Summer Fun

What a fun few weeks we've had. We started our trip by going to Otter Lake. We had fun fishing( not catching anything) and hanging by the lake. Then we went to see my sister in Utah for the Forth of July. My niece Kate had a tea party set up for my girls and som of her friends when we arrived. It was so cute! I love Utah in July. It's a little cooler, it stays light outside until the middle of the night practically, and it's fun watching all the families come in their front yards for a barbeque and fireworks! We also got to have lunch with our friends the Lightens. My parents, little sister, and my sister Alison and her kids and my family went to Hogle Zoo. It brought back some fun memories of my childhood. And it was so fun watching my kids and their cousins run around having a great time. I wish we could be with them much more. Wait a go moving away Alison! : )

We were home for a week. Just enough time for me to unpack, do laundry, and load it all up in the motor home again. We went on our annual Mission Beach trip. Ahh, San Diego's weather is the best. Coming home hurt. We had such a nice time visiting with family. My sister Kaylee even came from Wisconsin!( Congrats on the engagement!!!) Makena forgot all about us. She was strapped to her hip. We had a great time playing in the ocean, visiting La Jolla, which is beautiful, although it was freezing that particular day, and enjoying having nothing we had to do. The girls had a blast making sand castles, catching a very large crab, and laughing at Me for being bitten in the bootie by a very small crab! Ouch! Payton is such the water baby. She loved just sitting in the water playing( and occasionally eating) in the sand. All went well until our last day when Matt and Makena were riding back to the beach on our Razor motorbike. Makena had control of the gas and they crashed. She was pretty banged up. Abbrasions on her nose, legs, feet, bum, ext. Nothing like road rash. But kids are like rubber balls. She was runnin' around in no time. Although poor Matt's been left with a broken elbow. Sorry Honey.

Well it's back to real life. School starts in 6 weeks already. That's amazing! Hope everyone is having a fun, HOT Summer!

Crawl, Swim, Pierce...

Here's a few things going on in our lives the last couple weeks. Makena decided sh really wanted her ears pierced. I decided it was fine with me. She and I went on a little Mommy daughter date to get it done. She squeezed my hand, looked at me with big eyes and said ouch. That was all, no tears. They look very pretty, and she's very good at reminding me to clean them everyday. She's getting so grown up.

Much to my surprise and joy Brinley did great in swimming lessons. The first couple days she clung to me like a barnacle, but she got comfortable jumping in and going under the water pretty quickly! It really was amazing how far she came in just a couple weeks. And now she's a fish in our pool. She's not swimming totally solo, but close. Her favorite thing do is swim under the water from one person to the next. She can hold her breath for up to 15 seconds! We are so proud of her!

Payton is just about crawling. She actually has crawled 5 or 6 little strides a few times. But it's so funny, after she does, she looks at us like how did I just do that! I put a picture of our favorite new move she does. Hopefully you can tell from the picture. She puts her feet on the floor and her bum up in the air. Then she'll take a few little steps. We call it our monkey crawl. She loves to sit on the floor and play with anything in front of her. Mostly she likes putting anything in her mouth. But the days are few until she'll be chasing after me. She's growing way to fast.

We are looking forward to a much needed vacation. I think I've packed up my whole house. Packing for five is something! I can't wait to spend some fun times with my family and see my new nephew. Love to all!