When are you too old for this...?

These kids are hilarious. They are always wanting to go on rides like this. I never let them because usually I have no money, or not the right amount, and I think it is such a waste. But Aunt Jenny was visiting and loves her nieces and nephew and is so good to them. I just silently laughed because they are all TOO big for a ride like this, yet they were in heaven! Thanks Jen!

swimming=necessity

This is the only way to spend summer if you live here in Mesa! We love swimming and have spent a large portion of our time in a pool. These pictures are of the kids swimming at their dad's house. They are lucky that he has a pool and they can go over pretty much whenever they want and swim. We also go to Kino pool just up the street from our house, it is a city pool at the junior high school that was just renovated this last winter. It is pretty cheap and feels so good! I'm not sure why I didn't take any pictures of Sofia this time, but she was there.

summer fun

Somehow the pictures are first and the writing is after...not what I intended, but I don't feel like 'arguing' with my computer right now. Here are some photos of what we have been doing this summer.

Jacob chipped off quite a large piece of his front tooth. In this picture it is the tooth on the left. I didn't get a before picture. I was certain they would have me schedule another appt to repair it, but they took care of it all the day we went in. You can't even tell it was ever chipped, they did a great job! He probably should have brushed his teeth before this picture was taken, but oh well.

Isabel has spent much time playing with her friend who lives across the street. What a lucky girl to have a friend so close. They always play with Barbies and are so funny to listen to when they play. Just totally girlie-girlie to the nth degree.

Jacob and Sofia have spent many hours drawing, coloring and making cards, and they both spend a little time on the computer. I'm a pretty mean mom and only let them have 20 min. a day, if that.

Sofia loves to take pictures and I'm always finding interesting photos on the camera, this is her latest self-portrait

Jacob found some masking tape, colored it black, cut it to size and all of a sudden became some kind of fighting guerilla ninja? Too funny.

And Isabel learned how to ride a bike this summer. We had to practice after the sun went down, but she figured it out, mostly because when we were in Utah she rode on a smaller bike than hers and felt more comfortable practicing up there. When we came home, it only took a day or two for her to get it! I'm so excited to finally be able to go on bike rides with all of us now.

We went on a week long trip to Wellsville, Utah to visit family in the middle of June. We drove up with my sister Kaitlin. It was a LONG drive up, 12 hours long! Anyway, I had so many great pictures of our trip and I was excited to blog about our adventure, but managed to erase the pictures off of my camera thinking that I already loaded them on my computer. Ooops! Luckily I had already ordered prints from the store so I have most of the pictures, I just can't put them on here. We had a super time, stayed with my Aunt Laurel, visited with all the family that lives there, mainly my cousin Amy who has three kids of her own. The kids seemed to have a good time together and I was so grateful for her letting us use her kids bikes. One thing we did that we all totally enjoyed was when we rode the Front Runner from Ogden to SLC, then hopped on TRAX for a ride to Temple Square. The kids loved sitting in the upper deck of the Front Runner train. It was a great ride. We toured Temple Square and then took in the Joseph Smith movie that was playing at the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg. Great movie. We also went swimming at Hyrum Dam on our last day there. COLD lake water, but the kids again had a super time. Since we have been back from our 'vacationing', we have been trying to enjoy our summer, which is hard for me at times because it is so hot! We have been swimming a lot, playing with friends, riding bikes, going to the library, watching movies, and relaxing at the same time. It has been so good this summer to not have to get up and get ready to go every day!

random pinetop

We spent 10 days in Pinetop at the beginning of our summer break. Here are a few of the random things we did to entertain ourselves while we were there.

The kids 'collected' these colorful bb's at the end of the street. i'm sure we spent a good couple of hours 'searching' for these prized jewels (read the sarcasm in that last sentence)

I took mom and kaitlin for pedicures for their late mother's day and birthday presents. I loved my little flower, just ignore the little stubs I have for toes.

Hiking, hiking and more hiking.

You can read the excitement on Jacob's face about his excitement for the hikes!

Sofia entertaining herself with one of the many toys at grandma and grandpas house.

Isabel just being her cute little self...i think Sofia took this picture...

We also took a few rides with dad on his COOL rides!! This might have been my favorite part of our trip. I'm sure glad he moved to Alaska and bought these so he could bring them home with him. They were so much fun to ride

We also met friends at Woodland Lake Park to play. Emily is down from Ut visiting her family and another friend Heather lives in Pinetop. The kids had fun playing together and we had fun catching up. I love this picture of Natalie and Isabel. Whoever took the picture (not me) didn't notice that the shutter was only half way opened, but the picture still works. We had a great 10 days in Pinetop and since I am lucky enough to have 2 months off work, I'm sure we will go back.

and more of pinetop

On a couple of our days in Pinetop we went to Walnut Creek behind mom's house and fished for crawdads. We were successful each time we went. The kids had a super time trying to spot them in the mud and then trying to lure them to the line with bacon. Good thing we have a mom/grandma who is a great fisherwoman! I love Pinetop this time of year...it is soooooo green and still cool!

more of pinetop

We spent an afternoon hiking the trail at the Big Springs Environmental Study Area. It was a great day. On this day we drove over, but the next day, we hiked from my mom's backyard. It is about a 25 minute hike from her backyard to Big Springs. The kids had fun following the trails and deciding which trails to take. We had driven mom's car over earlier and mom and the girls drove home while Jacob and I hiked back.

pinetop

The last day of school was on Thursday the 21st and we headed up to Pinetop on the next Wed.

We all needed to get out of the heat and have a change of scenery. We had a super good time.
It is so nice now that my mom is not working because she is able to play with us and spend more

time with her grandkids. On this particular day she told the kids that she would give them $1 for every 20 pinecones that they picked off the ground. My dad uses a woodstove all winter long to heat the house and likes them for kindling. The kids attacked this and each earned around $7. I don't know if my mom realized they would pick up that many.

Sitting on the front porch waiting for grandma to come and count the total pine cones.

Here are there separate piles...they knew exactly which ones were theirs and let you know it!


Isabel 'helping' grandpa open his mail

Jacob


Sofia is a little banker...loves money and is always trying to figure out ways to earn more.