Our 2 week road trip!!

We took an insanely long road trip! The kids and I left for the Provo area on the 26th of July. My sister-in-law, Heidi and her family do swimming lessons in the summer so we took advantage of that. Then we headed to Ogden for a week and then to Bear Lake for a few days. It was so long and exhausting but so worth it! We all had so much fun!! Here is a little bit of what went on.....


Kaylen was a little too young for lessons this year so luckily, there was all kinds of toys and a nice playground to keep her busy! Next year, she'll be in the water!!





On the first day, Masen wouldn't even put his face in the water! By the end of the week, he was doing front stroke, back stroke, knee dives off the side of the pool, and jumping off the diving board! He rocks!!







Braedy wasn't too excited about swim lessons but ended up having a blast. She struggled with diving until Heidi told her, "It's just like doing a handstand in the water!" and then she was doing perfect dives!







Jayden had no desire to take lessons. He was actually mad at me for signing him up. But by the end of the week he didn't want it to end! He struggles with diving but so did I. He learned a lot and got so much better!!






After swim lessons, we headed to my parents house for a week. We got a very pleasant surprise when Dave and Leah and their girls decided to come and spend some time too!! They only pics I got were of the kids "swimming" in the hot tub! They had so much fun catching up with their cousins and spending time with their grandparents! It was a lot of fun and went by way too fast!










The last weekend of our trip we had a mini family reunion on Scott's side. Scott flew into SLC and then we drove up to Bear Lake and stayed the weekend with Robert and his son Cody, Troy and his family, Byron, Kevin and Heidi, and our family. We went up Thursday and came back Sunday. We rented a jet ski and had a blast on that. It was a little colder than I would have liked but it was awesome to just hang out and relax with our family. Here are a few pics.








We picked a bad weekend to go to Bear Lake. It was so cold! The water wasn't bad but I don't think the temperature ever got over 80 degrees! So, we spent a lot of time playing in the sand on the beach! It was so fun! The kids had a blast burying each other and Uncle Kevin and Aunt Heidi!












Beautiful Bear Lake in the background!!



Troy and Lisa's cute kids!!



Kaylen usually missed out on the first part of each day at the lake. She always fell asleep on the way there.



Crazy Mase! We were freezing so we hung out in the car!!




On Sunday, we decided to take a tour of the Minnetonka cave in St. Charles Canyon. It was really cold but lots of fun. The kids loved it, especially Mase and Ethen because the were vampires the whole trip and vampires live in caves! They even turned into bats a couple of times.

The crew-Braedy, Zak, TaeLor, Ethen, Jayden, Masen, Kaylen, and Rian.




While we waited for our tour to start, the kids had a blast feeding the chipmunks. They were really friendly and not at all scared of us. Kevin told Jayden and Zak that if they caught one, he would give them $100. I told Jayden he wasn't allowed to pick one up because I didn't want him to get bitten. He thought I was ridiculous and just plain mean until he say another boy pick one up and get bitten! After that, I think Jayden thinks I might be a little smarter than he previously thought!!





I just have to say how blessed I am to have such a great family! I had so much fun with everyone and I'm so glad that I have such a great relationship with each one of my family members! It sucks living so far away but I guess that just makes the time we have together even more special! Thanks for everything, everyone!!

Toothless at last!!!!

Masen watched all of the kids in his Kindergarten class lose their first tooth, one by one. Some even lost 2 or 3 or 4 teeth during the year. He kept asking me, "When am I going to lose a tooth?" I kept assuring him that it would happen before school was out. Well, the last day of school came and he still hadn't lost a tooth. It was very devasting for him. He thought that meant that he was the youngest one of all his friends! Poor kid! Anyway, the last few weeks he has had four really loose teeth but he won't let me touch them. Last night, Scott was getting him in the bath and said, "Let's surprise mom and pull your tooth." Masen was all over that! I guess he trusts dad because he is a dentist! So, Scott pulled his tooth and the Tooth Fairy visited and everything! He is so excited to have finally lost his first tooth!


He is a little self concious now. He doesn't think he looks like himself. I think he looks absolutely adorable!!



This is Masen holding the loot that the Tooth Fairy brought!

16 miles with a 50 pound backpack? I'm glad it wasn't me!!

Jayden had an overnight hiking trip last month. They had to pack everything they would need in a backpack (including all the water they would need for 24 hours) and hike 16 miles round trip! I think that just sounds like torture but he LOVED it! He had lots of fun and Scott was able to go so that made it even better! Scott took the camera with him and did a great job taking lots of picutres! Here are a few!


The whole gang!




Is he really a boy scout? Where has the time gone?!?




He even did a little (pretend) rock climbing!!




Our now experienced hiker!




Scott took lots of scenery pictures! It looks beautiful up there!!













There were TONS of lizards! It was heaven for Jay!







Ah! A snake!

Jayden LOVES the critters!

He had a GREAT time! There are not a lot of boys his age in our ward but the few we have are good kids. He also has really awesome leaders who don't let the boys slack. Jayden has accomplished a lot since we moved here! He's looking forward to the next camping trip!!

Playing catch-up.....once again!

OK, I know it's been a month and a half since I put anything on here. If there was an award for the biggest slacker blogger, I would totally win! My kids have kept me busy the past few weeks. I have way more pictures than I want to put in one post, so I am going to spread them over a few days! I'm going to start with Braedy's gymnastics meet. It was the first weekend in May. She did AMAZING! It was the first time she competed individually. She was absolutely nervous but I was very proud of her! Here are just a few pics. Sorry they are so dark, I don't know what happened!!



What a cute gymnast!!



Braedy doing her floor routine. This was her first event and she was super nervous! She went a little faster than she should have so she had to stand and wait for the music to catch up at the end. But she recovered and did great on the other routines.



The beam. Braedy doesn't really care for the beam. It's a little scary to her.



The uneven bars...Brae's fav!!



Getting her medal!! She wasn't too excited to be standing in front of all those people so she jumped down before I could get a good picture of her!



She also did some vaults but my camera takes forever to snap a picture and I didn't get a good one of her vaults. Overall, it was a great experience for her. She had a lot of fun and it was awesome to see how much she has improved! Grandma and Grandpa Garmire were able to be here for her meet and they took her out for a milkshake afterward so that made it even more fun!!

Also, she found out yesterday that she is moving up to the next level! I really like the gym that she is at right now. She has improved more in the last 8 months than she did in the first 3 years of taking gymnastics.

Easter Duds

My kids in their Easter outfits. It was just taken today so it's not even on Easter but they still look good, right? Since Jayden wears a white shirt and suit now, he only got a new tie. Poor kid!! And I have to point out Jayden's new 'do. He's had shaggy hair for a while now and I have hated it! I know it's the style but I just couldn't stand it. I chose not to fight him over it because he is getting older and needs to have his own style and opinions but I was really starting to go crazy!! My tongue was starting to hurt from biting it so hard!! Anyway, when we were at my mom's for Easter, he saw a picture of himself where he had short, spikey hair. He looked at it for a while and said, "I want my hair to look like that!" So I jumped on that and gave him a haircut!! I just had to point it out because I think he looks so handsome and I'm just excited that he has short hair again!!