Just June

 Wow!! This summer was a crazy one! I think that as the girls get older, our summers get busier and busier. Not only was this summer crazy but it was FUN! This will be a lot of pictures, but I thought I'd do a quick overview of what we did this summer. Problem is there was just too much to fit in a single post! So this is what we did just in the month of June:

     We spent a lot of time (and pocket change) at the Sno-Shack. We seriously love this place! We all have our favorite flavors, but I'm telling you, their pina colada shaved ice is to die for!!

      We had LOTS of super fun date nights! This was our Lazer Tag night at Bananas Fun Park. So much fun (even though it was so hot and sweaty in that maze!) We have such a fun group of friends to play with!

      We took the 2 older girls on a 3 day rafting trip in Desolation Canyon on the Green River. So fun! We have such fun kids too! There were a couple of scary moments (there was even a series of rapids where they were almost flipped out of the raft!) but they were so tough! It was a great trip!

     

      We went on a lot of hikes. Our favorites are: Mayonnaise Jar, Dinosaur Hill, and the Micah Mines. It gets pretty hot this time of year, but it never seems to matter when you're hiking with friends!

     We took our usual summer trip down to AZ. What a blast! We spent some time with Cris and Connie which is always great! Sure miss not living around the corner from them!

      We saw our cousins new puppies...absolutely adorable! The girls literally BEGGED Chad to let us have one, but he still said "no". Such a meanie! :)

     

Is this not the cutest thing you've ever seen!? So cute!

     We all got our teeth cleaned by Dr. Ben (aka Uncle Ben, my brother). We are so spoiled having him as our dentist. He is great and the girls love to go to the dentist...how often does THAT happen?!

      We hung out with cousins and went swimming.....

Torbets

      ....and swimming.....

Straders

      ....and swimming! When its as hot as it is in AZ, that's where we spent most of our time!

Webers

      We had a cousins sleepover with the girls at Grandma's, which is a standing tradition when we come down to visit. I hope this tradition lasts forever because I remember doing the same thing at MY grandma's house when I was younger. So much fun for them to bond as cousins!

      We had a girls lunch adding Dani and Kylee this year (they are 15 years old now). We had such a great time! My stomach hurt afterwards!! We enjoyed painting our nails, eating good food, and laughing WAY too much!

Mom, Me, Heather, Kylee, Dani, and Chris

      After we ate, we walked around the shops in the outdoor mall. We spent most of our time at Charming Charlies, a store FULL of fun accessories. We tried on a bjillion hats and, again, laughed WAY too much!

      We saw the new temple the church is building in Gilbert. Its not very big, but I'm still jealous. We have to drive 2 1/2 hours one way to our closest temple which is a huge pain when you have kids. It is a beautiful building and I'm excited for them. (ps- I didn't notice until after I took the pic the road sign in the frame...no turning back! :) jk!)

      We had our usual couples dinner our to Famous Daves BBQ. Yum!

      After returning home, the girls had their first lemonade stand. Believe it or not, they sold out in less than an hour and made over $15! They were so excited! We put that money into a jar to spend on shaved ice at the Sno-Shack :)

      We took LOTS of trips to Highline Lake. Its great to get out and enjoy the warm weather but also have the sand and water too! I can't even count how many sand castles were built!

      We went to dozens of parks. We are lucky enough to be surrounded by parks. Fruita and GJ are so great about having fun places for kids/families. As a mom, I love helping them "use up" some of their energy :)

      We saw the new "Ice Age" exhibit at the Dinosaur Museum. It's hard to see in the photo (its really dark in there) but that is a life-size mammoth. It was pretty neat and the girls loved it!

     We played at friends houses.

      We built a lot of forts (and even slept in them!)

      We saw a couple of movies at the theater (this one was Madagascar 3)

      We goofed around and acted silly.

      We took a quick weekend trip to Orem to see Jay/Jess's new baby Wyatt. The girls call him "JJ" (Junior Jay) even though he TOTALLY looks like Jess, NOT Jay!

      We did a lot of crafts, drew a lot of pictures, and colored in a lot of coloring books.

      We set up our giant slip-n-slide in the front yard and officially made a mud pit at the bottom of the hill (totally worth it!)

     We had a lot of friends over to play and smile with (for the record, that is a root beer bottle in the back ground!)

     We ran in a race! Chad and I ran in the Mike the Headless Chicken Festival 5K. It was our first time running together! Chad could've finished WAY faster, but he was nice and stayed with me.  We felt great and finished with a good time: 24 minutes! Not too bad!

     Phew! That was a ton of stuff, but that was just June! Get ready, more to come......