We are home!!!

After 3 weeks in WA and another long 13 hour car trip, we are finally home! We had a fun trip. The first week we were camping with my family. Sadie and Carson LOVED tubing behind my Dad's boat. I was shocked that Sadie was absolutely fearless when it came to the tubes. She kept yelling "faster!" to my Dad.

We had a really fun time celebrating my Mom's 50th birthday. Some fun games, good food, and great company!
And then... the next weekend Nate and I met in San Diego for his sister Tiffany's wedding to Blake Nelson. What a beautiful, fun wedding!
We had a blast sitting together with all of Nate's siblings and their spouses.

The spent the next day at the beach surfing. Well, Nate surfed while I read and relaxed on the beach. Nice. Nate's cousin Nicole and friend Mike caught this pigeon that had a string caught on it's foot. They were kind enough to remove the string before eating the bird (just kidding, they let it go.)

And then it was back to WA. My kids had so much fun playing with their cousin, Tyson. We went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. However due to a flat tire on the double jogging stroller, we ended up seeing, uh.... 2 animals and spending the rest of the day in a play area called "zoonazium." The kids probably had more fun anyway.

Next weekend, Nate and some of his Murray friends (and their cute wives) fly in for the BYU game against the U of Washington. The first day we went to the Puyallup fair, great food, cute animals... and free admission. Now that's what I'm talking about!

And then, to cap off my trip: The BYU game at UW. We had SO much fun going to the pre-game BYU party (there were TONS of BYU fans there) and our seats were great. The game was super tense until the very end when we finally won by 1 point with 1 second left in the game! They got a penalty for celebrating after a touch down, and then we blocked their extra point! Go Cougs!

Happy 50th Birthday Mom!

Tomorrow we are driving to Washington to go camping at my family's favorite WA campground, Lincoln Rock in the Wenatchee area. We are celebrating my Mom's 50th birthday with family and close friends, it's going to be one huge party! We'll be in WA for 3 weeks!

Happy Birthday Mom, we love you!

Here are some pictures of my Mom, Shellie, in her early years (eons ago :)

Flag Football champs

Nate and his friends played in the Murray High School alumni flag tournament on Saturday. They were really intense about it, having a couple of practices and planning all of their plays in the weeks before.
All of us wives secretly were a little concerned that they might not do as great as they were expecting (they are almost 30 and playing much younger guys). I have to apologize for doubting their flag football skills, though, because they won every game!!!
Good job guys, either you're super good at flag football, or you were the only ones to take the time to practice. Probably a little of both.

Happy 24th of July....

I have to say I'm getting used to it. (The 24th holiday thing). But because I didn't grow up in Utah I haven't ever felt fully "into" the 24th of July, Pioneer day holiday. Every year I kind of forget about it until it's the day of, and then I feel slightly guilty for forgetting a holiday remembering the pioneers. This year I actually tried to schedule several things on the 24th, kind of not realizing that it was a huge Utah holiday. I tried to set up visiting teaching and got a laugh, "it's the 24th!" I do love that Utahns celebrate huge for this holiday, a huge parade and fireworks.... it's like 4th of July all over again. Maybe that's the problem, it's too much like the 4th. It needs to be unique, like everyone could wear bonnets and push around handcarts for the whole day. They could shut our power off, air conditioning, and running water. We could really feel like pioneers. Yeah, I think that would help me remember it a lot better.

American Idols Live!!!!

We had SOOO much fun Monday night at the American Idols Live concert. Nate's whole family went, which made it all that much more fun sitting next to his sisters. We were screaming (I think I lost my voice a little) and dancing, what a blast! Our seats weren't the best, we were to the side of them, but we could actually see backstage too. Nate actually saw David Cook doing push ups right before his performance, ha ha!

David Archuleta did awesome. The crowd was so loud after he performed, he couldn't stop crying.

What a fun night!!!

4th of July camping & parade

We had such a fun 4th of July!!! Thursday night we camped out with Nate's whole family in his parent's back yard. We went swimming in the pool, had a BBQ, set up our tents, and then roasted marshmallows by the fire. We all stayed up late singing songs by the fire. Most of the songs were girl's camp songs, which made me miss those good old girl's camps years ago.
We all went to the Murray city parade the next morning. We always sit next to some families from the Milne's ward that are SO fun. They have the list of names of the girls on the floats and we all yell out a name when one comes by. The girl (who has no idea who we are) looks over at us so confused, it's so funny.
Then we went to T & Darin's for a BBQ which was a blast. Thanks for throwing such a fun get together!

I think this is the funniest picture. Right after I took it I realized Nate looks like he's naked in the back ground. He's got his swimsuit on, but it's behind the air mattress.
Sitting by the campfire with 2 tired kids.
Someone actually T.P.ed all of our tents while we were sleeping!

Hot, hot, hot!

We had Soooo much fun in Vegas! We spent most of the days laying out at the pool (I couldn't last very long in the 108 degree heat), watching movies in the hotel room, and going to the movie "Get Smart" (so funny). It was too hot to walk around outside for very long. We did go out on the strip at night, which was fun.
Mostly it was so relaxing and fun to spend time together just Nate and I. It's nice to feel like we're newlyweds again. We went to dinner with my friend Jenn from high school, she lives there in Vegas and is such a fun girl. I miss her, wish she lived closer, but it's fun to see her when we can.
Vegas was hot, but let me tell you... we came home to a broken air conditioner. Our central air went out and with the 100 degree heat outside the nights were miserable until we got it fixed on Wednesday! Thank goodness for A.C.!!!!