Avery being...well, Avery

Day at the Lake

     Avery wanted to go knee-boarding.  Jase did an awesome job making it fun for her, they didn't even go underwater when they were done.  Nice! Gotta love this girls spunk!

     Breck loves being on the boat!

         A great day on the boat = crashing at the cabin with tired kids.  Thanks for the fun day Moirs!!

Draper Days & Happy Birthday Twinners!!

     Draper Days is a big deal in our community and we had a great time celebrating it.  My cute friend Alison had us come over and tie-dye t-shirts for the parade and the kids loved them.  We biked to the parade route and my kids got enough candy to rival Halloween.
     It also happend to be Brecken  & Avery's third birthday.  I outfitted them with a Birthday Princess Crown and Birthday Boy Badge so they could get extra attention at the parade and it worked.  Avery loved all the "royalty" and would wave to the "princesses" as they passed.  They all wished them Happy Birthday and they were in heavan...so fun!!
     That afternoon we spent time with our friends the Leggetts.  Brooklyn Leggett is an amazing tumbler and the kids had fun with a hand-stand contest.
     The day ended with cupcakes and fireworks at the city park. We made sure the twins knew the fireworks were all for them.  A great day to spend a birthday...or two. 

     Funny side note:  Corey called me from Wal-Mart to let me know they only had blue scooters.  I told him that Avery wouldn't care and it'd probably be good to get them matching ones anyway.  When he brought them in Avery immediately said "that's not my scooter, my scooter is pink."  Corey got on the phone to every nearby store and found Avery her very own pink scooter...it's pretty fun having a girl.  

Adriana!

      I've always been blessed with amazing friends and Miss Adriana Whetten is one of them.  We were neighbors in Eagle Mountain and became fast friends.  Since we've both moved we've tried to do yearly visits and have done pretty good.  No matter how long it's been it's always wonderful to see them!!  McKay and Nicky have been friends since they were babies and it's crazy to see them all grown up.  I hadn't seen Adriana in two years and when I saw Nicky I cried because she's gotten so grown up and absolutely beautiful!!
     The Whetten's are moving to Colorado so we went to see them for a last Utah hurrah.  It was a great afternoon with the kids playing and eating and Adriana and I catching up. 

                                   Best of luck in Colorado Whetten Family!! We sure love you!!

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!!