The 2013 Golden Summer Awards

Every year we take a trip to Utah and every year I think it can't be beat and every year it is. 

And... every odd-numbered year, I gather up some blogging energy and create 

the Golden Summer Awards

(proof: 2011, 2009.)

So... once again... here's this year's version of our

Golden Summer Awards!

The "Road Trippin' Rambos" goes to my 3 little warriors who are {for reals} the best little travelers ever. 

The "World Record for the Fastest Spilled Snowcone Award" goes to...

All of us.

It was a joint effort to get our time down to a personal high (or low) of 36.2 seconds.  

{P.S. Don't think for a second that we didn't scoop it up off the table and eat it like nothing had happened.}

The "Safe Haven" Award is lovingly presented to the Big House (yep, that's the houses' name) for being the wonderland for my kids that it always was for me. 
(Oh, and a deer had babies on the front lawn.  Really.)

The Poopiest, Poorest, Most Pathetic Provo Parade Award goes to...

This one.

Two words:  NO. CANDY.

{Although, the run-away tanker, pooping llamas, revealing kilts, random undertaker, and 90's prom dresses were my favorite highlights.) 

 Luckily, cousin Holly was there to make fun of everyone, so the entertainment value was still surprisingly high.

The "Fabulous 4th Family Photograph" goes to the whole family.

{But mostly me because we made it to lunch time in our red, white, and blue and still looked semi-presentable.  I take full credit.}

The "Still Cooler Than Me" Award goes to Brittany because my kids still think she's cooler than me.  Duh.

 The "Stealer of the Baby" was a tough decision, but must go to Aubrey for claiming that Chase really wouldn't let go of her finger every time someone else wanted to hold him.

"The Greatest Show on Earth (or at least the Greatest Show in Utah)  Award" goes to this year's Stadium of Fire.

I mean...  Parachuteres dropping to the field, the best National Anthem I've EVER heard (sung by an 11 year old), a patriotic message to the troops, Cirque Du Soleil, some darling dancers, Carly Rae Jeppson, and KELLIE CLARKSON!

 The talent was incredible, the fireworks were spectacular, and the whole show was AMAZING.  And Aubrey's rocking out to "Call Me Maybe" got us noticed by an entire bench of college boys.

 

The "Deer Huntin'" Award goes to Brooklyn and Aubrey who spent 2 mornings tromping through the forest in camouflage looking for Bambi.

 I was done after 3 minutes.

The "Get Shorty" Award naturally goes to Brittany who was only able to go on the Go-Carts after putting her hair in a ponytail.  Hi-liar-ious.

The "Prehistoric Princess" Award once again is given to Brooklyn who lives, breathes, and now... eats, dinosaurs. 

 

After spending the morning at the Paleontology Museum at BYU, she (on her own!) created a concept for a "Dinosaur Cafe" which she is going to open after she goes to BYU and becomes a fossil digger.  She basically wants it to be like Rainforest Cafe, but with dinosaurs.  And she is insistent that there will be a dinosaur slide and a dinosaur bone digging area where the kids can hunt for fossils until their food comes.  And the servers will be dressed like Archeologists.

Genius.

The "Dinosaurs Be Hatin' On Me" Award goes to Cameron for getting his head unceremoniously banged on a dinosaur three times while at the museum.

And also, he really thought the T-Rex was going to eat him.

The "Surf's Up" Award goes to Brooklyn for mastering the ability to body surf at the 7 Peaks wave pool with the help of her talented uncles.

 

The "Somebody's Got to Nail That Girl's Feet to the Floor" Award is all Aubrey's. 

Self explanatory.

Also, it should be noted that she also went off of an enormous swinging trapeze that she couldn't even reach and had to have someone basically throw her at it and then hope she caught it.  

Oh, and yes - she's in mid-flight in this picture.

The "Still As Cool As You Were 17 Years Ago" Award goes to my good friend, Jeremy Lovelace who came up the Big House for a visit and had us all rolling on the floor, as usual.

 

The "We Did Too Many Awesome Things to List" Award includes:

-Dinner with the cousins at the Big House and sharing all of our babysitting horror stories

-Forgetting Dad at the movie theatre and having to go back to pick him up after he texted us

-Shopping at BYU
-Getting a parking ticket in SLC

-Dominating at Wits and Wagers

-Icecream at the Creamery

-Cafe Rio

-My incredible dismount off the trapeze and then getting stuck upside down in the foam pit

-Shakes at Glade's

-Cameron getting stung by a wasp 3 times in a 9 second period

-Cousin Brennan's Wedding Reception

-Waking up to my dad blasting the "Saturday's Warrior" soundtrack (and still having it stuck in my head a week later)

-The Veteran's Park pool and Rec Center

-Watching "The Croods"

-Not making it over the hill on the water slide at SLC Seven Peaks and having to do the walk of shame

 And finally, the "Greatest Christmas Gift of All Time - Besides Jesus" Award goes to my mom, who got our whole family "The Pass of All Passes" this year.  

Basically, everything fun there is to do in Utah is free with your pass.

So, we enjoyed

Miniature Golf,

Arcade Games,

 Rides,

 

 Bumper Boats (in which I warned everyone that I did not want to get wet because of a wedding I was attending that night, so naturally, I got solidly drenched.  Stupid.)

 Bowling,

 Not bowling,

Go carts,

Rock Climbing, (Aubrey is a crazy person when it comes to climbing.  When this picture was taken, Aubrey had gone all the way up, come down and then gone up again in the time that it took Brittany to get to this point.)

Laser Tag,  (Which the girls  L O V E D.)

  

Splash pads,

2 separate (and enormous) water parks,

  

And a trampoline park which was more fun than you could possibly imagine.

MOM WINS.