Fun, Fun, and More Fun!

Seriously, this summer has just been jammed packed with fun! I love it! I hate that September is just 2 days away, reminding me of the end of summer, but I know that also means holidays are just around the corner, so even though weather will be getting colder which I hate, there is still tons to look forward to...I just have to keep reminding myself of that!

This week some of our friends from the neighborhood had to move, but the kids got to play together one last time! Lorin is Brayden's age and Christian is Ashton's age, and their friend Olivia also got to come over to play. They all had a blast together!

Lorin, Olivia, BraydenAshton and ChristianOn Friday my mom and I got to go visit my cousin's wife and also my good friend Wenlan and her little guy Lorkan. Even though Lorkan is a whole year younger than Ashton, they played really well together and had a blast! They got to play in this sprinkler that shoots out balls - here they are in their pullup and diaper...they soon stripped down to their birthday suits but I didn't gets pics of that I'm sure you'll be glad to know!Then Brayden decided to get in on the fun!Saturday we went to the zoo with our friends and neighbors Tyler and Jamie and their 3 cute kiddos! I hadn't realized how long it had been since we last went, it was Ashton's 1st birthday! I think this time Ashton was about as excited as the last time he went...first he wanted in the cages with the animals, not too excited about just looking at them, then he just liked looking at the weeds and flowers growing in front of the exhibits. Brayden had fun, though, especially since Olivia was there!The kids loved watching this peacock...until Ashton chased it away!The girls were so funny, giggling and saying "eewww" or "that's so gross" to everything, like when they saw the kangaroo and giant turtle below they said "Eeewww, that turtle and kangaroo are married!" Or when they saw a camel, "Eewww, that's so gross, the camel has humps!" You can totally see it on their faces in the picture above!I had to steal these next pictures from Jamie...my camera batteries died right when we were about to take them! I really think this was the kids' favorite part, taking pictures with the gorilla statue!Then I realized I had another little camera in my purse and got pics of the grand finale, the zoo playground!In addition to the pics posted, this week I got to go to a fun girls night out to say bye to Jill, and then Friday night we went to an outdoor movie night thanks to the Oliverson's and their awesome backyard! We've been having tons of fun and hope to fit lots more in before summer comes to an end!!!

More summer fun...

We got to go to our friend Kara's parent's pool again this past week, which is so much fun! My kids are starting to get more and more daring in the water! This is a picture of Brayden's first time EVER jumping off of the diving board! She first did it with the life jacket, then started doing it without on both the diving board and the slide! She also got to borrow some cool goggles which she was sooo excited about!Ashton started doing tricks, twirling in the air when jumping off the diving board! I do need to teach him to jump further out though, I'm surprised he never hit the diving board!Some of the kids together!I don't know what it is with us and rides lately, but the kids love them! A few weeks back Brayden won a gift card for a place called Hollywood Connection. It had tons of points on it that we were able to put toward riding rides (like tickets) there. Hollywood Connection has indoor rides, miniature golf, skating, an arcade, a movie theater, and even a little diner. It seems like a fun place, so we were so shocked to see we were pretty much the only ones in there on a Friday night! It was great though - we knew the place was super clean because the workers were so bored they were walking around cleaning everything, and the kids were able to walk on rides without waiting in any lines. We pretty much had the place to ourselves! The kids had a blast and it didn't cost us a thing!

8 years!!!

Our anniversary was yesterday, August 18th! 8 years ago yesterday Mike did this to me...Yep, he smashed cake all over my face, right before pictures I might add, and I still stuck with him! I really am so lucky to have him for my husband! I can't believe it's been 8 years, it really doesn't feel that long at all.

We wanted to do something fun to celebrate but not travel too far, so we decided to take the kids to Lagoon on Monday, (I know, we're so romantic!) and then stayed the night at a hotel close by. Our very first anniversary, Mike and I got a hotel downtown Salt Lake and went to Lagoon and it was a disaster and we hadn't been back since - our first anniversary Mike lost our car key almost as soon as we got to Lagoon, we spent hours looking for it, never found it so had Lagoon workers try to help get our car opened, then eventually had to get a locksmith, plus it was like 100 degrees that day. By the time the locksmith came, we decided we had enough and just went back to our hotel. This year we were afraid it was going to be a bad experience again. It started out taking us an hour and a half to get there because of construction traffic, when it should only take about a half an hour. Then it was hotter there than we thought it would be that day, so we tried out Lagoon-a-Beach, which could have been fun if the water wasn't freezing and our kids were teenagers, but instead there was just one area the kids could do anything in and it was big so we kept losing them and I was a nervous wreck the whole time. After that the day got better, and we got to enjoy the rest of the time there.Brayden was super grumpy in this picture below...she was mad at me. We had just gone on this ride behind them. You get sprayed as you go around but could control the thing you ride in to go up and down to try to avoid getting sprayed. I didn't want to get too wet so I took over the controls. Brayden was mad because she wanted to control it more, but didn't tell me until after the ride. It took her awhile to get over it!This was at the hotel right before we checked out. See the wreath above the bed? When we first came into the room Brayden said "Those are so cool!" I guess she's never seen a wreath before. I remember back about 15-20 or more years ago those were so in and my mom had them everywhere in our house. Funny it's such a new thing to Brayden!When we were about to go to sleep the night after Lagoon, we asked the kids what their favorite part of the day was. Brayden said her favorite part was feeding Ashton chicken when he was half asleep at dinner time at Lagoon, and Ashton said his favorite part was swimming in the pool at the hotel after Lagoon. (We came back and swam until midnight!) I guess we could have saved some money and skipped Lagoon altogether! I don't think we'll be going back there any time soon, but it was fun to have a little getaway trip!

Later yesterday on our actual anniversary, my parents watched the kids and Mike and I went to The Cheesecake Factory. We don't go out without the kids enough, it was soooo nice! This is us right before going out.We really did have a great anniversary! I think this was our best one yet, and we can't wait to celebrate many more! Hopefully a getaway without the kids next time!

Ugly T-Shirts...

Monday we went to a BBQ hosted by our friends from the neighborhood, Andy and Jocelyn. We had a ton of fun! They had an ugliest t-shirt contest, so this is what we came up with. There were some way worse shirts than ours so we didn't win, but it was fun trying to come up with what we should wear!

Brayden's wearing a shirt with a bunch of crazy-looking wrestlers, and I found this tie dyed shirt for Ashton.I love Mike's blinged-out gambling Popeye shirt!And I found this Rolling Stone cover t-shirt with AC DC. It wasn't the worst shirt I saw out there, but I thought the guys on it weren't so attractive, so it might work!

Fire, Water, and Ice Festival!

This past Saturday we thought it would be fun to go to the Fire, Water, and Ice Festival held at a rec center really close to us. I guess they have it every year, but this was this first year we heard of it. My parents went with us, and it was super cheap, $10 for our whole family. There was swimming in any of their 6 pools, games, and entertainment. One thing that was a huge disappointment to us all was that it turned out to be in the low 60's that day, so it was too cold to swim in their cool outdoor pools and water park. Ashton, being a fish, had a REALLY hard time with that, especially since most events were out by the pools where a lot of crazy people were swimming despite the weather! He kept randomly stripping his clothes off ready to go jump in! I felt so bad for him! There was still plenty more for the kids to have fun with there, though!

There were a ton of giant bounce houses and slides! In the picture of Brayden you can see Ashton right under King Kong. This was his FAVORITE!I had to get this picture of Brayden, she was putting on chapstick as she was sliding down the slide! That would be my girly girl!Trying to pull the rope as far as they could! Seriously, I could get used to seeing Ashton in a harness!My parents and Brayden!Mayan Divers were there performing. And here's Ashton after one of the many times he stripped his clothes off!There was this big sheriff/police motor home there, and every time we walked by Ashton had to look at himself in the tires. Better than a funhouse for him I guess! In this picture he had just gotten a gummy candy thing and he's making faces with it hanging out of his mouth. Such a goofball!They had a little game and craft area for the kids. Here grandma is helping Ashton fish!Brayden coloring a little craft..Later there were fire dancers...and then the kids were exhausted so we went back to our car to watch the fireworks from there, and we still had a great view!I think we'll have to make it a tradition to go there every year. We had a great time, even with not being able to go swimming. I think the highlight for my mom and I was the auction room...they had a ton of things they were auctioning off and selling to raise money for the Make a Wish Foundation (actually the whole festival pretty much was to raise money for that), and we both scored great deals on purses and jewelry. There were also a ton of vendors there, and I found some cute hair accessories for Brayden. Of course the shopping would be my favorite part!