Midway and Swiss Days and Temple Square

As tradition follows, we headed up to my parents house in Midway for the annual Swiss Days.  Once a year, this little town of 2000 residents manages to host over 80,000 craft fair goers for a weekend.  It's quite crazy, but I love being there.  I've been going to this fair for as long as I can remember.  Then, the kids and I sent Jason home to work, and we stayed where it wasn't quite so hot.  Thanks for having us Mom and Dad!

Things about Swiss Days... portapotties and good treats, particularly snow cones.  Tod came home with a purple mouth, thank goodness for a dark shirt.

I walked around with Danny strapped to me, and by the time I made it back to my parents booth, he was officially passed out.

Jack's attempt at the rockwall.

Kimball's attempt at the rock wall.

Me and the kiddos playing in a little creek that ran right behind my parents drink booth, which became our hideout from the crowds.

Jason decided he wanted to cool his toes too.

After the fair, Jack disappeared, and this is where we found him (yes, he has no pants on).  We managed to put a pull-up on him just in case (I didn't want all my clean clothes to get peed on).

Nana is helping Kimball sew a little baby blanket for one of her new dolls that Nana got her.

Self portrait of Danny. Love those cheeks.

A trip to Nana and Papas isn't complete without a ride on the scooters. Here's my dad and Jack.

Kimball and Nana.

When Jason got back, we took the kids to Temple Square.  This little bench is where Jason officially proposed with my wedding ring.

It was too fun taking them around the temple and trying to get them to pose.  Danny was strapped to me the whole time, and didn't get any of the pictures.

Kimball kept asking why it was locked.  Good teaching moment trying to explain how to be worthy to be go the temple.

Okay, then it just became a climbing contest.

I love this picture, Tod wanted desperately to climb up to touch Jesus toes.

We met up with Jason's cousin Jesse and her kids.  Our kids had way too much fun playing in this fountain across the street from Temple Square.

And finally, we headed home, back to Las Vegas, after a fantastic road trip.  We were all exhausted. It was an awesome week of Swiss Days, swimming, playing the backyard, Temple Square, hangin' out with family and fun conversations.

It's Too Hot

Here are some of the things we've been up to, while we're waiting for it to cool down here in Las Vegas.  A week of excessive heat warnings led us to these crazy pictures.

One of the benefits of having a 3-letter name. If you want to know what happened to the other "d" you'll have to ask Jason's dad. 

Kimball loved the idea, but this is the only word I could think of.  The expression on her face just emphasizes this, don't ya think?

 Tod is really pretty good with his little brother, and doesn't try to hurt him too much.  Which is probably a good thing, because Danny is going to outweigh him very soon.  They'll be in the same size diaper in a week or two.

 The kids love to fight over the computer.  Kimball has mastered the Disney Princess website, and even the princess videos on youtube.

 Other skills mastered by Kimball.

Jack the photographer, at it again.  I think he just wants to have something to blackmail Tod with when he gets older.

To beat the heat, a couple of families from our ward decided to head up to Mt. Charleston.  It was a beautiful 75 degrees, and we all had a blast relaxing and watching our kids climb up the mountain and get extremely dirty.  Okay, my kids may have been the only dirty ones.

Kimball and Jack seeing how high they could climb.

 Jack showing off his dirty fish face w/ Jason.

 Tod decided to go for a raccoon look.

 Jason wanted to accept the challenge of holding all 3 of his sons at the same time.  What a proud dad!

Hafen Father and Sons Camp-out

Finally, it was the boys turn for their camp-out.  Jack has had to be so patient waiting for his turn to go camping with dad. Finally, the weekend of Aug. 12-13 arrived.  Tod, he didn't know he was waiting for anything, but was very happy to be included.

 Just some of the Hafen cousins that made it on this trip.

 Tod was really happy to be included and ready to get as dirty as possible.

 Chips and sippy cups can make any day in the "jungle," as Jack calls it, a good time.

Tod guarding one of the coolers.

Trying to skip rocks in the lake.

The only picture of Jason's face.  Jack was the photographer.

 A short stop at the park on the way home.  Nothing like a few pushes on the swing with Grandpa.

 

And a quiet car ride home.

This is one of these posts where I am going to brag about my husband.  I tried to convince him to leave Tod home because I was a little worried about Tod and how little he was to be camping.  But Jason wouldn't hear of it, and said it would be no problem.  And it wasn't.  Jason happily packed the boys up and off they went to their adventure, while I tried not to worry about little boys wandering in the wilderness.  As usual, my worries are for nothing and my 3 boys had a great time. I'm so glad our boys have an adventurous dad like Jason who is willing to make these memories happen.  Maybe next year Danny will get to go?  We'll see.