Family Reunion

Dave's family is so awesome and has a family reunion every year. This year is was Paul's turn to host. They decided to have a camp out at their house. It's so fun out there! Paul lives on a farm about an hour outside of Rexburg. It's pretty isolated and peaceful. Not to mention that it is a kid heaven! All of the kids were thrilled to be there. With all of the horses and pigs and wide open spaces, no one got bored.

This is the sunset out in Monteview. It was so pretty out there!

But the most entertaining part was all of the water. My kids (minus Logan) would live in the water every day of the summer if we let them. Logan doesn't love it, but I'm sure he'll eventually be the same. In the backyard there was a pool and lots and lots of water balloons. We had a great game of water balloon volleyball. Even Grandma got in on the action. It was a fun weekend!

Max spent almost all of his time running and jumping in the swimming pool. A lot of the other kids were a little bit apprehensive, but not Max. He was the first in the pool and the very last out. We pretty much had to drag him out of it. We set up the action setting on our camera so you could see how funny he was:

4th of July

Most of you already know that we spend our 4th selling fireworks. It starts 9 days before the 4th and in some ways continues until several days after while we finish the inventory and paperwork. We always joke that we celebrate the 4th of July more than most people!

This year was a little different because TNT gave us an extra location. Plus, Michelle and Thomas weren't able to help us like they have in years past. There was a little while that we were pretty nervous about how we were going to run all three locations! Luckily, Dave's sister Andrea and her family stepped up and helped us pull it off. It was a tough year with the dryness and all of the fires. Fireworks sales were down all over the country. We feel blessed that we got the third location so we didn't end up losing money. The third location was just a one year experiment for TNT and we probably won't have it again next year.

With all of the business of selling fireworks, we try to make sure our kids still have time to celebrate. I always take them to the parade that Rexburg has. Afterward, Grandmas was so generous and took them to play with cousins for the rest of the day.

Logan is a huge fan of pop-it's. Every time I took him to visit his dad at the fireworks tent, all he could think about was pop-it's. I think he probably went through a good 20 boxes.

 

Toothless

At the end of June, Max had a pretty eventful day. Well, eventful in six year old terms, anyway. He came to me in the morning and showed me that his two front teeth were loose. We were planning to help some people clean their house before moving, so I got him ready and didn't worry very much about his teeth. In the middle of the cleaning, we had to run back to our house and grab more paper towels. Just as we pulled in the driveway, tooth #1 came out. He was so excited! We put it in the kitchen window and went back to clean. After a while, he came to me and excitedly showed me that his other tooth was so loose that it was bleeding. He worked and worked on that tooth for several hours and finally got it to fall out! He was over the moon by this point! Never has anyone in our family (or in the world according to Max) lost both of their front teeth in the same day!

The tooth fairy must have agreed that it was indeed a pretty special occasion. This is what she left Max:

Now, and only for a while, I lovingly call Max "Toothless". He thinks How to Train Your Dragon is about the coolest thing in the world, so he doesn't seem to mind.

 

 

Father's Day

This year Father's Day kind of snuck up on me. Earlier this year, Dave got a new meat smoker. He already had one, but this new one is like a Cadillac of meat smokers. It's really high tech. It's more like an outdoor oven than a meat smoker. We haven't tried it yet, but it can even cold smoke cheese. Yum! Since it was such a big purchase, we decided that it would be both Dave's birthday and Father's Day present this year.

As Father's Day was approaching, I felt like we couldn't just let the day go without acknowledging it. Plus the kids really wanted to do something for their dad. So, with a little help from Pinterest, we decided to make him a DAD photo collage.

It was really bright and sunny outside when we were taking the pictures. But the kids were troopers and all the pictured turned out really good once we turned then black and white.

 

Logan had 2 different poses. I had a hard time choosing which one to use!

The kids were pretty proud and excited to present it to their dad. Max turned our chair into a Green Bay Packers shrine for his dad to sit in before opening his present. Max is turning into this thoughtful party planner. It's pretty fun to watch!

 

Swimming Lessons

We signed Bria and Max up for swimming lessons this year. They had so much fun! Logan was a little bit too young for the toddler class. He was petty jealous, though.

 

Both of the kids did pretty well, but they definitely need more practice! They were both in the same beginner class. I think they were having more fun than learning. But I have noticed a huge improvement in their water abilities after lessons.

 

I really lucked out, too. On the first day of classes, I discovered that my friend Amy had signed her kids up for the same time! It was so nice to have some good conversation while we were waiting.

Overall, it was a great experience! We'll definitely do it again next year.

 

Zoo

Way back at the beginning of June, we got to go to the Idaho Falls zoo for Taryn's birthday. Quite a few members of the family went. It turned out to be a fun day. (Bria was missing. She got invited to a diffent birthday party the same day.

 

Walk Around the Greenbelt

In late May, I took the kids on a walk around the greenbelt in Idaho Falls. We tried this last year and Max crashed his bike early on the walk. I was pushing Logan’s stroller and had no way to help him with his bike too. So, we gave up and went home.  Ever since, the kids have been begging me to take them back. Finally, we tried it. Max decided to just walk this time and Bria took her scooter. The weather was beautiful and the kids did really good keeping up! It’s almost 2 1/2 miles all the way around. We took lots of beautiful pictures on our walk.

Logan got to go to school

Near the end of the school year, Bria had a talent show and I was also supposed to help in Max’s class. I normally left Logan to be babysat, but I took him with me. He loved it. Loved, loved it.

We went to Bria class first. Logan had a little bit of a hard time sitting still and watching the talent show. So, after a while, we headed over to Max’s class. He liked it there even better! Max’s teacher was the best ever. She included Logan like he was a member of the class. She even took him out to recess! It was so fun to watch him interact and participate with these older kid!

Bria’s Field Trip

Oh, man! I’m so behind on our blog! We’ve been super duper busy since school got out. It seems like every day blends with the next. I need to get caught up on this blogaroo before I get even more behind! 

Back to the end of school. I wanted to go with both of our school age kids on their field trips, but Bria’s was scheduled for the same day that Max had his kindergarten graduation. So, I had to miss it. I was really sad.  To make up for it, I sent Bria to school with our little point and shoot camera to take pictures. Most of them came out blurry. But, Bria told me in-depth what every photo was about. She is too funny!

The second grade went to the Legacy Flight Museum in Rexburg. I’ve never been before, but now I really want to go. Afterward, they went to the movie theater and learned all about how movies are played. Then, they go to watch the Chipmunks. She had a blast!  She only brought pictures back from the Flight Museum for some reason.