brody brought their climbing equipment and so all the kids got a chance to try rock climbing. They all did great, and it was fun to see K&B show us how it's done since they've been climbing a lot this summer.





After pizza, we drove to Sundance and went on the awesome Stewart Falls hike. We all loved it, and enjoyed the beauty of Provo Canyon.



When we got back to our campground 11 hours later, we found that some critter had been having fun in our absense. He had gotten into the trash, tried to get into our tupperware bin of food, chewed a few holes in a camp chair, and got in our storage tent and found the one food item there- season salt- and chewed a hole through it and scattered the salt around the tent. That took awhile to clean up as the foil from our tin foil dinners was shredded.









The next morning we packed up, did the rock climbing, then hiked Timpanogos Cave. It is a challenging climb, but so worth it as the hour tour of the cave is incredible.





























I'm so happy we were able to take this last trip as a family before Kylee and Brody head to Arizona in a few weeks.