St. George

Nick had to go to Wood Badge all last week so I decided to take the kids and go down to St. George to see my parents. This is the first time I drove the 4 hours all by myself and it went really well both ways. Both times we stopped in Fillmore at the Maverick for frozen yogurt and to play on the playground. While at my parents we swam, shopped, hiked, went out for dinner, and played. The kids saw lizards, roadrunners (meep meep), mice, frogs, bats, and other fun animals. It was so nice to get away and see my parents. We love you guys!

Maddie used to like to say that she was heavy and Grandma would say "no you're a peanut". I started calling her a bugaboo, but I guess she wants to be called a peanut as you can see in this video.

Lagoon

About a week ago my 2 sisters and our families went to Lagoon together. It turned out to be a really nice day and was not crowded at all. We went swimming for a while and then went on rides. Aubrey was tall enough so she went off with her aunt and uncles for most of the day (that is why there aren't many pictures of her). Isaac was 3 inces too short to go so he stayed and went on rides with my older sister, her kids, and me. Isaac and Maddie were tall enough for the rapids where they both got soaked. My younger sister and I had to throw ourselves over Maddie so she wouldn't get as soaked as we did. She still got wet, but not as wet as Isaac. We arrived at the park around 11:30am and didn't leave until it closed at 10:00pm. It was a fun day, but I was ready for bed by the end (actually by about 4:00pm). Right before we left I let Isaac try a carnival game where you throw darts at balloons. He popped one on his first try and won a stuffed orange star! Go Isaac. I love that my sisters live close to me. Now we just need to get my parents even closer :)

Training Wheels

Isaac finally decided that he is ready to learn to ride his bike without training wheels. He is getting pretty good and it, but we realized he needs a bigger bike! He has a hard time going fast enough on his little bike.

Camping

I guess I really can't call this post camping. We went to our ward's camp out on the 24th, but only stayed for dinner and games. We decided that with just getting home from Idaho and having soccer the next morning we wanted to sleep in our own beds. The kids still had fun while there though. They got rides on a wagon, played pioneer games, and ate yummy food. We all tried to walk on stilts and guess who was able to stay on the longest...

Rachie Graduates!

On July 23rd my little sister graduated from BYU-I (Idaho) in Health Science. Congratulations! Of course this was the year they had the most ever graduate during the summer. Our kids were not very good during the ceremony, but who really likes sitting through those things anyways (especially when they are at 8:00pm). We then stayed the night at my other sister's house (thanks again Shauna).

Wayyy Behind...Mother Daughter Luau

The Relief Society in our ward (church) had a Mother Daughter Luau a few weeks ago. We had very yummy food and lots of fun. Maddie made a new friend while there. She adopted and took home the pink flamingo that was used in the pictures.

California

So this post will be out of order, but I really wanted to get these pictures on here so my family could see our old house in Brentwood.

This last Thursday I was able to get away (thanks to Nick and his parents) so that I could see old friends and go to my 10-year high school reunion. I could not believe how much my little town has changed. There are now houses and stores where fields and orchards used to be (very sad). The minute we drove on the new bypass on our way home from the airport I felt lost. While out there I did get to see friends who I haven't seen in 5 years. We ate, laughed, and ate some more (I should have taken pictures). I was also able to drive down our old dirt road (which I was amazed to see still there being that every other dirt road is now paved and goes through the whole town) and see my childhood home. The house is still the same, but there are no more trees on the 2 acres. The house that used to be in the middle of nowhere is starting to be engulfed by new much larger homes.

Our little street sign has grown much taller. View towards the old house. There used to be trees all the way down the road on the right side.
What has replaced the fields of alfalfa and corn in front of our old house.

Going towards Lone Tree (main road). Bye house :(
All I can say to describe my reunion is interesting. I think there were only a handful of us who were sober and not falling all over the place or other people. It was fun chatting with old friends at the beginning, but as the night went on no one was sober enough to really talk to anymore. I did have fun talking with my friends who were sober though (I wish more of my friends could go, but maybe they were just smarter than me and didn't want to go). I do not miss high school at all!

Me, Heidi, Erin, Daniel, and Phil

Erin and I. Thanks for going with me and being my date.