Birthday Girl!

Hallie turned the BIG 6 this summer. We partied hard on her Fourth of July Birthday with the usual whirlwind of hot air balloons, parades, matching outfits (courtesy of Nana) and, of course, FIREWORKS! Hallie brings so much love and joy to our family, we love to make her Queen for the Day!



This year for her first ever "friend party", Hallie wanted to have a Mermaid Princess theme. She and all of her little friends came dressed up as princesses. They played games, ate Mermaid Cake, and opened presents inside, and then they stripped down to their swimsuits and ran out to play in the sprinklers and pool and break open a Princess Pinata.

Warm at last!

We have had a lot of technical problems lately. In the last month we've had my laptop, the desktop keyboard, the mouse, and then my camera all die a slow and painful death. Kyle has helped me work through most of my issues and now I am up and running again! After what seemed like the longest Spring imaginable, the weather is finally up in the 90's! And yes, that is a very good thing. We have season passes to 7 Peaks this year and I teach swimming lessons four days a week---I need it to be hot hot hot! I am a baby about being cold, especially when I'm living in the water.

I feel like we are racing through this summer at breakneck speed. We are all staying busy with swimming, triathlons, the yard, getting Kyle's business going, and trying to fit in campouts and fun times with the kids. Kyle and I are doing the Provo Tri tomorrow and I feel like we've barely had time to think about it, much less be prepared. At least we both signed up for the sprint so hopefully we won't have to be carried away in an ambulance. We are doing an Olympic tri up at Schofield in mid-July so we need to start getting busy! That's it for our update, here are some pics of our little Fishies swimming:

Harrrrgh!

Today finds me on the recovering end of a case of strep throat. Since I'm trying to take it easy I thought I would get on and do a little blogging. Another one of our families favorite pasttimes (aside from bathing) is playing pirates. Well...let me rephrase that...Kyle, Hallie, Mason and I play pirates, Jake is a pirate. That boy was blessed with an imagination and for the last couple of months his imagination has been filled with Peter Pan. He is Peter, Kyle is Captain Hook, Hallie is Wendy, Mason is Little Michael, and I am Jane (from Peter Pan II). Every day when Kyle pulls in from work Jake meets him at the car with his sword and they play swords for at least an hour until dinner. Even when the whole family isn't involved, Jake looks and acts the part. No matter what he's wearing or where we're going he almost always has a scarf tied around his waist with a long styrofoam sword tucked into it. My parents brought him a Captain Jack costume from DisneyLand last month and that has become a regular part of his wardrobe (at least twice a week--all day long--it got a lot of great looks at Costco). We love that boy and the way he continually reminds us that we're all just big kids.

Squeeky Clean

One of Jake & Hallie's favorite pastimes is bathing. At least once a day they hop into my tub, I fill it up for them "to the step" which is roughly up to their shoulders, and then they put on their swim goggles and literally swim laps for hours. When the water starts to cool off we pour in some bubble bath, turn on the jets, and....well, here's a picture:
We take our baths very seriously here. Not surprisingly Mason is terrified of the tub and prefers to shower.

BTW...

When I changed my blog around I lost all of my links to other blog sites. I was able to find/remember a few but if you don't see yours over to the right will you pretty please post a comment or email me the link? Thank you!

Happy Easter!

I promised Alyson via Kyle today that I would get off my lazy butt (sorry kids, bottom) and post a post. Today the sky was blue, the mountains were white, the sun was shining... It was still FREEZING! cold (ok, maybe not quite that bad) but I am so thrilled about the changing weather that I re-styled my blog in honor of Spring. Our Easter morning was a bit unconventional because poor Jake & Mason were sick last night and slept in past 8!!!! If you know my kids at all then you know that this is completely unheard of. So Hallie patiently paced the house from 6:30 til 8 and then she and the boys found their baskets and their Easter eggs. Then they all dressed up in their new Sunday stuff (Jake was too sick to go to church but still wanted to wear his) and Kyle, Hallie & Mason hurried off to 9:00 church.

Did I mention that Jake was sick last night? He didn't last long coloring Easter eggs. He's feeling much better tonight.

Mason didn't color many eggs either, he mostly just wanted to smash them.

And here's the Big Hunt...our kids had their stuff found in record time.

And here's a couple pics of them in their Easter Sunday Best. I think they're adorable.I felt the need to add one more pic of Jake looking a little less miserable. Once he got snuggled up on the couch with some juice we was much happier.

I'm Back!

Kyle has worked wonders and for only $5 has gotten our computer to turn on again! The computer has 8 screws less now than it did before but it works anway so I'm not complaining. I've been hard at work today catching up on posting my pictures. I'm doing them chronologically so you'll have to scroll down the page a little to see the new posts. I'll post the rest tomorrow and be all caught up. Yay! Thank you Kyle!

Mexico!

To celebrate the return of my little bro TJ from his mission, my parents treated our whole family with a trip to Cozumel for Christmas this year. Kyle and I met one of our long time goals and finally got scuba certified. We did three dives, a night dive (I don't recommend this for your first ever ocean dive, it was kind of freaky), and two reef dives during the day. It was so much fun! We loved it. My brother Jeff has an underwater camera so for pics of our scuba adventure you can look on his blog. There is a link to Jeff & Alisha's blog on the left side of the page. Here are some of the trip highlights:

The first few day we were there we had the coldest weather Cozumel has seen in years. But that wasn't about to stop my die-hard crew. We were in Mexico and we were going swimming! And by "we" I mean Jake, Hallie, Kyle, and TJ. The rest of us stayed bundled up and out of the water. Hallie was so determined to swim she refused to even admit she was cold.

The cold weather did give us plenty of time to bondin our hotel rooms. The second day down there it was too cold to swim so Kyle and I thought we would go on a walk with the kids and see some of the island. We got about ten yards from the hotel entrance before it started pouring rain. We tried to wait out the storm under a tree (picture above right) but when it didn't show signs of letting up we had to make a run for it back to our hotel. At least it was all you can drink Pina Coladas!


On day 3 we did some shopping and had lunch at Senor Frogs. The kids loved being in a restaurant where the waiters were making more noise than they were. Getting to play on the swings at the bar while we waited for our food was a nice bonus too.

The other exciting thing that happened on Day 3....we saw the sun! We were all thrilled and hurried down to the beach.

Mas Mexico

We had an amazing trip and we were all exhausted by the end. Poor Jake started crying on the plane ride home, "Turn the plane around, go back to Mexico!" and he didn't let up until we were home. Every once in awhile he still asks if we can please go back. I couldn't agree more buddy!

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to mention that my recent resolution hasn't died, but my computer has. Our laptop that we store all of our pictures on refuses to turn on. So, while I work on getting that fixed I just wanted to wish anyone who happens by here a very Merry Christmas!

Pre-New Years Resolution

OK I just downloaded 350 pics from my camera to the computer (don't worry, I won't try to post all of them) and I am now recommitted to getting my blog caught up. Yes, I am seeing a pattern here too :)

Christmas Card Photos

Here are some pics we took for our Christmas Card. If you didn't get a Christmas Card don't feel bad, we never sent them out. I was all set to do it and then lost momentum when my computer died . I know, excuses excuses...

A Night on the Town!

My family has a tradition every December of going out to eat together and then going to look at Christmas lights. My parents surprised all of us this year when we met up at their house and this baby pulled up...

We all piled in, sipped Sparkling Cider, and enjoyed riding up to Salt Lake in style. We had a delicious dinner and then went to Temple Square to see the lights. It was amazing, definitely a night to remember. Thanks again Mom & Dad, you're the best!!