Ruth's Birthday

This picture is from Ruth's birthday last year.  I am SO glad that we were able to spend that day with her celebrating her birthday.  We went out to eat, we got pedicures, and the whole family got together for cake and ice cream.

This year we honored the tradition.  We went out to eat, we got pedicures...and we missed her.  That night the whole family got together at the cemetery.  We wrote messages to her on little pieces of paper and tied them to balloons.  Then we sang Happy Birthday and let them go. It was a nice way to spend her birthday.

Happy Birthday, Ruth!  We love you!

Our Own Personal Club

Still not sure exactly how this happened...but I know who was responsible....



And who WASN'T supervising them when it happened...(David....) Anybody know how to fix a light??

Labor Day

Labor Day weekend, Amber invited us to Thatcher. We couldn't go for the whole weekend, but Sunday after church we took off. We never made it to Thatcher for the temple open house or dedication, so our first stop was the temple...it was locked.
So we walked around the locked gate, took a few pictures, and headed to Amber's house.
We had a fun night at Amber's house eating apple crisp and playing Pit (after we put the kids to bed)!
On Monday we planned to go up on the mountain. I am cursed...I'm not kidding. Every time I go to Thatcher with a plan in mind to go to the mountain, it rains. No joke. And this time was no exception. It rained the whole drive up, then it hailed. It was drizzling when we got there, 5 minutes later it POURED! We sat in the cars and waited for it to stop....
My mom tried and tried, but couldn't get a good picture of us...
After waiting and waiting, it finally let up a little so Travis played waiter for us and brought us lunch over from Amber's van. After lunch the rain actually stopped! The sun came out and we had a nice afternoon. We took the kids on a pretty hike by a stream...David, Gina, Travis and Josh had some fun shooting bottles and cans...and, of course, everyone (except me) took lots and lots and lots of pictures.
I did my usual and stole everyone else's pictures when we were done. :)
We also attempted to get a picture with all of us together. It's...not great...but here we are!
Even thought the mountain trip didn't go as planned, we were still happy we got to spend part of our holiday weekend with family we love!

35!

Here's how I feel about my birthdays...

 But I try and pretend for the sake of others.

Despite my bad attitude, I had a nice day...lunch with my sister-in-laws, a party with my family, a visit from Gina and Travis, a nice long conversation with Amber (it was her birthday too)...and ice cream cake!

Happy Birthday to me....

We have a teenager! (oh noes)

Poor Spencer! He wanted a birthday party on his birthday. Instead he had to go on a scout camp out/canoe trip. His mean, mean mom forced him to go have fun! But we did have a mini party for him before he left...
...and a big party Sat. night after he got home! Lots of presents, treats, aunts, uncles and cousins! It was awesome!

Back to School

It's that time of year again! Woo hoo!! Spencer started 7th grade...Middle School! He left first, and like the good mother (and photographer) that I am, I forgot to take a picture of all of them together...of course.
(it's kind of our tradition to park at the church on the first day of school, it's farther away, but there's always parking there. This year Preston and Ryan wanted a picture with the church in the background, because "it's a latter day saints church.")
David dropped Spencer off that morning...but I got him when he got home!

San Diego...Day 2

A few more pictures of the view from our balcony
We crammed as much into this day as we could. First stop, Point Loma Tidepools. The tide was too high for much exploring, but we still found some cool stuff to look at and had lots of fun!
Spencer trying to wash the sand out of his shoes...
It's pink!
Next we hit Birch Aquarium.
We love aquariums! And we had lots of fun playing in the tide pools there too.
Goofy kids!
After the aquarium, Gina and Travis had to leave, but we got one picture of almost all of us before they left. I'm SO glad it worked out that we could all go on this trip together!! It was so nice to have a FUN family vacation together!
We had been hoping to be able to squeeze in the Air Craft Carrier Museum before dinner, but we ran out of time. So we ate dinner beside it, then let the kids run around in the park for a few minutes and look at it.
Then it was time for Amber and Josh to go home. We weren't quite ready to go yet...so we headed back to Coronado for ice cream. We got there very close to sunset, so we made one more trip to the beach.
We got ice cream at a little place with plastic cows in front of it called Moo Time Creamery. It was pretty crowded, so I didn't get a picture. The kids, of course, loved it. Preston has been wishing for a Moo Time Creamery in Phoenix ever since we left. After we ate our ice cream, it was pretty late and we considered staying one more night. It was REALLY tempting! But we decided to go...so we very VERY reluctantly headed home.