Well here it is, the night before school starts. Summer has just flown right on by! I have been terrible about blogging this summer, so I decided to just do one huge blog documenting some of the fun things that we did. So here goes!
We tried to stay busy going to lots of different parks. Our ward has an awesome playgroup so that made planning easy! One of our favorites is Belleview Park. It has a fun train to ride, a petting zoo, and a little creek that the kids love to wade in. Unfortunately I only got a few pictures, which is what I am discovering as I go through and edit all of the pictures from this summer. Here is Tori as the petting zoo, and then, Alexis, Levi and Tori riding on the train.
We loved going to different sprinkler parks with friends. One of our favorites is Civic green Park. They have a really fun park for the kids to play at, a little creek that is chemically treated that the kids love, and then a great area with fountains that the kids could play in forever. We frequented this park quite a few times this summer.
We were able to go to Pirates Cove twice this summer. It has a great swimming area for the kids, a huge sand area, three big slides, and a lazy river. The first time we went AJ and Cindy were visiting. Somehow we all ended up in the sand area for quite some time. We had a blast building sandcastles. AJ and Brandon enjoyed it a little too much I think. They stayed in there long after we headed back to the pool, building a "drip castle" After they were finished with it, Brandon stayed with it, so no one would wreck it, while AJ came and found us to come take a picture. When they finally decided to leave the sand area, they talked some poor little kid into guarding it to make sure no one knocked it down =) Talk about two kids at heart =)
No summer would be complete without swimming lessons! I signed them up for a session near the end of summer. The first day Levi cried and cried and refused to get in. The next day he was fine, and couldn't get enough!
Last year our goal with Tori was to get her to put her head under the water. What a difference a year makes! This summer she was our little fish! She loved going swimming so much, and even learned to swim unattended! The highlight of swimming lessons for her was going off the diving board for the very first time!
Alexis learned how to swim pretty well last year, but we decided to put her back in swimming lessons so she could freshen up and learn some new strokes. Her favorite park of swimming lessons was learning how to dive.
Should I dive off the diving board??
Nah I think I'll just jump! =)
It wasn't all fun this summer. Unfortunately the stomach bug hit our house halfway through. I couldn't resist snapping this picture of Tori asleep on the couch with her "throw up bowl"
Our favorite part of the summer was our family reunion in Lava Hot Springs Idaho. This may sound lame, but family reunions are one my favorite vacations to take. I love my family and extended family and we always have such a blast hanging out. This reunion was my mom's dad's side of the family. I haven't been to one of these since high school, but since my mom and my aunt were in charge, they talked all of us kids in coming, and we are so glad we did. The first night Brandon, Katie, Michael and the kids decided to go wading in the river. At least that's what it started out to be. It ended turning into a full on swim for some of them!
There was a really small little barn at the place where the reunion was held. There were some baby bunnies, and the kids absolutely loved holding them. They spent quite a bit of time here. At the end of the reunion the lady who owned them decided to offer to give all the kids who wanted one, a free bunny. Alexis and Brandon thought this was so great, and were so excited until I stepped in and crushed all of their dreams. I said there was no way we were getting another pet! I am such a mean mom aren't I. We all know who always ends up taking care of pets after the excitement of a new animal wears off.
While we were at the reunion, my parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary! We were so excited that we were there to help them celebrate and decided to plan a little surprise. Before the reunion I ordered a cake that had one of their wedding pictures, and then a more recent picture on it. We surprised them with it at the reunion along with a little game to see how well they new each other after all these years. It was similar to the Newlyweds game. I am proud to report that they know each other quite well!
Since Kristalyn, David and the boys moved to Utah, our kids have really missed each other. It was so much fun for them to be able to see one another, and play. After they moved it took several weeks for Levi to stop asking if Mason was coming, every time we went somewhere. After we returned home from the reunion it started up again. They are such good buddies.
I didn't get pictures of everything we did while we were there, but one of the big events of the week was jumping off of a 40 foot platform into a pool. There was a huge pool, with lots of slides, diving boards, and three platforms that you could jump off of. We drove by a few times before going, and saw the platforms. Brandon's mom told us that when she was in high school, she went to Lava Hot springs and to that pool. She said that she climbed all the way to the top, saw how far down it was, and turned around and went down. Well, Brandon was determined to get me to jump. Him and AJ jumped first. They were pretty scared, and it looked pretty terrifying, so I though Brandon would give up on trying to make me jump. Wrong! He dragged Katie and I up there, and we did it. Not before signing our lives away on a waiver though. I have to tell you, I found absolutely no pleasure in that jump. I was terrified the whole way up, and for the whole time waiting in line. I think I might have even cried a little! They let two people jump at the same time, so Katie and I jumped together. I tried to go in as straight as possible, but at the last second I bent backwards a little and landed in a semi seated position. Katie did the same. It hurt!! I ended up severely bruising my tailbone. I couldn't sit for long periods of time, for weeks, I still feel a little bit of pain, even though it has been nearly two months. Looking back, it wasn't even fun! But at least I did it!
Brandon ended the summer with a bang yesterday, by going sky diving! Stay tuned to a post dedicated to that!
Well that concludes my summer recap. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I am glad that I captured the ones I did. Now on to a new school year!
Last year our goal with Tori was to get her to put her head under the water. What a difference a year makes! This summer she was our little fish! She loved going swimming so much, and even learned to swim unattended! The highlight of swimming lessons for her was going off the diving board for the very first time!Alexis learned how to swim pretty well last year, but we decided to put her back in swimming lessons so she could freshen up and learn some new strokes. Her favorite park of swimming lessons was learning how to dive.Should I dive off the diving board?? Nah I think I'll just jump! =)Every Tuesday, all the Foothills pools have 2.00 admission. Every week we tried to head to one of them. They have some really fun pools, and this is something that the kids looked forward to doing every week. They knew that every Tuesday was pool day, and they didn't let me forget it!
It wasn't all fun this summer. Unfortunately the stomach bug hit our house halfway through. I couldn't resist snapping this picture of Tori asleep on the couch with her "throw up bowl"Our favorite part of the summer was our family reunion in Lava Hot Springs Idaho. This may sound lame, but family reunions are one my favorite vacations to take. I love my family and extended family and we always have such a blast hanging out. This reunion was my mom's dad's side of the family. I haven't been to one of these since high school, but since my mom and my aunt were in charge, they talked all of us kids in coming, and we are so glad we did. The first night Brandon, Katie, Michael and the kids decided to go wading in the river. At least that's what it started out to be. It ended turning into a full on swim for some of them!
There was a really small little barn at the place where the reunion was held. There were some baby bunnies, and the kids absolutely loved holding them. They spent quite a bit of time here. At the end of the reunion the lady who owned them decided to offer to give all the kids who wanted one, a free bunny. Alexis and Brandon thought this was so great, and were so excited until I stepped in and crushed all of their dreams. I said there was no way we were getting another pet! I am such a mean mom aren't I. We all know who always ends up taking care of pets after the excitement of a new animal wears off.While we were at the reunion, my parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary! We were so excited that we were there to help them celebrate and decided to plan a little surprise. Before the reunion I ordered a cake that had one of their wedding pictures, and then a more recent picture on it. We surprised them with it at the reunion along with a little game to see how well they new each other after all these years. It was similar to the Newlyweds game. I am proud to report that they know each other quite well!
Since Kristalyn, David and the boys moved to Utah, our kids have really missed each other. It was so much fun for them to be able to see one another, and play. After they moved it took several weeks for Levi to stop asking if Mason was coming, every time we went somewhere. After we returned home from the reunion it started up again. They are such good buddies.
I didn't get pictures of everything we did while we were there, but one of the big events of the week was jumping off of a 40 foot platform into a pool. There was a huge pool, with lots of slides, diving boards, and three platforms that you could jump off of. We drove by a few times before going, and saw the platforms. Brandon's mom told us that when she was in high school, she went to Lava Hot springs and to that pool. She said that she climbed all the way to the top, saw how far down it was, and turned around and went down. Well, Brandon was determined to get me to jump. Him and AJ jumped first. They were pretty scared, and it looked pretty terrifying, so I though Brandon would give up on trying to make me jump. Wrong! He dragged Katie and I up there, and we did it. Not before signing our lives away on a waiver though. I have to tell you, I found absolutely no pleasure in that jump. I was terrified the whole way up, and for the whole time waiting in line. I think I might have even cried a little! They let two people jump at the same time, so Katie and I jumped together. I tried to go in as straight as possible, but at the last second I bent backwards a little and landed in a semi seated position. Katie did the same. It hurt!! I ended up severely bruising my tailbone. I couldn't sit for long periods of time, for weeks, I still feel a little bit of pain, even though it has been nearly two months. Looking back, it wasn't even fun! But at least I did it!
Another thing I didn't get pictures of, was Brandon tubing down the river. This was the highlight of the trip for Brandon. They got to go down several mini waterfalls, and he loved it. He ended up with a few battle wounds, but still insisted that it was a blast. He took Alexis down once, and she loved it too. This was after I had made the jump, and so unfortunately I wasn't able to go, because I was hurting so bad. Maybe we will go back someday though!
All in all it was such a fun quick little trip. We can't wait until the next family reunion.
Brandon ended the summer with a bang yesterday, by going sky diving! Stay tuned to a post dedicated to that!
Well that concludes my summer recap. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I am glad that I captured the ones I did. Now on to a new school year!
Here is our family before the Baptism. It was hard to get Levi to take any pictures, so I am glad we got him to be in this one =)
Alexis is such a good example to Tori. I know that Tori looks up to Alexis so much, and is excited for her own Baptism in a few years.
Cindy and 
Katie sang the song, "Baptism" with Alexis and Tori. They practiced really hard, and they looked so sweet standing up there together. It was more like a solo for Katie, since the girls got pretty nervous, and pretty much lip synced =) But she did great and sounded beautiful.
Uncle Michael said the closing prayer. I know he was nervous, but it meant a lot to Alexis to have him say it.
Here are some close ups of the ones we displayed. There were so many that we loved, but these were our favorites 
Afterwards we had our family over to our house for a barbecue. It was really fun to be able to hang out for a while longer. Here is Alexis opening a few presents from us. A new CTR ring, and her own set of scriptures.
We didn't do a friend party this year, so I told Alexis she could plan what we did for the day. She decided she wanted to go to "The House of Bounce". 
Here is the end result. I love this picture =)
One of the bouncy things is a big maze. We spent quite a bit of time in that one. It was exhausting! Here is Levi peaking through at one point.
Brandon has been so busy with work this past week due to the recent hail storms. We have hardly seen him, so he decided to take the day off for 
On the way out we gave in and let the kids ride on the little rides that they have there.
Later that day Brandon took Alexis on a special daddy daughter birthday date. She got to pick whatever restaurant she wanted to go to and she picked, Joe's Crab Shack. Brandon and her both love crab, so this was the perfect choice. He forgot to bring the camera, and I am so sad, because it sounds like they had such a fun time! The whole restaurant sang her happy birthday, and they gave her a lei and hula skirt. They wanted her to get up and do the hula dance while they sang to her, but she opted out of that =). She came home so stuffed, that she could only eat one bite of her birthday cake! When they got home our families came over for cake, ice cream, and most importantly, presents! Here she is blowing out her candles. She was determined to blow them all out with one blow, to make sure her wish would come true =)
It was so much fun watching her open up all of her presents. She smiled so big the whole time and was so grateful for everything she got. A few months ago she saw some mood lipstick that she had to have. I kept it in the back of my mind and decided to get some for her birthday.
We had to try it out to see if it really worked! Here is Brandon putting it on. There weren't any kind of instructions telling us what each of the colors meant, but it seemed to get darker as time went on, so we think that means that she is really happy =)
If you look closely at the box that Alexis is holding you will see that it has a picture of her on it. Nana and Papa had that jewelry box made for her. Inside was a beautiful bracelet. Both the 
They also got her a fun Barbie that some with fake nails for Alexis to wear =)
Grandma, Grandpa, Katie and Michael got her a new swimming suit, sun glasses, nail polish, a cute bracelet and a slip and slide! We will be getting a lot of use out of those things this summer. The kids are already planning on playing the slip and slide tomorrow. Hopefully it won't rain!
Here is Alexis with all of her "
We had such a fun time today celebrating 
A few months ago, Brandon got out his old original 
Last father's day, Brandon's sister Summer gave us a picture that someone drew of Brandon's grandpa Bronson. Brandon's grandpa passed away last year, and Brandon has always loved this picture of him. We never had gotten it framed, because it had to be 
