A Mountain Party

Over the 4th weekend, we all gathered at our cabin for a birthday party/4th celebration/general family cabin fun-time. All my family was there, except for my missionary nephew (who comes home next month -- yeah!) and my nanny niece who was too busy raking in the money to join us. Didn't blame her a bit, though. I look at the money some of these babysitters make and sometimes I think I'm in the wrong line of work!

The birthday "kids." Bug, her Daddy, Uncle P. and her Auntie. Happy Birthday, everyone!

Our three trouble-makers cooking up a cousins' team for the Wasatch Back Relay next year. I volunteered to drive the van and hand out the band-aids! C'mon, Adam, you know you want to!!




I have cute kids. 'Nough said.

Two of my all-time favorite ladies, doing one of my all-time favorite things . . . dishing up cake and ice cream!

My favorite pic from our day. My greatest happiness in life is knowing my children have such a strong relationship with all of their grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins and just love being with them. It makes me think that between the temper tantrums and messy bedrooms, I must be doing something right!

Up next: Aloha!!

Celebrating the Fourth and Auntie Kara Returns!

Our home is right across the street from the local golf course, and every year they do a big carnival and fireworks show. Sounds like a reason to party, don't you think? So we gathered BJ's cousins and family friends (honestly, I think Lindsey Lohan could have showed up and we wouldn't have noticed, there were so many people there), fired up the barbeque and celebrated!

The carnival, to be honest, was alot more pricey and not as much fun this year. But the kids didn't know any different, and had a great time.

(BTW, see those sock's Bug's wearing? I made those . . . just sayin'.)

After dinner, the cousins started running laps around the house. I think my favorite moment came from my favorite red-head. She climbed on the rock wall, and yelled: "Attention all parents, look at me!" At this point she started doing a striking impersonation of Elvis singing "Aloha-oi." I love you, Maddie!

This is about a third of the kids at our party. We had a great time, and nobody got lost! Yeah me!

The next day our favorite Kara returned from her London adventures! Yeah us! How did we celebrate? We ate, of course! What did we talk about at dinner? What we're going to eat on our Hawaiian vacation, of course! We're not stress eaters, we're celebratory eaters! Erin also came up for the weekend and we enjoyed a 7 hour game of Monolopy and a good old-fashioned run through the sprinklers. Nana made a very true comment as we watched Aunties and girls run through the sprinklers: "We don't need a pool, we've got sprinklers!"

Right after I took this pic, they all dragged Kara through the sprinklers, just so she could match Erin. Thanks, ladies!

Up next: A Mountain Party!

A Road Trip, Eh?!

It's been one of those summers where we've been so busy living life, I haven't had the time, or the energy, to blog about it. So I'm backing us up a bit to our road trip up North. The kids are fabulous road-tripers, except for bug's motion sickness, so we really enjoy a nice long drive. And now that I have a lap-top, guess what I spent most of the drive working on? Digital Scrapbooking, of course. Stay tuned for an update on that one.

The Guy really took to his Great-Grandpa while we were in Canada. This time we camped out at their house instead of the local hotel, which gave us a lot more time to just visit and have fun. Grandpa was a fabulous sport to let Guy "push" him in his chair, and Grandma gave cooking and punch-needle embroidery lessons. We even attempted Chinese Checkers. Help, Erin!

So I came home with more projects that I left with, which DH is absolutely thrilled about, and we're already trying to decide when we can go back. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!

Next up: Fireworks and the Return of the Roving Kara!