Our Summer Recap

We did so many fun things this summer I wish I was more on the ball to give some pictures their very own post.... Oh well, here goes a doozie of a tale!

This little lady learned how to ride with 2 wheels! My family was at our cabin for the weekend, Toby's training wheels kept getting stuck in ruts of dirt and she would get high centered and really upset. TJ kept trying to talk her into just take the trainers off, but she would NOT! So I then told her Daddy would not take them off, but he would just raise them up so they wouldn't get stuck in the holes. She agreed and needless to say, 8 minutes later goodbye Training wheels! 

 TJ brought some of his guns to the cabin so Jerica and I humored him in attempting to shoot. He was very patient :)

 I absolutely adore Twiner days with my girls! Luckily Toby still thinks it is fun :)

 We went to Maple Lakes up Payson Canyon for a family night. The girls LOVED it. Anytime there is a picnic, water, and dirt my girls are in Heaven!

 For my birthday this year TJ gave me photography lessons. I am so glad that my mom took them with me! We had a lot of fun trying to figure out what in the world we were doing! Hopefully my brain captured some of what he was talking about :)

 We had a fun evening in Nephi for the motocross races. One of TJ's buddies rode in the pro-racing round. It was fun cheering on somebody that I pretended I knew :)

My handsome dude turned 30 in July! His birthday was on a Sunday and he had to work-Lame. So I threw a BBQ in his dad's back yard for our families. His birthday cake request was a white chocolate blueberry cheesecake. Delish!

Camping at TJ's family cabin with a trip to the Muddy is a must! I love that Toby is old enough that she can enjoy it. Well, for the first 10 minutes anyways!

TJ told me that all the many years that his grandma and grandpa came to the muddy to fish, his grandma's feet never once touched the water. Every time he would lift her on his back and carry her across! So far in 8 years of being married, my feet have never touched the water :)

 My little 'BIG' girl turned 5 in July! Her birthday was on a Wednesday and it was right in the middle of girls camp! I snuck home early that morning to be with her when she woke up. We had breakfast together, opened presents, and she then chose Carl's Jr for lunch. I had to get back to camp since I was the director I couldn't be gone all day. TJ then took the girls to my parent's house and they took them up to our cabin for a family reunion. Friday I got home from camp, unpacked, unloaded and cleaned everything up and then headed to the reunion. Long week and I was exhausted!! But, ooohhh it felt so good to have girls camp done! I was joking with one of the leaders that if there was ever a time TJ and my relationship was rocky, it was the week before camp. Really though I was kidding! Ha, but I am sure I was driving him crazy.

 The following Saturday Toby had her first friend only party. There was quite the litter of puppies running around! They LOVED that they got to eat out of a dog bowl on the floor :) Oh, to be 5 again and enjoy the simple pleasures in life!

 We went to Fiesta Days rodeo with Nana and Papa and our friends Ben and Haley.

This was a trip that deserved its own post, but I'm lazy. We went South to Escalante to hike Death Hollow. We got to camp around midnight, in bed around 1, and up at 6:30.

Bright and early we started our 12 mile long hike. Kyle and Tahsha who are engaged to be married in Oct! Kyle and Britt who are engaged to be married in Sept! Then TJ and Steph who are 8 year long married oldies who got the privilege of being chaperons. Lucky!

 The destination for the 12 miles lead us here to prudential plaza (I think) We swam and jumped in this teeth chattering pond. We played around here for around  2 hours and than had to hike back out.

The trek was in water and out of water, in water and out of water. For some reason I could not stay standing. I kept turfing it. I came home with some battle wounds- Yep, and I was the only one too. So fun though, I would go back in a heart beat. Wearing different shoes!

Every Friday is our Grandma Jake day. We visit, let cousins play, and eat lunch together. I look forward to this every week. I grew up a half mile away from her so we have always been close. I love that my girls now have a relationship with her!

 My cousin Kristen put together a awesome treasure hunt for the kids with a real buried treasure in the garden under the "X" It's things like this that make me say "Dang, I wish I was a cool mom!"

 Sadly this little family had to move away to AZ for school. Lame School. We miss playing with Kate, Archie and Annie!!

This August in St George my family saw Aladdin at the Tuacahn. Last August we saw The Little Mermaid and said "Whew, we will NEVER do that again in August!"

 We rented a condo so we could all be together! That made the trip! We hung out at the pool ALL day on Saturday went home ate lunch and headed back out to swim! Such a fun fun vacation!

 My Toby girl Started Kindergarten this year... Sniff. I am still unsure how I feel about it! I don't like the fact that she is gone every day! From here on out she will be gone every day for forever.... It makes me sad.

I drove her the first week of school. I had to, I needed to. I wasn't ready to let this little bean of mine leave my side for the bus. That would mean letting go a little more. As you can see, she was really upset about the fact that she is a bus girl now!

 My baby is no longer a baby she is now a toddler. A naughty naughty toddler! The last two days in a row she has brought me an egg which she pulled out of the fridge, dropped, and broke.
A funny story though- She loves to pull yogurt out of the fridge by herself and if I don't catch her in time it is usually opened up over the carpet. After scrubbing the said substance off my floors I scolded her and told her "No more yogurt out of the fridge!" A few hours later I hear the fridge opening and closing. I go in the kitchen, open the fridge and find a half eaten yogurt with a spoon inside. Scout never took the yogurt out of the fridge, she was sneaking bites instead. Oh, Funny girl!

This little girl absolutely adores Tangled! She watches the movie EVERY single day, sometimes twice. She now owns 3 "Punzel" dolls thanks to her Mammy, Nana, and Grandma Jake!
A few days before her birthday we had our Slip n' Slide party with our families and friends. This year, was our 3rd year running and did not disappoint! My father in law has all the awesome pics from the party, They may be blog worthy when I get them :)

The morning of her birthday I go in her room to get her, only to find a half naked happy baby!

 Lots of park days with our Awesome friends!

We love Mister Ty-Laroo! Toby and him always get along so well!

Of course we can't leave out happy cute little Ally!

Toby has learned to whistle, I see this face All-day-long! I do not want to discourage her new found talent of whistling, but seriously little girl sometimes you make my eye twitch.

Goodbye long blog post,
Goodbye Summer,
 Hello Fall
           *Please stay a little longer than 2 weeks! I am really not ready for snow!

Why I don't have time to blog...

Just take a glance at these pictures and maybe it will help to answer why I have not posted anything in a while.

This little girl of mine gets into her Aunt's makeup

She finds my craft paint

She will snatch any piece of candy she can and shove it in her mouth at lightning speed. Anyone who has tried to feed her has learned real quick to not try and put something in her mouth for her, She could take your finger off!

Almost everyday the diaper bag gets torn into because she is either looking for candy, chap stick, or gum. On this occasion, she found the sunscreen.

Yes, that is in fact permanent marker! Luckily it came off with baby wipes and a bath, but isn't that face to die for?!

Man, I cannot keep up with that girl, how can something so cute be so naughty? All of these pictures are taken within 1 month of each other, the marker being today :) Oh little Scouty girl how I love you!

I couldn't leave out my big Toby girl, heading out for a princess birthday party! She's had 3 this last month, but sadly she has not one princess costume to her name... She doesn't seem to mind though, she would rather play in the dirt with her friends than princess up anyways.

And lastly on Saturday Tahsha and I rocked out all these freezer crock pot meals! 24 total!! Dinner at the Morgan's anyone??

San Diego

Oh San Diego... Such a perfect summery place. In September TJ's cousin had his mission farewell so Tahsha, Berty and I loaded the car with 3 little girlies and made the long trek. TJ hadn't been at his new job long enough to have any vacation time so he had to work some of the days we were gone, Bummer.

The girls actually did really well on the drive and were such troopers. We didn't leave until around 4 in the afternoon and finally made it to our hotel around 3 in the morning. Eh long night!

We lugged all the sleeping girls up to the room just to have them bing their eyes open and start to play. There were bunk beds in the room which the girls had a blast on. Finally we got the car unloaded, girls in bed. I put Scout in bed with me since I didn't have a play pen yet oh my never again! That little girl flipped and flopped for well over a hour. She finally fell asleep stinkbug position with her little tushy right in my face... The long night turned into an even looonger night! After we got the playpen from Marty and Lydia the nights were much more pleasant.

We opted for a lazy beach day when we got up and going on Tuesday. We went to La Jolla Bay and over to La Jolla Beach. It was such a pretty place. Not much of a sit down and play in the sand kind of beach, but there were such pretty things to look at. Lots of seals playing in the water and birds everywhere.

I wanted to play the chase the waves game with the girls, they were a little hesitant, they weren't quite sure what to think of the waves just yet. After some persuading of how fun it would be I took them to the shore, we turned around and waited for a big wave to come, and then we ran.....

Apparently not quite fast enough! It got us, and it got us good. Our whole back sides were SOAKED.

Two little girls... Not very happy.

I just about ruined the rest of our day. Toby's legs got salt water itchy and she was wigging out that bugs were biting her. There were flies all over the shells and seaweed laying on the beach and she was Convinced they were biting her, they were then cold, and wet and wanted nothing more to do with the water! Sorry girls, it made for some good pictures though.

On Wednesday we went to the Mormon Battalion. It was such a fun and very family friendly place. I would go back in a heartbeat. They remodeled it a year or so ago. The missionaries are all dressed in pioneer attire and you basically follow the story line of the Mormon battalion by watching a movie with actors and changing rooms as you go along in the story. Very cool!

The girls looking so hard core getting ready to make their loooong trek to battle.

We panned for gold which was where they spent the majority of their time.

There were all sorts of little stations set around for us to see how things were done in their era. A water pump, brick making, clothes washing...

Oh wow Toby, I think if you had to wash your clothes like this for reals you would pass out from exhaustion. They had a blast here. After we left here we walked around Old Town for a little while and then headed to Mission Bay Beach which is more flat and lots of sand type of beach. The beach was pretty empty except for lots of surfers which were entertaining to watch.

One of the days was our sea world day. Everyone was able to go. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunts, Uncles, and lots of cousins!

Saturday we were able to do a session in the San Diego Temple. As soon as Taylor received his mission call to Madagascar he started working in the Temple. He was working his last shift and most of the family was able to go through and be with him. Such a neat experience. This Temple is beautiful.

We had one last beach day with everyone at Mission Bay Beach. Our girls didn't have their swimsuits on which really didn't matter because they didn't want to get in the water (I ruined them remember?) Other cousins did and it was fun to sit, play in the sand and watch them.

Are you wondering what is being pointed to in this picture? Well yes, that is in fact bird POO on my foot! Sick oh sick, that bird had a good aim!
Scouty sure LOVED her Uncle Marty. During Taylor's farewell Marty was up on the stand presiding as he is the president over the Spanish speaking branch. Scout kept reaching and yelling for him the entire time. It was such a neat experience being in a Spanish branch. We sang the hymns in English while the rest of the congregation sang in Spanish. The girls went to primary with their other cousins and the rest of us adults went into the youth's Sunday school where Uncle Marty was teaching in English. Aunt Lydia then taught Relief Society in all Spanish and it was so neat to be able to feel the spirit even though I had no idea what she was saying.
I truly feel so lucky to have married into such a wonderful family. All sides of TJ's family are so amazing. I love them all. I had so much fun on this vacation mostly because of the people we were with. We may just have to plan another trip on Taylor's return! :)