Edwards' Eerie Edibles at the Ritchie Resturant

I was so excited to do a little Halloween dinner for my family this year! I told my neighbor what I was doing and asked her if I could borrow a strand of her Halloween lights...and look what I got! Janette came over that night and decorated for 3 hours while Paul and the boys were at the football game. This picture doesn't do it justice, with the strobe light and all the candles burning, it was pretty amazing!
Because I spent awhile getting food ready, I had to be like Cory and get a few pictures before we ate. Here is one of our appetizers. . .

This is one of our desserts. . .
We invited the Chappell's over to celebrate with us, some of the kids dressed up for the party. Bryson was very excited to show off his "costume".

When it was time to begin, we dimmed the lights and got out the menu. I had the kids try to guess what each item on the menu was. They came up with some interesting names of their own. You can only imagine some of the names our boys came up with trying to gross out the girls.

Thanks Mom and Dad for a fun tradition. I was so excited to have our party, I'm not sure who had more fun, myself or the kids. I also have to thank Paul for being such a wonderful husband. He watched Logan for me so I could get everything ready and then stayed up until midnight to help clean up.

Is this the cutest little 3 week old baby ever? Logan celebrated his first 4th of July and basically slept the through the whole thing! Luckily he looked pretty cute, even if he was mostly sleeping, in his sweet little Americania outfit.

Our day started by a big breakfast at Grandma and Grandpa Ritchie's house with all of our cousins. We then left to go on what has now become our annual 4th of July hike to Stewart Falls. Most of you know the shortcut way we like to go, and luckily we were able to get through the new gate (with a guessing the code) to the start of our hike.

We went with Ryan and Jessica's family along with my friend Susan. It took us awhile to get everyone situated and Logan in his baby Bjorn, but finally we were on our way! This was the first time that no one else was on the same trail we were on, and we thought we had the mountain to ourselves! Then, about 5 minutes into the hike we heard a loud growl. We all stopped and the kids got quiet, and then we heard it even louder again. It was coming from the bushes right ahead of us! It was obviously a bear. So, we all turned around and quietly and quickly made our way back to the car. The boys haven't stopped talking about it since! It really scared us, especially with the boy who was attacked just a couple of weeks ago on the other side of the mountain.

We were still determined to get a hike in. So we went to the beginning of the Timp hike and started up the trail to the first waterfall. I remembered it being "really close" from last summer when Paul and I hiked this trail. But with nine kids and an extremely hot day, it took quite awhile. The kids where great though, we had plenty of water and Logan slept the whole time.


The waterfall was very refreshing and the boys had fun cooling off for a bit. Luckily we saw no wildlife that seemed dangerous, other than a little squirrel who was determined to help us eat our picnic.
After our hike, we went home and got all cleaned up and then went to a BBQ at Ryan and Jessica's. Then, after days and days of waiting, Tanner got to finally do fireworks! Can you tell from this picture that he was excited? We finished our amazing Costco fireworks just in time to sit on the backporch and watch the fireworks from Memorial Hill with the boys.
Needless to say we all slept great that night, well all except for Logan...

Escalante - Calf Creek Falls - Bryce Canyon - 2 Night Scout Campout

Paul, Bryson, Garrett and Tanner left to go on a scout camp out for three days in Southern Utah. They camped at 9,000 feet in the Dixie National Forest and spent the days in 100+ degree heat hiking slot canyons near Escalante, hiking the 5 1/2 mile round trip hike to Calf Creek Falls, driving on Hell's Backbone (built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Depression (1935-1940), and visiting Bryce Canyon National Park. The entire trip was excellent - except for the fighting on the long drive back and forth ... thank heavens for DVD players.

Embeded Slideshow of Logan - Our First Attempt

Logan Ryan Ritchie - Boy #5 Arrives

June 14, 2007 - Heber City, UT
After much anticipation, and many uncomfortable nights ... our family was blessed with a healthy and safe delivery for both Angela and Logan. Angela was officially due on Tuesday June 12, she went to the doctor on Monday and her doctor recommended and scheduled Angela for an induced delivery for today, Thursday June 14.

We arrived at the Heber hospital shortly before 8:00 am. After all of the time getting checked in, checking vitals, changing, answering questions, signing docs, getting the room situated, etc. the nurse started the Pitosin (sp?) drip at approximately 9:45 am which resulted in having regular contractions by about noon, productive contractions by about 3:00 pm, the doctor present by 6:00 pm and the baby born at 6:05 pm.

This particular delivery was different than the rest on account of the facts that 1) it occurred in Heber versus Provo, 2) the time between arrival at hospital and delivery was 10 hours versus her average of 5-6 hours, 3) the pains of delivery were fully felt on this occasion due to her right-sided epidural (at least her right side was partially comfortable), and 4) it is the first without Grandma and Grandpa Edwards in town - and one of the few with Grandma and Grandpa Ritchie in town (both due to missions). But even with the several differences - the experience was phenomenal - as is always the case with a newborn.
For the record he was born at 6:05 pm, is 20" tall, and weighted in at 7 lbs. 8 oz. So far his brothers have appeared to be as attached as are his parents. Mom and Dad Ritchie came over early to watch the boys while we went to the hospital - and Garrett called at least every hour on the hour to know "Ishe out yet?" We were happy to finally be able to tell them that "Yes he is, come on down." The boys were equally interested in watching his first bath - from the hallway looking in to the nursery window. Some of the boys were also legitimately surprised that he was born naked - a fact we reminded them was common to most of us. It is not hard to see a familiar and easily recognizable "mold" that is similar between all of the boys. Angela and I have both said to each other at various times throughout the night, "I think he looks like Bryson ... no Garrett ... no Tanner ... no McKay ..." And while at least at first, it might be hard to peg him to any specific one of the boys - he has undeniable common characteristics to all of them - he is definitely a "Ritchie boy."

This last picture was taken just a few minutes before the boys, Grandma Carolyn and I left for home and left Angela and un-named boy #5 to rest "from their labors" - pun intended.

The Race Is On!

Garrett isn't yet 8 years old - he's one week shy. But what a lucky birthday he has - because where most boys will only have the chance to do 3 pinewood derby cars - Garrett can "almost" legally do four, with this one being just a little outside of legal.

This is our first year with two boys in the race. With a very busy work schedule and a baby due any day Angela and I were a bit concerned that we'd be able to find the time to help the boys with their cars, or that the baby might come early and effect the same. This new baby is obviously a pinewood derby fan because he held off coming so that his brothers could race to victory.
In Garrett's first year - with a nifty Cougar blue fancy engine race car, Garrett took third place in the Wolf Den of the combined race. Seen here are the four cousins that all competed: Spencer and Ritchie Heywood and Garrett and Bryson Ritchie (from left to right). Although it might appear that their awards were all the same ... don't fool yourself - Uncle Rob didn't spend nearly the time that Uncle Paul did (not to mention the $150 to buy the how to manuals, Dremel tool, axle hole drilling tools, super secret nifty weights, and super-de-duper fast tire stuff) so that his children could also be winners.
Bryson, Garrett and I found a website called Pinewood Pro that had a lot of cool stuff - not to mention some pre-cut wood blocks. Given our perceived time constraints I was a huge advocate of finding a great pre-cut block so that our efforts could be focused on sanding, weight placement, painting, decorating, tires, etc. - you know all of the "hard" stuff. Bryson refused to consider the option, believing it to be a form of cheating, with the cutting rebuke of "Dad, remember the scouts at the Klondike Derby who didn't build their cart and how they didn't learn anything? I don't want to be like those Scouts."

With that rebuke Bryson set to desigining his own car - he even won the award of "Greatest Dedication to BYU" by desigining and building his back-end weighted, extended and special lathed axle, low cut narrow BYU racer pictured below. This car was a speed demon and set a track speed record with each run - never taking anything but first - and eventually Bryson's BYU Racer won the overall Pack First Place Speed Award.

Given how pathetic his first two cars proved to be over the last two years, however well intended and dedicated to the task we tried to be, the juxtaposition of finishing his last car as the fastest and the best was sweet...Even Bryson enjoyed it. Why are these children so dang competitive?

If any of you want a copy of my Winning Secrets manual - I'll be happy to sell a copy for a nominal fee ... say $200 ... a little price to pay for the joy it will bring to the fathers ... oops, I mean the boys ... but only after I've finished all 15 pinewood derby cars over the next several years (5 boys * 3 cars each = 15 cars). The manual will be available 11 years from now - giving time for the unborn lad to win ... heck maybe I should increase the price anticipating inflation and all? But, if some of your kids are serious losers - and I don't perceive a threat of meeting you at nationals - then I might consider a small discount (say 5%) and an early release (so long as you sign a non-compete, non circumvention agreement).

Tanner's b-day party

Tanner celebrated turning 6 at the Kamas Pool with a few friends. Luckily Uncle Ryan came to help with the party. So between Paul and Ryan in the pool and myself watching from the side (I was not about to get to water at 7 months pregnant) everything went smoothly.

The slide was the hit of the party. Even Mckay loved going down it - alone! Ryan was at the bottom to save him from the fall. Its amazing what younger kids love because everyone else is doing it. Mckay watches his brothers and want to do exactly what they do.

Here are our birthday party goers! Tanner just said a funny thing tonight as I was tucking him in bed.

Mom: I can't believe you are almost 6 years old!

Tanner: I can, I mean I really look like I'm 7 anyways because I'm such a big boy.

(This comment comes after Tanner played soccer yesterday for the first time this season had scored 2 goals in the first 2 minutes of the game. He looksso much bigger than the rest of the kids. Paul had to finally tell Tanner to give the other kids a chance to kick the ball. . . go Tanner!