Sister Time in Salt Lake City

The weekend before my 30th birthday Kenny told me to go shopping in Salt Lake City.

SLC is one of the closest cities to us that has all the normal shopping, so I was super excited!!

I was even more excited when my awesome sister, Tess, agreed to meet me there.  

It was so sweet of her to come.  She had to drive like 5 hours with her sweet little Penny to meet me. So it was awesome of her (and Penny) to come and hang out with me. 

We stayed at the Crystal Inn in SLC and Tess drove me around to all the stores I've missed since moving to the middle of nowhere. :) 

Tess and Penny. 

So cute!!

I think one of the favorite things we did was to go swimming.

Penny just sat quietly in her bouncer chair and Tess and I actually swam.  Like used our arms!

Any mom of young kids knows that when you take your kids swimming you never get to really swim.

You just kind of bounce around while holding your babes. 

But it was so fun to swim around together like when we little.

We went to Temple Square and saw some pretty brides and a proposal!

I love to see the temple. :)

Me and Penny on Temple Square.

I just love this little lady.

She is one sweet baby! 

So smiley. 

Thanks Tess for meeting me!! 

Sister time is the best!!

I love you so much and this trip was so good for me and 

one of my favorite memories of the summer!!

A Field Day in August

During the summer we read lots of Clifford books.  

One of their favorites was one about Clifford going to Emily Elizabeth's field day.

The kids weren't sure what a field day was.  After we explained it to them they really wanted to have one. 

So on August 18th, we gave them a field day.

Kenny and I set up a few obstacles for them and let them go. 

Wyn on the balance beam.

Here are a few of the obstacles.

Kenny walking the kids through all the obstacles so they knew what to do.

Somersault on a yoga mat.

Just a cute picture of Myles.

Wyn going through the tunnel.

Both of them shooting hoops. 

Wynni, Mommy, and Myles at the starting line.

Myles helping his little sis do a somersault.

Shooting more hoops.

I just love this picture of Myles jumping the hula hoops.

Such a cutie!

The last part was for them to throw a water balloon, which they LOVE doing! :)

Here's Kenny going through the course.

This is one of my all-time favorite pictures!!

Myles and Daddy at the starting line. 

Like father like son.  

Look at how they run.  Exactly the same!!!

Kenny trying to fit through the tunnel.

I just had to take this picture!

Somersaulting Daddy.

Daddy still worming his way through the tunnel. 

Myles doing the hula hoops again.

This boy just loves to move, move, move!

This was such a fun thing to do with the kids.

I am hoping we make this a tradition every summer!

Thanks Clifford book!! :)

August 2012

This is more like a "Wyn" post than an August post.

There will be other pics of August though coming soon.

Myles and Wyn started to want to cool off in the sink after playing outside. 

The back garage got cement down in it so it was the perfect place to ride bikes and other cars.

Wyn eating a cookie.

After the cookie.

Myles and Wyn making a fort in his bunk beds.

Wyn peeking out!

And Wyn playing band hero nakey? 

I do not remember this picture, but it's funny! :)

July: Saving for Casti

Throughout the summer we started collecting all the race cars from Cars 2.

Myles kept telling me that he needed one named "Casti."  I kept telling him I was pretty sure there was no such racer.  I should never doubt Myles.  He is almost always right.

Finally I sat down to watch the movie with him and, of course, he was right.  

However, the racer is barely seen in the movie, and his name is actually Rip Clutchgoneski. 

He was the last racer to buy and we had kind of already told him we could get him. Bad idea.

Since he was barely seen in the movie he was like the rare racer. Translation: he was way expensive!

Myles wouldn't let go of this so we decided this would be a good idea for him to earn some money and buy it himself.

Kenny made him this chart to help him see how close he was getting to is goal.

Here are some things Myles did to earn money.

Washing windows.

Helping do the laundry.

Washing more windows. Wyn helped him.

And his money jar.

He also picked up fallen apples at Grandma and Grandpa Ludwig's house.  And honestly, he earned most of his money from them.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!! 

This was a good experience for all of us.  Kenny and I learned that for a 3 year old to earn 60 bucks is way too much.  At times he would lose interest and just want to quit.  A $20 limit would've been much more appropriate for his age, but it was fun to watch him work so hard. 

July Fun!

So after the travel at the beginning of the month, we just stayed home and played.

We had some awesome thunder storms this summer! 

I, being from the northwest, love the rain! 

So whenever it came I was happy!

One day there was a full rainbow across the sky after the rain.

So pretty!!

The pictures don't do it justice, but it was cool!

Myles and Wyn just hanging out.

We bought one of the bigger blow up swimming pools this summer.

It served us well.  

We all had a great time in it.

This little car Wyn is floating in is so cute, but she didn't like it much.

My cute husband!

Myles really loved the pool.  

We went swimming in it just the two of us at times while Wyn was napping.  Those are fun memories for me.  And I will never forget when we were playing tag and I was swimming after him and he got so excited that he ran to one side of the pool and fell completely out of it! Silly guy!

Our humble garden.  

We never got to the harvest stage, but it was fun to see the corn start to get tall. :)

Wyn in her cowgirl boots.  

This lady loves shoes!

One of my favorite memories from this summer is eating lunch outside with 

the kids every day.  They always wanted to eat at their little picnic table

that's attached to the sandbox.  It was so fun and I loved not having to clean up

inside after lunch! 

The kids in the garden. 

I know we have a lot of work to do as far as the garden goes, but it was so fun for the kids to see the small progress we made. 

And Wyn in boots and a swimsuit. 

 Pretty much all she wanted to wear in the summer.

I don't blame her one bit! 

July 2012: More Reunion

The other half of our reunion was spent at my sister, Krystal's house.

They have an awesome house with lots of fun things to do.

Here's my brother, Adam, riding one of their many bikes.

Adam, Shawn, and Kenny.

Big and little, all the boys got into the bikes! 

I love this picture of Kenny.  He looks like such a kid. 

Myles and his cousin, Zac, riding the bikes.

And their dads chasing each other.

Kenny dunking it.

Krystal and Dave set up a big projector screen for all of us to watch a movie outside.

We had snacks and everything! Totally fun!!

This is my niece, Lauren.  She is such a sweet, funny girl!

This picture really captures her personality. 

Just love her!

This is Tess my gorgeous sister!  

She looks like a beauty even with a towel on her head!

(Don't hate me, Tess, for putting this picture on.:) )

We live very far away from a temple right now.  

Like 3 1/2 hours away is our closest one.  

So we knew when we were visiting Oregon we really wanted to 

go to the temple.  Plus, this is the temple we were married in. ♥

So we took the kids and walked around outside.

Some of our nieces and nephews were with us too.

It was a fun thing to do.

Left to right: Orion, Myles, Meri, Me and Wyn, Jessi, and Kenny.

Last but not least, Flagman again.

I think this was his first task.

He had to dance in his suit in front of all of us to a Neil Diamond song (is it called "Welcome to America?").  Everybody needs a little Neil in their life, and someone dancing to Neil is always welcome!

The reunion was so much fun! I can't wait for 2014 to roll around for our next one!

I am a very blessed girl to have such an awesome family!