Balch Family Weekend

The last weekend of July was a fun one! I love it when family comes to stay. Matt and Jenna brought their girls down for the weekend. I do feel bad for the circumstances as they were here for a funeral, but it was so nice for us to have them around, and to finally meet baby Hailey.

This was actually right before they showed up on Thursday night, but I had to throw it in because I thought it was cute. Even Holden came over to play.

Matt and Jenna showed up pretty late, but we stayed up so that we could say hi and hold this cutie. She was just shy of a month old and she is just the sweetest baby girl ever.

They stayed over Thursday night, and then headed out early on Friday. They were gone the whole day, but they left Samson here and Jacob was in absolute heaven all day long. He loved on that dog from sun up to sun down.

Brielle asked if she could take him for a walk down to Quench It. It was a pretty hot day, and I'm pretty sure we almost killed poor Samson. Apparently on the way home he finally just stopped and laid down on the grass. He was so hot and exhausted when they got home that he just laid on the floor like this forever. I felt so bad!! Luckily, he just needed a little rest and was right back to his normal happy self in no time.

Ayden loved on him too, in fact Jacob and Ayden kept arguing about who Samson liked better. Haha!

Matt, Jenna and the girls came home in the afternoon and the girls didn't waste any time getting their hands on that baby girl.

We had a little BBQ and spent the evening visiting. Caleb even got a turn holding Hailey after he'd taken a shower, that kid sure plays hard and gets dirty.

On Saturday we invited Joe and Jordi and their boys, along with Doug and Wyona, up for a BBQ. Grandpa brought steaks and we set up the pool and the volleyball net. We had a ton of food and just let the kids play like crazy. Somehow Charles talked his dad and brothers into helping him change the brakes on his truck. We got Quench It's and played with babies.

Little Harry was just barely over a month old. Harry and Hailey are exactly a week apart. It was nice to have 2 babies to go around.

Even Charles took a turn with them.

Matt and Jenna stayed one more night, and then headed home to Boise. It's always sad when everyone goes home, but it was so fun to spend time with them.

Deer Creek

Charles had the 25th of July off because the 24th fell on a Sunday. We took advantage of the smooth early morning water on Deer Creek. Being on the water sure makes my kids happy.

Caleb still rockin the water skis! He loves it.

Capitol Reef!

We had a long weekend over the 24th of July so we decided to make the most of it! On Friday night we drove down to Richfield to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We got up super early on Saturday and we all piled in our car and drove to Capitol Reef. Charles had found an awesome hike down Sulfur Creek and we decided to start there, before it got too hot. Once you park the car and hike down the creek, which is about 5 miles, you end up at the visitor center. At first the creek bed was dry, and it was pretty hot.

Ready for a hike!

It wasn't long before we got to the water.

It was fun to hike down a creek, something a little different than we are used too. It was nice to stay cool also. I know I took a million pictures but it really was such beautiful scenery, and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

We stopped about midway for a rest and a snack.

That was when the fun really started. There were 4 little waterfalls that you had to climb down.

Brooke was a little (a lot) nervous.

She was pretty relieved when she'd made it.

Jump Grandma!

This is where the boys gave up on wearing shirts.

The last waterfall to climb down had a huge pool at the bottom that you could jump into and swim in, but it was pretty muddy. The boys absolutely loved it! They could have swam all day.

We finally arrived at the Visitor Center and we were hot, wet and dirty! We got to have a little rest there while Charles and Doug hopped on their bikes and started the long, hot, uphill bike ride back to pick up the car. Apparently it was rough! Luckily someone offered to pick them up along the way. Once they were back we loaded up and went to a picnic area to have lunch and relax.

After lunch we decided to hike to Hickman Bridge. It is a pretty cool arch.

Caleb found himself a cave on the way down.

We definitely wore everyone out! Everyone crashed as soon as we got in the car. We drove back to Grandma and Grandpa's to shower off all that red sand.

That night we joined Sarah's family for a firework show. It was such a crazy fun day, and everyone slept well that night.