We love to be Outside

 I decided to be brave and bring the kids to the outdoor pool just down the road from us on my own one afternoon.  It was stressful, and I kinda felt like I was trying to herd cats, but we all survived and it was pretty fun.  :)

 These kids are so fun!

 And is there anything cuter than kids in goggles?  I think not!

 Except maybe kids in sunglasses.  ha ha.

We spend a lot of time in our backyard.  It's so great because I sit on the deck in the shade and watch the kids play.  Sometimes I even turn the water misters on to keep cool.  It's a great set up.  :)

 Here we are hanging out on the deck.  This is what I get when I ask for a picture.  Ha ha.  I love it!

 

 Most activities involve water.  I do so much more laundry in the summer because they go through 2 or 3 outfits a day!

 I went inside to use the bathroom and came outside to this.  Rob was letting Zac cut a board with our new hatchet.  Don't worry...next time I will make him wear shoes!

We got a trampoline!  And we got it to fit in the van with all the kids inside.  It took forever to put together because Rob and I were connecting the springs the wrong way...luckily we figured out the right way for the last 14 springs...out of like 150.  Ha ha. 

 The kids have been loving it and spending a ton of time on it.  I'd say it was a great purchase!

 They love putting water balloons on it.  

We've been trying to keep up on yardwork...it's never ending and I'm afraid we might be losing our battle.  So many weeds!  

We also love spending time at new parks with friends.  It's so fun.  The kids last so much longer at parks when friends are there. 

Silver Lake

 A few weeks ago we ventured up into the mountains and hiked around Silver lake.  Well, I guess I shouldn't use the word hike.  It's a walk really.  But it is always really pretty and lots of fun.  We love it there.

 Plus, it was like 70 degrees up there instead of 95 down in the valley.  So that was a plus.  

 And an extra bonus, two moose came out of the bushes right in front of us!  It was amazing to see.  We backed away because we didn't want them to charge at us or anything, but we just watched them for a good 5 minutes until they wandered off.  It was awesome.

 The picture makes it look like they were pretty far away, but they were really close!

 Our friends had told us that they see moose EVERY time they go up there...I think that might be an exaggeration, but I'm glad we were finally able to see some.  

 Rob and the kids on a fallen log.  

 It's a good thing Rob was with us because otherwise I would have told the kids no when they asked to climb up this rock.  Yikes.  But they all made it safely.

 If you look closely, you can see Zac and Sadie's heads sticking out above the rocks at the top. 

 There were lots of people out on the lake and fishing that night.  

 We also saw lots of squirrel/chipmunk things.  I'm not sure what they were exactly.  But they were not afraid to come close. 

 Sadie took a picture of Rob and me.

 Then Riley had a potty emergency when we were at the furthest point away from the bathroom. (It's a big loop)  so Rob had to run her back to the bathroom.  Zac decided to go with them so Sadie and Emery and I hung out.

 A nice lady took our picture for us.  :) Riley wasn't too happy because she wanted to be sitting down in the picture.  

And then all the kids requested an individual picture.  

 I have some good looking kids!

 We found a picnic table that was empty and sat down while Rob when and grabbed our lunch for us.  The entire time he was gone, we were swatting mosquitoes so when he got back he requested we eat in the car.  We didn't put bug spray on and the mosquitoes really like to eat him.  So we ate in the car.  

It was a really fun evening and the kids went to bed late that night.  :)

Swimming lessons

These kids did great in swimming lessons a couple weeks ago.  Zac was really worried about it because he is the one with a fear of the water.  But he got lucky and got a boy teacher (usually they are girls!) that he really liked.  All the kids passed their levels (which doesn't happen often!) and Zac was sad he passed because he wanted to stay with his teacher.  ha ha.  But we probably won't be able to do swimming lessons again this summer so hopefully we will luck out with a good teacher for Zac next summer.  The kids really did improve a lot in the two weeks they were in lessons.  

Right outside the swimming pool there was a cool workout park.  They all use your own body weight as resistance.  If it wasn't so hot the weeks we went to swimming, we would have gone here every day.  But the equipment was so burning hot!  I totally wish we had one of these at the park near us.  I would use it!

4th of July evening with friends

We spent the evening of the 4th at the Hatch's house.  We sure are glad they are our friends.  They are such great people and we have so much fun whenever we get together with them.  They invited us over for a BBQ.  The kids played outside the entire time we were there.  Us adults talked the entire time we were there.  Doug made delicious gourmet hamburgers with caramelized onions and a special sauce.  Yum.  I wanted to eat two, but I was so full I couldn't.  :)

Thanks guys!  It was a blast...as always!

I had Laurel snap a quick picture of our family all together before the kids ran off and started playing.

Riley and Charlotte were buddies.  

Seriously, what great memories in their backyard.

Riley with her star glasses and bubbles.

Eating.  I think the kids ate mostly chips. 

All the kids (minus Clara)  They all have blue mouths because they just ate cupcakes with blue frosting. 

Riley and Charlotte passing the huge ball back and forth.  Riley would roll it to Charlotte, and Charlotte would let it hit her and then fall over.  It was cute.

Laurel and I.  I'm so glad for her friendship.

Zac and Andrew.

Sadie and Jake showing off their patriotic glasses and tattoos.  Jake called himself Patriotic Man.

Emery and Ella.

Riley and Charlotte.

They also got a cat!  That was exciting to meet her.  Emery loved the cat the most.  I mean...look how cute they are together.  Too bad Sadie is really allergic to most cats we come across...I might just be convinced to get one looking at these pictures!  :)

We had to leave the Hatch's house around 7 to get home in time for Rob to pick up the flags in the neighborhood with the Young Men in the ward.  Then we just bounced on the trampoline and watched fireworks until way too late.  Riley and Emery and I ended up watching them from inside again because there were just so many huge fireworks from the neighbors that made them nervous.  And they were so loud.  All in all it was a great 4th of July!