Going out of order...I'm creative like that.

On our way home from Idaho/Utah, we love the drive through Southern Utah through Moab and past Arches National Park...and when it is a mere 108 degrees, how can you resist getting out of the car and taking a few pictures?

We stopped at the entrance for a shot cuz, well, because I wanted to.

Parker got out without any shoes on and about burned his feet off:

Arches AMAZES me. 

This year, as we drove through we decided that it would be a fun job to be the one who got to name all of the formations.  And we decided that that person would have to have a good imagination.

One of our favorites is The Three Gossips...

I think this one is The Organ:

Here is Balanced Rock, for obvious reasons.

Our favorite silly tourist thing to do is take pictures of us pretending to hold it in our hands:

Or on our tongues:

Or our finger...

Our creative picture taking was interrupted by a tourist from Greece offering a picture swap.

I took a picture of his family in front of the rock, and he took this:

He drove away and we proceeded to take our incredibly creative pictures:

Liza!!!  There's a rock on your head!

I think this one is the North Window, or the South Window.  Something.

And another hole...

This one is The Devil's Pot.  I think.

We also took pictures of The Garden of Eden.  But frankly, we just didn't understand the reasoning of the name...and I can't look at the pictures and figure out which one it was...but I think it was this one:

Does it look very Garden of Eden-ish to you?

And then we got back in the car...

And played with our food.

Cuz we're creative like that.

After 20+ hours in the car, we probably even could've named a few formations...

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Not for the weak of stomach.

Sooo, last night, the kids were in the game room messing around, Liza was teasing Parker while he was playing a video game, yada yada yada...Parker picked up a video game case and flipped it backwards over his shoulder in her general direction.  She was much closer than he thought, and as luck would have it, the bottom corner of the spine of the case hit her lip and the gumline right above her top front tooth.  And it popped out.  Yes.  The tooth.  It popped out.  The whole thing.  Root and all.  (Did you know how BIG a tooth is??)  Holy cow. 

Thank goodness our dentist is a friend of ours...we called him at home, and long story short, he met us at his office and within 25 minutes of the tooth falling out, he was putting it back in.  He anchored it to the teeth on each side of it, then he and Maris gave her a priesthood blessing. 

(This is minutes after the reinsertion...)

She has had very minimal sweling, and almost no pain.

And for the next two weeks, she'll get to drink lots of smoothies and milkshakes...

This is her this morning.  She is feeling much better.  We are just praying that the tooth reattaches, and then we can proceed with a root canal and other restorative measures.

And in case you are looking for a great dentist, Dr. Shobe is awesome.  :)

And, Maris asked me if I had taken pictures of the tooth, and of her toothless grin.

I didn't.

I was too concerned about getting it back in first.

Go figure.

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Big Juds...or, I can't believe I ate the whole thing!

We took a day trip up to Ashton to challenge the 1 pound burger at Bigs Juds to a showdown.

Tyler was excited at the prospect of his picture being taken for the wall or fame, of all those who have eaten before him...

Liza and PJ are just hungry...

...and Jaxsen just wants Liza to put him down!

Mmmmmm, fry sauce.

Look at the size of that burger!!!

And look at the excitement and confidence on his face!!

About 1/3 of a pound later, he's still feeling confident, and decides on a different way to cut it to make it more manageable.

That last eighth of a pound was brutal...can he do it???

PJ doesn't care, she just loves her chocolate shake...

And Liza offered words of encouragement from the sidelines.

He picks up the last section, determined to eat it, or throw up trying.

Whew!!  He did it!!

So if you find yourself in Ashton, Idaho at Big Juds, look for his smiling mug on the Wall of Shame, er, Fame!

(P.S. He spent the rest of the afternoon not, um, feeling very good!!)

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For the beauty of the earth...

Some of the pictures I took up Teton Canyon after we left the scout camp...

When through the woods and forest glades I wander

And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees

When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur

And hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God to Thee

How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee

How great Thou art! How great Thou art!

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Scout camp x2...

This year, Parker went to his first Scout Camp.  And his second.

And each was a completely different experience...

The week after school got out, our troop here in Texas went to the Collin County YMCA camp and we had a ward Boys Camp...

While he was there, he weaved some baskets...

...walked around looking cool...

...hung out with Tyler, who went up for the last 3 days to work on some merit badges of his own...

...and came home with this FILTHY shirt, that he apparently wore for most of the week.  When I was doing his laundry, most of his shirts were still folded.

This one went into the garbage.  I was afraid of what it would do to my washing machine.

Then, while we were at Papa and Gma's house, he went to camp with their troop.

On Friday night, Papa, Gma and I went up to visit for Family Night.

He was very excited to see me!!  :)

Here he is with Jordan and Hank.

And in front of his tent...

...here is the view from his "front flap."

Parker and the Totem Pole.

He came home from these two camps with at least 7 completed merit badges (!!!!) (yay, Parker!!), and several started badges.  I hate started merit badges...but that is another story, for another post.

We are sooooo grateful for the awesome leaders in both troops who spent time with him!!

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