Summer Fun

Don't you just love Summer time? Swimming, boating, camping, vacations, the great outdoors? I absolutely loooove summer time! And I have really been enjoying EVERY single second this year. I keep thinking of all those LONG winter months ahead and it makes me want to do more outdoors:) I hate being cooped up for so many months...hopefully someday we will move somewhere were it isn't so freakin' cold in the winter and we can enjoy the outdoors year round! Wouldn't that be nice?? In the meantime.... here are a few fun things we just did... in the great outdoors:

Last week I headed up the canyon ...

I had such a great time playing kickball...

Barbequing

Roastin' marshmallows

And just plain having fun...really wish you all had been there, it was seriously soooo fun!!

Don't you just love the canyon??

I am SUCH a nerd, I know, but we really thought it was funny at the time - hahaha!

But for real... I took Alan and the kids too and we invited our dear, dear friends...the Dorny's.

Oh what fun we had...

I'm pretty sure that the guys were there too, but apparently we were too busy having our own little PHOTO OP to take any pics of them!

I heart my watch

I just had to share this with y'all! I found this DARLING watch through Stacia and I ended up ordering it online. It is called a Bumbles and I really think it was a good deal for how friggin' cute it is! I mean, isn't it so cute? I want to get another band, maybe with red in it!

So long, farewell

This week was a sad one when we had to say goodbye to some dear friends of ours...the Crossley's. They packed up and headed to Montana on July 18th!! We will miss them so much. Especially Summer who lost her Best Friend Mackenzie! And Hallie STILL asks to play with Alexiss!! When is she gonna realize that gone forever, means GONE FOREVER??

Hopefully we will stay in touch forever and do boating trips at Flaming Gorge every Summer. We have a lot of good memories with the Crossley's. I'm pretty sure they make me laugh harder than anybody I have ever met!

Summer & Mackenzie Hallie & Alexiss

Stacey & Eric (otherwise known as Beebo)

You guys Rock! We will miss you!

And I will get a picture of James on here...

As a silly side note...my kids think that the Crossley's moved to "Hannah Montana"... way cute!!

Arthur Family Reunion

So... at Alan's family reunion we went fishing at a fish hatchery in Kamas. It was the first time I have EVER caught a fish. I DO NOT have the patience for fishing. I have tried twice before, but seriously, who can stand waiting THAT LONG doing NOTHING until a tiny little fish decides to bite your line?? Seriously, don't I have better things to do?? I am totally the same with golfing. How do they sit and wait so long? Just SITTING there?? I will never understand it.

So when they said fishing, I had my doubts, but I thought the kids would like it, so we tried it out. And the fish hatchery is the ONLY way I will fish. I couldn't believe how quick we ALL caught fish! It was express fishing at its finest! So, for all you busy people out there...it's the only way to go... so you can get to doing whatever it is that you really NEED to do!!

As a funny side note...there is nothing funnier than your kids walking up to a bucket with a live fish in it to look inside and seeing their reaction when the fish literally JUMPS out of the water onto the ground... I have never seen Hallie jump so high!! Good times...

4th of July 2008

Can you believe these pics??? My way talented little sista Elli took these with the camera I totally covet!! She has a gift and I am so jealous!! But it's a good thing she brought her camera because like a dummy - I lost mine (which I later found RIGHT next to my computer-LOL).

My pregnant Sexy Hot sister and her family came out for the holiday and we had so much fun! It was probably the best time we have had with them out here. I was sooo sad to see them leave! My kids love their kids and we love them, so it's so fun to visit each other. We started the day off with Alan running in the freedom festival 10k and me and Summer ran the 5k! It was way fun and I am so proud of her!! Then we went boating all day with the Hugh's and then had a jummy barbeque at home with my parents.

I love holidays!!

June... In a Nutshell

We had family night up in the Canyon with Summer's friends McKell and Mackenzie. We started out with a BBQ, climber some rocks, played some soccer, and ended the night with a bike ride up to Bridal Veil Falls. It was a great night!

We went to the Springville Arts Festival with Stacia and Sandee. It didn't turn out to be all we had expected and it was a hot, but we had a great time sitting in the shade, eating pizza, and visiting. We also ran into Tanya Roylance (who really needs to get a blog going - heehee). In case you are wondering, Jaxon's face paint is spider man, Hallie's is Ariel, and I think Sydnee's is Piglet?? Any who, the kids had fun!!

So, you could probably say that I am creating monsters. My girls love to shop as much as I do! And that's scary!! This day in June we headed to the Mall with guess who... McKell and Mackenzie! These girls have become inseparable. It's a good thing that I love them to death too! They are so fun to have around. Alexis also came to hang out with Hallie.

This is Tyson with Grandma Audrey. She is Alan's grandma and we love her to death. Tyson practically crushes her frail little frame, so she couldn't really hold him for long, but long enough to get a cute pic! Tyson was really mesmerized by her too, it was cute!

Chamber group

Orchestra class

June ended with Suzuki String Institute (Violin camp). It was a long week, but it was also an amazing week! We always have so much fun and I am continually amazed at how good the kids are there. Institute is all day everyday for a week and you have anywhere from 3-7 classes a day - we had 6 classes this year, so it was a packed day. This was Summer's third year at institute and she was finally old enough to be in a chamber group. We were so excited! It was a group of eight 9 year olds and they played a double quartet . It was freaking amazing looking around the group and thinking...these are 9 year olds! They were so good. Can't wait for institute next year, especially because it will be Hallie and Jaxon's first year!

...And that's June!!

May in a Nutshell

All right fellow bloggers, in an attempt to get "caught up" on my blogging, I am bringing to you the first (in probably many to come) of the "Nutshell" series. Because lets face it, I am awful about keeping up on my blog and then I get so far behind and I find myself wanting to post something that happened today, but I feel like I can't, because then it won't be in order... So, I just don't post anything at all. It's a vicious cycle really that I am hoping to get rid of by doing thees "In a Nutshell" posts. I hope there won't be many, but we ALL know there probably will.


So, I hope you all enjoy:)

We started out with my 28th Birthday!! It was an incredible day. I had lunch with friends and ate from the yummiest place in Springville (or anywhere else for that matter)... "The Trolley". Then Alan gave me a sweeeet Road Bike! I was totally shocked and excited. I can officially say I am addicted to biking now! I love it. Now I can train with a friend for a triathlon(any takers).
Then we had dinner at Tucano's which I wait all year to go to. It is my favorite restaurant, but way too expensive to go to often. We took the kiddos and Andres and Sandee met us there. It was a blast. Unfortunately, I have no pics of that fabulous day, but I had to share it with y'all!

Barbara, Sandee, Kallie, Me, Stacia

The next weekend we did a birthday slumber party for me and Kallie and that was a blast from the past. We always manage to end up dancing - this time it was Pole Dancing (poor, poor, passers by who had to see that). But we had a great time together!

My little "twins" had their Mother's Day program at school. They sang 2 little songs with actions for their Moms. It was cute.

Hallie learns to ride without training wheels in "little less than half an hour". I attribute her quick success to being highly skilled on her scooter first!

Hallie had her very first Dance Recital! She was a flamingo (in case you were wondering about the interesting costume) in the Carnival of the Animals Ballet. She takes dance at The Pointe and we really love it there. She pretty much stole the show with how small and darling she looked up there. And then she ran across the stage TWICE by herself before the finale trying to figure out were exactly she belonged. The crowd loved it. Way to go Hallie!!

Mrs. Schaack Mrs. Mulliner

Hallie and Jaxon enjoyed their last day of school and they will miss their teachers so much! But Hallie will have Jaxon's teacher next year so we are thrilled! They had such amazing teachers this year and we loved them each so much!

And finally... Violin recitals!! Summer played in 3 group numbers: "Concerto for two Violins" by Bach (otherwise known as the Bach Double), "Concerto for four Violins" by Telleman, and then a fiddle piece called "Cabbage" which Hallie also tried to play in. Summer also played a duet with her teacher "La Cumparsita" - which is an Argentine Tango that my parents really loved! This was Hallie's 2nd recital and she played the entire "Tucka Tucka Stop Stop" version of" Twinkle, twinkle little star". I was so proud of her for being so brave in front of all those people!

Jaxon skipped this recital, because he had MONO!!! What?? Do little kids really get Mono? ... Yes. Yes they do. Poor Jaxon! At least it wasn't leukemia, which is what the doctors first thought he had! Mono sounds way better then Leukemia, don't you think? And right before we left to Maui! Thanks so much Sandee for taking him anyway and Mom & Stacia for taking him for a couple days too! You guys made that vacation possible and I am sooo grateful!

...And that's May!!