What a wonderful vacation!

Well, before we get into all of the swimming and fourth of July stuff, I thought I would show what Leah did to prepare for our weeks worth of fun.....

Sleeping like a baby!

Do a little playing..... but.... back to the.......

sleeping. Notice she doesn't have any clothes on. That was because we tried to feed her some gatorade and she spit up orange chunks. She seems to be okay, however.

Well, on our way down to St. George, we stopped to have lunch with Miranda and the rest of the caravan at Applebees.   She couldn't go to St. George because she had to work. :(

Here is the Jorgensen clan, taking over as usual.

The other end of the four tables.

Grandma Baum and Leah.

Okay, so we finally made it to St. George to 108 degree weather. We checked in and went right to the pool. 

Here's a part of the fam, from left to right: Seth, Noah, Leslie, Sara, Madi, Arden and Banner.

Over in the kiddy pool we have Leah and Grandma Baum.

Somewhere on the side of the pool we have this strange fellow. We call him "strange man with glasses".

Later that night, we went to the Sound of Music at the Tuacahn theatre. It was really good especially the part where the Reverend Mother sings Climb Every Mountain. She and Leah had a conflicting moment because Leah wished to sing her own version of the song. Definitely a good memory. 

The next morning at around 8 in the morning we decided to go swimming again.  It was already blasted hot and the water felt great!

Essie took a dip too.

Some little old ladies taking a dip in the pool and catching up on the latest gossip. 

On the road again heading towards Cedar City for our next activity. 

I sat in the back while Andrew drove. I enjoyed playing with Leah, I never get to sit in the back and watch her while she is in her car seat. I was glad to catch this lovely photo. 

I can't believe that I didn't get ANY pictures from Cedar City! Oh well, if you would like to see pictures and a video of the spectacular synchronized swimming routines please to to Jennifer's link or to Sara's. We were also able to go see "Fiddler on the Roof" performed at the Shakespearean festival. Speaking of Fiddler, I wonder if the synchronized swimming team, "Anatevca" will be in the China olympics?  I sure hope so!!! :)

On the Fourth of July we all went to Uncle Jim's ranch lodge. It was the most perfect day, except for one little mishap.......

Remember the guy with the crazy glasses? Yeah, he decided to drive his Rhino into a few bushes, oh yeah and his mom was a long for the ride. 

Surprisingly enough we were able to pull them out unharmed. Silly Noah!

We enjoyed spending time outside, especially riding the Rhinos, viewing peacocks, seeing the Elk...

and fishing! That was one of the most fun times I have ever had fishing! I am sorry that I don't have any pictures but I didn't have my camera at the time. I caught the first trout and Hannah, Banner, Noah, Mom, Andrew, Dennis, Seth and the others caught a lot of the blue gills. Hannah and Noah managed to catch the fish with just a willow stick and some fishing line. Talk about a good experience!

Back at the lodge we decided to make a little food. Let me correct myself,  a TON of food! What's a Jorgensen family get-together without really good food? 

Is your mouth watering yet? 

The clean up crew~ They look thrilled don't they?

You can't be on a ranch and not ride a horse. :)

Out by the fire, enjoying s'mores and root beer floats.  NOT enjoying the mosquitos~

Grandpa Baum and Leah. What a good picture. 

Jonas enjoyed his s'more.

The kids. You can see Maren's bandages on her poor little blistered arms. At least they are healing okay. That night we had some awesome fireworks thanks to Grandpa Jorgensen  for the money to buy them, thanks to my dad for bringing them down and also thanks to the Fort Hall Reservation for allowing us to buy illegal fireworks. :)

The next day was the family reunion that we had been preparing for. The morning was hectic, the reunion was great and the night was relaxing. We had another fireworks show with sparklers, fountains and firecrackers!

Dennis and Banner attempting to light some really old sparklers. Must have worked!

Some of the crew. I think there are a few neighbor kids in the mix. 

Enjoying the show.

The next day was Sunday and Leah found the mirror. She actually loved this thing. I'm pretty sure that my next purchase will be a cheap mirror to mount on the wall right so Leah can stare at it for hours. 

Essie liked the mirror too, but she was a little distracted because Leah liked to terrorize her!

Well, most everyone went home on Monday but Andrew and I, like usual, have a hard time leaving. We didn't leave until today. But we didn't waste time. Lizzy, Anne Adele and I decided to make a little dress for Leah. We saw a picture of it in the Sew Beautiful magazine and decided to try and make a pattern and whip it out. 

"I think we did a pretty good job!", name that movie. 

It was harder than it looked but all the dress is, is a  circle. The bias tape was the hardest but we soon got it all on there.

I had a rough time with the button holes but we soon got that right. 

I found the pattern to these cute pockets online so I decided to whip those up and put those on too. It was a really fun project and we did it all in one day. 

Meanwhile, Andrew was outside with Seth and Banner putting up some retaining walls for Lizzy and Dennis. You will have to check out their blogs to see that project. 

Talk about a GREAT vacation! It's just onto the next on Saturday! Wahoo!