Swimming with Friends

Yesterday we met up with Kenny & Susan at the Spanish Fork pool for an afternoon of swimming! It was so much fun, and our first time out this summer.
Here is Mara and Livvy. They are so cute together, and about 3 1/2 months apart in age. They had a great time together in the shallow end :)


Next we have Micah. He was asleep when they got to the pool and napped in the shade for about 10 minutes :)

There is a fairly big waterslide and Xander was really anxious to go on it, but he had to be with an adult, so he and daddy went on the slide! They had Kenny & Livvy right behind them!




After the Slide! And wanting to go again!
They went down the slide 4 times!
Livvy did great on the slide, but was done after the first time!








We had our stuff by the fence that seperated the pool from the High School, (at least I think it was the HS), on the other side of the fence were 4 seagulls, just hanging out. The kids had a fun time watching them.

One last picture before going home!














Xander has come a long way from the past few summers. He has always been shy of the water and is usually really clingy in the pool, but he did great yesterday! I hope this is the beginning of a fun summer at the pool. (We'll see how many times we go, LOL)

Thanks again guys for inviting us, we had a great time.

A Jumble of Events

I feel like I am so behind on blogging. I guess that's what I get for only posting once a week. Note to self: post more often!
Anywho, last week was my nephew Maddox's First Birthday! I can't believe that he is one already. What's even weirder is that I blogged about his birth! He is so fun to be around and brings so much joy into the family, come on, what baby doesn't!? I was able to go over for a little bit of his birthday party on the 19th. I took about 10 pictures of him and this was the best that I got. He was being a big stinker and wouldn't smile for anyone! What a 1 year old! At least he was happy for his mom, you can see pics on her blog here.

I wasn't able to stay long at his party because my cousin Jen was in town! She is my only cousin on my dad's side, so when she is here, we for sure get together. It was great seeing her and her family, they live in Cali so we don't see them very often. So I rushed home to hang with my family. It was great to be together! We got a fun picture of Grandma Joan's great-grandkids.
L to R: Conli, Mara, Sawyer, Ben, Xander, Max, James & Samantha (Sam)

And Lisa had a good idea to get a pic of all the actual grandkids (minus Pat, he was working)







And I just have to add these 2 pics of kids. So after we went to the cabin, Max and Conli stayed and played for a little bit. So we all went outside to play and I got these cute pics.
Mara and Conli on the tire swing. Which Mara hates actual swinging, but loves to sit on them all. But whenever I help her on a swing she says "Don't push, don't push" and puts up her hand! She is such a scaredycat!!

Then there are the boys! They get on this glider swing and catch air! They love to swing big!

It's Cabin Time :)

2 weeks ago, we tried going to our cabin to open it up for the season. (Which is really late this year, we usually can get down the end of April or the first of May but it's been to wet this year.) It had been really rainy, but we tried anyway. Needless to say it was too muddy to get up the canyon, so we had some lunch at T-Cee's (the best food in Fairview!) and came home. My sister has pictures from that trip on her blog here.
So here we are 2 weeks later, the weather has been dry, so we ventured down again on Wednesday with much success this time :) It was great because we left at 7 am and got home by 2 pm!

Here is a picture of the outside of the cabin. It's in Fairview, about an hour south. It is so great to be able to go there and get away from the world. My parents would spend a lot of time down there once it was finished. My dad started building the cabin in the summer of '96. I met Pat that next year, and he was able to help my dad put up the wall paneling and insulating. It's good that Pat and I would go with my parents alot, because my Dad taught Pat how to take care of it.

Here is a pic of Pat "in the hole". The water pump is under the cabin. Yes, we have running water in a wonderful Kitchen and Bathroom :) We just have to haul water up from the base of the resort, and our cabin is about 4 miles up, so it takes time :) While Pat and Brent did the water, Karri and I cleaned. There are always tonz of dead bugs to vacuum up, but this year we moved the couches (I don't know why we don't do this every year) And the bugs were everywhere, so so gross!! We moved all the couches and beds and are happy to report that the cabin is bug free and the cleanest it's been in years!!!!

Here are Conli, Mara, Max, and Xander playing in "Yellowstone" which is what Max called the little tree area near the driveway. We have put cement blocks down so a table and chairs can be there, and even a hammock!!

Here they are on the deck. I don't know why Mara always has to have her arms stretched out to take a picture. It's a new occurrence. LOL

Before we left we set up Karri's camera and got a group shot on the deck! We have many pictures on this deck throughout the years. It's fun to see how much the family has changed.
Top: Max, Karri, Mana, Xander
Middle: Brent, Me, Pat
Bottom: Conli, Mara




This was a really quick trip, just to open it up, get the water tank filled, and to clean. So next time it's just going to enjoy it!! I LOVE this cabin. I can't help but think about dad whenever we are there. He put so much work into it, and would spend every moment he could down there. There is a really neat fishing display that he made on the main wall, I will have to take a picture of it the next time we go down. I am hoping that we can go down alot this summer, it's so great to get away and there is even a pool at the base of the resort!! It's just hard to find the time to do everything that we want because Pat always works weekends :( I guess we will be doing mid-week trips. If anyone wants to come with, the invitation is open :)

Summerfest

Saturday was the Orem Summerfest!! It's a great way to start off the summer. There are booths to eat at and buy things, and even a fun carnival (I passed on all of them this year). But I didn't miss the Parade! Thanks again Lisa for putting your blanket down early! Pat had to work, so it was me and the kids, My mom was watching my niece Sawyer for the afternoon while Lisa took Max and Conli on the rides, and Karri came over too. So we all went to the parade and met up with Lisa, Max, Conli, JD & Chris!!! It was alot of fun to be there and see how excited the kids got with all the different things going on. After the parade, we headed over to our usual spot for fireworks "under the scoreboard". We have "camped" there for years :) The fireworks for Summerfest are some of the best around. There is never a lull, they just keep going and going! It's a good 15 minutes of constant fireworks :) There were so many pictures that I wanted to post so I made a slideshow instead! Enjoy!!!

Happy Birthday Morri!

We got together last night at Lana's house (Pat's sister) for a celebration of his brother Morri's birthday. Her friend made this cute airplane cake for him. He is a pilot for SkyWest, and just made Captain!! So it was a double celebration :) Here he is with his cake!

Here is a group picture of everyone that was there. Pat's sister Gwen and her 3boys. Morri & Liza and their 3 kids. Lana (who is taking the picture) & JR with their 2 boys, and us.

Mara loves her Aunt Liza, and I was able to get a really cute picture of them together!

Pat is able to juggle, he learned while working at Zuka Juice juggling oranges, and whenever he finds balls he will juggle a bit. Mara was trying to juggle too!! I got some video of them juggling, it's so cute!!! :)

Here is a second video. This is one of Pat and his nephew Jacob. Jacob has been learning to juggle and can even juggle 4 balls, and is wanting to learn rings and pins too! He is only 14, and I was in total awe of him last night. In this video Pat and Jacob are juggling together! It's pretty cool :)

Summer is coming...

I have been such a slow blogger lately. Last Wednesday the 4th, it was time to cut Pat's hair and we decided to give Xander "the summer hair cut" aka: the buzz cut. It's so nice to not have to worry about combing his hair everyday. This picture is right after Pat was done with him.

Lately Mara has been getting in the rocking chair and singing "Rock-a-bye baby" to her bear or Minnie mouse. I have yet to get a video of it, because whenever she sees me with a camera she will stop and say "cheese". So at least I got a picture of her in the chair :)

Pat is a major popsicle lover. I have to buy popsicles year round!! The best ones out there are Pace Bars, they have awesome flavors like blue raspberry and tiger's blood. And the kids love to have bites of daddy's popsicles. They will usually come running when they see him with one :) Mara especially loves "pop-ick-les"

This is just a sweet picture of Mara. She put her blanket on all by herself and was walking around like this. So cute with all the tassels around her face.

A B C D's

Sorry for the amount of posts today, I haven't blogged in a week or so and I'm going through pictures and videos of the last week.

I caught Mara singing the ABC's and after about 3-4 videos I got a really good one. :)

Just a fun picture of me and my girl!!

Whenever someone lays on the floor, Mara has to climb on them! And this time I had my camera with me so I was able to get a cute pic :)

Here is Xander and Pat playing baseball!! We found this really nice lightweight bat and ball set at Walmart. This is the best video, he hit 2 balls!! Mara is funny in the background. She liked laying on the cement!

Pat decided to comb Xander's hair into a mohawk!

Memorial Day

The Sunday before Memorial Day my mom, Xander, Mara and I all went up to the Orem cemetary to put flowers on my dad's grave. It was so beautiful to see so many flowers!! It's nice that he is buried so close, but I really don't go very often, which is ok. I think of it as the fact that I have dealt with his death and have moved on, so why visit the cemetary, right? Anyway, we took some pics quickly before it rained :)

My mom and the kids at my dad's grave.

My kids at my grandfather's grave. Which is interesting, because it is only about 5 or 6 graves away from my dad's! So we don't have to go in search of it :)

For Memorial Day the city puts up flags for everyone buried in the cemetary that served in the armed forces! So there is always a flag for my grandpa. We didn't have to search for this one much either. I guess it's nice to have a last name that is towards the end of the alphabet!!

Wii are Fit

We are lucky enough to be living with my mom, and she has a Wii that we can enjoy on a regular basis! And she decided to get the new WiiFit game and board! We have enjoyed it alot (I do it every day and am a master at the hula hoop) Mara likes to think that she can play the games, so we usually let her walk around with a remote minus the batteries, or a nunchuck! When we got the board she automaticlly had to step on too! Karri was quick enough to get some pictures of her on it while I was making dinner. :) She is just so cute!

I also have a video of Xander doing the short distance running. It is his favorite thing to do, and pretty much all he will do :)