Aspen Grove

This past weekend (UEA weekend) we had a fun, mini Russell family reunion at Aspen Grove. We spent two nights in one of their family lodges and had a blast. We had many wallyball games during the weekend, fun visiting, playing games. . .We also had a Family Olympics competition that included playing walleyball, basketball and shuffle board. We missed Greg's and Cheeri's families, but everyone else was able to come. Even Ashlee came for one night. She got a ride down from BYUI with a roommate who was heading to Alpine.

Russell Family Olympics

Celebrating October birthdays.

Aunt Connie being funny!

Tyler, Brittany

Kyler, Austen, Roger

Payton, Papa, Troy

With 13 boy cousins all under 10, there is always football fun during Russell family gatherings!

Rebecca

Happy 12th birthday, Brittany

Last Saturday, Brittany turned 12. She is so excited to enter Young Women's! Amber was able to come home for her birthday. Mike and I gave her a luggage set, Emily and Tyler gave her a skirt and jewelry, and Amber and Ashlee gave her a sweater.

Brittany had a large group of friends and cousins over last night for her 12th birthday! They played games and had a lot of fun! I didn't realize the party would be this large. Thank goodness the weather was great and they took a lot of the games outside!

Moving Ashlee to Idaho.

Saying good-bye to Ashlee as we were leaving Grandma Nancy and Papa's to take Ashlee to Idaho.

Melissa and Amber came with us to help Ashlee moved in. It was fun to have them with us.

A picture of Ashlee and Jessie right after they finished setting up their room.

Ashlee, Emma, Aubry, Jessie, Kayla

Mariah hadn't moved in by the time this picture was taken.

Ashlee and Kayla baking.

Ashlee is loving her roommates and classes. We all miss her, but are excited for her adventures.

Emily's cake

The young women in our ward had a cake auction as a fund raiser at our back to school block party. Emily made this beautiful cake. It was a four layer cake; white, chocolate, white, chocolate. There was chocolate mousse between each layer. Everything was made from scratch except the white cake was from a box cake mix. Mike outbid everyone for Emily's cake. It was delicious!

First day of school

Emily 9th, Brittany 6th, and Tyler 2nd are ready for their first day of school.

Dad and Joseph

Troy and Deedra came in town last week and invited all the Russell's to Deedra's parents home for a picnic. It was so fun to see all who could come. I love these pictures that were taken of dad and Joseph at the picnic.

More fun summer activities

Ashlee got to spend most of July in New Hampshire with Mike's brother's family. In exchange for being a Nanny for them for three weeks, they bought her plane ticket and took her to see so many places. She flew into Rochester and they went to the Hill Cummorah pageant that night. They visited the sacred grove and other places in Palmyra. The next morning they drove to their home in New Hampshire. She got to visit Boston, the beach, Joseph Smith's birth place, covered bridges, Woodstock, St Gavin's place and many other places.

Jon, Isaac, Lissa
Ella, Ashlee, Andrew
in front of the Old North church in Boston

Ashlee enjoyed getting to know these three cute cousins better. Ella especially became very attached to Ashlee and didn't want her to come home.

A few weeks ago, the Mia Maids were filming for the video awards night for yw/ym. Their theme was "good works heroes". Emily was assigned Mr. Incredible. We had a short time to come up with a costume. She had wondered what to do for a few days, but we didn't want to buy anything. She printed this logo and pinned it to a red t-shirt. Brittany had red, flare leg pants with a blue stripe and so we took a seam down each leg to hide the blue stripe and the flare. She found a yellow belt, black boots and black shorts. This whole thing was put together in less than 15 minutes!

Every year the orthodontist has a big water party with prizes. Usually it at 7 Peaks. This year it was at the Lindon Pool. It was a fun pool, but it was cold even though it was the middle of August. Fall hit early for us. We didn't win any prizes, but had fun.

Lauryn, Sydney, Brittany and Emma
great friends and cousins!

Amber and Emily having fun exercising and dancing in the pool!

High Adventure

Ashlee and Emily had a great opportunity to go on the high adventure with their Venturing Crew in June. Mike got to join them for the last three days. It was a fun filled 5 days!

Day 1 - Biking Dead horse State Park, Zip lining Entrada, Swimming at Mill Creek
Day 2 - Mountaineering Mount Mellenthin, Biking Hazard county Trail La Sals, Climbing La Sals
Day 3 - Cayoneering Bill Negro Canyon, white water rafting in the Colorado River
Day 4 - Kayaking in Lake Powell
Day 5 - Exploring Goblin Valley

Emily cliff jumping at Mill Creek

Ashlee cliff jumping at Mill Creek

Mt Mellenthin

Katelyn Brunsdale, Michele Johansen, Haley Brunsdale, Emily, Sarah Brunsdale, Zoe Sheffield, Ashlee

Ashlee biking Hazard County Trail- La-Sals

Michael rappelling at Bill Negro Canyon

Emily rappelling

Ashlee about to rappel

They rappelled down and then went swimming at the bottom

Camping right on the water at Lake Powell

Playing water polo at beautiful Lake Powell

Emily and Mike enjoying the kayaks

Exploring Goblin Valley

Brittany and Danielle's Kid's Camp

Brittany and her friend, Danielle Kemp, planned a fun and successful kid's camp this summer. They had two sessions, one in June and one in July! All the kids that participated loved it. They charged $1 per day per child and had lots of fun activities planned. They had a water day, craft day, pirate day, cooking day and many more.

Tyler, Porter and Jarom on pirate day!
We were so excited that Danica and her boys came for the last 3 days of the first week. It's always fun to have them visit. Tyler especially enjoys having four extra boys around the house!

Jarom, Tyler and James made a fort one night that they were very excited to sleep in.

James, Tyler, Sharkie, Abram, Brittany, Porter, and Jarom having fun in the pool.

Arizona in August

Emily and Ashlee went to Arizona to spend a few days with my sister's family. They had so much fun and really enjoyed this time with their cousins! Thank you, Cheeri for their visit.

Ashlee and Breanne

Brooklynn and Emily

Breanne, Ashlee, Emily and Brooklynn

Hiking to Timpanogus cave

On August 10th we hiked to Timpanogus Cave. We had not been in the cave for 10 years! We hiked to the cave the summer after we moved to Utah, but before we moved into our house. A few years ago we did hike to the cave, but didn't pay to go in. We live less than 5 miles from the entrance to the cave and so we figured we better go before having to girls go to college. Going in August at 4:30 p.m. is pretty hot as can be seen in the following sweaty pictures. We thoroughly enjoy our time together!

We left from the bottom at 4:30. The cave entrance time for leaving at 4:30 is 6:00. We arrived at the top around 5:10. We were glad they let us go in with an earlier group at 5:20.

Looking a little hot and tired at the top ! ; )
Brittany and Amber

Brittany, Emily, Tyler and Ashlee enjoying the cool cave.
(Cool temperature and cool formations!)

During the hike up we were saying that we were going to jump in the pool the minute we got home. While we were in the cold 45 degree cave, we changed our minds. The hike down was warm again and I think a few of the kids did get in the pool.

Ashlee's dessert experiments

Ashlee is took a Pro start class in school this past year. It is class sponsored by the National Restaurant Foundation to prepare students for the hospitality industry. She enjoyed experimenting at home, usually with desserts.

This is a dessert that Ashlee made for her daddy close to his birthday. The cup is made completely with chocolate and it is filled with ice cream and raspberries.