Lake Powell

Last week we got to go to Lake Powell in Utah/Arizona. We went with Andy's parents and his older brother and family. The weather was pretty decent, the heat pretty bearable. There was only one monsoon on the last day.





We had lots of fun toys to play on. Cameron, Emma, and Briley (we had to bribe her with cookies) all rode the inflatable toy behind the boat.











Bob's jetski provided hours of entertainment. Bob and Andy took
turns wakeboarding behind it; each of the kids took turns riding
the jetski with Andy. Even Briley got on, but we had to bribe
her with cookies again. I see a pattern developing!




Here are two of my favorite pictures of Grandmere and Papa with the kids. Grandmere's lap is always very popular with the kids and they all tried to sit in her lap at once. Only a couple were successful! Papa is always the one driving boat entertaining everyone else, and here he takes a break to lounge on the boat and Emma saw the perfect opportunity to jump in his lap!

The Fair

We went to the fair last week and we had a great time. The kids got to play games and ride a couple of the rides. They also got to choose between riding an elephant or a pony. The elephant was by far more popular. Andy said it was a strange thing to ride an elephant-like you were riding on something hard, like a spine. Um, aren't you on it's spine?! It teetered a lot more than a horse, but they all had a great time.Briley chose the pony ride and surprised us a ll by having a great time. She is so fearful of everything that I was certain she would hate it. But she came off the pony asking for horseback riding lessons! So I guess she enjoyed herself (as if you can't tell by the grin on her face!)
Cameron was so at home in this dune buggy, racing along and having fun.
Logan and the girls had so much fun on the helicopters. The girls are tall enough to go alone so I rode with Logan. He was rather disappointed when his ride ended all too soon.
Andy hates the rides that go in circles so he lounged in the wagon while he waited!

Happy Birthday

This time of year is birthday central around our house. Logan celebrated his 2nd birthday in May. We had a BBQ with some friends in honor of Logan's big day. He was all excited about his cake until we started singing to him. This picture is a little blurry but you can still make out the pouty expression. When we started to sing and he was suddenly the center of attention, he got a little nervous. Still a step up from last year (we had to turn his chair all the way around so he couldn't see anyone looking at him!)

Emma celebrated her 5th birthday while we were at beach camp last week. She had a great time having her party at the beach! She really wanted her ears pierced this year and so it was done for her birthday. She did great only crying for a couple of minutes until I distracted her by letting her pick something out at the store-so easily distracted! Now she finally has her pretty pink sparkles in her ears!

Andy celebrated his 32nd birthday a few days ago. I tried so many ways and so many days to surprise him with a party but with friend's brithdays and other obligations I just could not come up with anything. So he got a brownie pie when he came home from work and then we went to the fair the next day. Not too bad...better luck next year.

Sun Kissed Perfection

The most anticipated event of the year: Beach camp 2008!


We go every year with a bunch Andy's extended family that come from Arizona and Utah. We also had some friends come along. The kids look forward to this event as soon as we start packing up to go home. Cameron actually cried this year and yelled at us all the way home because he did not want to leave the beach!







It was really painful to select only a few pictures (I took over 300!) of our trip.

Trips to the beach must include kiteboarding and this was his only opportunity!

Cameron discovered boogie boarding and he had a blast!


The weather was great, getting only a little chilly in the evenings and mornings.


Cousins are so much fun at the beach!


My grandpa was visiting from Hawaii and stopped in with my uncle to say hello. It was a fun and unexpected visit!

Happy Mother's Day!

At church this morning the men gave roses to the women, a small token of their appreciation. The roses were beautiful. I love the colors of this rose. The inside of the petals was red while the outside was yellow. The beauty of the rose and what it represented really struck me. I wanted to share it with you, the women in my life. I hope you each know the place you hold in my heart and how grateful I am for your examples. Enjoy the rose!


Andy and the kids decided to make me breakfast in bed this morning. I didn't eat it in bed but I got to stay in bed while they made it. That counts, right?!

It was so yummy! Since church is early they didn't have time to make their own yummy breakfast and so they shared mine! Isn't it beautiful? Makes me hungry all over again!

girls night out

Do these look like the faces of a bunch of moms desperate for a girls night? Well, maybe not desperate, but it sure was needed! While the dads took the boys camping, we decided to take advantage of freedom and have a girls night. We piled into one car and headed out to the movies
(to see a chick flick of course!)


And then off to Coldstone for a little ice cream treat! It was so much fun that we are already beginning to plan the next one!

boys night

Andy organized a father/son campout with the guys from church. Cameron and Logan got to go camping with their daddy and I think it was the highlight of their little lives! They had a 3 man tent that they slept in. The air mattress took up the entire floor of the tent!

They camped on a local lake. The dads took the boys fishing the next morning.
Cameron got this fishing pole for his birthday last year from some friends and he has been dying to use it. He finally got his chance and was quite at home!
He caught a 10 inch bass! (well, Andy landed it and helped him reel it in-but if you ask Cameron it was his fish!)
Andy said that he got a little nervous as the fish came out of the water but quickly got over it. Logan on the other hand, hated everything about that fish once it came out of the water. He screamed hysterically until they threw it back in!

Girls night in

This weekend while the boys got to go camping, we had a girls night in. Briley and Emma helped me make strawberry pancakes. Briley did a great job making Mickey pancakes (I flipped them for her).

And with strawberry Mickey Mouse pancakes, you just have to have a little whipped cream.
(so it already melted by the time I got a picture!)

But who can have a little whipped cream on their pancakes without first sampling some?


(the girls insisted that I try some too!)
So maybe it wasn't just a little bit of whipped cream!

After dinner we headed upstairs for a double feature of Nancy Drew and Mr. Magorium's Toy Emporium. I left for girls night out and their friend Ann came to babysit. But during intermission they got to have neopolitan ice cream sandwiches! It was a fun night!

Happy Birthday Briley

A couple of weeks ago Briley turned 7. We went to a place where she could make her own animal after school. She got to pick out the animal she wanted, stuff it, dress it and name it. She picked a unicorn, gave her pink eyes and a pink fluffy dress with matching pink satin slippers. Her name is Sara.I decided that 4 birthday parties a year is too much for me. So we just decided to have a small family thing-just us. I made her own little cake just for her with bright pink frosting.




Then on Saturday, we took her to her favorite place in the world (besides Hawaii)-the Padres game. It was brutally hot and we only made it to the 7th inning but Briley was just in heaven playing in the sandbox while watching the game. Only Cameron was as equally happy as Briley at the game. There was a play right in front of her and she thought it was the greatest thing to have the Padre players that close. The bad thing was that Brian Giles and the center fielder miscommunicated and neither caught the ball! She was sad about that but thought it was so exciting that they were literally separated by the chain link fence.

Part of Your World

About a month ago, we had ward talent night. Briley's voice teacher asked her if she would perform. She quickly refused. So when the sign up sheet came around in Relief Society the next week, being the kind and loving mom that I am, signed her up anyway. She was really angry with me for a little while. I finally figured out what she was afraid of and we worked through that. The two things she was concerned about were forgetting the words and being alone on stage. So I typed up the words and Andy went on stage with her. Once on stage we had a few challenges. The music that her voice teacher brought was not the same arrangement as the one we had at home that she had practiced with. The version we had at home had the melody playing throughout the piece so if she got lost, she could pick right up. The arrangement at the talent show did not have the melody and she had a lot of trouble following the music. Then we had technical difficulty. The music started and stopped at least three times. But she kept going. She persevered through the whole song. Her courage was so amazing to me. We are so proud of her for doing her very best, even though it didn't turn out perfectly. I tried to upload the song for you to listen to her, but I think the file is just too large and I am too impatient. So you only get her picture!