Arrrrrrrggggg, Matey!

Happy Birthday to Max!  Max has been so excited for HIS birthday party for at least 5-6 months.  He's been praying and talking about his birthday in primary for at least a month or more.  He debated between a Scooby Doo or Sponge Bob theme, but  surprised us with a pirate theme. He invited two cousins and seven other friends, added to our four...we came to the conclusion that there were definitely too many party guests, but we sure had a great time...just a bit crazy.

We walked the plank.

Pinned our flags on the treasure map.

Presents

Treasure hunt.

Treasure hunt and a pinata that I forgot to get a picture of.

And a ship-wrecked cake.

As I was decorating the cake, it began to crumble and fall apart, dispite all the structural support help (straws), so we decided that it was a ship-wrecked cake.  It was such a fun day.  We love Max more than anything and hope he absolutely loves being 4!

What we've been up to

Life is going like a whirlwind.  But I absolutely LOVE summer because of all the fun stuff going on and especially the "layed back" feel that usually comes with it.   A few weeks ago, we went to Silver Lake for a small hike and picnic.

Checking out the small fish and baby ducks.

Our water heater went out....so a lot of money later, we now have a working water heater!

We made chocolate chip cookies.

And we made star cookies.

Nick's passenger window got shattered by a rock while someone was weed-wacking right next to him.  Luckily they paid for the new window.

We went camping at Crystal Hot Spings.  The kids loved it.  I really liked spending time with the family, but could do without having to pack half the house for the trip and realizing everything I forgot once we got there!

Playing games around the campfire.

We went swimming at the pools and mineral hot springs.  We also went down their two big water slides...until we realized we didn't have the right wrist bands...oops!

It started to storm that night and right at sunset we saw two rainbows.

We told stories in the tent and had a great time.  In the morning we ate s'mores and sausage for breakfast.  We didn't stay very long, but had a great time together as a family.

We then went to Provo to sleep at Aunt Brooke's house for the night....You would have thought the kids wanted to move in to the place.  They loved playing Wii, running around, and just plain being at her house.  We'll definitely be going back.

On Saturday morning, Nick and I ran our first 10K race EVER!  It started with two miles of uphill (up the Goliath hill, as they call it-yeah it was steep).  Followed by two miles of down hill (my favorite part of the run) swinging by the Provo temple and MTC, and finished with two flat miles.  We've been training several months and based on previous times, Nick was expecting to come in around 1:03-1:05 and I was planning on 1:08-1:12.  We surprised ourselves when Nick came in at 58:45 and I came in at 1:05:25!  Nick even got second place in his division.  A year ago, I NEVER thought I would be able to run that far. Thanks a bunch to Brooke for watching the kids for us.  We really appreciate it!

Saturday afternoon we met up with Tyler and Shannon's family and went to Bridal Veil Falls.  Very cool. 

Brooke made us some of the best sandwiches I've had and we stopped for a picnic lunch.  We had such a great time and can't wait to do it again sometime.

Red, White, and Blue

We invited everyone over to house for the Fourth of July this year.  All the kids decorated their bikes for the neighborhood parade.

Aliza

Waiting for parade to roll on.

Ruby and Shannon

Sugar dressed up too, and even met a few new friends at the parade.

Facepainting

Games

Alex was in it for the prizes.

We lit a few fireworks that evening.

Eyes to the Sky

Since Mabel had spent the previous week in Salina, I had to go pick her up.  And since my mom teaches school and is out for the summer, I decided to go and spend a week in Salina.  We had a great time.  I had a very relaxing time.  We went four-wheeling, went out to dinner, watched Brave, had hotdog and smore roasts, and enjoyed the hot air balloon festival.

They launched the balloons on Friday and Saturday and we went to both launches.

Smokey the Bear

After watching the launch, we headed back to Salina, but was detoured to Redmond because of road construction.  We ended up following the balloons in their flight (very cool).  We stopped at the Redmond airport for an airplane ride in my dad's plane and got there just as the hot air balloons were landing.  My dad helped 3-4 of them land.

Taking an airplane ride.

Hopper the Frog was going on Saturday morning.

During the Saturday festivities, Scales and Tales came and did a great presentation.  The only bad part is that it was near 100 degrees on the hot asphalt road.....very HOT!

Saturday night  the balloon glow lined main street.

And I think we tuckered out the kids with all the early morning and late nights.  We had a great time in Salina.  Thanks, Mom and Dad for all the fun, love and support.  We love you guys!

West Fest 5K

I guess it has sort of become a tradition for us to run in the annual West Fest 5K race.  I have ran it for three years now(I think I had a baby in there somewhere), and Nick for four.  My goals this year were to beat my time from last year and run it without walking...I did both.

I was proud of the kids running their races this year. 

Max was supposed to run to daddy, but saw the lady with the otterpops and took a last minute detour.

Sam did really well, too.  Mabel was in Salina and missed the race, but I know she was having the time of her life with her cousins!

In past years, the Chick-fil-A cow has been at the finish line and all the kids can do, is scream and cry. This year, they wanted their pictures taken with him!  What a difference a year makes.