Summer Days

So we had a fun day today. I finally got around to going to the Discovery Gardens at Thanksgiving Point. I've been meaning to for most of the month but never quite got there. So today we headed out and this is how it went.

We splashed in the water and got plenty wet!

Said hello to the wildlife creatures. Even if we weren't supposed to be up there!

We even found a friendly bear to give some rides.

Played in the water some more.

(Haley was hard to get pictures of.... she would NOT hold still long enough! She was having too much fun with her cousin)

Don't you love the fact that she is sitting in the water WITH her cover up on. We were on our way out and she made a bee line for the water and this is where I found her.

We had snacks... of course!

In general we had a great time!

Okay.... so after a fun summer day like today I have come to a conclusion. In my opion summer should last nine months and then we could have fall, spring and winter for the other 3 months. Who needs school anyway? (okay... I'm totally kidding I just am not ready for summer to be half over yet? ) Lets start a petition, take it to the big man. Summer for 9 months. Spring, fall and winter each for a month. Sounds good doesn't it!!!

I'm a Big Kid Now!

So the other night Dylan decided he wanted to take off the training wheels on his bike. Dylan being.... well Dylan.... we thought we would wait for him to really want to do this otherwise he would just whine and complain. So anyway, he decided he was big enough and off the training wheels came. We spent a couple of hours playing in the front yard and attempting to get this whole two wheeler thing down.

This is how it went.....

He tired....

And tried some more...

Viola! Success.... sort of.

He could ride short distances without falling over. But hey, it was his first day trying.

After a few crashes he gave up. (His sister would come inside bruised and bloody from trying so hard ) Dylan and Haley are VERY different little personalities. I was happy he was even willing to try. We had SOME success so we celebrated with popsicles.

Do ya like the dirty shirt and no pants look? Yeah.... that's how we roll! Livin the high life baby!

For the Grand Finale.... we played with the neighbors big 'ol dog. (Did you notice Haley wasn't around? She got fed up cheering Dylan on and left us. Some cheerleader she turned out to be!)

Upcoming Birthday Bash

So my little baby is about to turn 2 (sniff). Seriously how does time go so fast???? She loves Curious George and has watched every single episode hundreds of times. I want to throw a "curious George" party but I am having a hard time finding a cake. This is the cake I want to make but I am WAY....WAY....WAY underqualified.

Please tell me that one of you out there knows where to get a cake pan that I can pour batter into and put in the oven. (A much easier task don't ya think?) PLEASE! There has to be one out there. Othere people have made this cake but I think this 3D monster has disaster written all over it. If you know of something easier let me know!

It's been a while!

I know it's been a long time since I've been blogging. I seem to find about a million other things lately that make it so I am never on the computer. Oh well right.... that's how summer's supposed to be. So let's see. What's happened in our lives in the past couple of weeks.

We played in the yard and demolished a few slip n slides. We made big messes in the backyard!

Then there was Father's Day. We ended up going to Ogden and hung out with my side of the family. The kids had a great time playing with cousins and riding four-wheelers.

Avery is quite the hit with her little cousin she loves to take care of her like she was her very own. I think she was picking the grass out of her toes! That's dedication right there!

Dylan loves his Grandpa! They are two little peas in a pod. I tell my dad sometimes it's not really fair that I have to live with his stubborn, red headed attitude, mini twin all over again! I love them both. But look out... they both are stubborn and head strong (totally unlike myself! )

It was hot outside so naturally there was a need to drink Pepsi straight from the bottle! Yeah man... we are some high cultured people! This incredibly cute little guy is Dylan's partner in crime. The two of them could bring the world to an end in under 5 min if left unsupervised! In fact in about that amount of time the had spilled oil in the garage and made very fun feet prints over ever inch of the garage. Then they turned on the hose and soaked each other and probably flooded the garden and got boxes of ice cream sandwiches and helped themselves. It's a good thing we love 'em.

Haley is really proud that she is finally old enough to drive the litte one by herself. She is even good enough now to give rides to the littler kids. This is always nice for the parents so we don't have to! (Of course the goveneor is on and she can only go like 6 miles and hour but she doesn't mind!)

We came back and packed our bags. Michael and I left for Las Vegas in the morning. We got to head out for a mini vacation all by ourselves thanks to Michael's mom, who watched the kids for us. We went to Vegas and shopped and ATE a lot!!! We say the Phantom of the Opera, and we had tickets for Les Miserables but we bailed due to the fact that it was 108 deg and the play was outside. We opted for a nice indoor air conditioned movie. It was really REALLY fun to be by ourselves and have no kids pulling on me ever minute! I must admit I was a little lost without the little monkeys! I better work on getting more comfortable being just me! : )

We've taken my dad's boat out a couple of times. We are loving having it so close and ready for use! The kids really enjoy it. (Except Avery really hates her life jacket and is pretty mad when we make her wear it. I'm sure she'll get used to it. In the mean time we just tune out the screaming.

Yep that's my baby out there on the tube! My little one year old is insitant on riding with her siblings! She is crazy... she fits right in doesn't she! (What a nice aunt to ride with the monkeys!)Thanks Aunt Stacie!

The real problem comes when we try to get them off! Notice how red her little face is getting? She was ready for a break from the sun!

This little guys is a boater to the core! He'll jump right up and pull in the tubers and roll up the ropes and everyting. He's starting to be a good flagger and it's only his 3rd time on a boat! That's my boy! I wonder how small of a wakeboard we can find! :)

After all this playing it was time for some naps. Michael had to take the scouts the night before on a camp out and they got no sleep! He was so tired he didn't even care that Avery was crawling all over him and Mom was taking pictures.

As you can see we've had a pretty fun last couple of weeks! If it takes me a long a long time to post another blog don't worry about me... I'm just out having fun!

Better luck Next Time.

So today is Saturday. I decided it's been far too long since I had participated in one of my favorite spring and summer sports. YARD SALES....yep I bet that you didn't know I was such a nerd. I love yard sales. I find all sorts of really great stuff! I know that they have lots of junk but you don't buy that crap...silly people. You get up really early and get the great stuff before it's gone and then head home with your treasures! I have this great system when it comes hunting at the sales. I decide what I am searching for before I head out the door. I make sure and tell someone what that is so that it's actually said out loud and then, usually, I can find what I'm looking for. Seriously it works! I have great Yard Sale Karma! I haven't even been to one yet this year because I've been busy and there has been yucky weather. So.... I work up early today and decided that it was time to do some hunting. I was going to do some serious searching for used kids skis for the boat and other boating items... hopefully. Then I had it all planned that when I got back we would pack up and go on the yearly tradition of watching the Pony Express days parade and then hit up the Carnival. Well guess what! I headed out sided and what did I find? RAIN! Stupid.... stupid.... rain. Grrrrrrrr. (stomp, stomp, stomp back inside the house!) Aww nuts, the hunt is called off. Better luck next time.

Mom... you still smell a little sick.

Haley: Mom are you sure that you are better?

Me: Yep- I feel a lot better kiddo. Why?

Haley: Well....(smiling a little) because you still kind of smell like you're sick. (aka you stink!)

Me: Thanks a lot!

So this is the situation tonight when I put Haley to bed. Here is the story behind it. Every person in my house (except Michael) has had this yucky yucky flu bug. It hits hard and keeps it up for 12 hours. Haley was first, then Dylan, now these two are old enough to get to the toilet or at least a bucket (most of the time) but when the baby gets it. Look out- there is NO warning or anything just a HUGE mess. Then to top it all off I was sick at the exact same time. Needless to say it really sucked big time! I thought I had got everything washed all bedding, all the bathrooms, even the couch cover went into the wash. Apparently the only place that still stinks is me..actually I did take multiple showers I guess it didn't do the trick. I'm off to try again. Talk to you later.

Summer has officially begun

Well we made it through Haley's gradutation. She did so great. She loved having the whole family there to see her preform all of her songs! I just can't believe she's big enough to be heading for 1st grade. I know I'm a little slow on the posting but I just can't help myself. I am more excited for summer than my kids are. This year I am not pregnant (WHAHOOO), my littlest one isn't crawling and we are spending all the time possible outside! I totally love it. I am sure this will end up being one of the best summers ever. The neighbors and us all pitched in and bought this. (except ours doesn't have the waterguns at the bottom.)
How great is that! Man.... I wish that I had such fun things when I was a kid. Then to top it all of

my sisters and I finally got my dad talked into letting us borrow his boat (he has not used or registered it in over 5 years) I promised I would take great care of it until he wanted to use it. It took some doing but we finally got him to agree, so now we just need to fix it up a bit and Viola... our summer just got even better. Unfortunately this also means even less time inside than before. I will try to be better about posting but I can't promise anything! Hope all of you are having a great summer vacation!!!!