Green River 2010

Every year we try and go on a camping trip with my family. It started with when I was a kid. When I was about 13 or 14 we got a full size van. My mom and dad went out and bought a tent. We set off on the biggest adventure ever! Things didn't go exactly as planed but I don't think it would be nearly as memorable if it had! Long story short we stayed 7 different places in 7 nights! By the last day we broke camp (start to finish) in less then 15 minutes with the van more then 100 yards away. Okay it MAY not have been that far, but it sure felt like at least that! After that we did some kind of trip every year. Some big and some small, but something!

After I got married we started going to Bear Lake every 24th of July. Alot of people thought we were crazy, after all we didn't even have a boat or anything! But it was fun. We would go and play at the beach (when there was one!) and just spent time together as a family. Bear Lake was where I told my brother and sisters we were expecting Connor!

That changed from year to year too. Between the family growing and babies being born things can never stay exactly the same. The date and place have changed over the years. There have been a few years we didn't make it. But for the most part we have done something. 2 years ago we went to Arizona. This year was Green River, UT. "Green River? Why Green River?" You say. Well, because my brother and his wife have moved to Blanding and Green River is the half way point, or as close to half way as you can get anyway!
It was wonderful! We came home from my Grandmothers funeral in Idaho on Monday and left for Green River Thursday. I was a little stressed getting us out the door. I didn't realized how much I had gone into auto mode about getting us to Idaho until we were home and I was trying to get us ready to go camping! Nothing was ready and I had more then a few stressful moments. But we got out the door and after a long detour around an accident we finally got there! Once we were there it was just what I needed!

"What did you do? Did you go rafting? Did you do something amazing?" You ask. Well, we did not go rafting. We did so something amazing though! We relaxed! We spent time at the pool that was at the KOA we stayed at! We sat around a camp fire and had smores and a talent show and enjoyed each other!

My sister Abby with her baby girl Kami with big brother Easton! He loves his baby sister sooo... much!

Maycie seemed so independent this trip. She really thought she was just as big as the big kids! You can see it in her walk!

Kami and Maycie love each other so much!

They spent alot of time with each other.

I think Kami was trying to do Maycie's hair. Her mom says she was trying to pull it out because she is jealous that Maycie has hair. She may be jealous now but the day will come that Kami has more so, it all works out in the end!

Aunt Abby was nice enough to sit with Kami in front of Maycie while she got her hair done. It was the only way I could get her to sit still. At home I have the mirror to help!

I am surprised that Kami will let Emma come near her! She loved helping out with her and keeping her entertained! Lucky for Emma Kami is used to alot of attention from her brothers so it worked out good for the both of them. Emma loved giving her attention and Kami seemed okay with getting it!


The cousins had so much fun being with each other!

We have a few hams, if you didn't notice!

Jarom got to learn how to play Lacrosse catch with Connor!

Porter had alot of fun figuring out this lounger!

Connor loved getting to teach some of his younger cousins about Lacrosse!

Jordan, Emma & Maycie. These girls just love being together! I can't wait to watch as Kami gets older. These 4 are going to be quite the quartet!

We found out that Kami really can sleep anywhere!

Look at that face!

This slide was so much fun for the kids! They got it down to doing tricks off the end! This is Porter's karate chop!

Maycie got so brave! She loved going down the slide! She tried to climb up the latter but we decided it best to just set her in a little way from the bottom! At one point she would go down and come up out of the water and point at the slide again!

Connor trying to skip like a rock!

Okay, I know it looks like we are torturing Emma in this picture. But she really did love the slide! This is what it was like every time! She would get so excited and then as she was going down she would have this look of horror on her face! The really funny thing was then she would get out and go again!

Emma did get very brave in the water while we were there.

Jaxon was so funny! I really got to see how grown up he has gotten, but at the same time he is still just a big kid!

Emma got very good at the doggy paddle! I was amazed at how comfortable she was by the time we left!

Connor found he enjoyed diving to the bottom of the pool!

Jared & Jordan

Maycie & Grammy

Jordan was so brave she would go off without anyone to catch her!

Jordan aiming for the green tube....

Jordan in the green tube!

Connor the cannon ball!

Maycie can find any where to put her feet up!

Relax and enjoy! That was our goal this trip and I think Maycie got the idea just fine!

It really was a wonderful trip. We did go across the street and visit the Green River Museum. It was really interesting. It was so hot I thought I was going to die! We NEVER closed the windows in the tent. You figured out another way to change! Even at night I thought I would burst into flames! Our last day there was a scheduled power outage. I wanted to hit my mom and brother-in-law when they talked about loosing power to the trailer and motor home. "Just when I thought I was really going to get hot the air conditioning turned back on!" They really love to tease me! We all got more mosquito bites then I thought you actually could! Except Jeron who LOVED telling everyone he only got ONE! I think the only ones who beat him where the babies. Kami and Maycie didn't get any!

I am so glad we do this. I love the memories we are building. No matter the place or date I hope it is something I continue on with my own little family! I guess we had better get started on some trips of our own!

Emma's Preschool Graduation

Emma had Preschool Graduation in June. The preschool was done by a lady in our ward. She'll take kids for 2 years before they start Kindergarten but at Graduation only the kids old enough to go to Kindergarten wear the caps. That is why some have them and some don't!

She had each child come up and she would say a little something about them. Emma's was all about what a girly girl she is even with all those brothers!

The kids were facing into the sun so Emma's sunglasses didn't leave her face!

Our little glamor girl!


Emma and her teacher, Mrs. Brown!

Emma just called her teacher!

Perkins Family Reunion 2010

My grandparents decided when their children started getting married not to wait until the family was huge to start doing a family reunion. Instead they started right then! So we have been doing this family reunion for as long as I can remember. Some things have had to change over the years as the family grew, but at least they didn't have to decide when to "start"!

This year my mom's youngest sister Penny and her family were in charge. She really wanted to do and see some of the things that she remembered as a child and so she put together a "Perkins Family Amazing Race!" We don't usually do it until August but some of what she wanted to do wouldn't have been as fun in August so it was moved to Memorial Day weekend.

Our original plan had been to go up Friday and camp for the weekend. The weather did not want to cooperate. So our plan changed to going up Saturday morning and staying one night in a hotel. The only problem with that was the 2+ hour drive and then a good portion of the day in the car on an "Amazing Race!" But it all worked out and we had alot of fun!

We got to visit cemeteries and visit graves. We were there on Memorial Day weekend after all! We all got to learn a thing or two about the family and I think I surprised myself and everyone else with how much I knew about the family! We got to go to Hazelton where my Grandpa grew up. And then we headed into "Twin" as Grandma always called it. That is Twin Falls for anyone who didn't know!
We spent some time at the Twin Falls Temple! It was beautiful and I only wish we had the time to do some Temple work while we were there!

Jaxon decided to show Amanda how big and strong he was getting!

Next we went to the Shoshone Falls. This is a view down river after the falls. I loved the combination of the river, the canyon and the sky!

This is the falls. I couldn't believe the spray off the falls. I had to get a picture of the rainbow it created!

I took so many pictures! I don't think I put in even half of the pictures of the falls that I took! I loved my new camera with this. It was so much fun to be able to zoom in and out! I have been to the falls before but it had been WAY too long! It literally took my breath away!
Our little family in front of the falls. Maycie had fallen asleep in between the Temple and getting to the falls! You can tell it was chilly and we had been in the car all day but we just couldn't pass this up!

I had a really hard time deciding what pictures to put in and which ones to leave out! So if you are sick of the falls I'm sorry but I really don't know how you could be!

It is so much fun to me that my cousins kids and my kids get along so well!




I think this was my best shot of the whole falls.

Truly breath taking!
After we left the falls we stopped in Murtaugh at my Great Grandma Roses house. I am still not sure how I didn't get any pictures of that but I didn't. Penny had talked to the man who bought the house from my Grandma and got permission for us to walk around and see what had changed. I think I was too busy walking around and crying! I had spent so much time there as a child and didn't think I would ever get to go back! It was really wonderful to be able to go back in time a little.

On Sunday we got together at the park and had a Bar-B-Q before everyone headed home. It was a fun time. I love this picture of Emma walking with my Grandma and Aunt Stephanie. Stephanie is on the left & Grandma in the middle.
I am so grateful for my family! I love that we love getting together and being with each other.

Lacrosse!

I knew I was behind. I just didn't realize how behind until I downloaded the pictures off of my camera! So in an effort to get caught up here is a little overview of Connor's Lacrosse season!

One of the things that was so great about Connor playing this was that he finally figured out how to work those long legs!

Do you see Connor in between those two GIANTS?! He is defending against them! It was amazing to see his confidence grow!

On the run!


We had a game in Park City. It was a difficult game for many reasons. It was supposed to be on Tuesday and was cancelled because of lightning (the only reason they will cancel Lacrosse by the way! Thank heavens! They run around with long sticks after all!) and rescheduled for Friday. Only our team didn't find out about it until just a couple of hours before. Jeron wasn't able to be there. The weather was still yucky and so my mom kept the girls for me. Our coach ran out of gas on the way up and half the team got caught behind a really bad accident on the freeway. So...we had to forfeit the game. But had a scrimmage game for fun. The best part of that was the boys got to play positions other then the norm! He played goalie for a quarter! He wasn't perfect but he did his best! He even stopped a couple of goals! All with his body, but he stopped them!

In practice he displayed some natural ability for defense so they decided to try him on D-pole. The defenders have longer stick then normal. It is almost 6 feet long. They use it to keep shooters away from the goal. The first time he played defense was at the Woods Cross game. My aunt and uncle who live in Bountiful were able to come (their son is the one who plays for BYU and gave Connor his stick) and were able to help explain alot of things for us. At one point Connor was poking at the kid with the ball. I said, "He is poking him!" And my aunt says, "That is what he is supposed to do!" I have so much to learn. And Connor is going to make sure I learn it! He really loved it. It was good for him, it was good for our family! The season seemed to be over so fast, I can only hope football goes that fast!