Arts Camp

Brittany had a fun adventure for a couple of weeks....and so did we. She went to her Arts Camp for the last couple of weeks in July. We found out that we don't really like her being gone for so long. It really felt weird not to have her around and we all felt a little "off" while she was gone. We were really happy when the day finally came to go and pick her up. We really missed her, but I know it was an experience that she'll remember forever and I'm so grateful she had this opportunity. She met some incredible kids from all over the world and the instructors, counselors & staff were amazing. She's constantly getting emails from someone from camp and it's been fun; she met a really cute girl from Korea and she sends emails and her email address shows up in Korean. It's fun to get to know so many different people from different parts of the world. She was involved in the Mini-Musical Theatre and their show was incredible. The kids sang in 3-part harmony and had everything memorized and they looked so professional. I was really impressed and it was a really fun day to spend together. I know it was an opportunity of a lifetime, but we're so glad she's back!

This is her dorm room...

Cute sisters!

The cast of "The Elephant's Child"
This is her best friend from camp....and Carson
This was kind of cool....Forest Whitaker had 2 daughters in the class with Brittany. He was such a nice guy and was so nice to take pictures with some of the kids. I don't think many of them knew who he was, but their parents did.

Brittany's instructor.....and Carson :)

My sweet friend, Kari, planned a breakfast with some of my friends the morning that we left. She came by to drop a present off for Brittany one afternoon and was talking to my dad about his car and was joking around and told him to have me pick her up for breakfast in that car. Well, I got up and was ready to walk out the door and my dad said, "Well, aren't you going to take my car?" I said, "No, are you kidding?" He said, "Kari wants a ride so just take it." I was pretty nervous driving around his pride and joy and I'm sure he circled the block a couple of times to make sure I parked it away from all of the other cars but we had so much fun. Kari has been battling cancer this last year and she's doing so good and finally starting to feel a little better and getting out more. She still keeps pretty good track of me and she always makes me feel like I'm still in the loop with everyone back home. We were able to go to dinner with her and her husband and my cousins to our favorite Mexican restaurant too so it was so fun to spend some time with them. With all she's been through, it was pretty great for her to plan this breakfast for me. I had such a great time catching up with my friends and we had a pretty stylin' ride. My dad's the best!

Our Grandparents

Grandma
Grandpa
This is the best swing....many great memories at my grandma & grandpa's house!
They built this house and have lived there all of their lives. 3 bedroom, 1 bath, 8 kids...wow!
Normie & Poppie - Cody's Grandma & Grandpa. They're so much fun and still going...they're amazing and we love them so much!

The camera ran out of batteries while we were at my grandma & Grandpa's house so we only got a couple of pictures there and had to take some pictures of them and Cody's grandma on my phone, so when I figure out how to download them onto my computer, I'll include those pictures. These pictures are priceless and need to be included in our journal. I'm so thankful our kids have been so close to their great-grandparents. They love them and have wonderful memories with them.

Brit & Grandpa's Birthday!

Brit & my dad share the same birthday so we've always spent it together. I told him when she was born that I would never be able to top this gift and still haven't been able to. We had a really fun day and that is all she wanted for her birthday....a trip to Utah. Happy Birthday, Brit!

Grandpa and his girls!
I love this picture....
For Brit's birthday, she wanted to have her friends over to visit so we invited them over and they had a great time...I still can't get over how much they talked about boys, but I'm glad Brittany still isn't that interested. Let's hope we can keep it that way. It was fun for her to see her friends and catch up with them a little. Again, they were all about a foot taller than her, so we'll be eating more vegetables at our house. I'm amazed at how they change from year to year.

Avery & Grandpa Mark
The Birthday Boy & Girl

4th of July

Ty & Carson
This is my dad's "baby". He completely rebuilt this 1929 Studebaker and it's the coolest car. People ask him all the time how much money he thinks he invested in it and he says, "I was very careful not to keep track." :) I actually think it was good therapy for him too because he bought this car when we were little and has had it in a garage and finally got it out to work on it when my mom was sick. It took some time, but it turned out so good. He loves it and all of the grandkids thought it was pretty cool that they asked him to drive it in the parade on the 4th! He looks great!

My brother, sister-in-law and my cousin Shannon ran the 5K before the parade. We all made it and were walking the next day so mission accomplished! It was really fun and I ran a little faster than last year so woo-hoo! I guess we'll see if I can keep it up, which not looking so good since we've been back. I haven't been out running at all. Maybe when it gets cooler....:)
Grandma Leslie took Brit, Bai, Hadley and Keyli to Hannah Montana at the Stadium of Fire! They had so much fun and Leslie made it really special. She gave them all bags with Hannah Montana stuff in it and Keyli bought everyone a t-shirt so they all looked like they belonged there. They had a blast and came home with scratchy throats and lots of fun memories. My dad and Debbie ended up going with all of Debbie's kids and they didn't have quite as much fun! I think it's because my dad didn't have his Hannah Montana t-shirt on. :)
Justin and Mandy had a brunch at their house after the parade for everyone. We didn't get to see much of Debbie's kids so it was fun to spend some time with them on the 4th.

Every year, we go to Aunt Judy's to watch the fireworks. We have sloppy joes (Cody's request) and all of the regulars bring their specialties and I'm pretty sure this is how I gained 5 lbs while I was there. Good food, fun cousins and a great fireworks show....what more could you want?

We were so glad to be able to be there for Sydney's baptism. It was such a special day and her program was so sweet. While she was getting dried off and dressed, her grandpa and uncle put together a video of her life and played it while the song "The Little White Dress" played in the background. It was such a sweet thing and I'll have to remember that for future baptisms. Not a dry eye in the room.

We also got to go to another baptism while we were there too. Our cousins were there from Arizona to visit and Tyler got baptized while they were here. I'm so glad we don't miss everything. We had a fun luncheon after his baptism at Wayne & Lori's and all of my cousins were there, which is always a good time. Wayne told us to bring our swimming suits because they had a "white trash pool" set up in the backyard. He's so funny! They had an above ground pool set up and their trampoline right next to it and the kids (and Eric) had a great time! We also got out the pocket bike and I taught the girls how to ride it. Brittany only laid it down once....oops! I thought she had the hang of it but she did better after that. It looked like we needed training wheels! It's nice to know we don't miss all the fun.

I don't have many pictures from the baptisms, but this picture was so sweet. I love when they're so nice to each other and this picture is priceless!

We went to Aunt Misti's while we were there. We always have so much fun with them. The girls just disappear and have a great time and Carson was stuck to Nick at the hip this trip. The funny thing is, is that Nick is 14. Carson loved hanging out with him and Nick was so sweet to him. We had a fun barbecue with Cody cousins and his aunts and we had a wonderful time....again sitting out on the deck in the evening. I really miss that! Misti kept the Brit, Bai and Carson overnight and took them swimming the next day! She's amazing and we just hung out with Avery; that never happens so it was fun for all of us. Thanks, Misti!

Family Night

Ty and Carson are the cutest little friends. They're buds and they are so cute together. Cody and I went to a viewing while we were there so my brother and sister-in-law watched the kids for us and then we went over and took a treat for family night, right at bedtime, of course.

More ice cream.....

We had a family dinner the first Sunday we were there and it was so fun to have the cousins back together. The afternoon we got there, Brit called Jacey and her and Sydney ran from their house to my dad's and were there within 5 minutes. It was so cute to see them run and hug each other. Stacy and Jeff made homemade ice cream and everyone loved it....especially Avery. She couldn't get enough and we sat and laughed at her for a long time. She carried her cup around for about 2 hours and I think she ended up with more on her dress than in her mouth, but it was fun to watch. It was so wonderful to just sit on the deck and visit and enjoy the weather. That's one think I definitely miss is the nice, cool evenings. We just don't get that here. I guess we'll be enjoying it in November when they're inside with snow, but I'm trying to figure out what is better. It was fun!

We did so many things all together (with Cody's dad and Leslie and my family) that it made it really fun. Everyone just hung out and we got to see everyone at the same time. If we had a dinner at my dad's, Cody's family came and if we did it at Cody's dad's, my dad and Debbie came. It was wonderful to spend so much time with all of them.

Some of our cousins
Avery with her ice cream. She never got too far away from the ice cream bucket. What a kid!

Trip to Utah

Well, we've been back for a month, so it's about time! We had such a fun trip to Utah in July; we could have stayed 2 more weeks, but that whole "work" thing always gets in the way. :) We stayed 10 days and got in as much as we could. It was wonderful to see our family and friends and it always makes us miss them all the more when we come home. It's funny how when we're here, we just go on with our life and we're so busy, we don't really realize how much we're missing. We have a niece who was just tiny last time we saw her and now she's big. Crazy how that happens, huh? Everyone grew a foot, okay well all of the kids, and our kids didn't so that was fun. I guess we need more vegetables or something.

It's amazing how much we miss our family and how much fun we have while we're there. It's just a 10-day party for us and it's so nice to be involved and included. It makes us feel back in the loop and it's wonderful. My poor dad and Debbie have enough space for all of us, so we invade them while we're there, but we love it! We also got to see both of our grandparents, which was both wonderful and a little heartbreaking. My grandparents have really changed a lot in 1 year and it's really hard to see. My grandma fell and broke her hip a few months ago and then fell again right before we were there. She doesn't remember everything like she used to but my grandpa is still as sharp as they come, just a lot more fragile. I cried all the way up the lane when we left. Cody's grandma has Alzheimer's and didn't have a clue who we were or why we were there, but she was just as gracious as she always was. It was very difficult to see her but we're so glad we went. The kids were so cute with her and we all put puzzles together, looked at her room and talked about pictures. It's so hard to see our grandparents getting old and especially when we only see them once a year. It's definitely bittersweet.

New Do!

Although it's now been over a week, it's still pretty new! Bailey got her hair cut last week and it looks so cute on her. Thought we better post it in case she wants to spike her hair and paint it bright pink or something in her teen years. I'll have a cute picture to look back on and hopefully bring her back to her senses. I don't know if she was too sure about it at first, but now she loves it. As long as she can still pull it back, she's okay. I wish I was brave like her, but alas, a trim is about as brave as it gets for me. I really love it!

Memories

1. As a comment on our blog, leave one memory that you and I (or Cody, Brittany, Bailey, Carson & Avery) had together. It doesn't matter if you knew us a little or a lot, anything you remember.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments.

Catching up....the story of my life! :)

I'm sure that people have stopped even looking for an update from us. It's been a while and I'm going to catch up over the next few days. I keep thinking I'm going to take an hour or so at night and start trying to piece together the last few weeks and then something happens or I'm just too tired or it just seems overwhelming. I usually end up working and I've got to start catching up or I'm going to forget so much of what's gone on this last month. I definitely need to start somewhere....

It's funny because just when I start to think I'm getting it together, something happens to let me know I just don't quite have it yet, hence why I haven't had it together enough to catch up on my blog. This little story is kind of how my life has been working lately....just so you understand. I've been working quite a bit lately and I had a listing that I put on a broker caravan with our office, so I had gotten everything ready the night before and was feeling like I was okay. I got there on time and was able to enjoy the meeting a little bit. Well, I was just planning on driving myself on the caravan and then just heading straight to a lunch appointment that I had, but when I walked outside, my friend asked if he could ride with me. Well, I said, "Of course" and thought to myself, well the passenger seat isn't too bad so that was fine. I got in and started to move papers around and slide my files to the side of the seat and moved a couple of books and then 3 more people came out of the office and my friend said, "hey, those guys could probably come with us." Looking at my huge car, you'd think, of course they can. There's plenty of room; the problem was when I looked in the back seat in horror. I hurried to open the back doors and unlatched the car seat and threw it in the back-back seat, started throwing diapers (not used, thankfully) in the back seat and trying to brush crushed up goldfish under the seats so it didn't look quite so much like the total kid car. I tried to wipe the crumbs from all of our fast food meals in the car off the seats as my esteemed colleagues tried to get in. Well, there were a few things that were left so one of them said, "Oh, I'll just put these in the back," and went around to the back of the car and opened up the liftgate. There, in the back of the car was a cake that we had taken to Cody's mom's house the night before to celebrate Brit's and Vera's birthdays that we had all forgotten to take into the house. It was just perfect when one of my friends said, "Oh, you brought cake." All I could do was just stand there and laugh. AAHH, my life! So, this is when I said before, just when I think I get it together, I take a few steps back and realize, yeah, not so much!

I'm still trying to make everything work and some days are better than others...obviously, but I really have to say that for the most part, it is working. I'm grateful to be busy and for all of the opportunities that have come our way. I remember in January wondering what in the world we were going to do and now here we are with plenty to do and I have to remember that it's a blessing. I really enjoy what I'm doing and especially the people that I get to work with. I just need to remember that I'm probably not going to get it all together and it's okay. I can be the mom with cake in the car who sells houses and that's okay. :) I guess we'll see how much I can get it together in the next few days to update this blog. It needs some work!