Ahhhh! It's Nice to Get Away!

We finally took a much needed (and I think deserved) break and spent a long weekend in Bear Lake.  We went with Seth's parents and had a great time.  The weather was crazy and fun to enjoy.  It would be sunny and warm and bright and beautiful and then all the sudden it would be dark and cloudy, thundering and lightening and pouring rain so hard you thought it would break through the roof.It was fun to look out on the lake and watch it change with the weather.
We took advantage of the nice moments for walks (Chloe loved going out with Grandpa and the dogs) and play time and swimming.  The raining times were spent in doors.  Seth working eBay, the kids playing with their loved "Bear Lake Toys" and me crafting.
We had to capture Sam learning how to hula hoop. We tried to explain that the hoop needs to spin, not him, but we thought it was so funny we just started telling him what a great job he was doing and to try even harder! (We're such great parents!) :)

We had to capture Sam learning how to hula hoop.  We tried to explain that the hoop needs to spin, not him, but we thought it was so funny we just started telling him what a great job he was doing and to try even harder!  (We're such great parents!) :)

We had a good laugh at Chloe as church.  She was walking around making friends with everyone and even took some toys and books and went and sat with these girls.  I guess we were just too boring.

We also went to the boardwalk.  I don't know why, but I didn't even know this thing existed.  Seth was surprised we had never been, I guess it just goes to show how much relaxing we do up there.

The kids loved the boardwalk and visited it a few times.  They liked looking at what animals lived in the marsh and try to spot them. 

They would even point out to us when ever they spotted the "swamp".

I made them pose for a picture and I must say, wow!  How cute are my kids?!

We were sad when we had to come back home, but life waits for no one, so home we drove.  We saw the most beautiful rainbow on the way home the arched across the whole sky and seemed to lead us home.

A Day at Work with Dad

A few months ago Sam decided to accompany Seth to a day at work (just found these pictures of Seth's phone).  It was a Saturday and Seth was working with his dad, so it wasn't a problem to have Sam along for the ride.  He packed some trains and had a fun day "working" at the office.

He even got to enjoy a business lunch with his fellow "coworkers"!  Sam thinks going to work is so fun now and has a hard time understanding why Dad doesn't like it more!

Camera Fun

Our kids are getting really good on our phones.  We laugh at how they can easily navigate them now when only a few months ago we didn't even know how to make a call on them ourselves.

Well, besides loving playing games on them, they have discovered the fun of the camera.  I constantly have to go in and delete like hundreds of pictures they have taken of their fingers, the floor, the ceiling....

At Seth's hockey game they were having a fun time with the camera and even learned to take videos. 

Here are a few of their treasures....

Dr. Seuss Always gets it Right

Dr Seuss is on of the gifted people who was able to see life in a unique way and describe it in an even more unique way.  I was reading to my kids and came across these pages.

I just had to laugh because of my "sick feet".  Last summer I started having problems with my feet.  I found I was dealing with plantar fasitis.  It stinks.  It has acted up like three or four times since then and this time has been a dousey.  It has been really difficult to walk and stand.  I am dealing with it, but I am desperate to find a solution.

We drove up and had a day trip to Idaho and I had a little treatment done to my feet that really helped.  I was having so much referred pain in the balls of my feet that I could feel the real pain in my heels.  It was amazing  how I didn't even know where or what the real pain felt like due to the other pain.

We are trying a lot of different things and hope with all these things and a strict diet to get the extra weight off we will be able to solve this "bother" soon.

I absolutely love this picture of my kids dead in the car on our way back from Idaho.  We had packed quite the trip into just one day!

Dinner Over an Open Fire

Last month my sister had us over for a "fire pit dinner".  My kids were so excited to go and cook hot dogs and marshmallows all by themselves.

We had a good time, but it was WAY too hot.  My kids slowly kept taking more and more of their clothes off.  And I think that was a good thing because by the time the smores came out they were covered in dirt and chocolate.  Chloe got into the smores and had a great time letting her face eat as much as her mouth!

We didn't stay as long as we would have liked to because we were so hot.  I don't sweat that much so I feel like a walking heater!  I was so glad to get into the car with the AC blasting on the way home!

A Fourth of July Visit

We had so much fun having my brother's family stay with us this last week.  Their kids are the same age as ours, just opposite genders.  They were all good buds and had fun playing with each other.  This is a much improvement from the time years ago when we were both visiting my parents and Sam had nightmares where he would wake up yelling, "No Lucy, No!" :)

We had a good time laughing at my family.  They come over and think our house is freezing in the summer because we actually keep our house cool! :)  I just had to get a shot of them all cuddled up trying to "stay warm."

While they were here we went to the mall and I just loved how they paired off and held hands while walking the mall.  It was so cute.

We got to have them come to our ward 4th of July breakfast before they took off.  It was fun and the food was amazing.  Amy and I couldn't get over the french toast.  It was seriously the best french toast I have ever had in my life and I was seriously almost angry that I couldn't eat as much as I wanted!

We hung out on the 4th and had a fun time letting the kids play in the alley.  We had to get out early before it got to hot.  This summer has been brutal.  It was been so hot.
We were laughing because Lucy came up with a game for Nate and I to play.  We would shot baskets and she would make up all kinds of reasons why her dad would get a point for his shot (whether he made it or not) and why I wouldn't (whether I made it or not).  We were busting up at her reasoning.  It was getting more and more creative as she was desperately trying to get her dad to win.

 

We said good-bye to them that afternoon and we had a quiet 4th of July.  We didn't get together with anyone or even see the fireworks.  We have been so busy and had so much family that we just took it easy and recouped.  It was nice.



The Book of Mormon Museum

With my brother's visit came many fun times.  We met up with them (and Megan) downtown Salt Lake to check out the Children's Book of Mormon Museum at the Church History Museum. 
It was awesome.  It was little a smaller scale Discovery Gateway.
We first went to the North Visitor Center at Temple Square to what my kids called the "Jesus Museum" due to the abundance of painting of Jesus' life and the Christus statue.  They loved seeing the model of Jerusalem and talking about how that's where Nephi and his family lived and had to leave.

We walked around the Church History Museum taking in as much as we could with out impatient children.  They loved getting up to the Conference Center podium and giving talks.

They even got to touch the Angel Moroni while they wore special gloves.

This was my favorite painting I saw.  It was beautiful.  So much with so little color.  They textures were amazing.

The kids were so excited when we finally got to the Book of Mormon Museum.  We walked in and got to help build Nephi's boat and fish off of it.

Chloe loved the writing tablets.  Believe it or not her scribbles looked a lot like the characters! ;)

We had fun turning the pages of the golden plates and then lifting them to see how heavy they really were.

Then it was on to the computer games where the kids got to find hidden objects in pictures, match prophets, do puzzles of pictures from the Book of Mormon stories.

There was a fun area where the kids could cook a meal and sit down and eat with the missionaries.  it was a fun place with a garden and chickens too.

The last area was Chloe's favorite.  There were costumes to wear and videos to watch of dancers.  Chloe danced and danced and danced.  It was fun to watch her beam with happiness in her beautiful dress.  I've got to get this girl in dance classes!

A Mini "T" Family Get Together

My family got together for a fun weekend at my sister-in-law's family cabin.  We didn't go up for the whole time, just came up for an evening of yummy food and a fun white elephant party.

My kids had a blast being up in the mountains.  They were running around crazy with their cousins trying to get as dirty as possible to make sure they got the most out of their experience.

Chloe loved the little game they had set out, but was pretty upset that the balls wouldn't come off the strings.

James decided that he wanted to go swimming and jumped into the creek.  Thankfully it was low at this time of year and Megan was right there to get him out.  He was just so sweet and sincere when he was explaining to me why he jumped in.  "I just wanted to go swimming" he told me in him little voice!

We had the biggest hot dogs my kids had ever seen.  This made James very happy.  He did a great job attacking that thing and actually almost finished it all.

The white elephant party was fun.  We started doing white elephant in the summer last year, due to my parents leaving.  I guess the tradition stuck....
Laura was of course the center of attention in her cabin sweater and moose hat!

We had a great laugh at the camcorder that made its way back into the pile from last year.  Mitch was so excited about it and was guarding it with his life.

We scored some great karate clothes.  Now if we ever take karate we are ready to go!  Chloe of course loved her new "dress up" clothes.

Amy made some amazing homemade marshmallows.  I have never even heard of homemade marshmallows before, but they were yummy.  Once everyone caught on to how delicious they were manners kind of flew out the window....  :)