Sunriver

As soon as Maisey was done with school we headed to Sunriver for 5 days! We had a blast, like always, and we are so grateful my aunt and uncle allow us to go so often.

There are tons of pics of everything that we did

* We rode the train, 3 times!!!

* Maisey was just barely tall enough to do the bumper cars this time. She was so excited. She looked like she was going to cry every time someone hit her, but when she got off the first time she asked to go again!

* We played miniature golf. This was Gage's first time golfing. He had a blast and was actually pretty good (except for when he picked up the ball and put it in the hole!)

* We went on TONS of walks and bike rides. Mid-June was the perfect time to go. Not too hot, not too cold. It seriously was BEAUTIFUL!!!

 One day the kids biked while I ran to the river. We all had fun exploring!

Getting 5 little kids to look at the same time is tough!

 This girl wanted to pose in every spot for a picture

 This girl just wanted to walk around by herself. She thinks she is very independent.

 And this dude just wanted to watch the fishing boat.

 We saw some deer on an early morning walk

 One night we ALL went on a bike ride. It lasted like 2 minutes before Jett started crying and Grammy's chain fell off. 

A view on a bike ride

* We hit up the park several times

* We played tennis. Not actually on the tennis courts, but in the drive way. Maisey and Dad kept score and Maisey won.

* We headed to the SHARC (a big aquatic area with a sand box). Gage spent most of his time playing in the sand while Daddy took the girls around swimming. I gladly parked in on a chair in the sand area to "supervise" Gage.

These are definitely my kids. . . lounging around in the sun!

* We went down the year-round tubing hill for the first time. The kids (and Daddy) thought it was super fun!

* We stopped at a new little park area to play

* We ate lots of treats from the village: ice cream (x2), shaved ice, and huge doughnuts!

* And when we weren't busy having fun, we were keeping our eye on our little busy baby. This was her first time being mobile in Sunriver, and she definitely took advantage of that!

* Not pictured: Jump houses, game nights, Pitch Perfect, guitar hero and tractor riding!

What an awesome way to kick off summer!

Maisey's Last Day of School

The night before the last day of school Maisey and I headed to Target to pick out her teacher gifts. She has her regular teacher, her kinder enrichment teacher, her reading teacher, and then she wanted to pick something out for her principal as well. Luckily, they are all girls, so we went with the nail polish route. We may have been in the Target beauty department for 45 minutes while Maisey picked out the perfect color for each teacher. She hand selected colors for each of the ladies, and we put in a file, nail polish remover, and some chocolates with a little saying, "Thank you for helping me polish my kindergarten skills."

That morning, we cleaned out her desk and delivered the gifts.

Then we headed to the carnival.

I volunteered to help at the carnival, but they didn't really need me, so I got to hang with Maisey. I also brought Gage along, and he had a blast. I was totally expecting the carnival to be pure chaos and kind of lame. It blew me away. It was so well organized and very creative. I was super impressed.

 They had a dunk tank, and 4 of the 6 teachers from the school took shifts in it. Maisey's teacher was such a good sport and was the first one to go. Maisey had earned two dunk tank tickets during school that week and was very nice to share one of them with Gage. They each had a turn to throw the balls, but sadly, neither of them hit the button. We stayed around and watched though, and the teachers each got their fair share of dunking. Gage thought it was hilarious!

 Gage won a slurpee coupon at a balloon dart game.

 Maisey had her friends at the photo booth

 Gage sportin his stache!

They had so many games set up for the kids, and they also had a food tent set up. Each kid had a coupon for popcorn, cotton candy, and a snow cone. 

After the carnival part, the classes all gathered on the grass for a presentation from a reptilie man. The kindergarteners were in the very front, so they got a good view of everything.

I had such a fun morning with these two!

The Day of the Beetle and the Oreos

Once upon a time there was a Grammy who gave her grand kids a bug habitat. The kids caught a beetle and put it in the bug habitat. The kids carried that beetle with them everywhere. When it was time for bed that night, the kids didn't want him to sleep outside, so they brought him in.

  The next morning the boy went to check on the beetle. He tapped on the habitat, but the beetle was "sleeping". The boy asked his mom about 20 times when the beetle was going to wake up.

 Several hours later, the boy was inspecting the beetle and said to his mom, "Mom, I can't believe he is still sleeping!!! When is he going to wake up?"

 Soon after that, the girl came home from school and discovered the beetle was dead and broke the news to her sad brother.

 He coped by hiding under the table with a pack of Oreos

 and eating the cream out of all of them

and then shoving the cookies in his mouth.

Beetle story over!

Miley is Walking!

About a week after her first birthday, Miley started to walk.

She started by practicing her stance

She became a pro of pushing things around the house

She quickly learned how to dodge her brother

And she followed mommy and daddy's really high-pitched, silly voices!

And now she walks everywhere. . . usually with some kind of shoe in hand!

Busy Busy

We have had so much going on the last few weeks I can barely even take a breath! I have so much to update on in detail later, but here is a little sneak peek!

 

Miley started walking about a week after her birthday. She has totally mastered it and loves to carry shoes around the house.

 

We met our cousin Jett for the first time. Kate, Brock, and Jett came to visit while Blair is at boot camp. We're having a lot of fun with them!
 

Lots of Triathlon trainings, did I mention I am our ward coach? My kids have been pretty good sports about being dragged around to all of the training sessions and rounding up registration forms.

We celebrated the last day of school with an awesome carnival and reptile show. Way more on this to come later.

The minute school was over we headed to Sunriver with Grammy and Kate's fam. We had a blast, like always!

 

We celebrated Father's Day! 

All three kids started swim lessons again. Brock and Miley are taking the parent-tot swim class so Kate and I have to get in with them every day!

 

We celebrated Brock's 2nd birthday! 

We've been dealing with some MAJOR separation anxiety lately. Like the worst of all three kids. This was my view from the shower the other day. It's pretty out of control!

 

And we hit up EZ Orchard for some shortcake! DELICIOUS!!!

Dance Festival will be over this weekend, Kate leaves next week, and I think we have two days next week where we have NOTHING planned. Maybe things will slow down enough so I can actually update this thing!

 

I LOVE SUMMERTIME!!!!!

A Good Friday

In a lesson last Sunday, I wrote down a quote that particularly struck me. 

Heavenly Father knows that you have the ability to deal with your daily life.

Simple, but true. He knows that I can deal with screaming kids, millions of errands, dinner making, laundry, school and church commitments, and other family happenings. 

So this week, I tried to be more positive about my life, and not complain to my sweet husband who usually gets an ear full daily!

And I have to say, it's helped a lot.

The whole week has gone a lot better.

Today, in particular, has been a pretty great day!

It started off with an early morning workout, then our normal morning routine.

We had a fun visit with one of my old friends from school and we got to meet her sweet baby girl!

Gage looks huge between the two babes!

Maisey had a pretty awesome day today too. She got to celebrate her birthday at school today. She brought her American Girl doll and a Build-a-Bear bunny for show and tell and came home with a birthday crown!

 

 She totally is milking the "school birthday" thing for all it's worth and asked for a special Subway lunch today. Then asked for a birthday cake. You know, if you give a mouse a cookie. . .!!! But mom can't say no to lunch out and cake, so of course I obliged!

Happy Birthday, 66 days early!!! 

And I get to spend my evening in the temple with our beautiful Young Women. What a neat way to end an awesome day!