And more cousin time!

We were lucky to get Doug & Cath's girls one afternoon. Our kids loved hanging out together! They were all very good, but I'm glad I don't have 6 kids! That's a lot of work! We did get to finally meet Spencer & Gordon. They are adorable! Sydney wanted to stay all day and just hold babies!

More cousin time!

The planes are so cool!

Saturday, Steve & Hillary called to invite us to the Airplane Museum at Hill Air Force Base.

We jumped at the chance to hang with them for the day!

The gang! Notice Mike & Stevie's matching outfits!

Look at these cute kiddos!
This tire was huge!
I tried to explain 'Rosie the Riveters' to the girls thinking they would think that girls rule, but they weren't that impressed. Maybe someday they'll understand.

Abi and Brandon with their planes at Firehouse Pizza! They loved these planes!

Pioneer Day!

Cute Amanda with another of the favorite fireworks this year....parachutes!
Like the burn on Brandon's chin? He was standing up to the counter when I took a pan out of the oven and touched it with his chin even after I warned him not to.

Our favorite firework discovery this year. The flowers are always my favorite, but these would explode at the end!

Beautiful Sydney!

My handsome hubby!

Brando likes fireworks!

Max in the 'cone of shame' He was neutered the day before. Poor little puppy! Look how grown-up and beautiful Amanda looks!

Mike was the sparkler man! He kept our kids and a bunch of neighborhood kids supplied.

Sydney burning the street. What happened to the days of writing your name in the air with the sparklers?

Handsome kiddo!

Whoops! Quess the water bucket wasn't very fireproof!

The kids had quite the fireworks project going on here. They were stacking up the spent fireworks and trying to light them with sparklers!

Cousin time!

We also headed to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum with the cousins! Our kids have been begging to go for a year! They had a grand time! We had Kate & Elyse come sleepover that night. We had to get one sleepover in before Kate had to go back to school (darn year-round school!) Ride 'em cowkids
Amanda's creation! She was so proud.....

Couldn't get Brandon out of the helicopter. He was really excited about it! Maybe we have a pilot in our future? Of course, there a play performance or two. This is the 3 Little Bears...

Cutest Bear ever!

Kate being Goldilocks...

This is one happy kid!

Cute kids in the car....look at Garrett's face! Classic!

Fill'er up!

Cousin time!

The float preview!
Brandon was so excited to be Spiderman! He didn't want to take a bath that night!

Pretty Sydney!
The girls with their balloon flowers!

Bubba and his sword balloon

Lucky us, we got to spend some time with cousins! We went to the float preview for the Pioneer day parade again. The kids were most excited to get their faces painted again. There was also clowns doing balloon animals. Not as many floats this year, but still fun. Kat & Hillary's sister, Corrine did one of the floats. It turned out great and got a lot of tv time during the parade coverage. Amanda stayed home to play, but we had a great time with

everyone who came!

Love the 'beehive' hairdo!

The kid's favorite float! This is the only picture I have of Zach! They were there, too!

Summer is exhausting!

That is why I haven't posted in awhile. Watch for updates!

Friends and more....

No pictures...just journaling in this post. Last week, Mike went with the young men to Flaming Gorge. He had a great time because they stayed in a nice spot at the Gorge. Most of the time, we stay on a beach where the haters come and find Mike. It's funny, but they always find Mike and cause some trouble to the point where it hasn't been fun for us to go there. But, he loved this spot and he even caught a fish! My family is always getting skunked!

So, the kids and I stayed busy while he was gone:

Thursday, I went to lunch with my RS girls. I miss these gals as we haven't done lunch in awhile. It was fun to catch up and hear about Sharon's boy who is now on his mission! (btw, it's so nice to have a daughter old enough to tend! Thanks, Amanda!)

Emily Harwood invited us to swim at her parent's house. They have a gorgeous pool, yard, house, pool house...and it was very fun to hang with them all day! Our kids enjoy hanging out together, too. Nicole Francis & her kids and Lindsay Brown & her whole family were there for a bit. When we decided to go home, Emily & I decided to grab some McD's on the way home and hung out at her backyard a little while longer. The kids had a great time! Thanks, Em!

Friday, I took the kids to see Hannah Montana movie at the Kaysville theater. This was the first time we've been to the theater. It's tiny, but cheap and it was really fun! We even ran into some neighbors! It's a cute movie and even Brandon liked parts of it.

It was also temple night for the ward. Emily and I were maybe going to go and signed up to bring food to the after-party. Then, being tired won out and we just took the food over and visited with some more neighbors. Then, I went to see a movie with Holly (Hollingsworth) since her hubby was out of town on a scout trip! We laughed and laughed! It was a fun night! (Again, Amanda made it all possible!)

Saturday, I got to see one of our closest friends, Daneise, who moved away about 6 or so years ago and is now in North Carolina. I met her and Cherri Woodland at Z'Tejas at the Gateway. Daneise was in town for her grandma's funeral. I know how busy times like those can be, so it was awesome that she made time to see me and Cherri! We had some good food, and then sat at our table chatting for another 3 hours! Mike & I miss living near Brad & Daneise!!! We need to do a vacation with them asap!

Amanda has started golf this week....and the kids have been selling snow cones and lemonade out front for a couple of days. Today, I was supermom and forgot to put sunscreen on them! Sydney, our pale girl, is fried! Amanda, our tan girl is fried! Luckily, Brando hung with me most of the day.

Tonight, we went to the Wilson's for a bbq and swim party. We had a great time and had some good food. The kids were doing great! Sydney was our little hero tonight.

Tomorrow night, Mike & I get to hang with some more friends, Damon & Christie, whom we reconnected with after our high school reunion last summer. And this weekend, I think we are going to bbq with our neighbors. I love in the summer how we get to hang out more. I feel like such a hermit in the winter.

Summer just continues to be fun and busy! Before we know it, school will be starting!

and can I just tell you that I love my family!

A little bit of Heaven

Amanda, Abi and Abby O in background

Cute Bubba

Abby O and Sydney We took the boat up to Echo on Monday with Steven & Hillary, their girls and Sydney's friend, Abby Orison. Grandpa joined us at about 5pm and Mikey made it up closer to 6pm. The water was great and the kids spent a ton of time tubing....our favorite kid pasttime.

Cute Hillary is preggers and was a trooper taking a ride on the boat. Here she is with cute little Emma.

We got little Abi on the flat tube and she did great! That is until Steven dumped them off.....Welcome to the club, Stevie! I just did that to my 4 year old! Abi recovered quickly and hoped back on that tube as fast as she could!

When we picked up Grandpa, everyone needed a break from tubing. He took us to the rocks and was trying to convice the kids to jump off the rock, but couldn't get any takers. He thought we were boring!

Kids taking a float on the tube...can you tell that Abby O and Amanda bug each other?

After we picked up Mikey and convinced Steve to get back on the boat (since Hillary was going home), we found Mike's cousins, Jim & Tracy Buys. They were teasing Jim about knowing how to drive the boat. He started to tease back. We had the storage door open looking at the water and bilging it out. I thought we might have to grab the boat from hitting the Buys' boat and decided to shut the storage door with my foot. BUT, I didn't know Mike's foot was in the way and I clobbered him! His toenail went black and blue in 30 seconds. It was horrible! I was so proud of him for not swearing or anything! I felt terrible! But, he stayed for the evening.

On the way home, he was in so much pain he had the chills. He had leftover painkillers from his kidney stone and took one of those...it didn't help! It was awful! It was a long night with no sleeping. He went to work the next morning, but about 2 hours after getting there he drove himself to the instacare. He couldn't walk. The docs told him that it was good he came in as they needed to burn a hole in his nail so that it could drain. After that, things improved a bit. Did I mention how horrible I felt?
Grandpa kneeboarding and doing 360's
Grandpa skiing - you rock, Papa!

Ok, back to the boating. Steven skied, Jim kneeboarded and skied, Amanda kneeboarded and wanted to wakeboard, but we ran out of time. Sydney kneeboarded for the first time since she fell off a couple years ago and didn't let go of the rope (important detail her parents forgot to tell her).

Amanda trying to do a 360 on the kneeboard...she was sooooo close!

Sydney getting instruction from Uncle Steve

and she's up!! Way to go, Sydney!