Thursday, July 16, 2009

Gains & Losses

This week Alex has gained life saving skills in the water. She graduated from level 2 swimming and is now safe in the deep end all by herself. Yay! This week she also lost her top tooth that has been loose for a couple of months now. It has been a good week for Miss Alex.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Refreshing

This girl here, Sarah Smylie is so refreshing as is her entire family who I had the opportunity to hang out with this past weekend. They all make me feel so young again. A family of 11, now a family of 22, ranging from elementary school students to college students as well as life teachers. With fiances, newlyweds, mothers and fathers, all thrown in this mix that causes me to smile and makes me feel at home no matter where I am.

The youngest member of their family? Little Lillie who was born across the US in Florida where I haven't had the chance to meet her until now. This little girl is just as refreshing as the rest of them. She has been molded by them and is now molding them to obey her every command.

The newest member of their family? My little beehive with the brightest personality and warmest heart, Katie Nalder (Now Medley). I was her camp director when I first moved to Idaho and now Gideon has snatched her up and she fits into their family so well. Because yes, she is also so refreshing to be around. I loved watching her light up whenever she was talking about Gid and I loved watching Gideon stare at her as if she was the only person in the room crammed full of bodies.

What did my kids do while I was mingling with the Medleys? Well, they did a lot of hanging out with Aunties. Sariah watched them Thursday night and Jolene took them Friday night and spoiled them rotten as she is known to do. A refreshing swim at this fun indoor pool. Johnny loved the big twisty slide and Alex went off of the high dive all by herself!

Then they topped it off with a refreshing scoop of ice cream. That's right, it was an all around refreshing weekend and I'm so glad I was able to make the trip down there and sneak into their family one more time.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Tradition

What a great tradition to have all of America celebrating together on the same day. Everyone gravitates towards family, friends, food, fun and of course FIREWORKS! Here are some of our traditions on how we like to celebrate our nation's birthday:

Spending a weekend at Papa's Cabin and playing on Cascade lake
with lots of family surrounding us!

Lots of relaxingLots of snacking on treats
Lots of time spent together as a family
Lots of fireworks
And lots of memories being made

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Going, going, gone

Here I am, packing to leave for yet another weekend away. Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the temple with Sariah as she went through for the first time. It was such an amazing experience to be there with her and see how happy she was to be at this point in her life. The road she took to get there was rough and winding and I think it helped her appreciate the meaning of the temple that much more. My plane ticket was "one-way" so I could drive with her back to Idaho. She and Hunter will be staying with us until she can get settled here in Idaho. I have been so spoiled having her out here with me this week, I don't know if I will ever want to let her go. Monday night she watched the kids so I could join Brad in some outdoor volleyball. Tuesday night she watched the kids so Brad and I could go out and celebrate my birthday. Then Wednesday was bitter sweet, It was my actual birthday and I turned 30 (you might think this is the bitter part but not in my eyes). I am happy with how I've spent these last 30 years and am looking forward to the next 30. We have to live in the present right? Sariah made me fajitas for dinner and Brad mixed me up some Brazilian Lemonade. It was bitter though (the day, not the sweet sweet lemonade) because we had to say goodbye to my nephew Hunter for the month of July. He will be spending it in Colorado with his Dad and as much as we're going to miss him, this is going to be a great opportunity for Sariah to get things checked off of her to-do list and to be able to job search.
Today Alex helped me harvest our first batch of blackberries from our neglected garden. I'm so glad to have a helper because I'm having a hard time keeping up with it since we really haven't been home much since it started producing fruits and veggies. Oh ya, I almost forgot to mention our day at Roaring Springs water park the day before I left for Medford. Alex is now 50 inches tall and meets the height requirement to go on all of the rides at the park. I'll be surprised if Johnny makes the 42 inch mark by next summer though to go on some larger rides. He's fine with that though, it took lots of coaxing to get him to go on the ones he was allowed on. Then of course after the first run, he wanted to go on them over and over again.

Now we are taking off to Cascade to spend the weekend with Brad's family up at the cabin and some fun on the lake. It's always fun when we all get together, especially when jet skis and fireworks are involved (not at the same time of course). :o)
Then, last but not least, I just posted some pictures of out cute little buddy, Braden, who I took pictures of a couple of weeks ago for his second birthday.
If you want to check them out, click here.