Aunt Shannon's Birthday, July 30th 2009

Aunt Shannon surprised us all yesterday and came for a visit. None of the kids, including Summer and Jake even knew she was coming!! They thought we were picking up a friend from the airport! It was her birthday today and we made her our famous hot fudge lava cake!! yum yum!!

Tackle Football Practice, July 2009

Finally, Zach has his dream come true. He is playing tackle football. Practices started this week and he is playing five evenings a week and loving it so far! I took pictures of a game that they played in which you are either the runner with the ball or the tackler. It is one on one and he had to tackle the other guy before he crossed the line or run across the line before getting tackled. He had a lot of fun and did a great job!! His tackling involves a lot of wrestling moves!!!! Is that legal??!! His coaches didn't seem to mind, but the boy that got dropped was a little upset.

Daddy's Birthday, July 28 2009

We surprised dad with a homemade cake (they girls did it while we were gone out scout camp) and homemade chicken dinner! I don't know if Zach or Sean was more excited about the Gerber knife he got for his birthday! He also got some socks, jerkey and a knife from his mom. Truly, a man's dream birthday!!

Scout Camp, July 2009

I took Zach and Jake to Jeremiah Johnson Scout Day Camp. It was a lot of fun! The boys did archery, BB guns, panned for gold, made teepees, played games,

made rope, learned how to throw a lasso at a target and dunk each other, and played tug of war. Both of them said their favorite part was Archery and Shooting. Oh, they also rowed in some really cool ferries!! They liked that a lot too!!

Pioneer Day trip to Temple Square, July 24 2009

One of our favorite things to do is go to Salt Lake City Temple Square. We love to take pictures there and go into the visitor centers and watch movies and stuff that they have there. The kids love posing for pictures. Yes, even Jake and Zach! After we got done taking pictures and visiting the center, we went ånd got pizza and candy and sat on top of our car to watch the Pioneer Day Fireworks. Then we rode home with the windows down and the music turned up per request of all the kids!! It was even fun for me!! There is something about letting your hair blow in the wind and sticking your hands (well, one hand for me; I had to keep one on the steering wheel) out the windows while you are driving that makes you just feel like a kid again. Great Day Again!!!

"Jonas Brothers" 4th of July Stadium of Fire Concert

Finally, the long awaited (for the girls anyway), "Jonas Brothers" Stadium of Fire Concert has arrived!! I believe the girls took a couple of hours at least getting ready for this one!! There was lots of showering, drying and straightening hair, curling hair, and picking out just the right outfit going on for this outing!! When all of that was done, we headed out in Brenda and Tim's "Big Rig" with burgers and dogs hot and ready to eat when we got there. A little Tailgating was Tim's cool idea! After we ate, it was off to the show. The girls screamed alot and sang alot; Ben was even enjoying it. Mike, Zach and Jake, however, played it really cool!! They were not much into the cheering and screaming for a few "boys" singing!! The evening was great. Tim took us all back home in the "Big Rig" and everyone fell asleep, except for him, I think. Great Day!!!

Hiking Timp and Bridal Veil with the Johnson's

We spent some days together hiking. We hiked up Timpanogos Mountain to explore the cave at the top. It was a long hot journey with a "cool" reward at the top. The inside of the cave was icey cold. We went from pouring down sweat to freezing sweat! That's gross. The trip back down the mountain was not too bad. Savannah and I must have used the same muscles on the journey, because we were both holding our "butt cheeks" as we walked the next day!

We also hiked up Bridal Veil Falls. It was very refreshing to hike up the falls and take turns standing in the icey cold falls at the top. My new favorite adjective now is "icey cold"!

Dirt biking with the Johnson's and Summer and Jake, July 2009

Aunt Brenda and Uncle Tim came to visit and we rode dirt bikes and jumped on the trampoline. We also cooked out in the back yard. It was lots of fun being with Brenda, Tim, Ben, Lauren and Mike again!