Texas

We had some friends get sealed in the Dallas Temple, so we decided to make a trip out of it to go to the sealing and also see my sister for awhile. The kids and I went for a week and Trevor joined us for the weekend. Here are some of the highlights of our Texas trip:

A quick note: Dallas was the hottest place in the country during my little vacation there. Good time to visit, I know. It was SOOO hot. I stepped out of the airport and it was like a sauna. So that's why all we did was swim the whole time...

We went to a waterpark that was the perfect size for kids. They had a lazy river, some bigger waterslides, and a kids area that was pretty big. P.S. The cement was SOO hot that the kids all had burned feet from running from lazy river to the slides to the kids area. I had to carry Jason and run from wet spot to wet spot on the cement. It was crazy. Most people kept there flip flops by the edge of the pool to slip on. That would've been smart. I feel for all you Arizona folks. You're probably scoffing at this post because you deal with these things all summer.

Here's Jason with a little girl in the background. They got in a little tiff later because she kept pushing him out of the fountain he was playing in. Little bully. But Jason yelled "No!" at her and pushed her hands off his chest. :)


Ashley and Hailey at the waterpark


Jason got really tired and finally fell asleep. Poor kid, I tried to get him to take off his life jacket when I could see he was going to fall asleep. I didn't want him to be any hotter than we already were. He wouldn't, though. And don't worry, I've come to accept the fact that I look old.


Another day we went to a "splash pad." I'd never heard of one. It's not like a spray park, but more like a bunch of sprinklers on the cement. This is a horrible picture of the splash pad, but I didn't take many pictures of it.

Tyler and his cousin, Rachel.


We also took full advantage of the neighborhood pool. The kids had a great time at Aunt Amy's house. Thank you!!


And the reason for our trip in the first place:

This is Ted and Caroline. We met them in Philadelphia while Trevor was going to school. Ted and Trevor are hunting buddies. Which makes them practically brothers :) We were happy we were able to attend their sealing. We had fun with them for a couple nights while Aunt Amy took the kids. Yay :)

Couer d'Alene

We decided to take a family vacation to Couer d'Alene this year. We had never been there and had heard how beautiful it is. So we rented a boat for a couple days and had some fun on the lake. Cliff and Lisa (Trevor's brother and wife) and their two kids (Nyah and Sabra) came with us, and it was SO much fun. Thanks guys!

Here are some pictures of our boating fun:

The kids about to do some swimming during one of our stops


Lisa, Sabra, Jason and me


Hailey, me, and Ashley


The day got pretty long for Ashley and Jason. But don't let this picture fool you, they had a blast


They gave us a surf board with the boat rental. This is me trying to figure it out. Trevor was doing really well by the end of the first day. I could do it, but only holding onto the rope. The second I tossed it onto the boat, I fell behind the wake and no more surfing for me.

Whatever

Spokane

The day after we took the boat back, we just relaxed and hung out. In the morning we spent some time at Cabela's. Then the Cliff and Trevor went golfing at this amazing course in Couer d'Alene with a green that floats in the lake. If I had Trevor's phone, I would download some pictures of it. But I don't...So while they went golfing, Lisa and I took a little trip to Spokane. It's about 30 minutes from Couer d'Alene.

We took the kids to the city park, which was really beautiful and had fun things for the kids to play on. Here are some pictures of the kids at the park: (And since Lisa's an amazing photographer, I'll use all of her pictures--taken with my camera--)

The kids and I


All the kids on the wagon slide



I took this one :) This is Lisa, Nyah, and Sabra

Silverwood

The last day of our vacation was spent at an amusement park named "Silverwood." It was a lot of fun. You would think I could take more pictures than just the kids on the helicopter ride.

We had such a fun time, it was hard to come back home. But it's alright, we have more vacations coming. So stay tuned :)

Hailey, Jason and me on the carousel




Tyler and Jason


Hailey



Ashley



Nyah and Sabra

Most Patriotic

We just got home from a great vacation (more pictures of that to come...maybe later than sooner...) and I got a message on my answering machine that I did indeed win most patriotic for the 5K :) I even get a gift certificate. Yipee!

So I checked the website to see what place I took. We'll leave the men out of these standings...I got 3rd among the women. :) I knew I should have tripped that girl that ran by me at the very end! Just kidding. Kind of.

4th of July

Although it's not quite the 4th, we celebrate around here on the 2nd.

We started out our day by running in some races. Tyler decided he didn't want to race, but Trevor ran the "fun run" with Hailey, Ashley, and Jason. Jason rode in the jogging stroller for most of the time, but got out a couple times and ran until he got tired. It was really fun watching the younger three, they were really cute and they got all excited about the little flags they got at the finish line. Here are some pictures:

All the kids before the race

Near the finish line

After the race with their flags



My race started shortly after they got done with theirs. I ran another 5K. I'm not quite sure how I placed in this one, because they haven't posted the standings yet.

Now, don't laugh at my patriotic getup. They said we should dress up and the best dressed would get a prize. I wasn't going for the prize or anything, I just didn't want to stick out as the one who didn't dress up. Turns out, I was the only one who dressed up. Good times. I don't know if I would've picked up the prize or not because we didn't stick around too long after.

After the race we came back and got ready for the parade. We rode bikes to the parade and watched all the entries as the kids gathered as many pieces of candy as they could. I know, you're probably jealous that our town still throws candy and yours doesn't. I would be too.

After the parade, we grilled some burgers and hot dogs and had a picnic outside. We were planning on going to the rodeo, but I think the kids were pretty tired from the days activities. Trevor and I lovingly remembered how fun it was last year to carry all the tired kids with aching legs back to the car--20 blocks away--while they told us just how tired they were with each step we took. So instead we opted to ride bikes to get some churros at Taco John's for dessert and put the kids to bed at the normal hour. Then Trevor and I watched some tv, and then some fireworks from our front lawn. Excellent. Sorry there were no pictures of all THAT fun!

Some Summer Fun

Ashley had a birthday! It's a busy time to have birthday's. I hope she doesn't feel like she got overlooked. I didn't quite get the invitations to any friends before school was out. I know she really wanted to have a party at the bowling alley, but instead we invited the missionaries over for dinner. :) She was really excited for the cake and presents anyway, so it all worked out.


Ashley's a sweet little girl. She loves to play with her friends and with her older brother and sister, and is such a good sister to her younger brother. She really takes care of him and tries her best to keep him happy. She already loves to play Tyler's Nintendo DS, or the Wii, or the itouch, and she loves to ride her bike. The last five years have flown--and I've loved every second I got to be the mom of this sweet little girl. I'm sad I won't get to spend all day with her this fall when she starts kindergarten. :(

We went to the town's annual fishing derby. It was a lot of fun, althoug it was still very cold. We didn't catch any fish, but we sure had a lot of fun trying. It was pretty crowded and the people around us had no problems casting over our heads from behind us. Weird. At one point, Jason was sitting on his camping chair and leaned forward. It folded and dropped him in the water. Poor kid, I stripped him and wrapped the blanket around him and took him home to change. We live pretty close, so we came back and kept on trying to catch the big fish. No dice.