July 4th fun in the sun!

Our 4th of July was first filled with Jackson and I baking a bunch of festive treats, thanks to Jackson's determination and persistence. He had wanted to make a
4th of July craft, so we had gone to familyfun.com and found red, white, and blue popsicles that he was dying to make, as well as these cute candy hamburgers and hot dogs. It literally took hours to make the popsicles and another few hours to make the cupcakes with the hammies and dogs on top, but he was so excited...it was worth all the pain and effort. (?)

We went to (Grandma) Janice and Scott's home, Toni's parents, and had a bbq and swam all afternoon. The traditional toothpick game was of course played - with the children included this time, along with a "friendly" game of basketball.





We then did our own firework show in their cul-de-sac. I have to say, it wasn't as bright or loud as last years show at the Ahlanders, but it was still a great time, Kenny brought his infamous blow torch and the kids LOVED the sparklers. (of course) And the men gave their great annual rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" while the "finale" was going off. We all had a great time, and were wiped out by the end of the day!

My (never-ending) Family Reunion

So...the month of May madness had ended with my parents a few of my siblings coming down here for Jackson's graduation. They left the next day for California, to meet my sister and her two girls, along with more of my brothers over the next few days. They were sweet and took my boys along with them to join in their fun, and Russ and I met up with them for a few days at Disneyland. Even though my boys are very spoiled and go to Disneyland more than they realize, it's always just as exciting as the first time. Jackson couldn't wait to go on a lot of the rides with the big boys and his Papa, and Max couldn't wait to be taken on the Matterhorn about 10 times, because he knew there would be uncles who were willing. It was fun to be there for my niece, Kaylee's (who was almost 3)first time, because she was SO excited to see EVERYTHING. It was a magical few days, and filled with more aunts, uncles, and cousins who came and met up with us too. We were a very big party to say the least!









We went back up to Utah about a week later to go and see my darling little brother, Trevor, who had come home from his mission in Japan. Trevor is such a sweetheart, and even though I was not wanting to drive in the car again for 6 hours, he was worth going to see.
Let me stop here and talk about our drive up to Utah first. This was something to be remembered for sure. My mom had expressed her desire to get a whole family picture over this period of time, because we haven't been ALL together for years now, and it's going to be another few years before it probably happens again. My brother Dustin was getting ready to drive back home that Sunday afternoon that we were driving up there, so we had purposely left early so we would have enough time for pictures once we got there. Emilee Carruth and her three girls had planned on driving up with us, which was great because it gave us both some company and made the trip a little more entertaining!
Well, the trip was going great, the kids were being exceptionally good, and we were feeling lucky and excited about things going so well and to get up there in good time. Alas, that came to a halt when we made our official stop for lunch just outside of Beaver. We had stopped at a little gas station with a Wendy's, that had benches outside for the kids to eat their lunch on. So we unloaded the kids, gotten out our lunches, and were sitting down to eat. I had purposely left the keys in the car just because I didn't want to keep track of them, or have the kids playing with them, when Emilee had gone to the car and asked me to unlock the car so she could get a diaper out for Brooklyn. I told her it wasn't locked, and that they keys were inside the car. She opened the passenger door, thought she hit the "unlock" button to unlock the back doors, which for some reason had locked, and then shut the door...to quickly find out she had locked the whole car back up. To save for a long (and party humerous) story, I'm just going to say that there wasn't a whole lot of options for us in Beaver to get back into our car. Our cell phones, our wallets, everything was in the car. Emilee had gone and found a nice couple to lend her their cell phone, for her to call AAA - to find out they wouldn't come to Beaver. (or maybe they would have, it would have taken them an extremely long time, I can't remember) So Em went into the gas station and asked if there was someone that would be willing to come out and unlock our car for us. There was indeed one man, who actually showed up within 15 minutes. That poor man came out, looked at the Sequoia he would be working on, and immediately expressed that Toyota's are the WORST cars to break into. He diligently worked on getting it unlocked for a good 45 minutes, with no success. Finally, a kind customer of Wendy's came by, asked if we needed any help, and was somehow able to pull our keys out, unlock our car, and have us on our way within about 15. I don't know if it was the combination of the two men working together, or but the sweet man who had originally come out to help was not going to give up. He must have said about 5 times, "What am I going to do? I certainly cannot leave two mothers out here with 5 children!" Oh yes, and as soon as we got back on the road, it DUMPED and POURED for a lot of the rest of our drive. We were so blessed that it hadn't done that while we were waiting, because the clouds definitely were threatening looking!
Anyway, we finally made it up to Salt Lake, to take about 5 minutes worth of family pictures before it POURED on us, and the rest of the week with my family was worth all the frustration to get there!
Just my bro's & sista's!





We had a busy week while we were there. We went on a beautiful (and little too long) hike to some falls up past Sundance, where my boys were lucky to have some uncles who were willing to carry them when they got tired. My mom had not realized it was 2 miles each way, and by the time we got back, we were getting rained on again. It was harder for me too, because the uphill of it made me start contracting, so it was an adventure for sure!




We also went on a picnic and then to the Planetarium for a show on the underworld, which my boys loved. We went to an indoor pool in Kamas, where all the kids had a blast with their aunts and uncles and their Papa, going down the waterslide over and over, swimming around the lazy river, and jumping off the diving boards. Jackson went off the high dive, which made me sick watching him, but he didn't bat an eye! And we had lots of bbq's on the patio, enjoyed the beautiful weather, and played a lot of games. Sunday was Trevor's "Welcome Home" and then we left. It was a lot of fun, and mostly relaxing, and SO nice to get out of the heat!

May Madness

I don't know if we meant to do as many things in May as we ended up doing, but looking back, May was absolutely nuts. We had one thing after another and partied like rock stars all month long!

Even though I only have a few pictures of our family night of bowling with the Shumways, I had to include them because this was actually our second attempt at a fun family night together. We tried to go bowling with them before, and waited for over an hour for a lane, only to end up leaving frustrated, hungry, and the boys totally crying and upset. It wasn't pretty. But we didn't give up, and we did finally have that fun night with them, which is always a bonus because our boys get along so well and have so much fun together.


Russ and I also got to get away for a weekend of fun and friends in May, which was heavenly and much needed! We had found a great deal on a short cruise that left out of San Diego, which also worked out nicely for us, because Russ's parents had just returned from that same cruise (same ship!) a few days before us, and were willing to take the boys for us. (We are VERY lucky to have two sets of grandparents who are always so good to us and so happy to take our kids!) About a week before we left, we were unsure what was going to happen with our cruise, because the AWESOME swine flu had reared its ugly head in Mexico, which is where we were heading, but thankfully Carnival re-routed us, and we ended up going to Catalina Island instead. The weather was actually quite a bit chilly too for that time of year, but we still had a blast.
You always have to start a cruise by going to their "orientation" of what to do if there's a "Titanic" emergency...and we have to know how to put on our life jackets. Russ wanted to make sure Toni and Jared were going to be fine apparently...
Dinner is always one of my favorite times on the cruise. There's just something about getting dressed up - but not having to go far to eat great food, having so many different options of what you can eat - and not having to worry about the price of anything you order, and the laughter and memories that happen over dinner are priceless. (Thank you for embarrassing stories, and the never-to-be-forgotten legend of TUGGER!)


Catalina Island has changed a lot since I was there so many years ago, and although there wasn't great shopping or beautiful weather to lay out, we had more fun with the golf carts. We should have known what we were getting ourselves into with Russ, Jared, and Kenny all driving us around on the island, but it made for some very crazy (and scary!) races, two-wheeled turns, and close calls on the cliffs! (Okay, maybe Kelly and I were more paranoid than we needed to be, because we were all fine and in one piece in the end!)




Kareoke and dancing (but mostly kareoke!) were a big part of our nights, and the nicknames of Marchy and Sexual Chocolate were born. The DJ was head over heels for sweet Jared, who was more than entertaining for us all to watch, and quickly became a crowd favorite.



The last day the weather wasn't great again, so we decided to have our own scavenger hunt, which was a riot. It was guys against girls, and the competition was fierce. Even though the guys feel like they won, I'm pretty we deserved to win for being more creative.
What more can I write. We had a great time, we were lucky to go with great friends, and we took more than enough memories home for one weekend.

We also managed to go to Utah for my cousin's wedding in Salt Lake, which I somehow have no pictures of. I know it was a quick trip, a beautiful wedding, lots of family members were seen, and too much to fit in one weekend!

At the end of May, we went to St. George for a quick family getaway with the Jones family. Ben's parents have a second home there, which was more than enough room for our two families. The boys all have a great time together, and we managed to swim, play miniature golf, go on a couple hikes at Zions (along with the rest of the world!) eat a lot, swim again, and visit with my brother Kacey and his wife Nikki. It was a great trip, and too short as well!






Miniature golfing was VERY hot, as you can see from their red faces!



Swimming at Nikki's parents house...their water slide comes off their balcony and is VERY cool. Jackson and Jackson were more than stoked to go first, Mason and Max needed a little more encouraging, and then were the last to stop going down because they loved it so much. Even little Cooper went down with Ben! (not so in love with it!)





And finally, at the end of May, our little boy graduated from Ms. Heather's pre-school, and had a little graduation ceremony. I didn't think I would be as emotional as I was (who am I kidding?!) but I was very proud of him. He had read and passed off over 50 books and knows about 75 sight words, which I think is incredible. He's such a smart little man, and we are so proud of his accomplishments. My parents were able to come down for it, along with (Aunt) Bryna and (Uncle) Bryson, because the end of May madness just carried over into the start of our equally crazy and busy June!