Heather Came!!

It's been a fun summer of lots of old friends.  We've seen friends from college who just moved back to Utah, we've seen friends from Eagle Mountain who are moving away from Utah and we saw The West family.  I love those reunions that feel like we've never been apart and that's how this was.  Heather is one of my best girls, and her daughter Emma is one of McKay's.  I love to see them together.  They're both goofy kids and their personalities totally match.  Once Emma and Mac were getting attention the rest of the pack had to get in on that!
     Alison had a fun tie-die party so we could have matching patriotic t-shirts for the 24th of July and Draper days.  Very fun. 

      Some of my best girls in the whole world!  Me, Britt, Alison, and Heather.  Where did Sunny go??

 Tate's best friend AJ got a turtle for his birthday and brought him all out for us to see.  Breck looved the turtle. 

Brittany's beautiful children

               Heather always has my boys flex for pictures, here's one of Tate.  Nice muscles Tater!!
                                    Love you West's!!! We're so glad you could come visit!!

A little blackmail for later...

     I'm sad these pictures didn't turn out very clear, but oh well.  Where this girl gets her ideas from is beyond me.  One night I was getting Avery and Breck ready for the bath and somewhere between undressing and getting into the tub Avery found her favorite cowgirl boots and proceeded to prance around the house, giggling to herself!  I couldn't resist grabbing the camera and quite frankly she was happy to pose for a few pics.  Love this spunky girl!!

Hand foot & mouth, strepthroat, & Flamming Gorge

     We took this trip over a month ago now and in spite of the title of this post and all that it entails, I'm still missing Flamming Gorge.  What a fun, beautiful trip!!  I grew up taking camping trips to Lake Powell and Flamming Gorge and it's my favorite thing to do with my kids now.  It's a ton of work, but it's all worth it!  A few days before we were supposed to leave I was in bed praying I'd get feeling better soon.  After two days of suffering I gave in and went to the doctor and it was strep throat.  Strep is awful, but I was glad to be able to get on an antibiotic and take care of it so we could go.  Unfortunately, Breck, Avery and Tate all got it right before we left.  So with antibiotics for the entire family in-tow, we set off for Flamming Gorge.
     Our neighbors the Burn's come to this place every year with their family. For some reason they didn't need all their reservations so we had the option to buy them and I'm so glad we did.  You actually boat into the campsite and dock your boat just off the beach.  So cool.
     We took this trip with some of our favorite friends the Larkins.  On the boat ride over Brittany noticed red dots on Breck's feet and asked if he had hand foot mouth disease.  I said no and then looked at him and saw red dots all over his feet with a few on his hands and in his mouth..poor baby!  Avery also had a few spots but not as bad....seriously!!!  I don't know if this is just our bad luck or just a lot of kids in the family equals a lot of illness.  We kept Breck on ibuprofen and babied him a bit and it was fine.  Brittany's kids just got over hand foot and mouth which was how she recognized it so quickly.   This picture does no justice to his red, swollen feet!!

      We spent hours and hours on the boat, touring and wake-boarding and tubing.  It was hazy from the recent fires, but beautiful and warm.
     On our first night the kids had a blast catching crayfish.  The recruited some of the Burns family and caught enough to boil.   Tate was a little upset about cooking them, but it was pretty fun and the other boys and Corey were brave enough to eat 'em!
    

      There was a HUGE rope swing that Corey and Kevin took advantage of.  I was shaking just watching them!!

     The biggest hits of the trip were the tube and playing on the beach.  Avery was the bravest and by far cutest tuber!  Check out that smile!!

Weekend at the Cabin

      One of Corey's recent races was in Park City so we decided to make a weekend of it and go up to the cabin.  I love the cabin and the way it seems to slow down time and instantly relax me.  We did a bit of a hike and I was so excited that everyone did so well.  It's fun to have everyone big enough to do these types of things.  We hiked just above Smith Morehouse lake and it was beautiful!

      The bike race was fun too. All the kids got to race and it was really fun.  Brecken didn't actually get on the balance bike, he's skeptical of a bike without pedals.  Avery on the other hand would have stayed on her bike all night long had we let her. Corey did awesome taking first in his division, but stood on the "podium" for only a second and I couldn't get a pic.  

Summer of Biking

      Anyone who knows Corey well knows he's an avid biker.  The fun thing is when we get to share in his passion.  During the summer our weekends and even once-a-week weeknights are full of bike races.  The weekly series Corey likes to do has a free kids race before the "dads" race.  It's awesome and the boys love it.  Corey's been really strong this year placing first in his division multiple times.  Pretty amazing for a man with two less quadriceps muscles in his right leg. 

      This is Corey's good friend and BikER buisness partner Nick.  Funny thing is that I went to school with Nick K-12.  Pretty cool. 

      Corey on the first place podium with our twins...obviously we need to do a little coaching with them about the arm raising.

Corey's little brother Tyler told him he'd buy him this awesome tiger shirt (please sense my sarcasm) if he'd race in it and he did.  Pretty hot babe!
This is him and his older brother Jared.  

School's Out Let the Fun Begin!!

      I love my kids school.  They have great teachers, good programs and a feeling of home there.  One of my favorite things is the annual fun run fundraiser.  Instead of selling aweful, overpriced stuff, they host a fun run.  The kids get donations for their school and then they run a 5k together.  It's awesome.  100% of the money donated goes to the school.  This year they were earning extra money for a mobile computer lab so my kids set up a snow-cone/bake sale table in our front yard and were able to earn enough to meet their individual goals.  I'm sad I didn't get a pic of their table, but it was pretty awesome.
     The first fun summer activity we did was John Huntsman day at "This is the Place" state park.  It's a special day where John Huntsman pays for everyone who goes including yummy ice cream for all.  We went with Kathy and her girls and Hayley and her sweet boy.  So fun to be there together!

Gretel and Tate

                                                           

  Wyatt, Keaton, Mac and Avery....enjoying her ice cream.

                                    

   Cute Ady

   

Me and Wyatt.  This kid gives me deja vu....so like his daddy!!

     Posing at the carpenters shop, a very cool Native American dance program, panning for gold and a much needed shave for McKay at the Barbers shop.  What a fun day!  I can't wait to see what else summer holds for us!

Brecken at the end of the day...time to go home! 

                                

It's Finished!!!

    Our driveway is finished.  It was a very exciting day to watch the three cement trucks come and all the guys smoothing it out and making it beautiful.  The kids have been LOVING the long runway for biking, basketball, rollerblading, rip-sticking and scootering.   The bathroom will have to wait while we replenish our savings account, but until then we'll just enjoy our beautiful new driveway. 

     One of my favorite things that came with the driveway are the addition of my flower pots.  We used to have a "built in" flower bed full of beautiful, huge hibiscus flowers.  Due to the cracks in our foundation we needed to take the concrete to the house.  This made me very sad as I really do love the flowers, so Corey gave me the go-ahead for big flower pots done to my liking....and I do, loooove them. 

     In case you're wondering they're full of red fountain grass, sweet potato vine, lantana, petunias, and coleus.  Beautiful!