4th of July

We left for our Summer Vacation, what we have named "The Great Northwest Loop" on Tuesday (July 3rd) evening after N8 finished up at the church with meetings. We made it to our hotel on the north end of Las Vegas just after 11pm and quickly went to bed knowing we would want an early start the next morning.

We were out the door of the hotel by about 8:30am or so. One of our "goals" of this trip was to find at least one geocache in each state we went to. So we pulled off in Mesquite,NV and found our first cache. if I remember correctly it was a green banana hanging in a tree in front of an old building!!

Next we headed onto our short stint in AZ (you end up being in Arizona for about 30 miles or so!) and N8 led me off the freeway and the kids jumped out and found an X marks the spot, super easy find, cache. That 2 states down!!

We kept on our way and ended up having lunch in Filmore,UT at a Carl's Jr. There happened to be a cache in the parking lot, so....N8 and the kids logged a cache in UT! Then again in Springville,UT in a gas station parking lot.

We did eventually make it to that days destination-Eagle Mountain, UT and my sister and brother in laws house, Carol, Bruce & Family!! My other sister Karen and her family also stayed there that night. We were super excited to spend the afternoon and evening visiting with them since they had recently moved to UT and the had a brand new baby (and 2 year old) we had not met!!

The older cousins took the younger ones on a bike ride!

We decided after dinner to get some ice cream!

Then some 4th of July fireworks and glow sticks!

We headed out in the morning to our next destination, Bear Lake and the family reunion!!

Happy Father's day!!

This post somehow got saved as a draft and never posted, so Happy Really Late Father's Day!!
Happy father's day to all dads out there. Today my dad (along with my mom) will be traveling to stay with my sister to help out with her kids while she has a baby!! A few of my favorite pictures of my dad are from when Emma & Henry were babies!!

N8 is a wonderful daddy and boy do these guys love him!!!

From Summer 2012

 

I love you N8!! Happy Father's day!

Starting summer out with a bang...

This past Thursday was the kids last day of school. They got out at 12:20 and we were on the road for our first summer vacation trip by 3:30!! We headed up to Vacaville to visit my sister and her family. We love visiting them-game playing, good food, outdoor adventure, shopping!! This trip was special because we were coming up to see my nephew Spencer speak in church before he leaves next week on his mission. He will be serving in the Ogden, UT mission and we are super excited for him.

On Friday morning, my niece headed off to school for an hour or so to try in keep her "perfect" attendance for the school year before heading off on a hike and the beach.

We did a little hike this time. N8 is not suppose to be hiking and running due to an ankle injury and my niece has sprained her ankle the weekend before. So we headed to My Tamelpais. It overlooks San Francisco, the bay and ocean.  A simple & short hike, but with a big payoff of amazing views.

Then we headed down to the beach. It was cool and breezy, but once the kids started playing it was a great time.

Not of lot of swimming, but most feet did get in the water!!

 

Saturday was our shopping day-Ikea, Chipotle, Lazy Boy, New Balance, Reebok, Jelly Belly, Stride Right, Sonic & Costco!!

On Sunday we got to hear Spencer speak in church (he did an awesome job speaking on the Holy Ghost), Casey played the organ and did a special musical number on the piano, Bridget spoke in primary, Casey was set apart as the Laurel class president and Taylor taught Teachers Quorum. It was quite the Sunday!!

Check out Spencer :) My favorite picture!!

We got some toes painted,

 

Played outside,

 

the piano playing

Geocaching

 and Catan

All in all a wonderful trip!!

Good luck Spencer, we know you will be a wonderful Missionary!!

First Grade Water Day....

Today was the 1st grade water day at our school. They had fun games, hot dogs, shave ice and to finish it off the Fire Department came for a demonstration! First they went through some safety and over the fireman's clothing.

Then came the fun!! Water!!

Emma had a blast!!!

Bunk beds...

So a couple of weeks ago Henry figured out how to climb out of his crib. This prompted us to purchase a set of bunk beds. It's something we knew we would need to do at some point anyways and this got us to do it. So we headed over to Walmart, purchased a set there (they're reviewed quite well and are a great price!), came home and set to work.

Here's what we started with:

Can you tell that we were storing #10 cans under there!!!

Cleaned up and ready to assemble:

Almost done::

Mo's first time up the ladder:

Very proud of the top bunk!!

 

We had to move Henry's crib down for the bunks and now he can't climb out! So he's still sleeping in the crib. Mo has been nervous a few nights, but all in all has enjoyed sleeping on the top bunk!

 

Just keep swimming....

Mo has been taking swimming lessons for the last 2 weeks and we have seen so much improvement in his swimming!! Last week his lessons were all by himself. This week his lessons are with 2 of his friends. We're so proud of how well he's doing!

Next week Bud and Emma will also start some lessons and I'm hoping we seem the same level of improvement for them as well!

I'm adding a few more pics from today June 6th!

"Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters" Party...

Today we got to host a "Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters party", the kids were SUPER excited!! I was asked by MommyParties to host and was sent 2 episodes of the show (plus I recorded the first episode), Kaijudo headbands and a poster. I got pizza and root beer and the kids ate lunch while they watched.

 

The first episode kept the kids hooked, but slightly confused. It didn't give any explanation to the storyline. Episode 2 did a bit of explanation and also kept the kids attention. By episode 3 everyone was done eating their pizza and they started loosing interest.

 

Both kids and moms compared it to Avatar (although, they said Avatar was better). Every child said if offered they would watch the show again.