First Trip of the Summer!!!

Every Year, As soon as school gets out, we take a trip to St. George.  We LOVE it there!  We usually head down the day school gets out with no set plans other than to swim and spend time in the HOT sun, and get a tan!

We did A LOT of SWIMMING!
We usually spend almost all day, every day at the pool.
This year Addi hit a milestone.  She started putting her head all the way under the water, jumping from the edge of the pool to anyone who would catch her, and SWIMMING!

We did A Little Geo caching

We Played at the park where Addi insisted on selling me tickets to "the movie".

And we spent an Afternoon at the splash park in downtown St. George.

On our last day we took a drive out to Gunlock Reservoir and found some amazing waterfalls.

Gunlock was our "new" discovery this year.  We had never been there before.  It is beautiful and we would love to spend an entire day there the next time we are in St. George.

"You Might Be a Redneck..."

If your water slide consists of a banquet table with hoses attached to it!

Thank goodness for kids and their creativity!

They played for HOURS on this homemade water slide which is now lovingly referred to as

the "Ghetto Slide"

And nothing ends a long hot summer day at a water park like Popsicles

Happy Father's Day!

I wish I could say that I was the greatest wife in the whole world, that I had gotten up at the crack of dawn to make Jason his favorite breakfast, music from the Tabernacle Choir was playing softly in the background, that all of the kids were fed, bathed, dressed for church and ready to walk out the door 20 minutes early, and that we were all smiling as we loaded into the car.

Like I said...I WISH!  As it is, I am not the greatest wife in the world.  We all ate cold cereal, there was no music playing in the background, Addisyn got a bath, her hair got thrown up into a bun minutes before walking out the door - she wore flip-flops because we didn't have time for the fight, I was still frantically grabbing things to stuff into my bag to teach my lesson, and Gavin was not happy that he could not take

his markers to draw with at church and proceeded to condemn us until he walked through the doors of the church.

Never-the-Less...I have an absolutely WONDERFUL, AMAZING Husband, who despite the fact that it was Father's Day and he should have been able to relax this morning, got up, helped feed kids and get them ready, and waited patiently as I ran around the house like a crazy woman trying to make sure everything and everyone was ready to head out the door to church on time...and we almost made it!  Only 3 minutes late!

I LOVE this man.  He is honestly my best friend.  He is a great husband and father.  He is fun, energetic, determined, trustworthy, a hard worker, and loves his family.  He is a great example for our kids and for the young men he is in charge of. 

I also LOVE my dad.  He is an amazing grandpa, full of energy and love for his kids and grandkids.  He is always willing to go outside and play a game of catch, push kids on the swings, take them for 4-wheeler rides, teach them how to plant a garden, and support them in all of their school and athletic activities.  We have so much fun together and I am so grateful to have such wonderful men in my life.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day for our family has always involved traveling to the Orem Cemetery on the Sunday before Memorial Day to honor Jason's relatives - Grandma Coe, Grandma and Grandpa Bobo, Cousin Lance etc. 

Britton, Gavin and Addisyn really enjoy finding each marker and placing flowers on each relativ's grave while Jason tells fun memories he has of each relative.   They also love running up and down the rows of military flags trying to see who will find their great grandpa's flags first.

On Monday, we travel to Morgan, Coalville and Wanship to honor my relatives.  Grandma and Grandpa Durrant, Great Grandma's and grandpa's, great aunts, uncles etc.  After visiting each cemetery we all gather at my great aunt Deon and Great uncle Gerald's house for a chicken BBQ complete with aunt Deon's famous marshmallow brownies.

It is a tradition we have all come to love and appreciate.  It gives us time to reflect on the many memories we all have of our past relatives and how much of an influence they had on each of our lives.

Spring Dance Recital

I tried!  I REALLY did try to get a "normal" happy, smiling picture of Addi in her ADORABLE dance costume - Hair curled, make-up on etc.  But what I want and think is cute, is completely another thing according to her.  Pictures started out OK - she was adorable and happy as long as she was pulling faces then...Well, this is our version of "normal"  when it comes to pictures and I think the pictures speak for themselves.

Even though she didn't like having pictures taken, Addisyn was beaming when she walked off of the stage after her performance.  She danced to Pooh's Lullaby and was so cute and she performed the darling routine so well.

Cute in Curlers

I absolutely LOVE the way little girls look when their hair is up in curlers!

For Addisyn's big end-of-the-year dance recital she had to have her hair pulled up in the front and curly in the back.  I have only put her hair in curlers one other time and it didn't turn out so great. So, for dress rehearsal I thought I had better try curlers again to see if we could get better results.

Addi was so adorable checking herself out in the mirror, thinking she looked all grown up, and having a great time blowing her own hair dry.  She is so into "I'm growing up mom" and "I'm big" that being able to put real make-up on, along with the curlers, made her day.  She "pranced and "strutted" her stuff all around the house and made sure her daddy saw how beautiful she was.

Security Detail

For me the last week of school seemed to fly by...but the boys thought it would never end.  To make the last week of school fun for the kids, Britton's teacher had a different theme for each day where the students could dress according to the theme.  One day was "crazy hair day", one was "sports day", and one day was "spy day.  Britton is usually shy, reserved and very self conscious - and typically will NOT participate when the class or school has a day where they can dress different.  So, it SHOCKED me when he actually planned each night what he was going to wear the next day to go along with his classroom theme.  It was so fun to watch him come up with each part of his costume and plan it out detail by detail.

For "spy day" he borrowed Jason's sunglasses, put on his own suit coat with white shirt, and thought he was pretty inconspicuous and I just smiled the whole time knowing he was completely confident in what he was wearing.

That evening I caught him and Gavin out side sword fighting in their "spy gear".  Jason was having scouts at our house and they were pretending to "spy" on the scouts as they came and be their body guards.  I asked if they were spies with swords - which we all laughed about and then they decided they were security guards instead.