Ringling Brothers AND Barnum & Bailey Circus

On Saturday, Pop and Grannie took us to the Circus! Barnum and Bailey's Circus! We had so much fun. If you ever get the chance to go, do, they are awesome! Of course, my favorites are the animals. It is so incredible what they have trained them to do. Here are some fun pictures:

 The Tight Rope

This is the OCC Chopper Circus bike!

The Elephants were amazing. Who would have thought that a HUGE elephant could do these tricks!

 

And the tigers were so beautiful. One of them was HUGE too, a male, and older, but awesome. 

This was Ben's favorite part... CANNONS! 

Of course, this was my favorite part. That Arabian was beautiful, and the others are actually some of the smartest horses. I get back to you on their name... 

Pop, Emily (below), JoE, Rebecka, Ivan...

Ephraim on Dewey's lap (he's hiding) Ben, Jake, Allison, Ellen, and Jeff.  We are all wearing UTAH red because after the Circus we went back to Grannie & Pop's to watch the Utah game (they beat Louisville!!!)) GO UTES!

Here was Pop, Grannie and Grandma Lillie watching from the comfy seats!

All getting better...

Sorry, haven't had any extra time to post lately... too many sick kids and things to do! Hopefully I will be able to get some pics of what has been going on here.  All four kids have had strep throat, not fun!! But everyone seems to be on the mend, and Ben has been able to go back to school too! Dewey's birthday is tomorrow, so I am hoping to do something fun for him. We will see!

9/11 Tribute

I remember this clearly. Dewey and I had been married for just over one month. I had turned on the TV while getting ready for work. Dewey had already gone into work at 4 am. I remember just sitting on the couch crying. I didn't go to work that day. Here is a tribute to those who lost their lives that day, as well as those who lost loved ones and those who strive to help others...

7 years ago...

7 years ago our first baby was born, weighing in at 9lbs 9 oz. Benjamin has been a wonderful, fun loving, laughaholic!! He started smiling and giggling at like 3 weeks old, and hasn't stopped since! At about 5 months he was infected with infantile botulism (which in babies attackes the muscles from working), but has no complications or problems because of it.

Ben is a very active, crazy boy! He broke his arm when he was two by bouncing on the couch. You know, the kind of couch with the recliner in it. He bounced on it, and it opened and flipped him right over onto his right wrist where he broke both bones. He broke his left elbow while riding a brand new bike dad bought him... hopefully, but I don't expect it, it will be the end of broken bones!!

Some of Ben's favorite things are sports - baseball being first, basketball, soccer, football (and he would probably love hockey but since Dewey and I aren't big fans he hasn't seen much). He loves to play games with anyone who will play. He loves READING... if you haven't seen his book blog, check it out at www.benjaminsbookblog.blogspot.com He loves anything to do with Transformers, Batman - ok superheros in general. He loves cars, and especially motorcycles. He thought it was the coolest thing for dad to drop him off to school on the motorcycle. He loves camping and hiking and usually can hike anywhere dad is willing to take him. But he LOVES to talk, so hunting might be out of the question, at least for a few more years!

Some of his favorite foods are spaghetti, hot dogs, corn on the cob, fruit salad (yummy yummy), pizza and chicken nuggets. He doesn't really like cake or goodies, but we have started a tradition of fruit pizzas and he LOVES them!

He is the greatest at helping me. That might be from being the oldest, but he is really good at doing whatever I ask him. He also is really good at making people smile, and no one can be a grump long arund him. He really does bring in the sunshine and rainbows!

I love you Ben! You are an amazing example to me! YEAH!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Ok.... Fun Family Reunion!!!

Over the weekend we gathered at Dewey's mom's house for a Cook Family Reunion. We were able to have in attendance, Tami, Brittany, Dewey & Fam, Brad, Dejah & Brian, Craig & Holly! The fun part is that both Dejah and Holly are expecting new arrivals. We missed having David, Celeste, Enoch and Keith there and hope for the next reunion EVERYONE will be able to make it!!  The boys decided to get mom a garage door opener since she was hosting the reunion... FUN!

On Friday we sat around the fire, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, and some even made some yummy banana boats! We had set up our two tents in Gramma's pasture and the kids went to bed with relative ease! Of course, they normally go to bed about 7:30 or 8, so when I put them down between 10-11, they were wiped!! I kept worrying about them being cold and woke Ephers up at 4:30 so Dewey and I had him between us. He kept swan diving under the sleeping bags acting like he was in a tent, only I was so tired, I would forget about him being down there and suddenly wake up worrying about where he was and if he was still breathing... NOT A FUN NIGHT!!!

Saturday morning we woke up and had a yummy breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs and pancakes. We cleaned up and headed up the mountain for some games. We had waterballoons, played missionary tag, and then played charades. We were up at the ampetheater up Summit View, and the kids thought it was so cool to be up on stage and make us guess what animal they were being! We headed back down to the picnic tables for a hoggie lunch. We cleaned up and went back down to Gramma's house. We split up into two groups, those who wanted to go shooting, and those that needed a rest. I was in the latter, but apparently, those who went shooting had a lot of fun. Brian blew up a milk jug at 75 yards with Dewey's 7mm rifle. Brad was knocking things down with the shot guns, and overall they had a great time.

When we gathered back together for the evening meal of dutch oven potatoes and chicken, we also began to tie dye our shirts. Craig and Holly had brought the dyes and we each set to make our shirts however we desired. It was easier than I thought it would be, and the shirts turned out CUTE... Thanks HOLLY!!!

We went to church the next morning, and afterwards had a family devotional. It was about Moroni and the Title of Liberty. We puts our heads together and came up with the Cook Family Title of Liberty... more to come on that later as I don't have a copy of it. But it made me think of the things that are important to me. Faith, Family, Service, Knowlegde and Dependability.

Thanks everyone who participated and helped out. It was a wonderful weekend. Thanks Gramma, Brittany and Brad for letting it be at your house... hopefully you have been able to recover! And we missed those who were not there and hope that next time we can all be together!!