Summer's going by in a hurry so here are a few snapshots of what we've been up to during the past two months. Naomi's been loving her new bike with gears and front suspension. Here she is riding in Green Canyon.


Gray went to scout camp with his new den and had a great time.

We've done some hiking. Here we are on the Old Juniper trail in Logan Canyon. Beautiful night, but lots of bugs and a disgruntled bear.

I can hardly believe it! Gray has reached the end of his cub scout days. He only has one more den meeting before moving on to 11yr old scouts. Here he is receiving his Arrow of Light. It was a great presentation and he has worked hard to earn many badges, pins, beads, arrow points and belt loops.


This summer has been the summer of the Mustang. The kids are always on the lookout for a good car and loved going to the local car show where they saw many many Mustangs, in particular '65s. Here is one of their favorites.

We were able to take a weekend and go up to Yellowstone, a park I will never tire of visiting.





Gray and Naomi got to ride on the firetruck for the Hyde Park Pioneer Day parade. It was Naomi's first parade and she loved it! Naomi's just about center above the ladder and Gray is closer to the front of the truck wearing a red shirt.

We've also spent lots of time walking and riding bikes on the canal trail above our house. The kids were able to do art camp and a sports camp. They both loved pottery at art camp and at sports camp, track and field was Gray's favorite while Naomi said she liked swimming the best. Gray starts an extreme sports camp tomorrow as part of the incoming sixth grader program our middle school does. Crazy that he's going to middle school in just a few weeks. Naomi will spend the week with Kory, acting as nurse while he works on recovering from the flu (yep, the swine variety). I'm still busy at the USU library and have been spending my spare time learning how to repair sprinkler heads and water pipes.

Gray and the hens

Gray's been busy with the chicks, which are no longer cute little fuzzballs. He had fun one day setting them all up on the bike rack. Notice Zeta in the background thinking that it looks like a mighty fine buffet.

We're suspicious of the black and white one on the end, thinking it might be of the rooster variety.

Kory's been busy building a chicken coop. Yippee, the chickens are finally out of our garage!

Spring Break

I'm finally getting my quarterly post together. It seems like the past few months have been full of spring breaks. Our first spring break was an Olsen family reunion where we met up in Arizona then drove down to Rocky Point Mexico. The weather was great and it was so much fun to spend some time with family.

The kids are ready to party! They drove all over town with these wigs on, it was priceless.


Here's our sweet beach house (the one on the left) at low tide. When the tide came in, the waves would come up the retaining walls.

Here's Gray taking it easy on the deck.

Amelia and Gray busy building in the sand. The cousins had so much fun together.

Gray and I heading out for a morning walk.

Of course no trip to Mexico is complete without going to the market.

I could have spent many more hours right in this spot. It was so beautiful.

Amelia and Naomi had a great time playing on the beach.

Naomi's shell drying set-up.


Naomi and Grandpa relaxing. I think this was the last time I remember seeing Dad outside before he became bedridden with pneumonia.

Naomi and Gray at the Tempe Town Lake park.

We took the scenic way home and stopped at the bridge near Lee's Ferry.

Two weeks after our trip to AZ/Mexico, the kids had their spring break. We played around Logan mostly, going to parks and movies, but did take one day and explored the Dinosaur Park in Ogden.


Watch out Gray!!

Yep, we have chicks. These were the first batch, seven little chicks. The kids loved playing with them when they were just little balls of fluff. They are much bigger now and not so cuddly, but we got two more a few weeks later so we still have some cute ones around.


Gray has been breaking out his longboard. We've got some pretty good hills around here for him to ride and he's hoping he'll get some sliding gloves this summer.

Christmas Wrapped Up

Christmas this year was like none other. We started out by getting a new puppy on the 23rd. She's a Shiloh Shepherd (picture a German Shepherd but bigger and more mellow) and is pretty much a self-obsessed fur ball that needs to get her teeth into everything and has severe separation anxiety. Hopefully as we settle into our normal routine life with puppy, now named Zeta, will get better.

We all received wonderful gifts and have had fun playing new games of all sorts from cards to board games to wii games. Between Beaver Mtn and the wii, Gray has been snowboarding every day. What more could a kid want? I'll have to post snowboarding pictures later after I get them from Kory's brother-in-law. It was Naomi's first time snowboarding and she loved it. Guess I'll have to give boarding a good try again.




We had a party at Grandma Bronson's house. It's so great to get together with family especially at this time of year. I feel so blessed to have such a loving and fun family.


Here's a shot of the Pitcher family party, the group just keeps growing each year. Soon we'll need a shed like Grandma Bronson has.


It was hard to not see any of my immediate family this year. I think this is the first Christmas in my life where I haven't been able to see either my parents or one of my siblings. Although we had a wonderful Christmas here in Logan, there was definitely something missing.

Each year I am amazed at how quickly the holidays fly by but I am grateful for the time we take to remember our blessings, spend time with family and friends, give of ourselves to others and especially to center our thoughts on the birth and life of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope each of you had a wonderful Christmas season.

What happened to November?

I just realized it's been more than a month since my last post. Since I'm short on time, I'll jsut post a bunch of pictures to cover what we've been up to. Kory and Gray did lots of Cyclocross racing during the past two months. I was only able to catch one of the races since none are in Cache Valley (mostly around SLC) and our truck was typically full of racers and their bikes.
Gray at the start line. The competition looks kind of overwhelming.

Kory tackles the barriers.

This is a tough section with a pretty steep hill and some very slippery leaves.

Gray's getting ready to ride and Naomi's getting ready to ring her cowbell. A side note about our cowbell. After a while Naomi refused to ring the cowbell because she was embarrassed by its small size and wimpy sound. I'll admit it was not a monstrous clangy cowbell, but hey, at least we had a cowbell.
Gray's trying to warm up prior to racing. It was deceptively freezing that day. (note the wimpy orange cowbell in my hand)


Steph came to visit for Thanksgiving weekend. It was so wonderful to spend time with her and the kids were especially ecstatic since I didn't tell them she was coming. They just walked into the kitchen and there she was. I feel so blessed to have such an incredible sister who still summons up energy and love for my kids even though she's going through such overwhelming personal struggles.

We went for a walk around the farm and the kids had to take a few minutes to sit on the tractors.


Kory and I got to have a fun pizza lunch with Naomi at school. As a reward for good behavior, a few kids get to do something special with their principal each week (I think it's each week). They have done things like playing twister in front of the school, running through the halls, and a silly string fight. It's quite an honor to be a part of this group, way to go Naomi!

Graysen with his piano teacher, Kara, after his Christmas recital. He played We Wish You a Merry Christmas and I Saw Three Ships.

We took our annual trip to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner and Temple Square to see the lights. I don't think I could every tire of seeing the lights at Temple Square, they seem to really set the spirit for the Christmas season.