A little belated..

So I am just getting around to posting Jakes birthday. He turned ten on the 2nd and by far this was one of the easier birthdays. i am so glad that Jake is for the most part and easy going kid. (jocelyn and Ethan can somehow bring the not so easy going part out of him) Anyways Jakes birthday began with scout day camp, which he came home to a birthday sign on the garage that the kids and I made. Oh he opened his present just after I got home from work at like 7:30 in the morning, he couldn't wait. He pretty much got what he wanted- bionicles and starwars legos. The same starwars legos he had tried to win off of ebay and lost:( The bionicles were a hit also. As for his cake he just said "I want it green with rocks and starwars guys"- easy ! Thank You Jake! After dinner at chuck-a-rama (his choice) we went home, sang and had cake. Low key my favorite kind of birthdays- I like our family birthdays just because we are all together and have something to celebrate- birthday parties can just get too crazy!- thats next year:(

Jam packed!

This year we had our summer vacation with both sides of our family jam packed in a little over a week. Lots of fun but -Exhausting! to say the least. We started off with Bens family in Yellowstone. Ben and I were in charge this year and we found an awesome cabin to comfortably fit us all. The hot tub and pool table were a plus also. The first day we spent a long day in the park and the second day we spent cruisin west yellowstone. The kids loved the park -old faithful, the hot pools, waterfall, and buffalos. Although Riley wasn't too impressed with the buffalo when one came up next to the car and let out a few bellows. He rolled his window up so fast! Funny that he picked a stuffed buffalo as his souvenir. Back at the cabin we chilled in the hot tub, played pool, played games, talked alot, and sat by the fire nightly and exchanged memories -some so funny I was sure every animal in a 10 mile radius was scared to death from all the loud belly laughs! The family slide show was a hit as well as the talent show. We found out that Bonnie and Sara are due to have babies about 2 weeks apart! and we enjoyed cute little Connor who was only a few weeks old. What a cutie! The kids had tons of fun with their cousins. It was so good to see everyone. Ben misses his family alot and it was fun to just hang out with everyone.

After 4 days with the Allen fam we headed off to Bear Lake to be with my family. We arrived a day before everyone else and spent the day at the beach. Everyone arrived and we had a great family dinner, played games, play dough and just sat around and talked. The next day was spent at the beach. The cousins had fun digging paths in the sand,swimming,chasing a fish that was stuck in our little bay( I almost caught that sucker and yet he literally slipped thru my hands and I did lots of screaming and jumping-yuck!) Laura and Mark brought jet skis and we all had a blast with those. Owen and I even had a chance in the tube with Ben pulling us. Too much fun. Really. I'm also pretty sure that when your skin starts to go beyond red to a purple - you should probably just get out of the sun! Ouch! Luckily the kids were smothered in sunscreen and escaped without too much sun burns. We were exhausted when we returned home and quickly cleaned everything out and washed the truck and trailer and basically fell into bed! We had the best jam packed week ever and the kids loved it. Riley has since asked numerous times if we can go on vacation again. In a while, I'm still too tired!