Additional Fun with the Kraczeks

In addition to spending a whole three day weekend with all of Paul's brothers and their families during our Kraczek family reunion, we had several other opportunities to spend time with our Kraczek grandparents, Uncle Mike's family, and Uncle Scott's family during the course of the summer.  For James, this led to a lot of crazy comotion that was not always easy to explain later.

Bennet used this as an opportunity to make creations in Grandma's basement and Evan loved getting to know some of his Kraczek cousins.

Amanda, for the fourth year in a row, had the opportunity to make Grandma Kraczek's birthday cake.  This year it was a blackberry lime cake, which we preceded with a coconut shrimp and steak dinner.  James loved the cake, but his favorite part may have been feeding his dinner to Boo, who was a very sweet labradoodle that belonged to Uncle Mike's family.







Uncle Mike's family invited us to some fun activities, including a plastic turtle race at BYU and playing at the beach at Manila Creek Pond in Pleasant Grove.

Towards the end of our trip, we took Grandma and Grandpa Kraczek to both the Loveland Living Aquarium and the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point.  It is quite possible that James enjoyed the icecream at the dinosaur museum more than any boy ever has before (Daddy was not allowed to have any).

Kraczek Family Reunion

It had been eight plus years since all the Kraczek boys were together and never with all their families.  As we ran out of excuses to not to get together, we finally bit the bullet and decided to have a family reunion.  This means that we tried to fit about a decade's worth of family get togethers and three family reunions into one three day weekend.

On the first full day, we gathered the troops together and headed over to Pleasant Grove to hike Battle Creek Falls.  Although he wasn't the fastest hiker, Bennet may have been the most enthusiastic.  The boys also found a cave that they considered moving into before learning that there would be no way to power an iPad.

Following the hike, Aunt Elizabeth presented a private show for us at the BYU planetarium where Evan tragically learned that one day the earth would explode.  Once we are able to help him get over this shock, we headed to a weenie roast up Provo Canyon.

Not satisfied with his hot dog, Evan tried chasing down a rattlesnake for roasting over the fire.  Thankfully, Uncle Brent explained the dangers of catching rattlesnakes, so we all engaged in safer activities such as playing football and climbing Bridal Veil falls instead.  It was a thoroughly exhausting day, but very enjoyable.

On the second day, we headed as a group over to Seven Peaks water park.  Bennet loved the tube runs and his brothers also found the park to be very enjoyable.  We made sure to wear plenty of sunscreen so that we would not look like lobsters for the next activity, which was getting a full family portrait (see above).  I think Evan's favorite activity of the day was the Kraczek Family Jeopardy game that Paul put together to cap off the night as he refused to go to bed while most everyone else in the family was enjoying answering questions about each other.

The third day involved everyone listening to Grandpa Kraczek's choir performance at his ward.  In the afternoon, we roped both our Kraczek and Western extended families into the reunion so that we could accomplish the rare fete of having three family reunions at once.  It was a lot of good quality time spent together and we hope that we do not have to wait another eight or so years before doing it again.

Best summer ever!

"Push me fast and slow Grandpa"

We love Grandpa

We did so many fun things this summer.







Bennet kept telling us he needed to climb to the top of the mountain. You can see the Wasatch mountains from anywhere in the valley and Bennet was getting a pretty good view of them from the swing in Grandma and Grandpa Saunders' backyard.

Grandma and Grandpa Saunders made sure Bennet got to hike some mountains. 

cute cowboys

In addition to climbing mountains, we went to the Riverton rodeo and the Ogden train museum.

We also went bowling, to visit Jesus at the SLC Temple, mini golfing and other fun things at the Lehi fun center, and mining for treasure in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard. These kids never got a chance to be bored.

Grandma made sure we always had plenty of ice cream

Hanging out with cousins

We never got tired of being pushed in the swing

Even just hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa's house was fun.

Grandma's big bathtub

code-apiller

Dinner for two

With Grandparents around to watch the kids, Mom and Dad were able to go out by themselves. 

Evan and Bennet loved going to swimming lessons or "swim school" as Bennet called it. We also had passes to Seven Peaks water park that we went to with both the Kraczek and Saunders cousins. Bennet can't get enough of the waterslides. 

It was the best summer ever and my boys refuse to even discuss the possibility of doing anything else next summer besides driving back and doing it all over again.

Happy July 4th

When we were planning our trip to Utah for the summer, one of the things I wanted to do most was run the 10k before the Provo 4th of July parade. I talked Daddy into doing it with me. We had never run a race before, but after training for two months we were ready. We forgot to take a picture before the race, but uncle Scott was kind enough to take one of us after. As we dropped Evan and Bennet off with Aunt Marianne and their cousins to save a spot for the Parade, they got to be there so see us run, watch the hot air balloons, and get lots of free stuff and candy in the pre-parade. We joined them just in time for the Parade to start. Grandma and Grandpa Kraczek brought James later, so he was also able to see most of the parade.

After the race and two hours of parade, we all needed a nap, especially so we could stay up for fireworks later. Grandpa brought out his rocket launcher and we shot off paper rockets until it got dark and then it was time for fireworks. Grandma and Grandpa Kraczek came to Grandma and Grandpa Saunders' house to watch all the fireworks with us. Evan and his Saunders cousins had a great time helping Daddy and Grandpa Jon light the ones we bought and then we all enjoyed watching the Riverton fireworks from the front yard.

Road Trip to Utah!

We hadn't been to Utah in a few years and plane tickets for 5 people plus renting a car for a month would cost too much money, so we decided it was time to take our new van and drive 2,090 miles from Virginia to visit Grandparents and cousins in Utah. Mom and Dad were nervous that the kids would have a hard time with all that driving but they were really good. We drove for 36 hours straight through, only stopping for gas and food. Mom and Dad took turns driving and sleeping so we could get to Utah as fast as possible. We packed lots of things for the kids to do in the car, but as you can see a box of cereal and an iPad is about all you need to keep kids happy on a road trip.

Soccer 2017

We signed up Bennet and Evan for spring Soccer. They had a great time and learned a lot.

Mother's Day 2017