Hiking Trip

Matt, Matthew, and I woke up early this morning to go on a hike. We drove to American Fork Canyon and hiked up the Timpanogos Cave path. We love this beautiful country! It is 1.5 miles of steep switchbacks with a vertical rise of 1,065 feet. Quite the hike! We went up in 40 minutes and came down in 24 minutes. We figured out that it was easier to jog down and that was fine until a Park Ranger informed us that we couldn't do that. Party pooper!:) Anyways, Matthew was a little trooper. It's fun to have him be old enough to hang with Mom and Dad.

Fun On The Lake

We were invited to go out on Utah Lake with our really good friends, Aaron and Bonnie Sharp. They have 4 cute little girls that my girls love playing with. We always have fun when we get our families together. We went out on their boat and went wake boarding and tubing. Thanks guys! The water felt so good. The girls had a blast swimming in the lake between rides.I was a little nervous about wake boarding, since I am 10 months out of having knee surgery. I took it easy, but still had a blast. I look forward to doing it again soon.

Matthew decided he wanted to try wake boarding this time.
He got up! Woo hoo! He did so good for his 1st time. He is determined to keep trying and eventually stay up as long as his dad can.

Matt looks like a pro. Way to go honey! We went a lot when we were dating back in our younger years. Looks like daddy's still got it.

Fun In Arizona

Here are some pics from our visit down to Arizona. We were there for 2 -1/2 weeks. It was so good to see our family again. The last time we were there was in April and it is amazing how much the cousins have grown since then. It has been hard to adjust to seeing them a couple times a year. We cherish every moment we are with them and then we cry when we leave. We also were able to see and spend some time with friends from Queen Creek. We miss you guys too!

It was wonderful to spend so much time with Grandmama. She takes such good care of us. We did some fun things with her. We went and saw Kung Fu Panda on the IMAX screen. Grandmama and Matthew went and saw Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3-D. They said it was cool! The kids love climbing her big tree out front. She bought fun wooden crafts for the kids to paint. They really liked that. We also ate at a few of our favorite restaurants that we miss. Yum! And of course we swam almost everyday. Thanks for everything you did for us. You are the best! We love you tons! This is a picture of Grandmama reading a bedtime story the night before we were heading back to UT.
This is my Mom and sisters at our Girl's Night Out! We went and saw Mamma Mia. It was so cute. We had such a good time laughing, crying, and singing along to the songs. I treasure spending time alone with my Mom and sisters.

We stayed a night over at Aunt Karissa and Uncle Jesse's house. We played Rock Band for hours. We had some pretty good jam sessions. It was entertaining to watch all the kids rock out. My fingers were sore the next morning from having "Superior Skills" on the guitar!:) It was so fun playing and laughing with cousins. Thanks for the yummy food Karissa. We love you guys!

We loved staying and visiting with Grandpa and Grandma Debbie. While we were with them we went and saw the movie Walle. The kids thought it was cute. We also went swimming tons, which is always fun. Grandpa and Matthew had fun in the pool being creative at the shots they made-up in the basketball game, HORSE. One of our favorite things to do with them is go bowling. We went with all of the cousins and everyone had such a good time. Thanks Grandpa for taking off work to spend precious time with us. We love you both! This is Kenzie and Tate having a blast swimming with Grandpa. Nice goggles Grandpa!

Kynlee was so excited that she learned how to dive while we were in AZ. Way to go girl!

Me and the kids on Grandpa's front porch.

We stayed Friday night over at Uncle Nathan and Aunt Tally's house. We had to bust out the Rock Band. Uncle Nathan really gets into it! It is Matthew's favorite thing to do when we are over there. We had a great time hanging out with their family. What cute kids. We love you!

This is Kenzie and her cousin Deacon making silly faces. Deacon is 5 months older than Kenzie, but they look so much alike that they could pass as twins. They remind us of how Nathan and I looked when we were their age.

This is Baron eating his cereal before bedtime. He is the sweetest and cutest boy ever! He knows how to use his smile to melt my heart.

The next morning we had a swim party. It was so fun having all the cousins together to swim and eat pizza.Mom and her little fishies.

Uncle Nathan impressing us with a back flip off the wall. Wow!
The kids had so much fun jumping, flipping, and diving off the wall.

Kynlee doing her 360 spin.

4th Of July In Show Low

It has been a tradition for my family to spend the 4th of July in Show Low. We missed it last year, because we had just moved up to UT. I made sure that we planned our summer Arizona trip so that we were in Show Low to continue the tradition. It was so fun seeing all of my family!

Mom and Kenzie enjoying the parade! I was called the "Mista Sista" because I ran up and down our group misting everyone with my squirt bottle. No heat strokes occurred while watching the parade.

It was fun having all of the sisters in Show Low for the 4th celebration!

Grandpa, Kenzie, and Matthew watching the awesome fireworks!We had a really good time visiting Great-Grandma Nikolaus. She is such an example of love and kindness. We love her!

We Are Here

Well, I finally did it! My sister Karissa has been begging me to start a blog. We came down to Arizona for a couple weeks to visit and she helped me do it. So, here it is. ENJOY!