Air Show

We have always wanted to go to the air show at Hill Airforce Base but never have made it.  This year we decided to try it.  On a whim, Josh bought a bunch of earplugs and told the kids that it might be a good place to make some money selling them.  That's what you get when you have a dad for a salesman! Anyway they jumped all over the idea and came up with a price and made posters and all.  So as the crowds of people were waiting in line to get in, our kids walked up and down the isles selling ear plugs.  They got braver and braver as time went on and when the F-22 jets started to fly, business soared!  They were selling like hot cakes.  The kids were persistent and kept at it until the crowds were mostly gone and then we went inside for a while to watch the show.  After it was all over the kids couldn't wait to count their money and see how much they had earned.  We pulled it all out and counted - $236!!!  What!!! They divided it up between them and paid us back for the cost of the earplugs then started dreaming about how they were going to spend their fortune! 

The next day the boys were off to the sunglasses shop to buy their own "Goodr" sunglasses.  They have been wanting a pair of their own and now have the chance to actually get some. Such a great day for these kiddos and their hard work paid off for sure!

Desh

Desh is the best and the perfect last child.  He's goofy, sweet, charming and crazy all in one and we can't get enough of him!

Provo Beach

Josh's company had their summer work party at Provo Beach again this year.  We love this place and the kids LOVE the flowrider.  We spent an hour boogie boarding, surfing and sitting in the hot tub and we had the whole place to ourselves!  We got there a little early so we beat the crowd and it was the best time! The kids could not get enough.

 After the flowrider we had the rest of the evening to play the arcade games, eat dinner, go bowling, do the ropes course and just enjoy the night.  It was a blast! 

On the way home we stopped at Leatherby's for ice cream.  While we waited we had a contest to see who could hold a spoon on their nose longest.  Such funny kids we have!

Josh is a model

Josh and I stopped at my parents' house for a visit and found some swim suit tops of my moms stretched out over the backs of some chairs.  Dad said she was trying to stretch them out so Josh figured he could do a better job than the chairs were doing... 

Funny that he is actually filling out the chest of the swimsuit.  Not sure if that is a good or bad thing?

Hiking

We had Justin and Steph's kids with us this weekend and we've had a really fun time playing with cousins.  This morning we decided to take a hike up Yellow Fork Canyon and spend some time enjoying the outdoors.  The kids were all so excited and off we went with our crew! We didn't actually hike very far but we did get to a stopping point about a half mile up the trail and the kids wanted to spend the rest of the morning there.  They started throwing rocks, then breaking rocks, then were convinced that these large boulders had diamonds inside of them.  So they spent the next couple hours trying to figure out a way to get to the inside of the boulders.  They had a great time and got a lot of good energy out while they were at it!  We loved our hike up the canyon and love living so close to such beautiful spots!

Rease's 11th Birthday

We celebrated Rease's birthday a little bit late since we were gone on our road trip, but we didn't forget her big day! She asked for a sports cake so I did a basketball and volleyball for her.  She loved it! We had family over for cake and ice cream and to celebrate our girl that is getting way too old!  We got her a nice chess set as a gift and she was super excited about it.  She has gotten to be a really good chess player and beats me at least 50% of the time.  Yikes.  

My favorite things about 11 year old Rease:

1) Rease is the best oldest sister and the biggest helper to me.  She has no problem just taking care of things that she can see need to be done and is always willing to help out whenever I ask something of her.  She is a very responsible 11 year old.

2) Rease and Rhen have gotten to be great babysitters for us.  They don't mind being home with the kids while Josh and I go out for a night.  And I think they secretly love to be home doing "their thing" and being in charge of themselves.  Once the boys go to bed they have a routine of popcorn, ice cream and settling down to watch their show - which at the moment is Heartland.  I love that they love being together and being the oldest.

3) Rease is very self-motivated.  She doesn't often have to be asked to do things that she knows need to be done or things that she likes to do.  She has been training for a 10k with me and will get up and run in the morning all on her own.  She loves to read and is always wanting to finish the next book so she can move on to another.  She doesn't mind taking a day to clean up and organize her room when she can see that it needs to be done.  And she takes her job weeding seriously and gets Rhen up first thing in the morning so they can get it done before it gets too hot outside.  She is the best!  

11 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 5'5" - 99%

Weight: 140 lbs. 10 oz. - 98%

We sure are lucky to have Rease in our family.  She is one special girl.  

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to our amazing dad/husband! We let him sleep in Sunday morning and woke him up to streusel cake and a homemade father's day sign.  The kids loved on him all day and gave him the attention that he deserves.  We couldn't ask for a better father, protector, leader and example in our home.  We are lucky to have him!

1st boating trip

We have all been anxious to get out on the boat and finally made it to the lake this weekend!  It was a little...chilly.  I was the lucky one to jump in first and did my very best to keep myself under control with the cold water but I admit it was COLD! The kids didn't notice that I was biting my tongue so they wouldn't realize how cold it was - I wanted them to get in without worrying about the temperature.  After I got done skiing, Rease and Rhen jumped in.  The cat was out of the bag after that - Rhen carried on and on like she was about to die.  I think at one point she did actually say, "I'm going to die!" from being so cold.  Wow.  I didn't know so much screaming and tears could come from someone so tiny.  Anyway, she finally got over it and kneeboarded with Rease but after that you can bet that no one else got in that cold water.  It was a quick morning for us but we are really looking forward to our days on the boat!

Piano Recital

The girls had a piano recital tonight and both did a really amazing job!  I'm so happy with the progress they are making and even though practicing is sometimes a drag, they are really pretty good at doing it without whining too much.  I think they are seeing that working hard does pay off!

Dumping the toys

Beck was busy trying to clean up the toys in his room and found a simple way to get them from one spot to the next - the large dumptruck.  So cute how he loaded them all up and even had a couple drivers for the truck!

Rollerblades

Liev has been talking about getting rollerblades and has been working hard to earn money for them.  He did some research and found just the ones that he wanted that would fit into his budget and then he went after it doing odd jobs to earn money.  Today he finally had enough to get them so we headed to the store with money in hand.  He is SOOO excited to have them and I am so proud of him for working so hard for something.  Here's to a summer of rollerblading!

Road Trip

Summer is here!  And what better way to kick off a summer vacation than with a road trip?  The kids and I loaded up in the van and headed out for a week on the road.  We have been planning to go to Iowa to see Dixie and Scott and decided that we should make a couple other stops since we're going all that way.  So off we went!

We started out really early Sunday morning so that we could get some good hours in before the day really began.  I had a cooler with snacks and drinks packed and the kids each had their spot in the van picked out for the long hours on the road.  We were set with movies, books on tape, coloring books, toys and pillows and blankets.  We made it to Rock Springs, Wyoming before we needed a potty break and breakfast stop.  McDonald's, throwing rocks into the small stream and stretching our legs out in the parking lot of the gas station did the trick and we got back on the road.  We were headed to Nebraska where we planned to stop for the night before continuing on the next day.  The kids did awesome in the car and loved getting to the hotel where they could swim in the pool - the highlight of the day for sure.  We crashed early at the hotel and had a good night sleep.  I picked hotels along the way that had breakfast included so we wouldn't have to make an extra stop to eat.

 Back on the road and headed to Nauvoo the next morning.  We had 8 hours ahead of us that day and the kids thought that seemed really long after traveling already the day before.  But we stopped enough along the way that it went by pretty quickly.  We pulled into Nauvoo just as the sun was setting and it was so beautiful along the Mississippi River.  We stayed in a bed and breakfast inn that was actually a house that was built and used by the pioneers while they lived there.  It is one of the few original houses left in Nauvoo.  It was really really cool.  The landlord showed us around the house and took us down to the small basement with tiny,  narrow stairs.  He told us that Joseph Smith was good friends with the owners of the house and they helped hide him in the basement one time while the mob was looking for him.  It was an awesome old house and we loved our time there!

 I got up early Tuesday morning and went for a run around town.  The temple is gorgeous and the scenery is just amazing.  Our landlord made us a yummy breakfast of dutch waffles and then we spent the rest of the day visiting all the sites.  The kids loved the wagon ride around Old Nauvoo and seeing those huge, beautiful horses that pulled the wagon.

 Favorite sites? The pioneer kids games were a hit and watching the play that we got to sit inside and cool off for an hour.  Keen got called up on stage to be a part of it for a few minutes!  He was so cute and shy to be up there.  We also loved the brickyard, the bakery and the smith shop.  We stayed out all day long and made it to the Sunset on the Mississippi concert that night.  We were exhausted by the end of the night and slept like babies!

 Wednesday we celebrated Rease's 11th birthday!  We had dutch waffles for breakfast again and she got a treat and a drink to go along with her breakfast.  We love our girl and were so happy to celebrate her birthday on the road! We took a couple more pictures of our cute house before we got back on the road.  Off to Kansas City!

 The kids were glad to have a day between driving and also happy that when we started driving after leaving Nauvoo, we only had 4 hours in the car to get to Kansas City.  Best invention of the week - Liev's head hammock for sleeping in the car.  I'm not sure why no shirt?  But I was impressed with his mind for figuring this hammock out!

 We met up with our friends Bill and Debbie when we got to Kansas City.  They live just 20 minutes away from the hotel we stayed at and met us at the park with pizza and cookies.  It was a BLAST to play  at the park and catch up with them.  They were our very first renters in our basement apartment and we grew to love them in the few short months they lived with us.  They are so kind and loving and we were so happy to be able to see them!

 Kansas City is also where Joe and Meghan live so that was our main reason for making that one of our stops.  Our kids don't get to see these cousins too often and they were all excited to be together.  Baby Paige is just a couple months old and my kids could not get enough of her.  She is the sweetest little thing!  We spent Thursday at the water park with Joe and the kids and had such a fun time cooling off in the water.  The kids were all super brave and went on the big slides over and over and over.  We loved our time with Joe and family and were so grateful for their hospitality while we were there.  

 Thursday night we finally made it to Iowa and Scott and Dixie's house.  Oh how excited we were to be there and know we were staying for the next few days!  We could not get enough of the farm life and the gorgeous land that they live on.  They own 700 acres of terraced farm land and farm corn and soy beans.  They kids thought the chickens and tractors were amazing!  Desh spent 3 days chasing those poor chickens around.  And I just loved being able to slow down and enjoy being with family.  We spent a lot of time in the swing in the big tree up front.  

 Friday night Josh surprised us all and flew into town to spend the rest of the weekend with us!  We were so happy to see our dad!  We caught frogs, rode the side-by-side, shot the bow and arrow, ran around the farm and caught fireflies at night.  What could be better?

 Saturday we spent the morning at the lake with Dixie and the kids.  We loved being in the water and the kids had a running contest to see who could get to the water from the shore fastest.  They did that over and over and never seemed to get tired of it.  That night Dixie's kids babysat for us while Dixie and Scott, Josh and I went to dinner.  We went to a yummy sushi restaurant and then to ice cream for dessert.  We had the best day with them and were so grateful for them letting us crash at their house for a few days.  Our trip to the farm could not have been better!  We can't wait to go back.  Since Josh was there to help me drive home, we decided to jump in the car late Saturday night and drive home while the kids were sleeping.  I'll be honest, I slept most of the night too while Josh drove.  It was really nice to get up in the morning and know we were 8 hours into our drive home.  Josh saved the day and we were so happy he spent the last couple days with us on our 1st annual road trip!  The kids are already asking where we are going next year!

Amazing Race 2018

We had our annual amazing race this weekend!  It is always a blast and we got a big crowd this year!  I love putting this together for the neighborhood and Hayley is such a big help getting it all together and helping it run smoothly.  This year we added one challenge to the mix.  We sent all the teams to the same place to start with and they had to complete a challenge before they got their next clue.  We sent them to the Dansie barn here in Herriman and cute Haley Dansie was there ready to teach them a line dance.  Once they learned it as a team, they had to pass it off to the judges before they received their next clue.  It was hilarious to watch everyone try and get the moves down and such a fun thing for all the teams to be there together competing.  It was a hit!  After that it was business as usual and the teams were sent their separate ways to try and get through all the clues before the others did.   For the first time ever, we had two teams racing to the finish at the same time.  They both came into the neighborhood at the same time and race into the house. The black team just beat the yellow team since all their team members were in the house first.  It was so awesome and fun to watch them come in so closely!  I think overall it was a big success!

Big Boy Desh

I had to get this picture of Desh and Pippa together.  He has gotten so big lately and this picture proves it! Pippa: age 4 1/2, Desh: age 2

Carwash

The boys love to help dad wash the car.  Today Liev went with Josh to wash the van for me and did a great job!  Thanks for keeping the van sparkling clean!

Rease Year End

Highlights and final report card from Rease's 5th grade year with Mrs. Chambers!

Rhen Year End

Highlights and final report card from Rhen's 3rd grade year with Mrs. Workman!

Liev Year End

Highlights and final report card for Liev's 1st grade year with Mrs. Hernandez!

Keen Year End

The highlights and final report card from Keen's Kindergarten year with Miss Buker!