4th of July

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Brianhead, UT as a family. We spent most of time how we always do at Brianhead. TV, food, park, books, games. Can't beat a good weekend away to Brianhead with the family. It's the best!

On the 4th, Jess' family drove up for the day. It was nice to have them there for the celebrations. We ate, played football, played games, and watched the fire works. It was a wonderful Independence Day!

I'm sure no one notices, but we are all in the same shirts as last year. I can't even believe my kids were able to fit in the same shirts a year later. They usually grow like weeds.


I love these people!

Can't beat sparklers! They never get old.

June

June sort of came and went so this month gets a whole post to itself.

The beginning of June brought the end of third grade for Mason and the end of Kindergarten for Maddox. The year went by so quickly, I can't even believe it!

This is Mason with his third grade teacher, Ms. DeCroff, on the last day of school. They were just about the same size.


This is Maddox with his Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Greenough on the last day of school. He absolutely loved her! I hope he likes his teacher as much in 1st grade.


Jess and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on June 10th. I know, a decade together!! I can't believe it myself. Too crazy! My brother Jason kept the boys for us from Wednesday to Sunday that weekend and Jess' sister kept Claire. Jess and I celebrated by going to Brianhead, UT.

We ate out, slept, rode four-wheelers, watched movies, and read together. (Yes, we read together. Technically, I read and he listens.) The time was perfect. We're not really huge vacation people. A little time alone, add in four-wheelers, and we are two happy people! :-)

June 14th was one year since we lost Jess' brother Jared. We spent the day thinking about him and doing what we could to remind our kids of him. Each of us wrote down a list of things we remember about Jared. We also wrote him a letter about all the things he missed the last year and then placed them into a box that we will add to each year.

When Jill came home from work we headed to the River Mountain park where we planted a tree for Jared last year and hung out for a little bit. It was a beautiful day!

Jess and my brother Jason were in charge of building a potato car track for our family reunion. They spent about 13 hours on a Saturday making it. The next day, the family met up at my parents to test it out with our pinewood derby cars. I have to say, they did a pretty awesome job! The kids loved it! And just in case you are wondering, they carve up potatoes, put wheels on them, and then race them.

Our ward had a family pinewood derby toward the end of June. I figured the boys would just pull out there old ones until Jess came home with 5 pinewood derby kits, one for each of us. We started making them the night before at 6 pm, were up until 3 am, and then woke up the next morning and put in several more hours. I have to say, they turned out sweet!! Jess was pretty proud when our cars took 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. I don't know how that 2nd place got away from us. It was a lot of fun though. We've decided to make it a yearly tradition with the kids. We all actually worked on them, even Claire.

For those of you out there in a cave, Eclipse came out June 30th. So of course there had to be a girls night out! Here is the group I went with. I had a lot of fun and I can't wait for Breaking Dawn!

Sister's Retreat 2010

In May, my sisters and I went to Rocky Point, Mexico for a little get away. My sister Debbie has a place there and graciously opened it up to us. Rocky Point is a good 8 hour drive from Vegas, if not more. Debbie lives in Mesa, AZ, which is only about 3 1/2 hours from Rocky Point, so most of us flew to AZ on a Wednesday evening. Thursday Morning we woke up and headed to Mexico for 3 days of fun!

There were nine of us that were able to make it. We were still missing three sisters and three sister in-laws. I am bummed they didn't get to come because those three days were very bonding. We finally had time to visit without the constant pull of our children. We have really never had an opportunity like this. I was able to realize just how much I truly love and admire ALL of my sisters.

Here is a picture of the group. You should have seen all of us trying to figure out the timer on our cameras and then trying to position ourselves in the right spot. I think we did a pretty good job. Also, Jenny, which is in the top row, second one in from the right, is actually my sister Debbie's sister in-law but we all like her so much that we claim her as our own.



The place was absolutely beautiful! We read, ate, visited, ate, swam, ate, slept, ate, and played. When I say played, I mean I really played. I felt like I was 8 years old again. It helped that I had my sisters there. We played Marco Polo, had tea parties under water, did tricks in the pool, played volleyball, 'tried' to boogie board, and laughed our hearts out. I have a feeling that I embarrassed several of my sisters.

Not only did we absorb up all the relaxation we could, but my brother in-law Jon paid for all of us to have a spa treatment of our choice. He and Debbie truly spoiled us on this trip! It was so much fun and I hope we get the opportunity to do it again.

Then Sunday came and it was time for us to go home. Very sad. :-( But as much fun as I had, I was ready to see Jess and the kids. It's always nice coming home and knowing you were missed.

A Little Random Craziness

I have been feeling all over the place lately. My life is busy but I can't complain because I bring it upon myself. Somewhere along the way I learned that the day wasn't important if I didn't fill it up. I am burned out, overwhelmed, and wouldn't mind a little down time. I feel bad that I don't blog nearly as much as I use to and I feel even worse that I can't find the time to read any other blogs. And mostly, I miss some good needed friends. You know who you are!! Hopefully summer will bring relaxation. Doubt it though. I'm seeing nagging in my near future to go to the pool as much as possible.
Anyway, we do have a few things coming to an end soon. School, baseball, & choir will all end with in the next month. However, then starts swim lessons and school for me. Yep, you heard me right! I have decided to go back to school. I am studying now to pass placement tests for Math and English. You wouldn't believe what you can forget in 11 years! I will then take my first class over the summer to ease myself into it. Why, you ask? Well, my baby starts preschool this fall and I will have the time to attend class and not have to get a sitter. This has always been my plan. When my baby starts school, so do I! I take inspiration from my sister Debbie that started college when her baby started preschool and will be graduating with her nursing degree in a few weeks. I am so proud of her!!

I wanted to post this picture first to remind myself of the sweet and wonderful moments in life. I came into the family room the other day to find these two sound asleep. Claire was actually asleep somewhere else, woke up, made her way to where Jess was, and then fell back to sleep cuddled up next to him. I don't even think he knows I took this picture.

Mason had his 3rd grade play last Friday. I was all excited to get there early and finally get a front row seat so I could take better pictures. I was pretty bummed when I realized the rest of the school would be sitting in front of us this time. I was on the front row but I was still in the same place I always am, so excuse the blurry pictures. Anyway, he did a great job singing even though he looked completely miserable and too cool to be up there. The days of my sweet little boy are over. :-( Pretty soon, there won't even be a smile in my direction.
 

I FINALLY took my camera to the ball field on Saturday, with only a few games left! Yay me!!! I was able to get a great shot of Mason hitting. You can see him hit, round first base, decide to go back, and then make his way to second because they over threw at first. So fun!
 

Maddox's game was going on at the same time as Mason's so Jess came and stole the camera from me so he could get a few shots. Maddox is in T-ball but the second half of the season, they coach pitch to the kids to get them use to hitting with out the tee. He is really coming along and is loving it. My favorite part about watching Maddox is seeing him run the bases. You can tell that he really takes it seriously! It's so adorable.
 

Jess' recent project has been this Jeep! He bought it for his birthday and has been working on turning it into a rock crawler. I found these pictures on the camera when I went to upload the baseball pictures so I decided to share them. He has been putting new carpet in this week. I love that he can do this stuff! He is so handy with everything.
 

So, this doesn't get a picture because I don't want to scare all of you, but my friend Caitlin gave me my first swim lesson Saturday morning! Yes I know, I am 28 and learning to swim. You wouldn't believe what a killer work out it is! I was looking for something to replace running as a full body work out and boy did I find it. I'm not super coordinated and I have NO upper body strength, but I am determined to master this. I'll let you know at the end of the summer if I pull it off.

So, this is what we have been up to the last week!

Coral Pink 2010

We wait all year long for our Annual Coral Pink trip to come around and it always goes by WAY too fast!! There isn't much more to say about this trip that I haven't already said, but just in case..... BEST TRIP EVER!!!! I know, many of my sister in laws would beg to differ, but this is my great love. I would give up every other trip to keep Coral Pink. Snow, rain, wind, and hail, it doesn't matter. I love the four wheeling, the 5 days with my husband, the non stop eating, the talking, letting my kids go crazy with their cousins until the sun goes down, and having ALL of my family there. Now that my kids are getting older, it is even more enjoyable. By next year, Claire should be able to roam with the boys and I will most definitely be living the high life! :-)

The years and memories start blending together so I thought I should post a memory or two that will separate this year. Jess and I were out for a ride when a couple of pea size hail came down. We both thought, "Aw, it's small, let's keep going!" Not even a minute later, we were blasted! We were both yelling, "Turn around!!" We had to ride with our heads down because the hail was coming through our helmets. It was really cool to ride in and out of a storm and then watch it blanket the dunes in white. Which made for great memory #2 for the men. The next day, the boys enjoyed the snow WAY too much!! They were sliding all over the place. Jess said he hasn't laughed so hard in a long time. That is the difference between men and women. I go out there and hate the snow because I can't control my bike. Their response to that is, "That's the fun part!"

Enjoy the massive amounts of pictures I took! You would think I would have some of us on the dunes, but I can never convince myself to take the camera out with me.