Camping and Hiking and Fishing, oh my!

While we were in Utah last month, we spent the weekend camping in American Fork Canyon with Mike's family. The kids were super excited to roast hot dogs and marshmallows over the campfire. It was all about the SMORES. : )

Logan was excited to hang out with his "boy" cousins, since there are mostly girls on my side of the family.

Makayla and Anne Marie

Cute little cousins: Sadie, Kaylee, and Savannah

Mike on top of the world! Part of the brother bonding camping trip was hiking Mount Timpanogoes. Mike, Steve and Ari left at 3 AM, hiking all night to reach the top in the morning.

The boys at the top in the shed. Quite the view!

Mike's ingenious plan to speed up the hike down the mountain was his garbage bag sledding device.

The next day, we spent the afternoon at Silver Lake fishing.

Savannah's favorite part of camping was taking care of the 4 dogs that came with us. She especially loves Grandma's dog, Rocco!

And the surprise of the day . . . I caught a fish! The only fish caught that day, I might add, even though several big boys were fishing most of the afternoon.

Happy 4th of July!

Yes! Even with our car fiasco, we made it just in time for the 4th of July. We stopped by to see all of our families, and then celebrated the 4th at Mom's with a BBQ, cake and ice cream for Savannah's birthday, and fireworks, or course!



Cute cousins and best buddies! (smiles even with a trip to the ER for some stitches for Brooklyn.)



Happy Birthday, Savannah! (again.) This time celebrating with her cousins on her real birthday.

The 4th of July wouldn't be complete without Mike and Brandon's extreme firework show, complete with an awesome Dance Party!

Grabbing a good seat for the show.

The Ladies.

The next day, we headed up the canyon to Mutual Dell for the annual West 4th of July party.

We had so much fun seeing everyone and playing with more cousins.

This year, we had twice as much fun with Grandpa renting the zip line for us. Everyone had a blast zipping along. Thanks, Grandpa!

The COOL boys pose before riding the line.

An excited Logan awaits his turn.

Makayla's next.

Even Jeanette braved the zip line and looked beautiful while doing it. Quite the accomplishment!

'sup Ryder! Have you seen a cuter face?

These cuties didn't brave the zip line, but were the cutest cheerleaders we could've asked for.

Another New Addition . . .

. . . a new car! So on our way to Utah this summer, we had an unexpected delay --our car died! Awesome. As we were driving into Albuquerque our transmission started to chug violently and then went kaput. We played with the idea of trying to get it fixed, but between the cost to fix our old van and being stuck in Albuquerque, we decided to cut our losses and trade in our broken down old van for a new Honda Odyssey. Mike and I don't usually do things like this on the spur of the moment, but it seemed like the best answer to our predicament. Ironically, we had just finished paying off our old van and we were thinking about getting a new car in the near future, but not another van. We were looking at getting something fun for Mike to drive like a little BMW. As it turned out, Mike's stuck with his crappy Jetta a little while longer and I have some pretty sweet new wheels, or as sweet as a new van can get: leather, GPS, sun roof, DVD player and optional 8th seat.

After we spent the day looking at cars and camped out at the dealership, and after the kids declared it was the worst day of their lives and they would never get to Utah to see their cousins and they were sure we would miss the 4th of July and Savannah's birthday, we finally were on our way. We said Goodbye to our old trusty van . . .






. . . unloaded all of our crap from our old van into the new one,

and finally saw some smiles as we hit the road on our way to Grandma's house.

It's a Boy!!!

Most of you have heard our good news, but I thought I would make it official by posting one of our little guy's first pictures. He is due Dec. 9 making me 22 weeks along. The kids are soooooooo excited for a little baby brother, especially Logan. He was not looking forward to being super outnumbered if we ended up with another girl, so a brother is good news for him. We feel truly blessed to get to have one more baby since this one took a while in coming.


My tummy has just popped out the last few weeks and the kids love to pat the baby and give him kisses. I've been answering many questions from them about why I look so BIG and comments about my Buddha belly. My favorite was Logan's announcement that I looked just like Santa Clause! Nice. I know this was a compliment coming from him, but really I'm only going to resemble good old St. Nick more and more the next few months. Good times.

Happy Birthday #5 Savannah!

For her birthday this year, Savannah wanted a Luau Pool Party. We had it a week early because we are always traveling to Utah to see our family during her birthday. She was super excited to invite her best buddies to swim!

Aloha!

Makayla was the party tour guide through Atlantis, their underwater sea palace, and hosted several water games and a final squirt gun attack. What a fun big sister! Thank you, Makayla for making Savannah's day super special.

Nothing Like a Fredericksburg Peach!

To officially welcome Summer, we road tripped it to Fredericksburg with our friends for some fresh peaches and a fun-filled afternoon spent touring the quaint shops up and down main street.

We found the cutest little diner for lunch and ice cream.

When the boys could stand all the shopping no longer, we drove to Pedernales Falls.

Nice way to end the day.