Awesome get-away!!

***WARNING*** PICTURE OVER LOAD AHEAD!!! ***WARNING***


A couple of weeks ago, our good friends, Tory and Christy, invited us up to spend a night at Tory's family cabin in Palisades. We excitedly accepted the invite! Our other friends, Joe and Angie, also came. With 6 adults and 9 kids, it was a party!!! :)

We went up Sunday evening and fixed a YUMMY dutch oven dinner. Then the dads took all the kids out on a little 4-wheeler ride.




A night in the woods wouldn't be right without SMORES!




The next morning the kids were up at dawn with swim suits on and ready for a day on the lake.




The day was SUPER windy and the lake was really rough. But, the day was warm and was still fun!







We had 3 jet skis to ride while we were there. They were so fun! (Or by the looks of the pictures DAVE had fun on them!) :) He actually got a tan only on half of his hands because his fingers were always wrapped around the handle bar!! :) Ha ha!







The kids had fun playing in the water with life jackets and floaty toys!




Easton was able to try to water ski. He was soooo excited!




But, when he didn't get up on his first try, he was done! He got buried in the water a bit and it scared him. He swam back to the boat a little shaken up.



The water was so rough and choppy that we didn't get to do much behind the boat. But, the guys did "surf" for a while. It is Dave's new favorite thing to do. :)




And of course, there were a few falls! :)



And, since I took all the pictures, I am not in any. So, for future reference, and to prove I was actually there, I took a picture of myself. Brace yourself for the double chin shot! :)



We had such a great day!! Everyone was soooo exhausted by the time evening came. Our family was so tired that we decided to stay at the cabin an extra night. It was great just to sit and relax with good friends.

Thanks guys for the GREAT time!!

4th of July 2010

As always, we had an awesome 4th, or should I say 3rd, of July! We always start out the morning with the parade. Every year we wonder why we do it, but we always do. This year, though, it was actually chilly for part of the parade. Usually the worst part is that it is so stink'n hot sitting on the side of the road. This year was actually quite comfortable. I forgot my camera, but my dad took some pics for us...


Dave and his mom


Dave's dad and Uncle Dennis




My dad







After the parade, we had Dave's family and a few members of my family over for a bbq. We had set up the pool for the kids to play in, but it was just too chilly and windy! Crazy weather for the 4th! But, we still had a great time and had a wonderful meal!


My mom and sweet little niece, Sadie



My nephew pushing Buzz Lightyear on the swing, his FAVORITE toy!




All of the kids had fun playing on the trampoline.



At the end of the afternoon, Uncle Dennis was nice enough to fill up water balloons for the kids. They loved it! :) I stayed out of the backyard after that! :)

In between the bbq and the fireworks, Dave and I took our kids to see Toy Story 3. It was a really fun family activity on the 4th, I thought. The movie was cute, the kids really enjoyed it. Dave, however, slept through the WHOLE movie! :)

That night we met up with my mom and Dave's family for the fireworks. We had a great little spot to watch them. It was laid back and relaxed, just the way we like it!



The kids loved their glow-in-the-dark jewelry


Easton and my nephew, James


Paisley and Avery and our little niece, Addison


Our Family 2010

We were all EXHAUSTED by the time we got home. A good exhaustion. I love the 4th of the July. I love being with family and friends, eating good food, watching the fireworks and the parade, and everything else that goes along with it. Great memories, for sure!

I am back....and some T-ball stuff!

I am alive. Really. Nothing has happened to me or my family. I have just fallen off the face of the earth blog-wise. Sorry to you few readers. We have just been having a SUPER busy and fun summer and I have not felt much like blogging. But, I hopefully will be posting several posts in the next week or so to update on our summer fun!

Paisley played T-ball this year and for the first year, I was one of the coaches. That was a fun experience. She played on an all girl team which was very interesting! :) They really improved over the season.

Easton played his first year of pitching machine. He really had a lot of fun. It was a lot different trying to hit of the machine than the tee, but he did well. I really enjoyed watching his team.

Me, being a bad mom, did not take any pictures of them playing in their games. I went to 4 games a week for 5 weeks and did not take ANY pictures! Nice. (Any of you reading this who do have any pictures of my kids playing, I would love an email or something.) ;)

But, we had an end of the season party for Paisley's game and I did take pictures at that. So, here are some pictures of the water/slip-n-slide party we had with her team!






This is most of her team, plus a few siblings! A really fun group of girlies!

Good Friends

Yesterday was a really good day.

As I have mentioned, my good friend, Kara, has had some health issues. She had a tumor in her spinal cord removed about 1 1/2 weeks ago. She is at the University of Utah hospital. (See her blog here.) She is able to move her muscles from her waist down, but she can not feel anything from her ribcage down. She is learning how to get around in a wheel chair and also how to walk and do her normal activities again.


Eating chocolate covered strawberries! Mmmmmmm!

Wednesday afternoon, my friend, Christy, and I headed down there to visit her. We spent Wednesday evening and all day Thursday with her. We left the hospital about 5:45 this morning to come home. Yeah, I am a little tired. We spent the night with her in her room last night. And, as girls do, we chatted WAY too late. :) But, such great conversation was had!

It was great to see Kara. She is doing well in her therapy. We were able to go watch her occupational and physical therapy sessions. She progressed in her abilities even in the day that we were there. I am so proud of her. She is able to smile and laugh just like the normal Kara. She is in an extremely hard situation, but going through it with such grace.

We had some good laughs while we were there. I love laughing so hard you can't breathe at the dumbest things. I am so so glad that I was able to go.



Thank you, Dave for taking the day off work to be with the kids. Thank you, Angie, for watching them TWICE!

Thank you all who sent up gift bags for her. We took up about 7 bags of goodies and presents for her. She was so excited. She said it felt like her birthday or Christmas. Everyone sent such thoughtful things. She loved it and I know she felt your love.


Kara with all her gifts

I love you, Kara. You inspire me so much. I am so proud of the way you are handling this. You are so positive and brave. Can't wait to see you at home!! :) Keep working hard and remember how many people are pulling for you.

Easton's Last Day

I didn't want to leave Easton out of the end of school posts.


Easton as he was leaving for his last day in 2nd grade. (Don't mind the funny pose) :)

He had a really good year. His teacher, Mrs. Olsen, was such a great teacher.



She was really patient with him. Easton is very social and loves to be the class clown. He loves to be silly and make people laugh. But, this gets him in trouble fairly often. So, I was so glad that he had Mrs. Olsen who understood Easton. She did not think he was naughty. She always told me how much she enjoyed him and how she loved his big blue eyes. But, she didn't put up with his antics, either, which I also appreciated. :)

Easton did very well with his grades this year. I am very proud. He struggled a bit with reading at the beginning of the year. I thought he was reading great, but it turned out that he was in the lower percentile for reading. But, he is doing a lot better now.

I went over to the school on the last day to snap a few pictures of Easton and his friends. Enjoy...


Easton and Rece have known each other since birth! :)





Now....let the summer begin! :)

Kindergarten Graduation

Paisley had her kindergarten graduation on Thursday, May 27. What a fun night! I am sad that Easton never had a kindergarten graduation. It was so fun to see the kids sing and perform.



Paisley is the biggest ham EVER!! After every song they sang, she would bow and blow kisses to the crowd. She was in heaven and so in her element up in front of a big group of people. (She is SOOOOO different from me!!!) It was funny to watch. After the program, the school counselor was laughing and talking to me about what a ham she is. I jokingly told her that it was almost embarrassing. She said, "Oh, no! She is such a shining light up there!" That made me smile. She really is a shining light.

Dave and I were put in charge of putting together the slide show with music for the program. Dave did it all, with some input from me. But, I think it turned out really nice and we got a lot of compliments on it. It was very fun to see all the things the kids had done through out the year. The kids really seemed to love it!

While we were waiting for the program to start, my grandma decided that Avery needed a little sprucing up:




She loved it!!

Easton took my camera for a while and took a bunch of pictures. Here is one that someone took of him. I don't know where he has gotten this new pose:



After the program, we got one more picture of her and her friend, Morgan, and one of her and Mrs. McCammon.



We really loved Mrs. McCammon!!

We brought her a yellow flower and my parents brought her a hot pink carnation. She was so excited to receive flowers!!




I am so proud of Paisley and all she has accomplished! She is such a bright little girl. She is constantly amazing me with how smart she is. Now, on to 1st grade and all day school. What will Avery and I do without our buddy???