Last Days of Summer

One of our last adventures of the summer was to Six Flags!  We had a great time as usual!Highlights of this trip, were when Riley and Chloe got caught  dancing by a camera man at the Whale show, and the moment they saw themselves on the big TV screen, they stopped and sat down!  I had no idea they were so shy.  Second, Riley got called out of the crowd to go pet a sea lion, she said it was slimy, but loved it!  Chase was great in the stroller, and even got out to ride some of the little train rides.  His favorite part was seeing the animals.  He doesn't really say many things right now, everything is "Da" - which he would say repeatedly every time he saw an animal, especially the tigers!

 

 Chases summer haircut - I guess

A few weeks ago, Mike gave Chase a "Haircut"  He cut the whole thing just a little too short.  Then ended up buzzing the whole thing! I LOVED his long hair.  Mike will remember this day, as the last time Dad uses the clippers on his son.  Riley started Crying, saying she thought Chase looked awful.  The bright side:  Its growing back now.

Swimming has been going on all summer long, But we are trying to get in as much as we can before school starts.  Some things the kids have learned
Chloe:  Cannon Balls, Pencil Dives (with an exciting discovery that she can touch the bottom when she does that), putting her head under the water with out plugging her nose, or freaking out.  Still wearing floaties, because she hates Mommy's "swim lessons"
Riley:  Diving ( which she stopped doing eventually, because she said they hurt...the reason why they hurt??  Because they are REALLY belly flops), cannon balls, doing handstands and flips in the water, after watching the Olympics, she tried back stroke, and breast stroke, and she can now swim from one end of the pool to another.

Chase enjoyed playing on the steps, and throwing rocks and balls in the pool, oh and splashing the heck out of Mommy!

This summer has flown by, with park days, swimming, sleeping in, watching movies, playing with friends, riding bikes, and Mom nesting and getting ready for baby # 4!  I love spending this time with my kids.  They make me crazy every day, they make me laugh everyday, they make me a little angry every day, they keep me busy every day, and they make me love them more and more each day!  Cheers to school starting!

St. George...its so hot right now!

Riley and Lauren - Lauren was teaching Riley some songs on the piano.  Riley adores Lauren, when we got there, Riley saw that Lauren was wearing their same pink shirt, so Riley immediately changed, so that they could be twinners!! They only see each other 2 or 3 times a year and they have a blast every time!

Chloe and Collin - 2 funny little kids together - full of personality, and feistiness! I  think they could be twins.

Our Utah trip this month was inspired by a business trip that Mike had to take to London,  I wanted to go with him so bad, but couldn't stomach the airfare!  So instead of hanging out alone for the week, we took off to my parents house for a week.  Apparently, we hit it at the hottest week of the year, averaging about 108 for most of the week!  So our tripped involved alot of water fun!   Here they are:

Don't they look like Charlie's Angels??

I know his eyes are closed, but he had the cutest expression on his face when I took this picture!  Chase loved every second of the water this week.

St. George has this cute downtown area with what we call, The Lazy River, its great for kids this age!

Then across the street, there is the coolest little ice cream/sweet shop!  So we got some ice cream, of course

For those of you who didn't know me in high school, I worked at Auntie Anne's Pretezels my senior year, in our mall - it was so fun!  So, I found a recipe {on Pinterest, duh}  for Auntie Anne's pretzels, and we made some.  The kids had fun rolling and flipping their pretzels, and I still remembered how to flip a pretzel with style! 

And more water fun in the backyard... we need to convince my parents to get a pool!  We were able to go to my aunts house to swim twice, but forgot my camera both times.

We went to see Brave - I guess the kids really liked it, but I thought it was a little weird and quite scary!

And finally our second to last night there, we had a major storm blow through, with lightning and thunder, crazy wind, and a flash flood!  I walked by and this was Grandma with the kids just watching the storm, so cute!

Our last outing for lunch, in the rain!

Such great times!  I am totally bummed that I didn't get any pictures of my parents with me or the kids!  Needless to say, they were there every minute, and we are so thankful for them and miss them always!

4th of July!

I'm not going to lie and tell you that I am not a sucker for festive clothing for my family around any holiday.  Give me matching dresses and coordinating colors and I am happy!  That being said, here are my adorable kids in their 4th of July clothes.  I love the red, white, and blue!  Mike and me even tried to join in, (actually I told Mike he needed to wear a blue or red shirt...he'll catch the vision one day :))Anyways, we had a great day, starting off with our ward breakfast, yummo!  Then We went home and I packed up our car to leave for Modesto to party it up with my sister, and then leave for Utah the next day!

 Here are just some of the girls cute friends from our ward - we love them!

We then went to a little "festival" with my sister and kids, where they had food, games, and a big fireworks show at the end of the day.  The kids loved the playground, and I loved the colors in these pictures!

Watching the fireworks...

Chase was a little scared, then fell asleep half way through

Happy 4th of July!!

The Boardwalk

Last week was the Summer Solstice, so we took advantage of the daylight and took our awesome kids to the boardwalk, after Mike got home from work. 

Here are the kids waiting for us to get their passes, don't trust the smiles, they weren't pleased with the wait...so we got some ice cream cones.

Chloe's Favorite rides were the little ones that went round and round!  Riley's favorite was the kid roller coaster - I wish I had a picture of her face after she got off it.  She exclaimed "That was the coolest ride ever!!!"

This ride was the one that goes up high, then drops them down.  Chloe was all excited at first, then was not so pleased at the end  (Is it sad that I snapped some pictures of her sad little face, before the hug to make her feel better?)

 It finally got dark - here are Mike and Chase waiting for the last ride to end, before we headed back home.  Good times for sure!

Last Days of School

Chloe had her last day of preschool for this year, and they partied!  They had bounce houses, face painting, treats, popcorn, spin art, and all sorts of fun!  Chloe had a great year at preschool, her teacher Miss Samantha is a wonderful teacher.  She made some good little friends there, and can't wait to go back in the Fall!

We love that smile!

Chase and Riley got in on the action too

Riley has now graduated from Kindergarten, sorry about this blurry shot, I didn't make up there quick enough!  They had the cutest little program and songs, I loved it!  The highlight of the event was that Riley lost a tooth right in the middle of the ceremony!  Funny.

 
 This is Riley's teacher Mrs. Lobach.  We felt so blessed to have her  as a teacher, she was amazing.  She was so good at not only teaching academics, but teaching all those little 5 year olds good social and emotional behavior.  I think our Riley is ready for the BIG First Grade!

We love our big girl Riley!