Boondocks!

My kids have begged me to go to Boondocks all summer! They love that place! As luck would have it Luke won 2 free passes (an Adult Unlimited and a Jr. Unlimited pass) from his orthodontist for having the best moustache picture - it is pretty hilarious! We finally went and spent a total of $18.00 to get the other 2 of us in. That's a great deal!!! We played the ticket and video games (skee ball is my favorite!), went miniature golfing and rode the go-karts. The greatest thing ever happened to me. I beat John (and Kaycee and Luke) at miniature golf. In all the years we have been married - I have never beat him. My game was on and I have the score card to prove it! We wanted to play laser tag too but we were so tired by the end that we decided not to wait in line for it. The kids loved it! We loved it!

24th of July Celebrations!

We started with an early morning. At 8:00am we headed over to our ward breakfast and kids bike parade. It was a lot of fun and the kids loved it! Several of our ward members dressed up in pioneer clothes. We ate pancakes, scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon and orange juice. The kids had fun decorating their bikes the night before. We had flags fall and balloons pop on the way but it was all part of the experience! After the bike parade there were pioneer game booths set up with prizes for the kids. We got our picture taken as a pioneer family which i'll have to post later after they send it to me. It was a great start to our day!



Later in the evening we hosted a barbecue with John's family at our house. It was a really nice, relaxing night and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. It was a really hot day so we made sure that we had the slip and slide turned on. There was tons of good food and lots of good conversation. Kaycee face painted all of the grandkids faces (she's the oldest grandchild and all of the little girls adore her!) and the adults played "Catch Phrase". The cousins ran around and played so good the entire time. We ended the evening with a beautiful round of fireworks done by John. It was wonderful!

Father/Son Camping!

John and Luke went on our ward father/son campout a couple of weeks ago. They had a blast making slingshots and hanging out with all the guys. Our neighbor took these great pictures and emailed them to me. I love them!:)

A.F. Carnival

Every year Grandma C. gets tickets for all of the grand kids to go to the A.F. carnival. Let's be honest and say that carnivals are 95% white trash but they are kid magnets. It's always really hot, really tiring and really fun for the kids. We make sure to wash all of our clothes when we get home.

Luke's favorite ride is always puff the magic dragon. He doesn't like his stomach to drop too much so he plays it pretty safe.

The Gravitron is always a big hit with the kids. Just the thought of how fast it spins makes John sick.

Big, bumpy, slide. I actually miss when my kids where little enough I could take them down it. It's quite fun.

OK. I hate, hate, hate the Ring of Fire. I took Kaycee, Morgan and Mckayden on it last year and thought we would die. There was no harness to hold you it - only a lap bar that had like a foot of space between in and your lap. Whenever they help you upside down you almost fell out. There wasn't a line for it when we went and so the guy kept us up there forever. I actually yelled at him to put us down. Now for the update. We noticed than this year they took the cage off the top of the seats and now actually use harnesses to hold you in. I'm sure they got a lot of complaints. Maybe now I'll go on it again someday. . . .

Don't even know what it's called but it was by far the overall favorite ride. I really like it. It swings you high up from side to side. We even talked Luke into riding on it and he loved it!

Kaycee's pretty daring and will ride most anything.

15 Year Cheer Reunion

Front Row (left to right): Terra, Tara, Jessica, Michelle, and Rebecca

Back Row: Jane, me, Maria, Megan and Kellie

Missing: Tiffany, Ellery and Janice

Last Thursday I attended my 15-year cheer reunion! YES I am really that old! It was a lot of fun!!! We met up at Brick Oven - perfect considering it's where we always ate the night before competition so we could load up on carbs. Out of the 13 of us girls who cheered together (none of the yell leaders were invited), 10 came. It was so great to see everyone. I missed our 10 year reunion and so some of the girls I hadn't seen in at least 10-12 years. Everyone looked good and the same but yet different if you know what I mean - more mature. We are all happily married with children and I think that's pretty cool. My good friend Michelle (who organized it) is having baby #6. Crazy! I am so glad we can keep in touch with each other better now thanks to the Internet. It was wonderful to catch up.

4th of July Celebrations!

This was an especially fun year for celebrating the 4th because we got to divide it up between 2 days (the 3rd and the 5th). On the 3rd we went up to John's parents mountain property. We went on a long 4-wheeler ride and enjoyed the beautiful mountains. It was truly breathtaking up there that day.

The kids practiced shooting targets. Luke is pretty much a dead eye - he's all ready to start hunting (when he's 12 or older).

Kaycee's friend Kennedy came with us and they all enjoyed swinging on the rope swings. That evening we chased all the different fireworks in our car and from our balcony. It was pretty cool to see Thanksgiving Point, P.G., and Stadium of Fire all going on at once. (Sorry no pictures).

*Totally gross side note: Kaycee got a tick on the back of her ear that we didn't find until late Sunday night (more than 24 hours later). It had started burrowing into her ear when she felt it and scratched it off. Her ear was bleeding but she got the head out and everything. John found the tick on the floor and was able to kill it. Ew!!!!!!!

On the 5th we had a fun, full day. We started early in the morning by going to watch the Freedom Festival parade. It's my favorite and comes from my home town. They really know how to celebrate the 4th of July. My cousin Adam got us awesome seats and it was really fun to be with everyone. After that my brother Jimmy was kind enough to host a barbecue at his house with some of my cousin's and their families. It was a total blast! After the barbecue we all went swimming for a couple of hours. I hate that I left my camera in the back of the car during all of this fun. I did finally remember to pull it out when it was time for the fireworks - only by that time everyone had left except for us. The fireworks show was great and we even had a few "special" firework events that were really cool thanks to a nice brother-in-law.:) We really couldn't have had a better holiday!!!

Claire, Marc, Luke and Kaycee

You've got to love this "after going swimming picture." We all look so beautiful. Tommy, me, John, Jimmy, Isabelle, Sam, Luke, Claire, Kaycee and Marc

Marc is so cute. He is Mr. Personality now. He's only 2 and yet he LOVED all the fireworks and cannons and even the sparklers.

Patriotic Luke, Sam and Kaycee.

So mesmerizing!!!