Heading For The Bathroom

Back in June Brian and Jerri asked Cass if he wanted to remodel the upstairs bathroom. They just barley got the down stairs remodeled, because of water damage, and they thought they should finish the upstairs too.

On three different weekends we made trips out to Elko leaving Thursday night and coming home late Saturday. This gave Cass two full days to do work. Overall it turned out really nice and the Garcia family is going to enjoy the benefits of a new bathroom. 

Here are some pictures of the progress.

Alden even helped in the demolition.

The new and much larger vanity.

Finally the finished product. 

What Does Your Work Look Like?

The program I work in at the prison has been through a lot of changes in the last year.  Because of this we got approved to have a staff retreat.  We chose to go up American Fork Canyon and do some hiking and picnicking.  The first stop was Cascade Springs a nature walk around a natural spring.

 

This is my "I am so excited we are not in the office" face

 A beautiful waterfall like this makes you do crazy things sometimes.

Or maybe he was just sucking up to the boss.

 Several of my coworkers

 After Cascade Springs we headed over to Stewart Falls.  It is about a 2 mile hike each way up to this waterfall.  We learned a lot about each other on the hike and hopefully this will be a strength and not weakness in the future.

 This is everyone, but Shana.  It is amazing that your coworkers can really make the difference between a job that you love and a job that you hate.  Luckily for me I have really good people to work with.

 We had a picnic lunch before the hike up to the waterfall.  When we got back we had this AMAZING cake that my boss made to celebrate my birthday.  Hope you all enjoy your job as much as I do.

Pioneer Day/Taylor Family Reunion

Three days after getting home from the Jones Family Reunion it was the 24th of July which is a state holiday in Utah and the weekend that the Taylor family has an unofficial reunion at Miller's Flatt.  We spent 4 nights and 5 days camping with family.  Alden is much bigger this year so he enjoyed the 4 wheelers a lot more.  After seeing what fun he was having with Dad I had to join the party.

 One day we went on a little bit longer ride for Alden.  He got pretty relaxed.

Camping is dirty so we went to the lake a couple of times for a bath.  As mentioned before Alden loves water.  Thank Dane for letting him play with you.

 The fun of playing in the lake was brought to an abrupt end when we returned to the 4wheeler and discovered a flat tire.   

 Alden kept himself entertained in the Razor while the tire was repaired enough to get it back to camp.  Unfortunately it was out of commission for the rest of the trip.

 We loved watching Alden and Sam play together. I love that they are so close in age.

 Sam has never been a fan of men that are not her Dad.  This picture was taken because it was so amazing that she let Cass hold her without crying.

 For the past 4 years we have had different competitions for the floating trophy the Golden Cup.  This year the competition was to decorate you four wheeler and then there was a parade through the other camp sites.  It was a big success for the other people at the camp site.  We will probably do it again next year just to entertain the other campers.  Here is the winning entry.

 And the victors receiving their prize

 Just being cute

 Treygann learned to drive this year.  He had a blast driving in circles around camp.

 Young boys aren't the only ones who love a good sword fight, grandpas do too.

 Alden wants a bike now.

 While we were camping there was a group of trekers that came to the campground one night.  They had horses and covered wagons and we thought it was pretty cool so the next day we took a drive to see them treking.  This kid is not spoiled at all is he?

 And we found them!  Alden was not feeling in the mood for a photo.

 

Again we had a great time with family enjoying the outdoors.  We hope our families stay close for many more years.  It is such a blessing to have cousins that are friends not just people you hear about once in a while.

Jones Reunion

The next big vacation in July was to the Jones Family Reunion. near Clarkston Washington.  We came to Elko and then rode up with my parents and LaWayne.  On the way there LaWayne asked to drive through the town she grew up in, Glenns Ferry Idaho. This detour was awesome.  We loved listening to LaWayne point out places she used to go and talk about what the town was like many many years ago.  The first picture is the elementary school she went to and the second is the high school.

 

This now medical clinic used to be an LDS church that my grandparents help build.  There are lot of stories around this building.

And this is the house LaWayne grew up in.  My mom only lived here a couple of years.

We spent that night in Boise and in the morning went out to the cemetery were my mom's grandparents are buried.  I have never been so it was fun to see where my relatives are now.  We also almost got attacked by a large number of ducks, but that is a story for another time.

 

Finally we made it to the reunion.  It was a great week and we are grateful for all of the hard work put in to make this event possible.  BJ took family pictures to  help us remember the event.  I may be biased, but I think he is an amazing photographer. 

The cabin behind us is where we all spent the week.  Still can't believe we fit 6 adults and Alden in the same room.

The whole group minus Doug.  We have pretty great family on both sides don't know how we got so blessed.

One night of the reunion was spent playing pioneer games.  I am sure the pioneers had pinatas aren't you :)  Either way Alden loved it!

Enjoying the loot

Playing the stick and hoop game.  Franny is 11 and totally kicked my butt at this game.

The stick pull.  I will let you guess who won this.

One day Bonnie had put together mini classes for us to attend.  She was great to teach so many and we enjoyed learning several new skills.  There was Zumba, self contained gardens, cheese making, solar ovens, and Ham Radio.

The cabins were located right on the Snake River so of course we had to spend some time playing in it.  Scott did some fishing and amazingly actually caught a fish with all of us playing next to him.

This kid LOVES the water. 

Self portrait family photo.

Aunt Radene went through some boxes from my grandma and brought some things up for us all to look at.  There were old journals and record books from their dairy business.  One of the most exciting things though was the blessing clothes and shoes my grandma kept from all of her kids. 

On the way home we stayed in Boise again and before we left we were able to go to the Boise LDS Temple with my parents.  It was nice to attend the temple right after spending the week with family because it really made me think about how incredible eternal families are.  I am grateful to be sealed to my family and have my children sealed to me because I can't think of a better way to spend eternity than with our families.