August

Oh I love summer, and we were able to end it with a bang.

Maggie completed her first swim lessons. She was really nervous about going into water that was above her head, but the pool had these lessons down to an art and she loved every minute of it. She has always been pretty braved with water, but wow, she learned so much and actually started to swim a bit (more of a crawl) on her own. Next time we need to do this at the beginning of the summer instead of the end.

My mom joined us for a few days, heavenly days. I so wished that she could be near us because my kids she is the best person in the world. Sam loved the one-on-one time playing catch with my mom.

Also, my mom bought the kids goggles, which was the single best thing to get both of them to put their faces in the water. Now I can't get them to stop dunking their faces in the water while taking a bath.

My mom really wanted to go to the Brigham City Temple while she was here, but of course it was closed for cleaning (every time she visited me in Lubbock the temple was closed). We went to the Ogden temple instead. I love spending time with my mom.

Maggie just had too much fun with Maggie.

I always see my friends take Sunday photos, so this is our edition. Mostly because they are so cute and walked in holding hands. How did I get so lucky?!?!

Everyday I have to tell myself that I can't eat him. I don't know why that is a real feeling but it is. He is just so cute.

We got Sam a big boy bed plus he is now potty trained. This is one of his favorite past time-reading books in his bed-and being naked just makes it that much cuter.

This month is the month that we finally get to reap in our garden. Here are my two little rabbits.

Cross dressing my have become a regular activity in our house. 

One of our friends took us to the Tree House Museum. My kids love that place. A pass there may be in the near future.

Can you see some future OBGYNs?

They are Texans, technically.

Mike bought matching cameo crocs, which Sam thinks is the coolest thing.

CDA Idaho

I have been MIA when it comes to blogging. But I made a commitment to myself that this is our family journal so even if only two people see this, I still want to do this for our little family. This was our trip to Coeur D'Alene Idaho without kids. Mike's mom was so sweet to watch our kids for a couple of days. We went up there to do a meet and greet with a job and to see all of northern Idaho. We biked the Hwiatha Trail, which is an old railroad path going down the mountain. We went through tunnels and over trestles. 

The other highlight was going on a sunset kayaking tour. It was misty going down the river into the lake, which made it picture perfect.

 And we may have ordered one of these every night.

Tulip Festival

I found these on my camera and even though I posted about the Tulip Festival during our trip to Oregon, I just loved these photos because it shows how wonderfully cousins can be. I never got to grown up near cousins so I never fully understood the magic that sparks between cousins until I watched my kids with their cousins. Because naturally all of my siblings are awesome (? on Josh) so we should therefore have awesome kids. And the matter of fact is we do (even you Josh). So there is to reminding the silliness that comes with being with family.

**Well there might be a bit of too much magic going on here. . . I just we are now kissing cousins.

Oregon

I went from blogging once a week to once a month, but I am not giving up. Here are the pictures of our Oregon trip. It was so much fun. We were debating whether to use Mike's vacation to go to Oregon in April (high chance of rain all week) or go down to Southern Utah and do some of the National Parks before it gets too hot. Boy did we make the right choice. The weather in Oregon was in the upper 70's the whole time and we couldn't get enough of playing outside.

The first day we got there, we helped my dad set up this tire swing, which was a hit among the kids.

The neighbors up the road just got a horse and goats and we went down the several times to feed Gypsy. Sam stuck sticking his finger up his nose. Go figure.

While I was out doing a photo shoot with my sister, Mike was watching the kids with my mom and  had the brilliant idea that the kids should crawl through the dark, long culvert. Definitely a dad idea.

Poor old, fat Lucy. Same thought you were a horse and Mowgli (yes, we brought the pooch with us) wanted you to play all day long. I am sure you had to sleep for two weeks straight to re-coup from our family.

 The kids always love pulling out the bow and arrow and pretend to be Merida.

We spent a whole day up in the Gorge with my mom. We visited the Bonneville Dam, Mike had a lunch date with a practice in White Salmon, and we hiked up Multnomah Falls. Here the kids are watching the fish swim through the dam because it is someone's job to not only count all the fish but to classify all the fish by breed and size that swim through the dam. 24 hours a day. I just thought that was so crazy.

 At the dam, being silly.

Mulnomah Falls, There wasn't much that I wanted to do on this trip, but this was one of them. I hadn't been here since I was in young womens. It was gorgeous, of course.

 We made it to the top, even Grandma

And of course, Grandma had to get ice cream at the end.

The other thing that I really wanted to do was go to the Wooden Shoe Tulip festival. It was so fun to meet up with Janecce and the kids there. I don't think the kids were impress with thousands of my favorite flower, but they enjoyed all the play equipment and tractors that they could run all around.

We got to spend a lot of time with Annie and her family and see their amazing little home that they rehab the whole thing.

 I guess at Annie's house, all rules go out the window. Just kidding, it is just root beer, but boy did he like that bottle.

 Hailey and Brooklyn were showing Sam how to catch a chicken. He was so funny to watch, running around and happy freaking out when he actually did catch one.

 Sam helping Grandpa getting the boat ready to take out on the lake. I don't know how we didn't get a picture of my dad or of the Silverton Reservoir, but both were amazing.

And there was a lot of goofing off time with Grandma and the cousins.

We loved the trip, so much that we are going back next month. Well, actually, my family is having a little reunion, so me and the kids are going out. I am so much more nervous about this drive as I am without a co-pilot, but it should be great.