Fun with cousins

Emily and I had talked about doing a cousin trade and so I left Ryker in Utah to be with Ben for about a week while we brought Isabelle home with us. Poor Kefford had a house full of girls, he handled it really well though and all of our girls did great together. I worried that with so much togetherness the kids might get tired of each other but if they ever had that emotion they hid it well. These girls had so much fun and got along great! 

Saturday night Kenedy and Alyssa went to the stake dance where they had fun.

On Sunday I took a picture of the five girls before we headed into church. Sacrament meeting was great and everyone behaved and did so good. The only hiccup was when I saw Avynlea while I was walking to Sunday School and I asked where Isabelle was. She told me she went to class which Kenedy. Isabelle is really tall for her age but she is 11 and I did not feel it ok for an 11 year old to be in the15 year old class. I went and found her and took her to her age appropriate primary class where she can be with the girls her own age.

It was Alyssas 15th birthday on Sunday and it was fun to have a little celebration for her. We had hamburgers for dinner and I made her a yummy birthday cake. I also got her a big bag of sour patch kids, her favorite, and since she is a fellow Ariel lover I got her some really cute Ariel bracelets. She is such a sweetie and was really happy with everything we did for her. I sure love this niece of mine and am so glad that she and Kenedy are such good friends.

We went shopping on Monday where I found a really cute skirt to wear for Ashleighs wedding. Her colors are red, orange, yellow and pink, starburst colors, and when I saw this skirt I thought it was perfect. The only part I was not thrilled with was the price and so I decided to wait and think about it. While we were waiting for Erin to pay I saw a sign that said 30% off skirts and dresses, I asked the sales girl about it and she said the sale was the week before but since they forgot to take the sign down she would honor the deal. I was happy and bought the skirt for a much better price. I had a white shirt at home to wear with it and I already had a necklace that matches it perfectly so all I had to get was the skirt! Yay!

Emily came with the boys on Wednesday and the next day I sent the kids to the park for free lunch. When they got back Ryker had filthy hands and after asking what happened I learned that Kenedys chain fell of her bike and Ryker fixed it for her. She took some pictures of the cute boy scout fixing her bike and sent them to me. I sure do love this kid of mine who is willing and able to help fix the bike chain.

Off to McCall!

Erin and I left Utah Wednesday morning. I left Ryker there to spend time with Ben and we brought Isabelle home with us. When we got back to Idaho we had about an hour to unload, unpack, repack and reload because we were off to McCall for a few days. On the drive up Avynlea got sick and threw up in her puke bag and Rylee did not like the smell so she stuffed tissues up her nose.

Erin and I went on hikes in the mornings and on our first hike we found the biggest dandelion either of us had ever seen. It was huge!

Erin really loved all of the blue dragonflies that we saw. 

Avynlea really wanted to ride the four wheelers but she did not bring long pants with her. She cannot go on them without long pants on because they get really hot and we did not want her to get burned. So she got creative with her clothing so that she could ride.

Thurday morning Brit came with her kids. Kelsey was at the girls camp in Cascade and Brit came to stay at the McCall house so that she could join him Friday night for the Bishops dinner and help him with his Laurels experience he was doing. We kindly watched her kids for her while she did that which was super easy since they were so good for us. 

I sent the picture of the girls in the Hot Tub to Emily and Stephanie and Emily sent me one of Ryker reading scriptures with their family.

It was pretty hot up their especially since the house does not have any air conditioning. We finally went down to the lake to swim and cool off.

One morning Kefford took the girls with him to hike up the mountain. He sent me these pictures he had taken at the top.

Back to the lake pictures.

I like showing off my dives for my kids because they get so impressed. My Dad taught me to dive when I was young and it would be an embarrassment for him if I could not do it. I have been teaching my kids and having them practice and they are slowly getting better and more confident with it. It helps a lot to have had lots of access to swimming pools and lakes this summer so far.

Rylee wanted to wear the life jacket into the lake just for the fun of it even though she can swim.

My family likes to do funny dives.

Erin and her buddy Asher

He liked her because she had fun games on her phone he could play with and also because she is so cool and fun and nice!

Asher, Brielle, Isabelle, Alyssa, Kenedy, Avynlea, Rylee and Qiana

Emily also sent me this picture of Ryker, Ben and Andrew playing Magic

This was Erins first time being on the four wheeler and she did really good. There are two different four wheeler trails we went around and on each one there was a part that would make her nervous and she would not be able to stay on course. She was super determined to conquer that fear and kept trying. Finally Saturday morning right before we were to leave she did it and managed to stay on the trail and she conquered the fear! Avy and I were so proud of her!

Avy was my riding buddy

Utah Trip!

We drove to Orem Saturday morning and got to Emilys about 10. Her new apartment complex has a pool and so after lunch we had the kids go down with Andrew, Maddie (his girlfriend) and Matt. Emily and I were planning on going to see some Parade of Homes but decided to go hang out at the pool for a while. Once we got down there I sat and watched the kids swim for a bit and then Emily and I both expressed a desire to go swimming. So we went back up and put on our suits so we could swim for a bit. 

After a lot of fun swimming we changed and headed out to look at some homes. We tried going to the first house but after Emily's phone took us no where near it, I put it in my phones map and it took us to the general location and then we found it by sheer luck. But then neither of our phone maps could get us to the next place on the list. It had no idea where to take us and so we skipped that and went to the next one. The third and final one we went to was a huge 9,ooo square foot home. It had a trophy room, an exercise room, a movie theater, a boat garage and many more rooms that just seemed over the top and too much. It really is a sad display of wealth when you look at all these unnecessary rooms and think of all the other useful things that can be done with that money. We spent a lot of time driving around looking for these homes and by the time we were done looking at the third home we were tired and done. Emily really needed to get gas and so we did that and then we started talking about shaved ice and how that sounded so good. Happily we passed a shaved ice stand and we stopped to get some. I ordered a small because I knew that would be plenty and a lot. Emily did not believe me when I told her that even the smalls were big and so she ordered a medium and it was so big she had to throw some of it away because she could not finish it. Next time listen to your big sister!

On Monday Emily had to go into school for a collaboration meeting and I drove Ben to meeting point for Scout Day Camp. He looked so cute in his uniform!

At the end of the school year Erin expressed a need for a distraction and so I invited her to come and visit us. She seemed keen to the idea and so I called her up and we discussed plans as I told her what we had going on for the summer. She decided to drive up to Utah while we were there to spend some time with Emily as well and then drive with us to Idaho. Kenedy and Alyssa have been wanting to get together for forever and I thought this would be a great time to make it happen since Alyssa could drive up with Erin. Alyssa was at Girls Camp that week and Erin would have to wait a couple of extra days to drive up but she seemed ok with that. So Stephanie called Jim, Alyssas Dad and asked him if it was Ok. He was fine with it but needed Alyssa home on the 30th since it was his birthday and he had a surprise for the girls. Erin was not planning on going back that soon and so we agreed it wouldn't work out and were bummed but thought better luck next time. 

The next day Stephanie called me and said if Erin were still willing to wait to drive to Utah on Saturday when Alyssa gets back from camp that Jim called and said he would buy a plane ticket for Alyssa to fly home on the 30th! I could not believe it, that was incredible news and I was so excited! Erin said she could wait and i was so excited that Alyssa could some up with her. I didn't tell Kenedy because i thought it would be a fun surprise. They arrived really late Saturday night and the surprise was a bit anticlimactic because Kenedy was half awake and super confused. 

Monday after Emily was done with her collaboration meeting Erin and I took the kids over to her school to see her classroom and help her out with getting set up and organized. The kids had fun looking at books and playing with her color counters and such while I decorated her door and Erin and Emily worked on the Calendar board.

Avynlea asked me what she should make with the geometric shapes and I told her "Me", so here is Me!

I had two ideas for her door decor, one was popcorn and the other used cookies. Emily could not decided and so we had the kids choose and they unanimously decided on popcorn and so I went to work. The door turned out so stoning cute and Emily was so excited when she saw it. All she has to do is add the names of her kids to the popcorn pieces.

After a couple of hours working in the classroom we went back to her apartment to eat lunch and then we headed down to the pool for more swimming. After Erin and Emily swam for a bit they left to go to the store while I took a little snoozer in the lounge chair. 

Later we went up and got some food ready for a barbecue and more swimming. Seriously we are a swimming family and we cannot get enough of it. I love the pool so much! It is fun having kids who can swim so that we can all enjoy playing and being together and nobody is stuck on the sides not being able to participate. Having grown up in a swim team competing family having kids know how to swim has always been important and that is why I had them start younger so that they can be good at it.

Alyssa. Kenedy, Avy and Isabelle

The next day we packed up lunches and after stopping at a couple of stores headed back to Emilys to do some more fun stuff. I had an idea for a cute reading corner and I made tissue paper pom poms and hung them from the ceiling around the tree I made. I did not have my Cricut so I could not cut out the quote to go on the tree which when I do get it done will say, "Wherever I am, if I've got a book with me, I have a place I can go and be happy." by J.K. Rowling

The tree turned out so cute!

Kenedy put up the shapes posters and the girls all painted and glittered clothespins to put in the hall to hang kids work.

While we were at Hobby Lobby we saw this Lamp that would look so cute in the classroom on Emilys desk. It was on sale for half off but Emily could not get it yet. Erin said she would buy it for her for her birthday and I said I would go in on it since with the two of us sharing the cost it would have been about the price I would have spent anyway so we bought it for her and it looked perfect sitting on her desk.

I strung paper clips on fishing string and had Kenedy and Alyssa hang them from the ceiling so that Emily could use them to display kids work in the classroom.

We did so much and her classroom looks so good. I wish I could be a fly on the wall to watch her teach and see the kids enjoy what we did. I had so much fun being creative and really wish I could have done more. I now need to find more creative things to do to itch this need.

After we were done we, of course, headed back to the pool for more swimming and barbecue.

Rylee and Maddie