Ammon is Five!

We spent a fun evening at Chuck E. Cheese's celebrating Ammon's birthday.  We loved having the Rollins and Collier grandparents enjoy the chaotic party with us.  Ok, this picture was actually taken at Boondocks, but we had fun there too, just a few weeks earlier.

Pajama Party!

We had a fun pajama party for Leia's 8th birthday!  We had 12 crazy girls doing each other's hair, getting their nails done, playing freeze dance, eating ice cream sundaes, running around screaming just for fun, etc. 

 We don't do sleep-overs, so we thought this was the perfect compromise.

Our boys enjoyed a night at Fat Cats, so we could have just a silly, girly night.  My mom helped with the party so I didn't go crazy all by myself.  I think we all had a great time!

Shower Surprise

The other day, I turned on the shower to let the water warm up, then walked away for a minute.  When I came back to get in, I found Peter enjoying my nice, warm shower with his diaper and pants on--little stinker! 

Peter can sleep anywhere!

Luckily, we noticed him sleeping before he fell off these stools.

How comfortable does that look?

He really wanted to finish his cupcake, but just couldn't stay awake.

I am totally jealous of this boy's sleeping ability!

I wish I could sleep anywhere, anytime.

Bear Lake #2

We were lucky to make another fun trip to Bear Lake this week.  We went with Spencer's family this time.  We enjoyed boating, water-skiing and riding on the "big banana" (the nicest name anyone could come up with).

Spencer, John and the kids enjoyed making sand castles, villages and pyramids.

Dan took us to a shooting range and taught us all how to safely use firearms. 

Even Talmage was able to learn how to shoot our 22.

This was my first time ever shooting a real gun.  The shotgun was heavier than I expected, and I almost fell backward from the recoil of my first shot.  Cole and Tammy were much better than I was at hitting the clay pigeons.

Spencer was very proud of his clay pigeon throwing abilities.  We all had a great time learning how to shoot safely!

Talmage is very good at climbing rock walls, he easily climbed to the top of this wall and pushed the button at the top that sounds off a siren to notify everyone that the climber has reached the top.

After watching Talmage, Peter decided he wanted to climb the wall also.  We got him all strapped in, and he climbed up about two steps and then got scared and got down.  We encouraged him to try again, but he refused.  When we finally got him unstrapped and started to walk away, he decided he wanted to try again.  We spent the next half hour listening to Peter scream, "I push the button!!"

While staying at Ideal Beach, we played a few competitive games of mini golf.  I think Spencer, Clint and Ben ended up winning the different golf games.

We hadn't been to Minnetonka for a few years, so we went through the cave with the Achters and Clint.  We were pretty chilly even with our jackets, but all of the kids were tough and made it all the way through the cave.  After our spelunking, we headed to Bloomington Canyon to hike up to the lake where the brave boys swung on the rope into the lake.

We loved laughing at the funny show at the Pickleville Playhouse.  The kids especially enjoyed the silly bunny!

We enjoyed a nice afternoon riding surreys with the whole family.  Spencer initiated a few wild races during the ride, but we all escaped the adventure unharmed.  We loved spending time with our family up at Bear Lake this summer and hope to be able to do it all over again next year.

Bear Lake #1

We are making two trips to Bear Lake this year. We enjoyed our camping trip with my family last week. We stopped on our way through Logan canyon to walk into some small caves and feel the cold spring water.   My kids love exploring with Grandpa!

Ammon and Peter loved riding on Grandpa's boat, and they even took a calm ride with me on the tomcat.

Talmage enjoyed knee-boarding several times in the chilly Bear Lake water.  He's very good at it!

We had fun hiking through the Paris Ice Caves.  All four of my brave children climbed through the icey, snowy darkness of the caves.

This is the smallest section of the caves that we crawled through. (Well, I'm sure Steve found some other scary cracks to squeeze through.)  Ammon kept his lucky feather with him at all times.

Talmage and Grandpa found another exit from the caves that the rest of us chose not to follow.

We always enjoy hiking up to Bloomington Lake, the glacier pools are so beautiful.

The lake was still mostly covered in ice because we made our trip earlier in the summer this year.  Talmage and Steve were the only two psychos crazy enough to swing out into the frozen water.

At Bear Lake we always have to make time to build a few sandcastles on the beach. You just have to build fast before Peter comes and stomps on your castle.

Some of the nicest time camping is spent sitting and chatting by the campfire.  We  loved our first trip this year to Bear Lake!  My kids loved spending time with their cousins, sleeping in a tent, and following clues to prizes from the Collier Clan Culprit (Grandma).  We are excited to head out to Bear Lake again in a couple weeks with the Rollins Family.

Summertime...an' the livin' is easy

I love summer vacation!

I love having my kids home from school!

I love being able to stay home and relax if we choose,

or going out to play if we want.

We had fun at the drive-in movie theater last night!  We kept the kids out until about 2:30am, but it's alright beause it's summer!   My parents stayed for both movies even though they both had to work the next morning.  I think Steve and Alysha bailed around 1am, wimps!

Ok, most of the drive-in was fun, minus freezing through the second movie and Peter puking all over as we were leaving.

We played a non-competitive game of glow-in-the-dark mini golf at Fat Cats the other day. 

We've enjoyed going to swimming lessons everyday and playing in the outside pool afterward!  Talmage and Leia are excellent swimmers, and Ammon comes home singing "Motor Boat" or "The Hokey Pokey" after every lesson.

Today we made our first trip of the year to Lagoon.
We're excited to make good use of our season passes.

We were chilly at Lagoon-a-beach, so this little Ammon-creature decided to bundle up in the stroller after swimming.

So much fun and we've only been on summer break for
a week and a half!

I love my babies!

Talmage is Ten!

I can't believe my little boy is already ten years old.  He is so big and sweet and amazing!

We enjoyed celebrating his birthday with several of his friends at the Syracuse Family Fun Center.  The boys enjoyed bowling, eating pizza and brownies, and playing arcade games, but their favorite activity was playing laser tag!

We also enjoyed several family birthday celebrations at Grandparents' houses, watching the new Shrek movie, playing volleyball at the church, and eating at restaurants.  We are so grateful to have our fun-loving Talmage!

Getting Older

"When I look at your cheeks, it looks like you're one hundred.  When I look at my cheeks, it looks like I'm ten."  It's always "flattering" to hear things like that from my four-year-old.  Although, I guess he more than doubled his own age also.

Then last night Spencer commented on how we both look older in our new family photos.  Oh well, I guess you can't always look like you're 21 years old.

Grocery Check-out Line

Checking out at the grocery store is always somewhat stressful for me.  I frequently use price-matching and coupons at Walmart, so the cashiers are usually not very excited to help me in the first place. Then, I always have Ammon and Peter as my helpers.

 It's good that Peter is buckled into the cart so he can't go anywhere, but I have had to run from the check-out stand several times to search for my blond child who has run away.  Luckily, I usually find him looking at the cartoon pictures on the redbox machine.

Ammon likes to help move the groceries in and out of the cart.  Occasionally that is helpful, but usually I'm too worried about the eggs or bread being smashed. 

This week at the grocery store, Peter found something in my purse that kept him quite entertained during the check-out process.  I looked over at him and saw a bright light flashing around him.  He had a nice time snapping photos of himself while quietly waiting for Mommy to pay for the food.