Mom's famous Halloween bash!

We look forward to this amazingly spooky and fun party all year.  Mom is the absolute best party planner and I love how she is so passionate about holidays.  We are so lucky to have such a fun Grammy!!

Pumpkin Patch

Ian and I tagged along on Nyah's preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch.  It was a lot of fun and I got some cute pictures of my two littlest sweethearts!

LOVE this picture!

Thiiiiiis big!!!

One day we were having dinner out on our patio when the kids found a little spider.  As they were all talking about it, the story became more and more animated, especially when Ian started to exclaiming how BIG the spider was!  Eric and I were laughing so hard I had to get the camera to record it.  When I asked How big was the spider again? He stretched his arms as far apart as they would go and insisted: THIS BIG!!!  He was so serious! I had to take a picture of the tiny spider to illustrate how funny it was. What a funny little dude he is!

summer fun!

This summer was so fun! We had so much sunshine, so many fun family vacations, and lots of trips to the water park and aquarium. But best of all was the fun we had at home! Gabe and Nyah always had something wonderfully creative to play and ended up outside every single day with Cole and Mason, our great next door neighbors.  One day I spotted them down the street under a tree and walked down with otter pops to investigate... they were camping they said! And playing Uno in the shade. It was so cute!  There were a lot of discoveries of bugs as well this summer... as long as it wasn't a spider, Nyah had no problem holding it.  She is braver than I!  The best was when she rescued a beautiful butterfly (her words... it was really a little moth) from Denali's water dish.  She was so worried about it's broken wing. She sang to it for an hour at least, songs about how Jesus would heal it's wing.  It was so adorable.  We even found a praying mantis one day and all of us took a turn letting is crawl up our arm. It was a little unnerving but thrilling at the same time! (Gotta think and feel like a kid sometimes... it's fun!) We went to Highland Days with the cousins and the kids got to be in a bike race by age. It was so fun to watch them racing along on their bikes - they both did really well, Nyah even won second! We LOVE the summer time and we LOVE living in Utah!!

"Camping!"

look at that monster grasshopper!

Hiking to Lake Mary (Ian was there too!)

The rescued "butterfly"

On your marks, get set, GO GABE!!!

Nyah on the podium accepting her prize!

Happy birthday to me...!

Amy and I shared our birthday celebration this year and it was so fun! Mom and Dad hosted a bbq and Eric provided a lovely cake.  (He may not have baked it but he personally decorated it!) And my cute kids made me darling home-made cards that I will treasure. It is so wonderful to be with extended family on these fun days. I have missed this!!  The next week we got together with Eric's family and Cheryl made me a darling purse cake... she is so talented!

The birthday girls!

I am loved!

view from the back... so cute!

Goblin Valley

On the way home from Lake Powell we stopped off to see Goblin Valley.  It was amazing! The rock formations are so interesting - and the size and scope of it all is awesome.  It's like a maze in there... we want to come back some day properly prepared with good shoes and lots of water and really explore!

Lake Powell in July

Matt & Amy and Mindy & Griff bought a boat this year and they invited us to Lake Powell with them! Woohoo! It was so much fun with all that tubing, wake boarding, even surfing... plus lots of beach time and cliff jumping - all with our family! Gabe and Nyah had so much fun playing with their cousins every day, all day.  It was genuinely a blast. Gotta love GORGEOUS Lake Powell!!

Nyah, Gage, Amy having fun swimming

Time to relax on the beach

snack time!!

That's Gabe!!! He was so brave!

Eric and I getting ready to jump

My boys on the boat

Our whole family tubing together!!

Ian and Gage could've just dug in the sand all day

The Daddies throwing the boys!

Our beach spot

The kids doing their wake board starter-thing

Look at those cliffs!

Jack, Gabe, Wesley - our little mountain goats. They swam over there and then started climbing straight up!

Nyah and Ririe - our two sweet girls

Me attemping to surf...!

Ian sucked his thumb during tubing... who does that?!

This may have been right before Eric leaped off the back of the boat at the boys - surprised us all! What a crazy Dad!!

surprising Melanie!

This year for Melanie's 40th birthday, all us sisters decided to fly out to Chattanooga for a surprise visit!  It was so exciting to plan... mostly because I knew that she would be absolutely thrilled!  Melanie has always been such a rock for our family. As the oldest sibling, she has led by example. She is an incredibly faithful, kind, compassionate, sensitive, fun, and industrious woman. We are all so blessed to have her in our lives.  After she moved away to the South, we have missed her and her darling family of boys so much. There was a hole left in the family here. After all, they had spent most of their marriage close by, raising their boys with all of us there at soccer games and birthday parties.  From talking to Mel over the past several years, I also knew that she was very lonely for her sisters.  She struggled a bit moving so far from family and friends and never really found any local replacements for the relationships she left behind.  She is definitely a "bloom where you're planted" kind of gal though so she doesn't complain!  Anyway so I KNEW that she would absolutely love it if we surprised her. And never in a million years would she ever suspect that we planned it since we all live so far apart.  As it turned out, every one of us, including Mom, made it work and we all ended up in Tennessee for a long weekend with our wonderful Melanie.  Brad planned it so we had their van at the airport when we arrived, then we drove to their favorite restaurant where he was taking Mel out to dinner for her special birthday.  We were all on pins and needles with excitement waiting for her to arrive! Seriously it was so fun! And we were not disappointed when she saw us - she was SOOOO surprised and happy!! I just get a lump in my throat thinking about that trip.  It was 5 days of the best girl time in the world! We relaxed by the pool, went shopping and sightseeing, visited an art gallery, ate yummy food, and mostly just talked and laughed together. It was incredible! I have the best sisters and mom in the world! What a treat it was to have that time together, with minimal distractions and no responsibilities.  I love these women with all my heart and cherish my relationships with them.

Waiting at the restaurant for Melanie to arrive... we were so excited!!!

Amy, Erin, Mom and Ririe, Mel, me, Mindy - all together!

Coming home to celebrate with the boys!

On the Chattanooga Bridge - pedestrian only and so pretty

Pastries at the beautiful garden cafe Rembrandt's

Touring historical Chattanooga - the art district.

I miss her!

The sacred Blue Hole at Red Clay State Park.

Bridger, Mindy and Ririe, TJ at Red Clay State Park - the last gathering place of the Cherokee and the place where the Trail of Tears started.

Coleman was always making us laugh!

Those boys had some awesome moves on the diving board. We had a blast trying to out-do each other!!

 Cool dude Bridger and cute Melanie

Connor, Ririe, TJ - all the boys doted on Ririe, it was so cute. They are getting so big and grown up, aaah!

Love these ladies - beautiful inside and out.

This was the night we stayed up til 3:30 am talking!!! 

Enjoying amazing Southern food at Tupelo Honey Cafe. Wow.

Mel got to meet her newest neice - we were all loving on Ririe the whole trip!

At the airport.  Love you sis!!!!