Washington, 2011

We took a big mammoth vacation at the end of June and into July. We had such a fun time. We started by driving up to the Spokane, WA/Coeur d'Alene, ID area. It was absolutely gorgeous! I wish we could vacation there all the time! If only it wasn't a 24 hr drive.... still... totally worth it!! 1 bonus about this drive was we had the chance to stop in Farmington, UT to visit a really good friend of mine who use to live down here. I had so much fun catching up with her and I wish there had been more time. Oh well. I was thankful for what we had.

We went up to Washington because Dave's little sister Katie and her husband Jon live there with there 3 darling little kids. It was so much fun to spend time with them. They were such good sports about having all of us there, adn I'm so thankful that they let us come and crash in their house. Unfortunately, Dave wasn't able to get off enough time from work, so he couldn't come, so I'm thankful that my little sister, Mariana was able to take off an extra week and help me drive all my kids to the other side of the country.

Here we are on one night at a playground by their house.

Mariana, A

Li, KL, Katie, Ka, Jon

Mariana and A

We went to Post Falls Park where the kids played for awhile, then we we walked up to see the falls. Gorgeous!

The kids all had so much fun playing on the merry-go-round...I got a head ache just watching them!

6mo. pregnant Katie had fun playing too. :)

CK found climbed up here and posed so nice for a pic

Then D wanted to join her.

Then L, M, and B also wanted to join the party.

A loved the swing, and Li was so nice to push her.

D and KL

Down at the falls...at Post Falls
Li, Ka,KL

CK, KL, Mariana

D

D, CK, L, A, Ka, KL, M, B

We also took a trip down to Coeur d'Alene Lake. The water was freezing, but that didn't stop the kids from having a blast in the water.
M, L

KL, D, Ka, L

CK

Name that backside...

KL!

L

KL

Mariana, A

Li

D and Li

KL

We also spent a day in Downtown Spokane. There is a beautiful park right downtown.
We got to ride the little skyride over the falls downtown. Hard to see, but in this car is Mariana, D, B, and L

M, Ka, L in our little car

CK looking at the falls.

A looking at the falls.

Waterfall in downtown Spokane.

CK

There was a big giant wagon. Here is everyone up on top.
A, Mariana, Li, Katie, D, L, and B

B, A, and Mariana

Mariana, and A

Ka, M, KL, CK

Again, thanks, Jon and Katie for letting us come. It was so much fun for all of us and we really hope you'll let us come back some day. We love you guys!

Girl's Camp 2011

June was Girl's Camp. I truly love being able to be involved with this. It is so much fun and such a blessing--every part of it. This year our theme was "We Seek After These Things", going along with the 2011 Mutual Theme of the 13th Article of Faith.

Pres. Anderson on stage doing songs with the girls (holding his son).

Here we are as a presidency in front of the backdrop.

Marlane, Carol Ann, Julie, Me

The YCL's...trying to decide who gets the spirit stick the last night.

This is Bro. Richey. He is the High Councilor over the YW. He is such a great man and we love him. He does so much for the YW and we can't thank him enough. He ended up getting the spirit stick the last night.

Some of us on stage the last night, I'm 3rd from the right.

Here are all the people from our ward (girl's and leaders. I'm on the front row, 1st on the left)

The girl's from our ward:

Sleeping Baby

Every Thursday, we have our summer movie outing. Most weeks, the movies aren't exactly anything anyone is all that excited to see... particularly the older boys. One week, I agreed to let them stay home, if they watched A. I had put her down for her nap, but apparently, she didn't go right to sleep, so they got her up and she didn't get her morning nap. When I got home, I walked in the door and found this:

rClearly, she really did still want her nap.

Surprise Shower

My little sister recently had a beautiful new baby girl. Just a week or 2 before she was born, my darling sister-in-law Beth, and some of their neighbors decided to throw her a surprise shower at a nearby park.

Amazingly, she really was surprised when we yelled "surprise!" She drove right by where we were all set up with an obvious party. She even saw mine and Jill's car. She just thought someone else was having a party. She never guessed it was for her.

Beth, Mary, Jill
A

What's a party with my sister's without some dancing?

My cute little nephews:

Bryson, Sambrown, Kyle, Brody

Jill and Bryson

Mary and I had a pedicure done a few days before.

Just a cute picture I found of A that the kids had taken

Progress..

Just a little update on the progress of the house...

Things are moving along just great. It is so fun to go over there and see something new has happened.

This is the day after they poured the basement slab.

Floor joists...getting ready to start framing

It is also an exciting time for my sister. Her house has officially started construction. They bought their lot 7 years ago, so this was a huge deal and such a happy surprise when she went by and saw the tractor there!

Here are D, B, L and CK in May, not long before the framing began, followed by the back fill.

When we got back from our vacation last weekend, we were so excited to go by the house and find that it was all framed. It really is so nice! We just can't stop looking at it.

L, KL, and CK

Waterslide

This summer I decided I would do something extra fun for the kids. I bought a big giant inflatable waterslide. We were all so excited...for the 1 week it lasted before they broke it. I'm still feeling upset about this. Anyway, it was a fun week. Here are our pictures.

KL:

CK:

Lily

Zach

CK

B

L

KL

A

Jill and A

Lily and A

We didn't know we had bought the exact same swimsuit until after we had done it. Still...just think they look so cute in these!

Football

We've had a very busy summer so far, but now we are home and I'm determined to get back on track with this blog! To start out, I have to go back a few months and report on B's football season which ended in May. He loved playing for his Uncle Scott on the Bronco's. They had a very good season that came to an unfortunately painful end without a championship. Still, the boys played well and had a good time.

Here is the members of the team who were present on the last day. This picture took about 10 takes... I finally said I wasn't going to stop until I got a pic of B smiling. This was the best he could do.

Here he is getting his trophy from Scott. Again, the pain from the loss was just still too real for him.