Random Summer Happenings

Like I said before our summer quickly passed by but here are some of the random highlights along the way:

 















 I held a garage sale and a neighbor two doors down was selling this beauty so all of my earnings went to making my little ones happy.  Lexi was so surprised and she helped me wash it down.  When Danielle got up from her nap, Lexi wanted to show her and Danielle said, "Oh yeah!!!" when she saw it.  There little faces say it all.

 I took the girls to pick some blueberries with our friends the Kemps.  Lexi was no help at all, but miss Danielle was my happy helper.  Besides me standing in the middle of an ant hill and having about 20 ants on my legs, it was a great morning and we got 5lbs in about 30 minutes.

Angela helped me with my wood working skills and we built this table for the girls.  They love eating on it, and I love sending the mess outside!

I checked on Lexi one night and she had her friends lined up on each side of her, but my favorite is the strawberry shortcake coloring book that is standing in the line up too.

This was my mother's day gift this year.  I have been begging Johnny for over a year to help me with this and finally he made my wish come true.  We built the frames and put the pictures on together.  I have to admit that we get along very well, but I swear this project, I thought would be the end of us. I am glad we made it through it.  The girl's love them and are always laughing at the silly faces.

For the last 8 years I have had on and off back pain.  I have been to 6 different doctors over the years and no one could ever solve the mystery.  My back was hurting constantly for over 3 weeks before I finally decided to try another Dr, who happens to be my home teacher.  He tried a few things and with no success,  then he agreed that I should do an MRI. I have asked 3 of my previous doctors and none thought I needed one.  Well lesson learned, stick up for yourself. I did indeed has issues and it turned out I have 2 herniated discs. So for the next 4 weeks I spent almost everyday hooked up to this beauty. This was my happy face on my last day.  Sad news for me that was not my only issue.  I also have bad muscle spasms and in my lower back I have some ligaments that cannot be repaired.  So the end results, I have less pain than before, but I will have to learn how to deal with the lower back pain for the rest of my life.

I finally after 7 yrs of living in the Tri-cities, I finally hiked Badger Mountain.  It is about a 3 miles hike total.  I was so glad I finally did it and I plan on doing it again.  We are showing off our guns!

It was a fantastic summer and it was so fun with having my girls a little older and are capable of doing some more things.  Good-bye summer...until next year.

Reno trip 2012



We decided to spend our summer vacation in Reno this year.  Wendy let us stay with her.  My girls were so excited to play with Juliana and Marissa.  Lexi formed a bond with Marissa last October but unfortunately she had girls camp this week, so we didn't get much time her, but did we had lots of fun with Juliana.  Now she is Lexi's new best friend and it helped she had tons of little pet shops that she let Lexi play with. 

 



Johnny made a new buddy too with Joseph.

We met as many of the family as could one night at a park for a picnic.  The kids all played while the adults talked and caught up on life.

Now these two guys I have been waiting a long time to meet. This one I believe is Brett with Wendy.

And Luke with Grandma! (sorry Jen if I am wrong)  They are so adorable and I was so happy they let me hold them as much as I wanted without fussing.  They are such good boys!

One of my favorite places when I was young was going to a casino called Boomtown.. They have arcade games, 3D rides, and a mini golf course.  BUT unfortunately it has gone way downhill since the last time, but I think the girls still had a pretty fun time.

 

I wanted to show the girls where we got married.  We took a 7yrs later picture.  If I ever can get my scanner to work I will have to upload the picture from our wedding.  We took a lot of awesome pictures of the temple, and if we ever edit them, we will upload them too. :)

Also we spent another fun filled day at another favorite spot Lake Tahoe.  Mary, Mom, William and Juliana joined us for the day.

This cracks me up because Danielle really wanted to be buried but she was so ticklish, that she kept moving so she never got fully covered but she loved every minute of it.

I took Danielle out on a floaty in the water and a guy with his little boy said "I didn't know there was sand monsters out here." It was hilarious but what was even more funny was they also buried Uncle William in the sand, but when he came out he really looked like a sand monster because he was covered! Danielle was freaking out because she didn't want the sand monster to get her. She was really worried.

We went to the property with the family to place Dad's plaque in a special spot at the property. It was a very hot day but it was fun to be there together again.

Steph, Jen and I.  One of these days will get a picture of the three of us without one of you bending over.  I guess we need to plan a step stool or something. :)

I attempted to get a game of wiffle ball going but because it was so hot, no one wanted to join. But Lexi had some fun and Danielle got some coaching from Errol.

Our cheerleaders!

 









 One day we took the girls and Juliana to the water park.  We don't have one near us so this was a first for them.  Lexi went on the slide right away and probably went down a thousand times.





 Danielle on the other hand was a little wimp and a extreme grump.  She finally to a power nap and was gold after that.  Juliana was so great to take her down the slides and anywhere she wanted to go.

Also we of course did some shopping.  I just LOVE this picture.  A few months ago, I noticed Danielle doing these different facial expressions and are totally the same exact ones that Juliana does, which is so funny because we don't live by her.  Even Johnny could see it too, they could be twins I swear.  Juliana was an amazing help with playing with the girls and helping them do things while we shopped and did whatever else.  I wanted to bring her home with me forever. 

 Fishy faces!

On the drive down there was tons of dirt devils through the areas that have recently been burned.  It was crazy how big there were.  We drove through one and it was nuts.  We also experienced some nickle sized hail.

We like always ate a lot of great food, visited with the family and had lots and lots of fun. Wendy and I had a lot of late nights which pretty much left me wiped out for the next week, but it was well worth the great memories made.

Thanks for the great times everyone, miss you already.

Summer Splash

Once again this summer has flown by.  We did keep ourselves very busy with over 6 weeks of swimming lessons.  The pretty much consumed my life this summer.

 

This was Danielle's first year of lessons.  It started out rough....I mean really rough.  She cried EVERY SINGLE DAY and THE WHOLE ENTIRE LESSON for over a week.  Every morning she screamed "I want my daddy" which she does when she wants to get out of something, even though daddy is a little meaner than I am.  One day we called Johnny before we went to swim lessons and I told him he must tell her she has to be a big girl and not cry, and she didn't.  From then on it was night a day different in how well she did.  And she did end passing level one! Yahoo



 



 She was always freezing that girl! Probably because she has no meat on her bones.

 

 

 

Lexi started out in level 2 this year. She did really awesome and learned many new things.  Which included, treading water, diving, swimming under water and the back and breast stroke.  She was struggling getting the breathing part but she did awesome.  She now always wants me to catch her off the diving board, which means she jumps off and swims a few feet to me. She too passed her level and next year moves up to level 3. 



 Here are some of our lesson buddies but we are missing Tanner. :(

We also spent of course many of our days doing the slip and slide.  This is a picture of my nephew Collin.  Him and his parents are living with us for a few weeks in between going back to school.

 And who could resist this little chicka?

 We had a lot of water fun this year between the pool, slip and slide and many trip to the water spray parks. I am so proud of my girls for trying new things and succeeding in learning how to swim.

Oh yeah and we did squeeze in an occasional work out with daddy! :)