First Tooth....Lost

A few days after our arrival home from our trip, Amberly lost her first tooth. We were all quite surprised, including Amberly, as we had not even known it was loose until she bit into a cob of corn. We weren't expecting it because Reili was a bit older when she started losing teeth. The most amazing thing was the tooth fairy actually remembered to come that night. She must be more on top of things now or something.

Trip to Utah - Part II

Somehow I missed taking still photos of all of the middle of our trip to Utah. So I am just going to skip to the end and post about the middle some time later. We had a fun trip to Seven Peaks with my friend Elaine and her family and stayed with them one night. Then we stayed with my Parents at their Condo for a few days and went to the VanLeeuwen 24th of July camping trip (hopefully I'll post about that later). At the end of our trip we stayed with my brother Al and his family. I am always worried my kids are going to be bored because many of their cousins are so much older than them now. Not the case. I think the girls had just as much fun at Uncle Al's playing with Aubrey and McCall as they did playing with their younger cousins. It was possibly the most relaxing part of our trip because of their help entertaining and watching the kids. We also had a lot of fun visiting Lenore for the day and letting the girls swim in their pool together. Thanks everyone for such a fun trip to Utah!

Amberly, Reili, Aby, and Wes hang out on the couch watching a movie.

Elizabeth Lenore and her namesake...Aunt Lenore.


McCall, Reili, Amberly and Aubrey on the trampoline at Al's.

Ellie and Cousin McCall.

Water Fight!!!

An evening in the backyard roasting marshmellows and eating s'mores.

Look at my marshmellow Uncle Al!

Trip to Utah-Part I

We decided it had been quite some time (2 years) since we had been to Utah to visit my family and even longer since we had gone with Tom (4 years). This was the summer to do it, since next year we will be in the middle of a move. So Tom took 2 and 1/2 weeks off and we braved the 19 hour drive with 4 kids (let's face it flying with 4 kids our kid's ages is at least as hard if not harder). The drive turned out not to be too bad. We drove as long as we could stand the first day (11 hours) and stopped at a hotel with a pool so the kids could get some of their energy out. Then we drove the rest of the way the second day. Luckily, with plenty of movies...we made it through the billions of times they asked when we were going to get there.

The first 5 days we were there we stayed with Tom's sister Rebekah. The kids loved playing with her 5 (even though her youngest are just older than Reili). Everyone loved baby Elizabeth and fought over who got to push her in the stroller. While we were at Rebekah's, we went to The Living Aquarium, for a boating trip to Utah Lake, and went to downtown Salt Lake City to see where my parents are serving a mission and see some of the sights of Temple Square. I didn't get any pictures of our boat trip...but here are some of the others.

Reili, Jenna, and Amberly pause while looking at some fish?

Meagan pushes Ellie (couldn't get Ellie to look at the camera).

Fun with Cousins! Reili, Amberly, Wesley, Meagan and Jenna sit on a frog.

Those cuties!

Checking out the fountain at Temple Square. Don't fall in!

Wesley tries to build a Temple at the Museum of Church History.

One of their favorite pass times....coloring.

Wesley the Shepherd.

Sweet, Sweet, Adorable Ellie...checking out the carpet at the Church Museum.

Hopefully, I'll get around to posting about the rest of our trip...stay tuned.

4th of July Festivities

I didn't get pictures of all of our Independence Day activities. They all took place on July 3rd this year, since the 4th was on Sunday. Our ward has a breakfast and flag raising every year. I'm not sure I have ever been, but Tom and the kids have. This year I was there for about 10 minutes. Reili was running a one mile kids race that morning, so she and I left the breakfast early and headed to her race.

On Memorial Day after walking the 5K she said she wanted to be able to run one. I told her the best way to start was to learn to run a mile first and then work up to running farther. She wanted to do it, so in June we started taking her to a track to "train" to run a mile straight. From the very beginning she could run the whole way and each week she got faster. It was really fun to see her work toward her goal and run with her. So on July 3rd she ran her first mile race and wanted me to run it with her to keep her going. It was the first time she had run hills and by the time the race started at 9:40 (an hour late) it was quite hot and humid. She did really well and I am so proud of her.

Reili with Mom before the race.

The starting line up.

There she goes!

Finished....finally!

Reili came in 36th out of 63 runners at 12 minutes 23 seconds. She was 6th in her age group. Way to go Reili!

That same evening we were invited to some friends for a picnic and fireworks display. This was our second year at that event and it felt great not to be pregnant this year and be able to really enjoy it. The Walton's have a huge back yard, perfect for fitting everyone. It is so fun.

Amberly and the kids playing some sort of chase the balloon game.

Reili, Amberly, and Caden.

Wesley poses by the chicken coop. He really loved hanging around the chickens and poking his fingers through the fence at them. Good thing he didn't get pecked.

Random shot of a bunch of people. This is what we all looked like just after dinner.

When it got dark, the men had fun lighting of tons of fireworks that everyone brought and went in on. Come to find out, Wesley is still scared of fireworks and refused to have any part in watching or being near them. We still can't figure that out....he is 3....what's up with that? He went inside and watched a movie. The other kids had fun watching them for a while and playing with the glow sticks we brought. Elizabeth slept peacefully inside in her pac n' play. I am so thankful to live in this great country. We are so blessed to be free and I am thankful to those who have gone before who made it possible for me to live here. What a great Independence Day! Let Freedom Ring!

We love visitors

Last weekend we had some fun with Tom's parents, his sister Rachael and her two children, Jocelyn and Fletcher. They arrived late Friday night and Saturday morning we went on our "yearly" visit to Maramec Springs to feed the fish. It was a hot and humid day, but we still were able to enjoy the museum and the walk around the spring. Here is evidence of some of the fun:

Sweet, sweet Ellie loved having all the attention from her Aunt and Grandparents and cousins!

Jocelyn and Reili check out the interactive exhibit. What beautiful girls! I absolutely love Jocelyn's dimples. I wish some of our kids could have gotten those from the Schell side.

It was hard to get them all looking at the same time. Wesley, Jocelyn, Fletcher, Reili, and Amberly enjoy our walk around the spring. The best part....feeding the fish.

Gamma, PopPop, and Jocelyn enjoying some shade.

Wesley and the fish...(look closely there are a ton).

We had some great food, played games, and stayed up too late. The kids sure enjoyed playing with their cousins that they rarely see. Thank you so much for your visit. We love you and miss you!