Daybreak Park

ONE LAST VISIT
Nate woke up with the this urgent need to get up to see his dad.  We woke everyone up quickly and were out the door by 8:00!  Again, Nate was the only one to go in and talk with his dad, the rest of us, after becoming too disruptive headed out to the park.  I'm really kicking myself for not bringing my camera and getting pictures of Nate's dad when we went on that last walk with him.  That would have been cool to have captured those last moments.  These pictures turned out really fun (and pretty good if I do say so myself).

I feel like I"m getting the hang of my Manual mode.  It's only hard when I situate myself in between sun and shade and want to get shots of everyone.  Changing the settings back and forth can be kind of annoying.  And I mess up.  But for the most part, I feel like I'm getting more and more comfortable with it.

okay, I love these pants on her!  So cute!

love this face.

love this face too :).  Looks like my focal point was off though. 

the selfies (eye roll :) )

I could hang this on my wall :).  Love this face!

feeling pretty awesome!

I love how much she loves her "Baaaa".  He's so good to her.  

Oh maybe I should blow up this one!  So adorable!

awww!

Nate was able to say some things to his dad that he had been thinking about for the past week or so.  Talked to him about his mission letters.  I was a really good visit.  We even got to talk to Uncle Rob and Aunt Margaret as they were leaving.  I'm glad we were able to go up there that day.  6-23-17

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

FATHER'S DAY!
This Father's Day was a success!  We were so on top of things (well, minus the kisses!!  I can't believe I forgot the kisses!!).  We had done our shopping early, had gift bags and tissue paper, got all the stuff for breakfast in bed.  It was awesome!  .... until I slept in!!!!!  I don't know what was going on with my brain!  I completely spaced it the morning of.  Slept in and then frantically got out of bed and whipped up a quick egg and bacon bagel sandwich.  Hopefully it was yummy enough, but I just felt horrible that I'd done that.  The kids all got their shirts on and wrapped gifts in hand, and woke Nate up singing Happy Father's Day.  It was so much fun to spoil him.  The kids love it!  And no matter how hard I try to skip the shirt tradition every year- they just won't let me :).  They love it!  They all showered him with love and gifts, then we rushed through the getting ready routine and hurried off to church.  It was sad when the kids got in the car after church and realized Nate had gone to work.  They were totally bummed that they didn't get to spend the rest of the day with him.  Then we went up to my Dad's for a bbq and some visiting.  It was a nice time.  Steve was there and Dawn.  It was fun to hang out with my dad and spoil him a little bit.  They mostly spoil us, but we pretend I guess.  We planned a Flaming Gorge trip too.  It was fun to watch the kids catching bugs all over the back yard.  Happy Father's Day!  6-18-17

this picture reminds me that I still haven't decorated my bedroom or bought curtains.  sad.  sad that I need to see a picture of it to remind me!  Oh well.  This is probably the first year I've ever posted a picture of our bedroom :).  

Luke put SO MUCH THOUGHT into this gift!  It was fun to watch him get into it.  If only you could see in the picture how much candy is in that HUGE jar!!  He was so cute asking me if I thought Dad would be able to eat all of it himself :).  I''m pretty sure the kids have eaten 99% of whatever's gone at this point :).

Buddy even!

When Kelly was trying to make her frame/gift we discovered that there are a shortage of pictures with Nate and Kelly!  So we took some that day.  Unfortunately these are all vertical and the frame is horizontal.  We'll have to try again.

Week of 7-2-17

TEARS
Testimony was wetter with all the talk about Grandpa Russ leaving.  Most of the kids bore their testimonies (I think all but Erika, Charity and Molly) and added something about the plan of salvation or eternal families.  I like that these life experiences can be used to strengthen their testimonies.  Sweet Bradley choked up and had the whole room in tears with him.  Such a sweet sensitive boy.  Even Jack Jack got up there again and said his testimony.  I have to say I was pretty surprised and VERY proud of him for getting up there all by himself.  I'm sure it's less scary to a kid who has seen his siblings go up every month for his whole life, but still scary.  And he had memorized all the things Noah and he had talked about beforehand :).  Noah's a good brother.  I enjoyed the sweet Spirit of this meeting and needed it after the tender day before.  7-2-17

IMPROV LAGOON NIGHT
Bradley was really wanting to take Luke on Cannibal so he had been begging to go all day.  I told him we could as soon as Luke got home from scouts.  Unfortunately, Luke had gotten stung by wasps at scouts and wanted to take it easy at home.  This didn't stop Bradley though.  Brad, Charity, Erika, Noah and I all went to Lagoon without Luke.  We had a lot of fun, going on all the big rides.  These are the fun times I was hoping to have when we got the passes.  They had to kick us out we stayed so late.  7-5-17

DATE NIGHT
Nate took me out to Sushi Monster and a movie- which we thought was playing at Station Park, but realized it was really Centerville and made a mad dash down there :).  We saw the new Spider-Man.  It was super cute- I think I liked this one almost as much as the very first one.  Pretty fun.  We realized it was the last day for fireworks so we stopped at Smith's on our way home and called to have the kids meet us out front- it was the last possible hour to legally light them :).  Fun stuff.  7-7-17

SAM'S BAPTISM AND SLEEPOVERS
We got to go to Sam's Baptism on Saturday.  I just love baptisms.  His was even more special because Charity and Kelly got to sing "When I listen with my heart" and I got to play all the songs!  Fun stuff.  I love Sam.  He's such a sweet little kid, such a fun smile and happy personality.  I love being around him.  After the luncheon at their house, we left Charity at their house, took Reagan, Enoch and Jarom with us and had a fun sleepover.  7-8-17