A Baptism and Party

We were able to go up and be with Jakob on his baptism day. We took a different route to Tooele through Butterfield Canyon. It was a little adventurous since a storm the night before caused us to go across some loose rocks. After that part, I was able to relax and take some pictures.

After the baptism, we met at Nathan and Brenda's for some food and celebrating.

The kiddos were making all sorts of faces!

We managed to get one picture with all of the Gowen's present at the time. Not too bad for just one picture!

That night, we got to see our friends the Romriell's. We were able to catch up a bit, and had lots of laughs.

It was a quick and wonderful trip. Hooray for birthday weekends!!

Independence Day Holiday

To start with, I had to decorate my nails to show my American spirit:

This year for the 4th, we got to have Don, Lauren, and Rowen visit! It was fun being in Moab for the holiday, and experience it first hand.

First we went out to Fisher Towers. Good fortune was with us (it must have been my birthday....or something), and it wasn't a blasted hot day! Wahoo:

After getting taken out for a birthday dinner (thanks Don and Lauren!), we ventured to Landscape Arch.

The Elders Quorum had a potluck in the evening, so we took Rowan with us. There were some girls her age, and they palled around and watched the little firework show.

We headed back to our home, and all sat out on our front lawn to watch the city fireworks. It was a decent show. We finished off our Independence Day with some Ben and Jerry's!

The next morning, we ventured out to see Jug Handle Arch, and some petroglyphs. Unfortunately, they were practicing for the filming of Transformers 4. It was kind of fun to see the cameras and cranes and staged car crash (after it happened), but we had a good time to wait and weren't able to see the Indian Writings. Ah well.

It was so nice for Don, Lauren, and Rowan to spend their holiday with us, and let us play!

The J Junction

The J Junction. That means the end of June has met the beginning of July.

We both got to go to camp this year with our youth, I got Girls Camp and Sean got Scout Camp. I took pictures of what the girls did. Here's a little taste of our fun:

My friend wanted to do an oil painting as a wedding gift. She invited me to go picture taking with her as she needed to catch the shadows at the right time of day. (That's a true artist!) And what an awesome wedding gift!

Double Arch and the Window Section

We took the Young Women to go see the Manti Pagaent. We got there early, so there was plenty of time to take lots of pictures.

We went up to Salt Lake for a full and quick trip.

Not pictured: Jean and Dylan's open house in Provo.

Not pictured: Cindy's new apartment and the pile of boxes she emptied!

Pictured: Spending some time with some Smiths, Johnsons, and Poultons. Always a good situation!

Not pictured: Seeing Elder Bradshaw at his homecoming after serving in the Marshal Islands.

Not pictured: Seeing our dear friends the Cooks and their new baby boy. (I was a little busy holding the precious little one.)

We got to spent dome time with with Franz's, so we got some good Franz/Gowen time.

For our Family Home Evening activity, we hiked Cable Arch with our friends the Balls. I don't think we quite realized how hot it would still be, but it was a fun and rewarding hike. Their little one is sure the climber, and got to practice his skills.