Happy 24th!

This year for the 24th we spent it with my family. It started off with my Mom, Sisters and I going to see Eclipse. I do have to admit, that I am not a Twilight Saga follower. I read the first book, just started the second book (awhile ago...yes I can put it down!) and have only seen the first movie. Tiff caught me up on what I missed in the second movie so I felt informed enough to see Eclipse. I thought it was really good! At the beginning of the movie, Ange filled me in on some good information that would have made some things confusing if she had not...a few minutes later I filled in Ange with the juicy tid-bit that Bella and Jacob were wearing American Eagle clothes! I felt it was imperative that she knew so she could enjoy the movie fully too!!!

After that, we met the kids and Brandon and Ryan at Mom's and we had a big sleepover! None of us slept, but it was fun! At 4:30am we were all up and getting ready to drop Me, Brandon and Ange off at the Deseret News 10K.
Brandon had a great race finishing in 41:49 averaging a 6:44min/mile.
This was Ange's first race since having knee surgery 8 months ago, so we ran together and she did phenomenal (especially since she had only run 6 miles once before the race!)
After the race we stuck around for the parade until it got way too hot!
Then we headed to my Moms and had a BBQ and let the kids swim!
It was a great 24th!

Another successful camping trip!

Another successful camping trip is now behind us! We took the kids to Trial Lake in the Unitas this past weekend and we all had a great time! Right when we pulled up the kids made themselves at home right in the dirt!

Tyson was busy finding "treasures" for us to take home. We have a whole bag of them and I am not sure what we are going to do with them!

Of course one of our favorite things to do is roast marshmallows!

The s'more master!

Cute!

Handsome!

Tyson the poser!

What cute kids we have!

Ha ah ha ha ah!

Our hike! We took the kids on a two mile out two mile back hike to Long Lake! Lily loved the backpack!

Tyson and me ready to go! This picture was taken about 2 minutes before everything started going south! Tyson decided to start running on the trail and right after I told him to slow down and watch for rocks he tripped and scraped his elbow and bruised his knee.

Then every 5 minutes he would ask "are we there yet?" Luckily I wore my Garmin and it told us how much farther!

The mosquitoes were really bad, but we had a lot of bug spray on. We made it "close enough" to the lake and had our quick picnic and headed back. To help Tyson make it back I let him jump off all the big rocks while holding my hand...he thought it was awesome! Hind sight we should have gone on the one mile out one mile back hike! ;)

Tyson found a walking stick! He saw a lot of hikers with walking sticks and thought they were pretty cool! We also got to see 2 Llamas, 4 Horses, and a bunch of dogs. Tyson got to pet a lot of dogs!

Lily took her snooze in the backpack! So cute!

Tyson on one of his many breaks!

When we got back to the camp we took the rubber raft out onto the lake! The kids were sooo excited!

Mom and Lily!

It was probably a funny sight seeing our little family in a little rubber raft, but we had a great time!

Tyson and Dad!

Brandon did all the rowing.

This is what Tyson and Lily did the whole time! Lily thought it was awesome to get splashed with water by the oar!

I of course had to bring a treat. So we made Brandon stop rowing every once and a while so we could eat some Skittles!

It was a fun ride!

Later Tyson and Brandon did a little fishing while Lily and I stayed back to "relax". Lily had none of that relaxing junk so we went on a walk and had snacks at the campground!

On the last day we had a yummy breakfast and cleaned up, but before we left we had to play one more round of HeMan! Lily got in on the action too!

Then Tyson put on a "fireworks" show for us by throwing pine branches in the air!
Our camping family!

The Ups and Downs of Tuesday!

So, Tuesday was a crazy day with goods and bads to go around!
Brandon's car needs to have Safety and Emissions done this year, and he had a huge crack in his windshield, so Monday I took it in to be replaced. Got home with it and noticed that they did a horrible job on the right side...goo everywhere and stain on the window itself. So Tuesday morning I took it back in for them to fix. They gave me a free car wash to make me "happy" so at least the windshield looked good and the car was clean!

I got home just in time to get a couple of things done before my Sisters, Brother, and Grandma (and don't forget the kids) came over so we could all go to lunch! Cute Grandma Spencer is 87(?)ish! Isn't she so cute! My sisters and I have been doing lunches with her for the last little while whenever we can all get together! I love it!

The next part of the day was the worst part. Our awesome neighbors were going to watch the kids for us that night so I went to get a Pizza for them for dinner as payment for watching the kids. I was driving thru the parking lot when a 17 year old girl hit us. It wasn't that bad of an accident, but an accident is an accident and they are just a pain!!! We had to wait for the Police, fill out the reports and when it was time to leave we found out that she hit me just right on the wheel that the car was undriveable. The cop said it looked like the tires were pigeoned toed! So we had to have it towed! Lucky for me, Requel was on her way home and she picked up the kids for me right before the Cops got there so I didn't have to worry about them, and right before the tow truck came Brandon came so I didn't have to get a ride from a Cop!

So now we are a one car family until the insurance companies decide fault and we can get a rental car. (It was definitely her fault, but since it was on private property...a parking lot...no ticket was issued and the cops can't claim fault they just state the evidence and the insurance companies decide. LAME! How would I have hit the front of her car with the side of my car when she was coming out of a KFC parking lot????!!!)

Then that night we were lucky enough to go to the Paul McCartney concert. It was awesome! I do have to admit, when Brandon told me on Monday that we were offered tickets I thought OK I will go watch this old guy...it could be cool, but once I really realized who he was I was awe struck! We were watching a Beatle!!! He really was amazing! He played for just over 3hours non-stop! He played a ton of the classics and sounded spot on! I hope I can have that much energy when I am 69! They played 2 encores that were 3 or 4 songs each! AMAZING! We really liked his drummer too! What talent! Sir Paul would tell stories about Hendricks and Clapton and at one point jumped on the back of another band member! There were fireworks, pyrotechnics it was awesome!!! Thanks Clearlink for the tickets!

One of my favorite parts was watching some of the older people dancing and just being so excited! Some may have been those girls that were at the original Beatles concerts crying and passing out! It was so much fun!

What a crazy day of ups and downs!

Swimming Lessons and Friends!

We put the kids in swimming lessons this year and they really enjoyed it!

Lily's cute little friend Bella was in our class too!

They are such cute friends as long as Bella doesn't touch Lily!

(Bella loves to hold hands and hug and Lily loves her own space!)

Lily and I were in the Mommy and Me class. She loved playing in the shallow water, but as soon as we got to the deep water and I had to hold her it was a different story! She didn't want me to hold her! She would also cry if the teacher would get to close to her! By the end she finally warmed up to the teacher and would swim with her without crying!

Tyson was in the preschool class. He did fantastic! By the end he learned to swim underwater without plugging his nose! (Something I cannot do!)

Lily is rather stubborn! She would never blow bubbles in the water, but she did plug her nose and stick her face underwater all by herself!
Lily loved to be dunked under water and she loved to "jump" off the side of the pool!

(She still doesn't get her feet off the ground when she "jumps"! I love it!)

I was so proud of my Tyson! He is such a big kid!

He is one little fish in the water!

The kids were so proud of there graduation certificates!

and I was so proud of them! Way to go you two!

We sure love friends around here! Emily, Olivia and Gavin came to play with us the other day!

The kids play so well together even if we haven't seen them for a long time!

We love you guys!

This picture is blurry, but how cute is Lily with her swimsuit on her head!!!

4th of July weekend!

For the 4th of July weekend we went to the cabin for a relaxing weekend! (Well, it was relaxing for us...it may have been another story for Nana and Papa!)

For part of the festivities, Nana was kind enough to get us tickets to the Oakley Rodeo. Brandon and Papa volunteered (more like insisted) to stay at the cabin with Lily!

So, Nana, Zak, Colin, Cori, Tyson and I went to the Rodeo.

I thought it was a lot of fun, and Tyson had a great time! It was his first Rodeo and big fireworks display!
An action shot of Steer Roping!

Tyson took a whole bunch of crazy pictures. I deleted most of them, (they were blurry or of a pole or other random things) but here is a nice cowboy pic!
Tyson was so cute...there was a nice lady in front of us with a cowboy hat and Tyson tapped her on the shoulder to talk to her about her hat. She was really nice to him and chatted with him for a moment. A few minutes later Tyson tapped her on the shoulder again and told her, "I don't have a cowboy hat, but I can yell YEE HAW!"
So we did the whole Rodeo!
YEE HAW!

Me and my Tyson!

Another great shot by Tyson!

Zak, your nose a little itchy???

The kids love the cabin!

Look at that cute little face with crazy hair!

She was playing with the marble toy and saying "whoa, Whoa!"

Zak and Tyson playing video games!

What a great uncle Zak is!

Brandon reading to the kids just before we were leaving!

Ahhhh!

On Saturday, all the boys went fishing and the girls, (except Nana) went shopping in Park City!

Cori and I found a great deal at Aeropostale $5 tee shirts and I had a 20% off coupon, so the tee shirts ended up being $4. What a deal!

Anyways, Tyson finds sticks everywhere he goes. He found a T-Rex arm bone, and all of these sticks that he turned into a boat that can fly!

I love kids and their imaginations!

The boat/plane!

Lily was mad I was taking pictures of Tyson and not holding her!

Brandon took Monday off too, so he got to come to swimming lessons with us and later that afternoon we saw Toy Story 3 and afterwords took the kids to a park to play and we topped off the day with ice cream shakes! It was a great way to end the 4th of July weekend!

Happy Independence Day!