And...a few other random summer things

My kids and I went with the Activity Day girls (one of my callings) to "pre-view" the floats for the 24th of July parade.  It was actually pretty fun, but I'm not sure if I'll go out of my way to do it again.  

 We especially loved the Arches float and all the floats with temples on top.

Jared has now started cub scouts!  He is really excited about it (although, honestly, neither Alan nor I will be upset if the Church does away with the scouting program soon...)

A couple weeks ago, my Billy roommate Ashley and her family spent a night with us while they came out West for a family reunion.  I love those guys and can't wait to see them again.

Best picture we could get of all the kids together.

 Thanks for coming to visit us, Ashley and Tim!

Lastly, we have gone up the canyon a few times to do hot dogs and s'mores.  I'm just really bad a documenting all our fun.  :)

Maggie has sticky marshmallow on her face

Stout Family Trip to Jackson Lake

Two of my brothers-in-law, Spencer and Dustin, planned a big trip for all of Alan's family at Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park.  We stayed in a big group campsite, had amazing company and campfires, and ate delicious food.  We really enjoyed ourselves.

We also spent a really fun day in Yellowstone.  My little family went there last summer with all the Curtises, but this year we got to go to a couple geyser basins that we didn't get to see last year.  It was great.  

All of the following pictures were taken at Yellowstone:

West Thumb Geyser Basin

Bison blocking traffic

Dragon's Mouth Spring--coolest place ever!

In front of the mud volcano--very stinky!

This was our only family picture.  Nice.  This was in front of a bubbling spring near mud volcano.  

Evelyn in front of Old Faithful

In front of Yellowstone Lake

 These next pictures were obviously taken at our campground.

Hard to see, but there is a BEAR in the center of the picture.  Yeah, this was in our CAMPGROUND.  Most people thought it was cool, but I will admit that I was a bit freaked out.  

That is our tent in the center.  Good thing we had the rain fly--it rained both nights!

Evelyn looked so cute in her huge sleeping bag!

Unfortunately, the trip for my little family was cut short because Maggie got the stomach flu the second night and barf got all over all of her sleeping stuff as well as three additional sleeping bags. It was a nightmare to try to deal with in the middle of the night when the bathrooms were a good walk away from the tent.  So we packed up the next morning and came home from the trip early.  Jared actually stayed an extra day in the care of Grandma and Grandpa Stout.  :)   Lucky him.

We look forward to our next Stout family vacation!

Jared's Baptism

I'm doing posts a little out of order, but I thought I would keep the posts about Jared's birthday together.  On August 1st Jared was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  This was such a special day for our whole family, and I hope he will remember it his whole life.  I know that he has made the right choice and will continue to do so.  What a great boy he is!

Jared in his new (actually, hand-me-down) suit jacket.  He probably won't wear it ever again.  Ha ha.  

Maggie knew that people wear white on their baptism day, so she really wanted to wear white, too.  I LOVE this picture of my kids.  

Nice touch, Evelyn.  

Stout Grandparents

Grandma Curtis

I am so proud of Jared!  Also, thanks to all the relatives that helped us make this day so special for him.  His primary presidency had everyone write notes to Jared and put them in a book, and it turned out so neat.  

A couple weeks before Jared's baptism, he reluctantly let me take some pictures of him in front of the temple.  

Happy 8th Birthday, Jared!

My little dude turned eight in July!  We had a fun party at lunch for him here at home, and then he had a little surprise party at Grandma and Grandpa Stout's house with his aunts and uncles and cousins.  

 Jared got some fun nonfiction books from his grandparents.  He also got many Star Wars items: books, Jedi costume, and a neat color-changing light saber (it glows both red and blue.)

Jared wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream

Here is the fancy cake that Grandma Stout and aunts and uncles made Jared.  It was amazing! Unfortunately I didn't get any other pictures of the party.  

Jared is such a good boy, and we are grateful to have him in our family.