What's Going On?!

We LOVE summer. Seriously the best time of the year. 

But sometimes it is tough to find a second to come up for air! Here is what we have been up to:

Okay, honestly there has been a fair amount of this:

 And Pops insists on school work *EVERY DAY*. Really.

 But there is still a little time left for fun and imagination. 

Just in case you have been dying to turn yourself into Bat Woman.

 We have been taking full advantage of our private pool!

 And we make it over to the BIG pool for swim lessons and SPLASHING!

 We are pretty hard core, last kids in the pool.

 And we visit our favorite place too! The beach!

 First a spin on the carousel...

 Then it is FULL THROTTLE to the ocean!

 For mud baths...

 ...and surfing!

 We are getting pretty good because we practice our moves...

 ...with all our spare time!

 But it is not all fun and games. 

Sadly, we missed blueberry season. 

Not a plump juicy gem left dangling from a bush! Boo!

Pioneer Children

We may not get a day off from work, complete with swimming, BBQs and fireworks, but you just can't  take the Utah out of these kids. 

Abizella sewed a little pioneer "poppet" for the occasion (thanks Pops for the help!)

...and we waved our banner proudly for the whole world (or anyone on our street) to see.

Happy Pioneer Day!

"T" minus 18

With 18 days left until Abizella's fabulous 7th birthday, it was time to crack down and get serious. Abizella is not a girl of subtlety. Not only did Abz cut out the picture of the doll that she wants from the American Girl Doll store and pasted it to the calendar on her birthday, but at dinner she passed out "birthday assingments". Hey- why leave such important matters to chance?

Pops is responsible for picking up flowers. My duty is to provide the American Girl doll during our lunch date to the American Girl Bistro. Superkid is charged with providing a miniature sized tea set for her dolls. Tad is on the hook for a cozy pair of slippers and 'Lil Chief must bare a matching dress for her and her doll. The surprising thing really was how well the family received the orders. Everyone got their assignment on a slip of paper, read it and nodded willingly and even gratefully. No question who's in charge in this family.

Out With the Bang of the Fireworks!

Nobody wanted to go home. 

Even Tadpole who said every single day, "Mom, I miss my old life", did not want to go. 

Superkid was hit pretty hard. 

The kid would live the rest of his life in Utah if given the chance. 

But we did manage to wrangle everyone on to the airplane for our 4th-of-July-Red-Eye. 

We did have a little stomach bug heading onto the plane, but all went pretty well until we were landing in New York and Superkid blew his cookies.

 Hard. Gallons of them. 

I looked over and and wondered why Pops and Tad were so wet, and what was all that splashing? Then I saw Superkid heaving. blech. 

I would have thrown a major tantrum if I were Tad. 

He sat there drenched in vomit and just turned to look up at Pops and said, 

"Why does our family have to be so gross?". 

Seriously. 

We were the last ones off the plane. Everyone did a a complete change of wardrobe and a airport bathroom sink bath. We looked up and realized we were 8 minutes away from our next flight leaving. Happily we made it!

I bagged the crazy idea of going into work and instead we all came home and crashed. hard.

We sure do love us some Utah. 

We all decked out in our new Utah Utes duds to help us feel better. 

Can't wait to go back next year!

Thank-you Utahans for making our trip so wonderful! We love you!

It's A Tradition!

We woke up on the 4th of July with all of our Francis cousins! 

We are SO happy they came up form California to play with us.

Then we went to the annual pool party at cousin Julie's house. 

This is the 2nd year in a row we have made it. I hope we don't miss another!

Just a big old bath of family!

Glama never misses out on the fun...

And speaking of traditions, we couldn't miss out on Aunt Joan's 4th of July party!

I'm just wondering how many more years cousin Isaac is going to be giving the littles horsey rides...

One thing we can count on for sure is Grandma's home made ice cream!

...and Grandma snuggles!

Taco Tuesday

With the clock ticking on our impending departure, the kids had one last play date with Grandma Sheri while Pops and I tried to organize ourselves after 2+ weeks of fun.

But we couldn't pass up TACO TUESDAY!

 It is too rare of an invitation. 

Glama and Bampa have a standing date with Uncle D and Aunt C on Tuesday nights...

 and we actually got to join in the fun! 

This time the TACOS were really pizzas... LITZAS PIZZA!

Then we all headed down to Granite High for the fireworks. We haven't been in at least 11 years, probably longer. But we couldn't miss this opportunity to show the kids where we met...

and the swimming pool where the fireworks between Pops and I began to fly...

I even got to connect with my best friend growing up. Love you Mel!

Just like the good old days!

...and Little Chief? He is our first 2 year old that wasn't terrified by fireworks. 

Heaven help us.

Timpanogos Time!

The birthday festivities continue! 

This time we celebrated with cousin Asher who was born on Pop's 30th birthday! 

For birthday fun we decided to hike up to Timpanogos Cave with our Francis cousins.

Only the little guys decided to stay behind at Grandpa Bob's and watch Sponge Bob. 

It was definitley for the best. 

This hike may be short (3 mile round trip), but it is steep. 

Especially for us soft East coast types.

I'm telling you we were scraping the sky...

We had a few low moments, to rally the troops I would ask kids coming down the trail if the cave was worth the hike. They would all freak out and cheer the kids along. 

We gathered steam as we approached the top.

And even used the gorgeous abounding nature as an excuse to stop for a rest...

The payoff before the cave payoff was a 

BIG JUICY ORANGE. 

I've been telling the kiddos for years that oranges definitley taste better outside, 

and the BEST after a long HOT hike. 

These succulent orbs were *juice bombs*

The moment we have worked for!

The spectacular cave! The kids agree, the best formations were the cave bacon. I didn't get a good picture, probably because I was distracted by the thought of bacon. ....mmm bacon....

That evening we joined Grandma Sheri and our Bennion cousins for a birthday dinner. 

Lizzipops birthday is this week too!

Grandma took 2 for the team! Thanks for the fun dinner!

Happy Birthday Pops!

We kicked off Pop's birthday week by spending the morning playing at Grandpa Bob and Grandma Sandi's house. The fun included cake and ice cream!

We wish we could play every week!

Then it was up to Bampa and Glama's house where the party rolled on!

Lots of cousins and lots of food. My kind of party!

And Aunt Nelda stopped by for the fun too!

We topped off the evening with another GORGEOUS Utah sunset.