Fiesta Days 2009

Fiesta Days is our town's summer celebration and festival. There is the carnival, food, parades and activities all week long. This year Dennis decided he was going to run in the 10k Speedy Spaniard. This was his first 10k, and he wasn't sure he could run that far, but he'd been training, and really wanted to try. So we got up extra early to be there when he crossed the finish line.


His goal was to finish in less than an hour, and his actual time was 52:30. It's hard to see, but in this picture he is looking up to see what his time was! I'd rather die than run, but I'm proud of Dennis!! Go hon!


After the race, we walked over to the annual football booster pancake breakfast, then waited for the parade to start.



I don't know what we'll do next year, Michael won't be playing football and Ammon will be playing for the new high school. There won't be any reason to go to the breakfast and I'm thinking there won't be anyone in the parade for us to watch. We almost didn't stay for the parade this year, but we had to see Michael on the drill team float. Yes, I have my third child on the Spanish Fork Las Chalitas. Not really, Michael is a manager for the drill team. hmmm, easy class, surrounded by cute girls, sounds like a smart kid to me!

No More Cub Scouts!!

Last night was officially the last pack night ever for the Stone family!! After 3 boys, we are finally done with cub scouts. Matthew turns 11 this week, and attended his final pack night. He earned his Webelos badge and his Arrow of Light, which is the highest honor in cub scouts. Congratulations Matthew!!



The "painted face" ceremony. Everyone's favorite, especially mom!!

Matthew receiving his awards.




Matthew getting his favorite part, the candy bar poster. The Webelos leaders have a tradition of making a candy poster for the boys when they earn their arrow of light.


The finished product. Notice the chocolate? Matthew has his priorities in order, treats before pictures!! We love you!!

Zion National Park

Ok I admit it, my kids are dorks! Last week we went to Zion National Park for a little vacation. I know, Zion in July? What were we thinking? It was HOT!! We hiked and relaxed, it was a fun getaway for us. This one is at Weeping Rock.


Our favorite hike was the Narrows. You hike a ways on a paved trail, and then your trail is the river. Because it was so hot, it was great to be in a narrow canyon in the water. We hiked about two hours up, then turned around and came back. It was long and exhausting, but we loved it. The water was deeper this time, and so it was harder than I remembered. You can't see all of the rocks on the bottom, so you are always kind of shuffling your feet to find a good place to step. We did pretty well though, I think Jayme was the only one to actually fall in the water. It was a miracle it wasn't me for all the stumbling I did though!!



Before starting the Narrows.


When you hike with Dennis, you don't always stay on the beaten path. If he had his way, you'd never hike on the beaten path! This was one of the "explores" he took us on. It was up a slot canyon in a dry river bed. It was nice and kind of shady, but really sandy. After that one, we hiked back a ways to a little waterfall and pool. That was great!

Watching people fall

Ok, so we're pretty mean, and easily amused. We had hiked up the narrows about 2 hours, and were sitting by the river resting. There was a submerged log which created a drop off and deepish pool. One after one, people came walking down the trail and fell into the water. I told a few people to go around, but that wasn't nearly as much fun. We watched for a while, then decided to record it. Terrible, right? I know, but it was really funny!!