One More Day!!

Wheweeee!!  The kids can hardly stand that there is ONE more day till school starts.  (OK, really MOM can hardly stand it.  Yea!!)  We really have enjoyed our Summer, but we are all really excited for school to start.  I'm getting so sick of watching ICarly, being begged to go to the mall everyday, and wondering what I'm going to do to entertain the kids for the day.  Thank goodness the big day is TOMORROW!!!!!

Thankful Sunday

Well, I haven't stayed up to date with my 52 Blessings I was posting each week.  I started off strong, but then the summer hit.  I don't want you to think I ran out of blessings, because lately I've been especially aware of how many blessings I truly do have.  So, even though I am behind, I just wanted to post how thankful I am for the Gospel.  I have the opportunity to serve in church as an Activity Day Leader, and I was reviewing the Faith in God requirements with my girls last Tuesday.  So, today I decided to go over it with my own two daughters, and I was feeling especially grateful for the programs the Gospel has, and the guidance it gives to us in raising our families.  Raising children in today's world is not always easy, but knowing our purpose here on earth, and having the blessings the Gospel brings into our lives, makes this a much easier task.  Today Dave gave the kids their father's blessings for going back to school.  It is a tradition my dad always did for my family growing up, and something I always looked forward to.  Now, we have the opportunity to do this in our own family, and I am grateful for the Gospel and the blessings of the Priesthood!

Beach Camping Trip

Well, we just came back from our last vacation of the Summer.  We've been very blessed to have taken such fun trips with our family.  We went camping in San Diego with the Nelson family, and had a wonderful time.  We usually go to Leo Carillo Beach, but decided to try somewhere new.  So we decided to try the place everyone from here goes to.  It was great, and the beach was beautiful.    

Every year we try to get a family beach picture.  On the way home we stopped at Dana Point to see the tide pools.  The tide wasn't very low, so we didn't get to see much, but found a few crabs and some dead lobsters.  Dave reminded me we hadn't gotten our family beach shot, so luckily we grabbed this shot just before we left.
The first full day we were there we drove to Oceanside and met up with Dave's brother Jeff and their family.  They happened to be vacationing there, too.  It was fun for the kids to get to play with their cousins at the beach.  Kyle, Tyler, Lyndi, and Lizzy liked being buried in the sand...
The next day, the kids decided to go for it and get all the way buried.  I used to love doing this as a kid!!!!
Tyler's favorite thing to do at the beach is look for sand crabs and collect them in his bucket.  Kelsey got a kick out of seeing them swim around in there.....
I love this picture of the girls.  It's so nice that Jessica and Ashley have each other to play with.  They had such a great time together....
They spent most of the time in the water boogie boarding and jumping the waves.  They are getting to be pretty good on those things!
Ashley spent the most time in the water.  Jessica found the joys of reading a great book on the beach, but Ashley pretty much stayed in the water.  She'd come out every now and then for some food, then hop right back in.....
One of Dave's favorite parts of the trip, besides surfing in the mornings, was going out with the kids.  The kids loved being out there with their dad.....
Kelsey spent her time at the beach eating sand, and getting dirty.  She definitely didn't mind the sand, and was such a good baby.....
She also got a kick out of the water.  She just loved everything about the beach.  Takes after her mommy.......
The last night my sister Denise and her family came out for a night, and it was fun having more kids to play with.  My nephew Josh is getting so big, and the kids loved digging in the sand with him.
Kelsey was such a big girl walking around the campsite.  She loved this beach chair.  She could climb up and down all by herself.  She doesn't look too dirty in this picture, but believe me, she sure got dirty on this trip!!!
Kyle loved doing whatever his big brother and sisters were doing.  There was this amphitheatre just across our campsite, and the kids loved going up there and putting on performances.  Kyle was right there with them, even doing a few shows of his own!
Jessica and Ashley were great helpers with the younger kids.  Someone asked me if it was hard camping with 5 kids.  I was telling them that really I think it's easier now then when I just had a couple of little ones, because the bigger kids help watch and play with the younger ones.  And it was especially nice having the Nelsons along, because there were more friends for the kids to play with.  On the way home my kids commented on how it was nice having them along, because they felt like they got to bond with them.  We were so glad they were able to come.
It was a great vacation.  We miss living by the beach, and were so happy for the chance we had to be back there.

Girls Shop and Boys Swim!

Ashley's birthday is coming up next week, so she decided she wanted to go with Jessica and her cousin Lexi shopping, to a movie, and out to lunch.  So, yesterday we went and saw Kit Kitteredge, had lunch at Johnny Rockets, and did a little shopping.  While we were gone, Dave took the boys out for a swim in the backyard.  He got the waterproof digital camera and had fun taking pictures of the kids.  This one is my favorite......

Tyler loves to make goofy faces for the camera, and I thought this one was pretty funny. 

Dave also got some cute underwater video of Tyler, and caught a good video of Kyle jumping off the waterfall, and swimming to the wall.  He has gotten so much better with his swimming.  He definitely has the confidence now, and is doing amazing!!  Take a look at the video.......

I am loving the summer, and the low-key schedule we have.  I'm not looking forward to the Fall, when we have all the kids games to go to all day on Saturday.  I guess I'll just enjoy it while it lasts!!!

More Reunions!

For the 4th of July, we were able to meet up with the Watts family at Lake Havasu for a reunion.  Everyone was there, and we had a great time enjoying the lake.  Dave's parents have a house overlooking the lake at Havasu Springs, and we love going there and hanging out.

The kids always have a great time on the tube.  Jessica, Ashley, and their cousin Lexi especially like to go fast.  We have yet to toss them out.  Maybe when they get a little older.......
Dave enjoyed boat surfing.  He loves to surf in the ocean, so I guess this would be the next best thing.  I gave it a try and it was fun.  It was strange getting up without my feet in boots, since you're feet aren't strapped into anything, but it was fun trying something new.
The kids all loved the knee board.  Tyler was so funny.  He'd get behind the boat, and let you pull him forever.  He never let go or wanted to stop, he'd just keep going and going.  Finally we'd just stop the boat and let someone else have a turn.  I don't know how his arms never got tired.  Oh, to have the energy of a 6 year old boy!!!!
Ashley got better on the knee board every day.  At first she had a hard time, but she stuck with it and by the end could ride for a while!!!
Jessica was excited because she finally mastered the 360!  Here she is just finishing it!  Way to go, Jess!!
We also had a great time on the Sea Doos.  This is Dave's sister Deanna, her husband Ryan, and brother-in-law Bill.  I thought this picture was fun with the 3 of them on it!!! 
Kyle loved swimming in the pool.  He is getting to be quite the swimmer.  He can now swim across our pool!  He just needs to work on coming up for a breath.  He can sure hold his breath for a long time!
And Kelsey's favorite was just hanging out in the little pool on the grass in the back patio.  There was a little sprinkler she loved playing with and it entertained her for hours.  

So, we didn't really escape the heat, but we found a way to stay cool over the 4th of July.  A big thank you to grandma and grandpa for sharing your place with us!  The kids can't wait to go back!!!  It was so fun seeing everyone!  Thanks for the memories!!

Family Reunion

I am definitely having to play catch up since I haven't posted for a few weeks.  We are enjoying our summer, and I'm enjoying the time I'm spending with my kids.  It's been so hard to find time to blog this summer.  I'm hoping to be better.........

At the end of June, we had the opportunity to go to a family reunion in Utah with the Sherman family.  My parents and six of the seven siblings were able to attend, along with 19 of the 23 grand kids.  It was a blast, and a big thank you to my brother Jeff and his wife for hosting this year.  We went to Heber Valley Girls Camp up in Heber, and it was beautiful!!  (They use it as a girls camp all week, then rent out cabins to families for reunions for the weekend.)  

Here we all are, minus a couple of napping babies.  I thought we did pretty good for as many kids as there were!!
We thought this would be a fun pictures, but some of the kids were so tired, they weren't very cooperative.  The cabins were nice with about 16 bunk beds in them.  We had three cabins rented out, and the kids loved hopping from cabin to cabin, and climbing on all the beds.  
There was this pretty lake, and we all went out in paddle boats.  It was so funny because everyone was paddling around taking pictures of everyone.  I think between all of us, there were at least 200 pictures taken out on the lake!!
Even though it was windy, Dave, Jessica, and my brother-in-law Ben took out a canoe.  They had a great time.
After the lake, we took a fun little hike around the lake.  Kelsey fell asleep in her sling, and slept through the whole hike!!  The place was beautiful, and I highly recommend staying there!  They also had a challenge course, including a big zip-line at the end that all the kids even got to do.  It was great!  

Highlights of the trip included:  Eating roasted s'mores, dutch oven peach cobbler, pizza and games at Jeff's work (which had a huge basketball court, ping pong table, pool table, movie theatre, showers which felt so good after camping, even though the curtain rod fell down on me and exposed my very naked body to my sister and sister-in-law!), playing games late into the night, cousins sprawled out sleeping all over the house, Dave backing our car into a fire hydrant(ok, maybe that wasn't a highlight, but very memorable!), reminiscing about college while taking the kids up on campus at BYU, buying gummy candy for CHEAP at the BYU bookstore, eating at Tucanos (I had never been there before, and boy was it YUMMY!)

It was so great being with family, and I'm so glad we were able to do it!  Thanks again Jeff and Roberta, and I can't wait till the next one!!! 

Our Summer So Far.....

Ok, so it's been forever since I've blogged, and I'm wondering when I can do it with summer here.  With the kids all home, it seems like I don't have as much down time.  But that's ok, because it means we're playing hard, right?  So, I did want to do a quick post before I got too far behind.  

Well, as soon as school got out, Dave and I got ready to go on our Stake Pioneer Trek with the youth.  We were originally going to go as Ma and Pa, but they had extra and needed some people to move to Big Brother and Big Sister.  We were glad we didn't have to collect up all the extra stuff, and have that extra responsibility, but once we were there, I was a little sad not to be in the same family with him, but we still had a wonderful experience!!  I had never been on a Trek before, and I gained such a greater appreciation for the pioneers that came before me.  I only had a glimpse of what they went through, and I am so grateful to have had that opportunity.  It would take forever to write about all the amazing experiences I had, and I'll just save that for my own private journal, but just so you know, if you ever have the opportunity to do something like that, snatch it up and know that you will be greatly blessed!!  

Dave played the part well by growing out the beard about 10 days ahead of time.  He liked the excuse to not have to shave......   Dave was quite the trooper, as he was sick for most of the trek.  But he was blessed and able to get through it, while still doing his part.
This is what the handcarts looked like.  It was hard work pushing and pulling these things, and I'm grateful this is not how we transport things today!!!

My sister was so kind to come and watch the kids while we were gone, even being 7 months pregnant!  Thanks Denise!  They were sick right before we left, and while we were gone, and she was a trooper taking care of them all.  

Since we've been back from the trek, the kids have been staying busy with basketball camp, swim lessons, and lots of swimming at home.  And today I dropped off the girls (Jessica and Ashley) at the airport to visit their cousins in Utah.  They had never flown on an airplane before and were soooo excited!  I was sad to not be able to experience their first airplane ride with them, but oh well.  They did arrive safely, and are so excited for all the fun they're going to have up there.  But I sure will miss them!!!!!  Good thing I sill have my other 3 to keep me busy. :)