Seven Peaks- Paul's Birthday Part 1

This March all of the boys earned passes to Seven Peaks Water Park by reading a certain amount of minutes that month and turning in a reading calendar. Last year, we went to Seven Peaks for Pierce and Garrett's birthday. We were considering doing this again but Paul said he wanted to do it for his birthday. So, we went up on Paul's birthday despite the weather forecast of highs in the low 60's. I don't think the temperature went above 62 the whole time we were there. The nice thing about when we went was that there were NO lines. You could walk up to a waterslide whenever you wanted and go as soon as you got there. My favorite slide is Cave In so I mostly went on that one. Paul was brave enough to go on Free Fall (for those of you that are familiar with Seven Peaks, that's the tall orange one that practically goes straight down). He made a huge splash at the top. I think James' favorite slide was Boomerang, which he was brave enough to go on with Paul. Personally, I don't like that one. I went on it with Paul when I was about nine years old. I was in the front and I absolutely hated the whole thing. I couldn't breathe and I felt really sick. Since then, I haven't gone on it but my brothers still like it. Another thing about this trip is that Pierce and Garrett were finally tall enough to ride the waterslides. I took them to most of the waterslides. They also liked Cave In, although at first they were scared to ride it because it tries to scare you at the entrance. Once Garrett finally got the nerve to try it, he had a blast. The only bad thing about the rides is that you usually got somewhat splashed at the end and then as soon as you got out of the water the cold air and wind made you feel cold. We would often go on rides and then go dry on towels before going on other rides. Still, it was a fun day at Seven Peaks. Here are some pictures of the day.




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The birthday boy as we leave for Seven Peaks.


Anna!

Trip to Cortez

For Memorial Day weekend we headed down to see Matt and Leticia in Cortez. Bryan and Lindsay and Cami were there too. We had a lot of fun while we were there. We played quite a few games, although maybe not as many as Bryners typically play when they're together. We cooked most of our meals outside on the back deck with a Camp Chef which was really fun. I think Matt probably wishes his whole kitchen was outside. We had great breakfast each morning from the outdoor cooking. One night we also had delicious Dutch oven cooking. Paul and Bryan got everyone to make boats out of water bottles, milk jugs, or whatever you could find. We raced these down a little creek in their huge backyard. This was a really fun activity. We also climbed up in their loft using a really tall wooden ladder that you have to lean against the loft to get up. It was a little scary for some people but we all made it up. When everyone was up, Allie said, "It's like a party guys. Everybody stay up here so it can still be a party."
On Memorial Day we had a flag ceremony while we played "The Star Spangled Banner" on Matt's iPod. It was pretty neat. Paul and James, the scouts, helped put the flag up. On the last day of the trip we went to the Cortez Rec Center after trying to decide whether to go there or to Mesa Verde. The Rec Center had a lazy river, little kid area and a big yellow water slide. This place was pretty fun but all the life guard people were paranoid. If you leaned on a wall of the children's play area they blew the whistle, acting like you were going to climb the wall into the lazy river. I think pretty much everyone in our family got whistled at for stupid reasons. But, despite the paranoid lifeguards, we still had a lot of fun. Since we started getting tired of swimming about 11:30, Garrett asked, "When are we going to go see the Ancient Indian houses?" We couldn't really turn down a cute question like that so we decided to go to Mesa Verde for the afternoon. It was incredible. We saw all kinds of old Indian cliff dwellings. We hiked up to the Spruce Tree House (a self-guided tour so you don't have to pay). We were able to walk right next to a bunch of kivas and were even able to go down a ladder into an underground kiva. At one point it was all Bryners down there. That's probably what it would have been like for the old cliff dwellers that lived there, crammed in a kiva with all your family. Most of these pictures are of Mesa Verde. We definitely need to go back. Mesa Verde was awesome, as was our whole trip! Thanks to Matt and Leticia for letting us come!

Flag Ceremony



Eating cake to celebrate Leticia's birthday




Mesa Verde

Mom and Leticia are grinding flour to prepare the meal for the day!
Peering into a little house
"Can we live here?"


About to hike underground!
We made it to the underground kiva! It's really dusty in here!
Garrett found a place to sit.
Everyone enjoyed the hike to Spruce Tree House
Time to hike back up!
Allie doing one of her many poses from the trip.
Sun Palace Overlook (I think)
Overlooking Sun Palace
Cliff Palace Overlook




We had a great time on our trip to Cortez!

Anna

The Internet is Back!!

I know, it's a pretty boring title for my first blog post in three months. But it will have to do for now. Although our Internet hasn't been out for the last three months, it was out for the last two weeks. And, although you probably won't believe it, but during those two weeks I actually thought about posting on our blog but I couldn't. Having the Internet out was really annoying, especially for Paul who just got a Kindle for his birthday. You have to have Internet that your Kindle can connect to to be able to buy any books. So yes, he did read parts of the two pre-loaded dictionaries and read the User's Manual a couple of times. Anyways, when we got our Internet fixed Paul was pretty happy. So, I'll try to catch up the past few months a little bit for you in the next few posts. But for now, have fun finally reading a post on this blog again!

Now here's some randomness:

Pictures of Sarah's Wedding

Sarah was married to Brian on Friday, February 18. Here are some pictures from the occasion, during which all of the Prete family was together! Of course, they are in backwards chronological order because you know how I do things around here! The wedding was beautiful and in my opinion a fantastic success! Hopefully the little captions can help you make sense of what was going on!



After the Reception
Allie "sweeping" the floor (or more like running and chasing people with a broom!)
The remaining kids sitting, completely worn out, after showing their amazing dance moves!
During the Reception
Here is my mom, going about her business of helping during the reception. Thanks so much to the others who helped run the reception! Everybody's help was amazing!


Becky and Alyssa
The Prete siblings
Sarah and Brian cutting the cake, which later turned into a food fight!
All the cute Prete girls. Somehow, my dad managed to get in just the wrong position that it made a funny angle.
Preparing for the Reception
Alyssa
Mike putting lights in the plants
On Temple Square
The Pretes and their spouses
Sarah and Brian after coming out of the temple.
"The cool guys"
Garrett Bryner, Private Detective
"Call me if you want your problems thought about like this!"
Don't ask me what this face is. He's Garrett!
Looking good, Sam!
Allie, who still needs to figure out the smile thing. I just think she looks cute in that dress!
The cute twinners
At the Visitor's Center! Paul and James can probably still recite the video behind us about Brigham Young after listening to it way too many times!
Breakfast at Kneaders
Evelyn, looking really cute. You never would have guessed what she did to her food, though, without her mom watching her! Evelyn is adorable!
James, obviously approving what he ordered for dinner
The couple!
Austin and Preston in their cool matching hoodies!
Sam and Douglas enjoying breakfast!
The matching girls
John, oblivious to what his daughter is about to do with her butter


The wedding was as perfect as could be. I hope everybody enjoyed the pictures. Now we want to see yours!

Posted by Anna
GO COUGARS!

It's Been Renovated

I hope you like the new renovation to our blog. Maybe now it will provide some inspiration to post on it. You know I don't mean what I say though, especially when I'm talking about posting on the blog. Well, enjoy the new format! I will try to post in the next century about something actually having to do with the Bryner's life!