Vacation?

Isn't summer supposed to be a vacation?  Why is it so stinkin busy then?  So to spare you from the 80 million (yes I counted) pictures that we have here is a super-cut-down-overview of what we've been up to for the past few weeks.  

First, it started out with a family reunion at Bear Lake with the Schick's.  (The Maughan Bear Lake reunion is next week so be excited for that post too)  We had lots of fun just being together.  Here's a shot of the whole fam in our totally awesome tie-dye shirts.  We don't even have to say we're cool, you can just tell by looking at us.  I do have to say the group is getting bigger!  In numbers....numbers people, not size.

 If you can't tell from the last picture, the beach wasn't so beachy but Kate managed to drop her marshmallow in the sand all the same.  Extra protein right?

 And here's finally a decent picture of me with my dark hair not pulled into a pony tail.  That's a first.

 We glammed up our flip flops......

 And here's a shot of me and my sisters and mom.  Awwww cute....

 The day before we left on the reunion we went water skiing with a friend.  I love how Kate looks in the life jacket.

 And she brought me Joshy's superman costume and wanted to wear it.  So here's my super baby.

 

Okay, this next one is out ultimate big news......Rachel lost her first tooth!!!  Those of you that know me well probably know I have this "thing" with teeth.  It's a totally irrational phobia about losing my teeth, having them fall out, you name it.  For instance, in The Little Mermaid, you know the part at the end where Sebastian knocks out the chefs teeth with a big board?  Yeah, just thinking about that makes me want to throw up.  And The Tooth Book by Dr. Seuss?  It has taken me years of reading that to be okay with that book.  Cast Away?  Don't even talk to me about ice skates.  I don't know why but it totally grosses me out.  

So Rachel's tooth got loose and I literally would have to go in the other room while Trav felt how loose it was.  Sick.  He tried to pull it out a couple of times with no victory.  So one day while he was at work Rach was eating a popcicle and said "mom, my tooth is bleeding"  I looked in there and it was laying down flat.  I about gagged but being the brave mother that I am I said "That thing needs to come out now."  So I pulled back my hair and my sleeves, grabbed a tissue, reached in, barely touched the tooth and it came right out.  

Rach was beyond excited as you can see from the picture.  Me.....I felt like I had just accomplished something huge.  I may get over this phobia yet.  There's still a lot of teeth in my kids mouth's that are going to have to come out.  It's going to be a long 10 years, but at least I know I can do it without throwing up. 

You can say it.....I am a rock star.

 This past week the Laurels in the ward offered free babysitting for 3 hours on Wednesday so we could have a date night (best laurel activity EVER) So Trav and I decided to go on a hike.  It has been years since we've gone on a good sweaty hard hike.  We hiked up Adam's canyon, had a picnic dinner, saw the gorgeous waterfall and had the best time ever.  It totally reminded me of the old days when we used to do fun stuff like that.  We even got pictures of ourselves!  That's a miracle in and of itself.

 And guess who we found when we were there?  Can you tell?

 The fourth of July was awesome.  Centerville breakfast, parade and carnival with my family.

 

Then we did something that we've never done before...we went to the Kaysville parade.  Since we live in Kaysville we thought we better go support.  It was absolutely INSANE!  Let me start by saying I love Kaysville.  It is where I want to raise my kids.  I've never met such a wonderful caliber of people but they do not know how to handle parades!  We got a front row seat as they blocked off a road and we were so excited knowing they throw candy and have a huge water fight at the end (which is fun, by the way) but as soon as the parade started, everyone that was sitting behind us stood up and stood in front of us for the entire parade.  Stood.  In front of us.  For the entire parade.  We could not see anything!  And when they'd throw out toys people would just walk along next to the float until they got what they wanted.  It was nuts.  The kids still had fun so I guess that's what counts.  They look a little tired in this picture don't you think?

 Then yesterday (I know insane right?) my dad invited us to his work party at Boondocks.  We got to try everything which was so much fun. Here's the bumper boats(Josh with grandpa and me and Rach behind them)

 

And the race track (Josh with grandma)

 Rach with grandpa.

  My favorite was the laser tag.  The kids even got to try that for the first time.  Josh actually did awesome and got like 7th place out of 12 people and was by far the youngest one there.  Everyone else was like 12 or older.  It was so fun. 

Now I have 2 days to rest and relax before the next big adventure at Bear Lake again.  I need a vacation.

Summer and 6 year olds

Holy cow, summer is finally here!  Rach got this water hopscotch for her birthday and of course we had to pull it out the first day, and of course it now has a hole in it.  What are you going to do?  Kate absolutely loved it.

  

 This swimsuit said 12-18 months, which Kate is......for some reason it's not fitting quite right.  There's a couple of things that are just hanging out.....

 And of course here's the profile shot.  Where did she get that belly?  (If you just said Emily in your mind you are in big trouble)  Well we do know she didn't get if from Trav.

 And then today as I was mowing the lawn the kids were playing with the chalk.  I come back around the corner and this is what I see.  Any distinct picture do you see there....like a hand print?  I'm hoping that's hers and not big brothers.  You never know.

 Last week Rachel started a dance class.  She's in it with 2 of her friends and she is loving it!!  Mommy is definitely not a dancer so it might be fun to have a little ballerina on our hands.  It's ballet mixed with tumbling and is so cute. 

 And now of course my little girl is growing up way too fast.  I told her we were skipping June 21st this year so she would have to stay 5.  Bummer that didn't happen.  Here's my little six year old.  (Technically she didn't turn 6 until 11:11 pm.  She was totally annoyed that I kept reminding her that although it's her birthday she's still not 6.  I know I'm mean, but I feel way too young to have a 6 year old, and that's what you get for coming late at night.

 

Who made that absolutely gorgeous cake you may be asking yourself?  Well, I don't know if I'm quite ready to start doing wedding receptions or anything but I am well on my way (I know you can't hear sarcasm in text but believe me, it's there)  Rach wanted a princess cake.  Actually she wanted me to draw a picture of a princess on it (no can do) so we made a Rapunzel cake.  She loved getting the Barbie and she's sitting in a field of beautiful purple and pink flowers next to her tower.  Okay, the architect made the tower but I'm taking the rest of the credit.  I think it turned out pretty good.  And the best part is when you cut it open, a miracle occurred......

 A rainbow on the inside.  Does it get any better than that?  No it does not, I will answer that question for you.  I should really stop asking questions because there's only certain answers I'm looking for here.

We let Rach have a friend party, which I don't know why but I totally dread.  It turned out to be SOOO much fun and I'm so happy we did it (thanks to my mom and sister for helping me out).  We played a little water balloon volleyball.

 Here is a very cute crowd with a very lucky boy.  I told Josh that he looked so handsome all the girls were going to want to kiss him.  I shouldn't have said that because then he was so shy the whole party and wouldn't play the games.  Another proud parenting moment for me.  He did wind up with a princess to-go bag though.  Totally awesome.

 The only thing Rachel actually asked for this year was a hula hoop.  Being the mean parents that we are (this keeps coming up, doesn't it?) we saved it for very last.  She was SO excited to get the hula hoop.  All right, show of hands, whose singing the Chipmunk Christmas song right now?  I've been singing it for weeks.

 

And then, we went to Cherry Hill as a family that night.  It was a very busy day.  That is what she has been begging to do.  It was a lot of fun.  Since it's like 3 minutes from our house we'll probably have to get a season pass next year. 

 Josh is showing off his muscly man chest but you have to look pretty close.  He's so skinny he might just disappear.

 

And look who's got some hair!  It really is there it's just so blonde you can't really see it (and I never style it, I really am a bad parent).  Here's the crazy pool hair.  Notice this is not the bum crack suit.  That's an at-home suit only.

 Here's one of the 3 musketeers.  This is our neighbor that lives next door but pretty much is at our house (or more correctly my kids are at her house) every day.  I think Josh has been exposed to a little too many princesses in this picture.  He's got an O.D.

 And just because I haven't put enough pictures in this post I realized we don't have very many of Josh by himself so here we go.  He loved Cherry Hill too.

Here's a word of advice:  If you are playing "chicken tag" in your home, make sure you listen for the doorbell.  Josh invented chicken tag for a family night game where you play tag but you have to flap your arms like wings and squawk like a chicken as you run around.  Apparently a salesman came to the door which I didn't hear and was talking to Trav.  I go running in the front room squawking and flapping my wings (no the kids are in the other room) and this salesman looks up at me.  I turn around and run from the room imagining what he is telling his family that night....."this old mom was running around acting like a chicken.  There weren't even kids around so I think she's gone a little off the deep end"  Good times.  Chicken tag really is fun.  You should try it.

Memorial day, belly's, remodels and guns

Yeah, I guess we've had a lot going on.  I'll start with memorial day.....or was it Christmas?  We went up the my parents cabin and it was cold and snowy the whole time.  No lounging in the sun for us.  Kate's all dressed up in her winter duds.

 This was her favorite part of the whole trip......splashing in the mud puddles.  I don't think her shoes, or pants will ever be the same.  But she sure had fun.

 We got to go on some wet 4-wheeler rides.....

  and feed the squirrels.

 My sister gave us a bag of clothes to bring home with us.  Inside was a bat costume.  Josh wore it for 2 days straight, not even bothering to take it off to sleep in.  Yep you heard that right. 

 And this little chub-o I can't resist taking pictures of.  All of Rachel's summer clothes when she was a baby were for 12 months.  Kate's 16 months and has a much bigger belly than Rach ever did so let's just say some things are hanging out and don't quite fit. 

 We also got a new roof this week.  Our's was starting to wear out and we had a few shingles blow off in a huge windstorm a few weeks ago.  We decided that we might as well get it done now before we have any real damage or problems.  I think it looks great and the best part is.....we hired it out so it only took 3 days, they cleaned up the mess and Trav didn't have to risk his life on our super-steep roof.  After having to roof our old house and Trav doing it himself this way was much faster. 

Here is a project that he did do and has been working on for months.   Here's the before:

 

During

 

And After

 He is so awesome.  What a handy husband.

Then last week we went and shot some guns with my brother-and-sister-in-law.  They have tons of guns and he has access to a shooting range in West Bountiful so we got to try a few out. I realize now that we didn't take too many pictures while we were there.  Hopefully my sister-in-law got some.  Here's Josh's Shrek ears with the ear plugs.

And then the weirdest thing....there were some cones in the middle of the parking lot so we went over to see what was there and can you see it?

That's a nest made out of pebbles and the eggs look like rocks.  I know I'm not a bird but if I were in an egg I think I would want fluffy stuff to sit on. I don't know, that's just me.  I'm glad the cones were there, otherwise I would have missed it.

Here's another big belly shot.

Josh and Rach even took a few shots.

 

And now summer has officially begun.