Jet Skiing Pine View

Looks like these pictures uploaded backwards, but it's such a hodgepodge of pictures, it probably doesn't really matter.

My crazy Dad (with broken pelvic and collar bones) invited us to go jet skiing!  We were very excited about it even though we were all worried about my Dad and his ability to go on such an outing.  Even Lukey was saying, "Is Grandpa going to pass out?... I hope Grandpa doesn't pass out."  Everyone was concerned :).  It ended up being a lot of fun though.  I think my Dad will need a few days to recover, but he made it a lot of fun for all of us.  We had the usual treats and snacks to munch on.  Charity got to go out with Grandpa and he even let her drive!  She spent most of the time waiting for her next turn on the jet ski and got to go out quite a bit.  When she wasn't on the jet ski she was chasing Buddy around.  Kelly and I had a turn and had a lot of fun together.  Kelly's fun because she lets me go less than too fast and still screams with excitement and gets all into it :).  Makes me feel cool even though we're only going 35 or 40 :).  I got to take the girls and Steve out as well, when they rode on the hot dog.  Steve was totally cracking me up the whole time.  He really is just hilarious!  I about peed my pants... not kidding.  He was holding the flag out to me as he jumped off, saying, "here hold this!" then barely tossed it so that it didn't quite reach me, and landed next to him in the water.  That was hilarious.  I can't do that story justice.  Then another time he jumped in holding the flag straight up out of the water so that all you could see was the flag and the tip of his hand :).  He was funny.  Then riding on the hot dog with Kelly was hilarious too.  He was just so funny!  I know, this isn't funny to you, but it was to me :).  THEN of course, he decided it was time for me to get in, so he tipped me and the jet ski over.  That was even funny :).  He just has a way.  Nate and I took Bradley and Erika out on the hot dog as well.  That was fun, but they don't let me go fast enough for them to fall off, so very uneventful :).  Erika didn't love the hot dog ride.  She prefers sitting on the jet ski and telling Grandpa to go even faster!  He said that she kept asking him, "Is this as fast as it goes??"  That's funny to me.  Bradley was our superhero all day, helping with the jet skis and doing basically everything he was asked.  My dad said that he was really impressed with how helpful Bradley is.  Kelly too, he had added, but especially Bradley that day, "He just does anything I ask him to do!"  Bradley, Luke and Noah all spent 99% of the time there, in the water!  It was fun to watch them exploring on the other side of our little inlet.  They seemed to be having a good time.  Kelly had a lot of fun and got so tired that she took a nap in the camp chair before we left.  Jack spent most of the day playing in the dirt.  He loved the pudding that Grandpa brought and ate several cups of it even though there were no spoons!  You can imagine how messy he was!  Noah loved the water.  He loved being with Bradley.  He really liked riding on the jet ski with me too :).  I love that little guy.  Luke actually went on the jet ski this year!  Nate got him to try it.  He wasn't happy with the acceleration, but he had enough fun.  I'm glad he braved it.  It's so much work setting up and then packing up to go home, but it really is worth it, I decided.

Afterwards, we stopped to take Buddy home and then went down to Grandpa's to drop off the jet skis, then made our way down to the Hokulia for some snow cones the size of your head!  They're delicious :).  And oh so big!  It was a nice way to end the fun day.  Everyone was exhausted when we got home.  8-18-14

The Hose

I just had to get my camera out while Jack was playing with the hose.  I don't know why... well, wait, I do know why- I am so fascinated with pictures of kids drinking out of hoses :).  Sounds weird, I know.  When I was little, as we were driving from Grandma and Grandpa's house, to Nana's or the other way around, I would ALWAYS beg my dad to "go the way with the drinking fountain!!!"  There was a church, with a spring in the back, where the water would just come up through a grate on the ground... now that I think about it, it sounds extremely unsanitary, but this was the 80's/90's when germs didn't exist ;).  But I just LOVED drinking out if it!  It was so cold, and so refreshing!  When I was a little older, 12ish, they connected a pipe to the spring (however that happens, not really sure) so it was up out of the ground and more like a drinking fountain, still cool, still refreshing, but I'll admit, it was less fun.  Anyway- I have a few pictures of me and my siblings drinking out of that spring with the petrified water (tell me it's not the coolest thing in a picture!) and the funny faces... anyway.  I love those pictures and love taking similar ones of my children.

Anyways, sorry, back from memory lane...

It got really fun when Jack started swinging the hose around and getting people wet :).  I'm glad everyone was a good sport about it :).

I know I say this all the time, but I really love Brad's and Jack's relationship.  They really are good friends.  I give Bradley all the credit, he's just so fun and exciting for Jack.  Makes me happy.

Erika thought of every pose under the sun to keep bringing the attention back to her :).  

Look how fun he is!  They are soaked!

I love this one of Bradley and I'm especially loving the green garbage can backdrop, brings out the green in the booger on Jack's face.

She's getting really good at riding her bike!  It's been a lot of fun for her this summer!  She'll be all set to ride to Kindergarten next year!

BOOT Camp 2014

I was privileged to go to Girl's Camp this year!!  My dream has come true :).  It had been so long!  We had such a great time!  The highlight of course being that my favorite little Charity was there with me.  I wish I would have posted about it right when I got home, sharing every last detail and rambling on forever, but alas, I have neglected my blog!  I am about three weeks behind all of a sudden.  So I will just keep it simple.  The theme was "BOOT CAMP" (Building On Our Testimonies), it was Stake camp.  The Stake did a FANTASTIC job on the whole thing, every speaker was spot on and every activity was just perfect.  The food was amazing.  It was so nice. I loved spending the time with the Young Women.  I felt like I was able to get to know them all a little better.  I didn't even know some of the Laurels before now, so it was a lot of fun to watch them put Charity up on a pedestal and treat her like the Queen of the World.  They really made her feel special.  I was really impressed with how much love the older girls showed the younger ones.  They really just took them under their wings.  Made me so happy!  I don't remember being quite that cool when I was their age.  I didn't love the ropes course, surprisingly, it was not as well done as I'd hoped.  I think our group got ripped off.  It's all good though, no hard feelings.  Luckily we made up for it during the rest of the week.  I LOVED the day at the lake.  That was probably my favorite part.  I enjoyed spending time with everyone and just having fun.  Being tipped over in the canoe was probably the coolest moment there.  Took me back to my days with Andrea :).  Seeing Saturn was pretty awesome.  I really liked when a couple of the girls and I went and played Volleyball- that was a lot of fun even though it was short lived and ended with Charity breaking her finger.  I liked the song that we sang every morning, Come Unto Christ.  And of course, my very most favorite part of the whole week was testimony night.  Such a cool Spirit that can only accompany Girls camp.  I miss that.  I'm so glad I got to be part of it all.  Thanks to Nate, Kelly, Heidi and my Mom, I was able to go for the whole time.  It really meant a lot to me, so I'm grateful it was possible.   Favorite line: "Why do you smell so bad?"  Hilarious.  7-30-14--8-2-14

Sadly, this is the only picture I took of Girls Camp!  My camera was full so much this summer and required so much deleting, I just didn't get many pictures... kinda bums me out.

Happy Birthday, Nate!

Nate's birthday was Friday.  He had to work from 6:00am -2:00pm and then again from 10:00pm -6:00am.  So you can imagine how bummed we were that we weren't going to have the whole day with him!  However, the kids and I planned long and hard to be sure things were perfect for him.  We decorated the house in the morning, for him to see when he came home.  Kelly slaved over a cute sign and taped it to the door with streamers, and Brad, Luke (my official Clash of Clan experts) and I fussed over his Clash of Clans cake.  We were finally able to get our hands on an ice cream maker (plan B from the original).  He came home very surprised and happy to be with us.  We finished his cake and then let him open his present and read cute homemade cards from the kids.  After that, we went to Red Lobster for dinner.  We ran into Dan right when we walked in.  I was nervous that Nate would think this was a surprise party and there would be more people there.  Then I felt bad that I didn't think of doing that :).  But it was all good.  The kids (and Dan actually) told the waitress that it was Nate's birthday and so they sang to him and put a candle in his cheesecake :).  We all loved it :).  We came home, made some delicious homemade ice cream and ate it with the cake.  Brad and Noah put on a little show for him, and Nate was able to relax a little before the mid.  I purposely didn't plan a party because I didn't want him to be worn out or feel to tired, but I'm of course regretting that.  I think he still had a nice birthday.  I surprised him with his Jazz blanket just before he left for the mid.  I've been doing the soft blankets for everyone's birthday- couldn't leave him out!  He took it with him and said he "slept better than he's slept in a very long time!"  I'm pretty sure it was the blanket.   I hope he had a nice day.  7-25-14

my only regret with this cake was not giving myself enough time.  It was going to be really spectacular.  We were able to do some cool things, and I must say it was a LOT of fun to have the company of my cute boys and their helping hands! in the process.  Jack decided to attack his clan right after I finished making it, hence the big claw marks on the corner... silly Jack.

Out of breath after blowing out all those candles!  He's SO OLD!  HA :).  I'm kidding.