Summer findings

Look what we found in the yard while doing some clean up...

The kids gave him a name too...

Here's a closer look. My kids call him Mr. Horny...lol of course because he is a horny toad. I tried to convince them to give him another name without having to explain why but they wouldn't have it. So now every time they go out back they scream "Mr. Horny, where are you?!?"

Troy discovered this very large and empty wasps nest under our wooden patio. It was massive and gave me serious chills. I am just glad it's vacant and dead!

Pioneer Day Celebration

This time last year I was on bed rest in the hospital trying my hardest not to give birth to Lincoln early. I wasn't even 34 weeks along and I was having major premature contractions. I was given a few shots of morphine to reduce the contractions but I was in no condition to go anywhere. We had signed Teni up just a month before to mutton bust in the Fiesta Days Rodeo. I was totally bummed that I wasn't able to go and that I would be missing out on his first attempt at mutton bustin:( So this year we signed him up again, hoping that he would get another try at it, and he did!!!...And I was able to go!!! Last year he mutton busted in Fiesta Days Rodeo pre show and this year he actually got to mutton bust during the main show. I was sooo happy to be there. Teni did awesome and was such a good sport about it! 

We also were interviewed by a reporter from the Daily Herald. She asked me and Teni about how we got involved with mutton bustin. Here is the actual interview that was in the Daily Herald just a few days before the rodeo:

Segi Worthen's son Teni will be riding sheep on Monday night in the rodeo.

"We've lived in Spanish Fork for five years, and we like to experience everything that the city has to offer. We heard about mutton bustin' through a friend and got Teni involved. Last year, he got right on and fell right off. It lasted less than a second. The sheep bucked him right off. He fell off and got right back up. He loves stuff like that. He's all boy," Worthen said.

Teni can expect family and extended family on Monday in support of his ride, and this time he has a plan to stay mounted longer.  "I'm excited to try staying on the sheep as long as I can. I'm going to wrap my arms around it and hold on to its hair," the 7-year-old said.

"Last year, we had no idea what to do," Worthen said. "We just told him to hold on tight. This year we're telling him to wrap his arms around the neck and grab on tight to the sheep's hair."

 Check Teni out!

Teni was excited to have his cousins be there and cheer him on

We had a great time at the rodeo together!

The very next morning Teni woke up bright and early to run his very first road race, The Speedy Spaniard Mile Run!

Troy was not prepared to see Teni cross the finish line so fast. He barely was able to catch this picture of him. Teni ran his race in a speedy time of  7 min. and 44 secs! We are so proud of him. He took 4th place in his age group of 5-9 and 14th place overall. He was the first 7 yr old to cross the finish line! We are so proud of him:)

After Teni's early morning race we headed straight to the Spanish Fork parade. 

Lincoln and Troy

All the kiddos enjoying the parade

Later in the evening my family came over for some late night fun.

This is my cheesy niece Taytum:) I love this girl!

and my other niece Farrah

My handsome nephew Ryce

Teni

Alyia

Ryce,Elle, and Jordyn.

Elle and Jordyn were too chicken to hold a sparkler but they loved cheesing it up for the camera.

Our 24th was a blast!

Worthen Family Pictures

We were all so happy to find out that Kaye was flying in from Alaska with her entire family that we just couldn't miss the rare opportunity to take a complete Worthen family picture. My sister's sweet friend, Nikki from Sweetlilac Photography took our pictures at the American Fork Amphitheatre. She did an amazing job!

All the grandkids in numerical order from 1-16 with their Grandma and Papa

All the grownups

All the gorgeous girly girls

Our very handsome boys

Love this sweet picture of the babies

My family:)

Our 4th of July started out bright and early, 6:00 am to be exact. We headed to the hot air balloon extravaganza in Provo. My kids loved it!

This Coca Cola hot air balloon was the biggest balloon there. It was huge!

Even though the kids had to get up at the crack of dawn they were all in such a good mood.

We then headed to the Payson pool for some fun in the sun.

At the end of the day we headed to Provo High and sat on their football field to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks show. It was fantastic like usual. We had a full and fun day!

Worthen Reunion 2012

This year we held our reunion at the Weston's Bear Lake Cabin. Thanks to Rob and Heather's preparation and planning the reunion was a HUGE hit! Everyone had so much fun and we made some pretty awesome family memories. 

 Our theme for the reunion was "Worthen Olympic Games 2012"

Each family was assigned, beforehand, to create a family flag that represented their family.

Our family flag motto was: 

WORTHENS ONLY

ALL OTHERS MUST WALK THE PLANK!

We thought the white pirate sign on our black flag looked pretty intimidating!

We had the traditional Olympic Flag Ceremony. Each Family displayed their flags.

The family showing off their family flag

After the flag ceremony, in true Olympic style, we then hung the flags high up in the cabin.

Let the games begin!

The older kids had to fish for a piece of bubble gum buried in a pile of whip cream, with their hands tied behind their backs. It doesn't end their though, after finding the piece of gum they would then have to chew it up and blow a bubble.

All the kids were very determined to win and was covered with whip cream. What good sports!

Troy being Troy, and smashing a plate full of whip cream in Teni's and Austin's face. Such a great uncle right?!?..lol

No worries, Teni and Austin got him right back!

Now for the little ones. They all did great too!

Alyia trying very hard to blow a bubble. Look at that whip cream face...love it!

BEACH TIME

A Bear Lake Reunion is nothing without a some serious beach time. We enjoyed soaking in the sun, boating(thanks to Tom and Hayley), building sand castles, and swimming.

Teni, Trenton and Austin getting ready to go tubing.

Matt, Heather, Rob,Paige,Hayley,Abbey,Tom and me enjoying some time on the boat.

Taylor, Sadie, and Alyia

Malia and Jordyn. What cute girls!

Jordyn just sunbathing

Lincoln just hanging out

Teni being completely buried in the sand

Each family had to choose a country and cook a meal based off of that countries food. We chose Samoa. We made a delicious Samoan breakfast that consisted of fresh pineapples,cantaloupe, eggs, and Samoan round pancakes. Samoan pancakes is a pancake batter deep fried in crisco oil. It is really yummy and was a huge hit with the family.

Tom and Teni serving them up some Samoan pancakes

Mrs. Crafty aka Heather, had everyone make their very own tokens. The tokens each symbolized us in our very own way. For example, Alyia's tokens was a picture of a crown(just right for my lil diva), Teni's was a picture of a basketball, Troy had a bowl of rice(his favorite food), and so on.... Then after making our tokens we all exchanged tokens with one another so we each had one from everyone. It was such a cute idea and the kids loved it!

Kaye and Jared flew all the way from Alaska to enjoy the reunion with us and we were so happy to have them. They were awesome enough to give all the kids an Alaskan shirt.

Here are the older boys sportin their Alaskan t-shirts

and the girls

and our sweet handsome baby boys
(Lincoln,Colton, and Brayden)

Troy and Lincoln just relaxing after a very fun day

Our traditional candy jar guessing game

Visiting the famous La Beau's and ordering their famous raspberry shakes and burgers. It's a must for us to stop by La Beau's. Love this place!

Food Challenge

Paul and Chris put together a food challenge for all the adults to play. We each had to pick one of these bags below that contained a very important cooking tool and it also determined how our teams were split up.

The challenge was to create a edible dessert from these ingredients below. Here's the twist: we also had to incorporate chow mein noodles,red hots, and blue berries in whatever dessert we made. This all had to be completed in thirty minutes.

All these ingredients were fair game for our use.

Working hard to finish our dessert

We had to also make enough to serve twelve. Here is everyone's dessert creation.

Me trying out the competition.

Kaye and I did pretty good. We won "Best Taste"


Talent Show

Since the kids are getting older, activities like having a talent show is a must. Even though I did not post all the pictures from the talent show, every family did participate and did so well.So for the opening number some of the kids came up with a really good performance. It was very funny and entertaining.

Teni performed the Haka

Our family performed a silly dance number

Heather and Rob performed "Mormon Rap" It was hilarious and so choreographed. We were all impressed.

Closing Ceremony

Heather made these Olympic gold medals for each of the kids. All the kids were such good sports!

Thanks Heather and Rob for such a wonderful reunion!