August 2019

The kids LOVE giving Gilbert a bath.  I'm pretty sure he hates it as much as I do.


Lots more swimming time and we did a night swimming one night where we had the pool to ourselves.  It's always fun when we get the pool to ourselves and doesn't happen that often or for a long time when we do.  It was a fun night.


We enjoyed some fireworks at the Highland Fling.  Max was baptized that morning so we missed the parade and instead go to to the Alpine Days parade the following week.  We love these parades where we can pull up right before and find a place to site and the kids just care about the people that are throwing out candy.


We did a little mini trip up to Davis county for 2 days to see if we could get in as many activities on our Get Out Pass as we could.  It was such a fun, jam packed couple of days.  We went to Seaquest aquarium where the highlight was feeding the birds.  Seriously the look on their faces when they did this was priceless.  They also love those little fish that like to eat your dead skin...gross but they seriously love it.


After that we went to the Rush funplex where you get 1 1/2 hours to do whatever you want.  We did bumper cars, foam pit, roller skating, kids and adult go karts, and laser tag.  We drove over to Allegiant for a virtual ride roller coaster ride, then went bowling, over to fat cats for more laser tag and bumper cars and finished the night looking at the Ogden temple and swimming back at the hotel.


The next morning we stopped by the Hill Air Force Base Museum which was fun to learn about all the different airplanes.  As we walked out the big loud fighter jets were practicing taking off and landing and it was super fun to watch them fly right over us.  After that we spent the day at Lagoon.  The only bummer of Lagoon was it poured rain for several hours until after lunch.  So it was wet, cold and kind of miserable but we made the best of it and then had a blast the rest of the day.  We snuck Jaron onto the swings that he is not tall enough for and we got Siena to love a few more roller coasters including Colossus that she went on with me 3 times in a row cuz there was no line.


We signed the kids up for Horse Camp again this year and they were especially excited because Jaron was old enough to go this year.  It's always a summer highlight.


The kids have been begging to go camping and it just never worked out finding a reservation and I wasn't' up to packing it all up to try and find a walk in camp.  So instead one night we went up and went fishing at reservoir and then had a campfire where we made dinner and smores.  It was super fun and I think we should do that more often.  Although I did promise them we would actually go camping this next summer.


Jaron spent more of his points he earned getting ice cream one night.


And just like that summer break is over and it's Back to school.  After the last 2 summers or having a crazy work schedule and trying to keep kids entertained, I was a bit nervous about this summer.  However, I can honestly say this was my favorite summer with our kids.  They are at a fun age where they are up for anything and are genuinely excited to just go do stuff.  It's easier to just hop in the car and go and I was honestly sad to see summer end.  I wasn't ready for them to go back but here it is.  The kids were super excited about their teachers.  The girls got Mrs. Decoopman who their friend Sorena had last year and Jaron got Mrs. Correa who the girls had last year so I know it's going to be a great year.

July 2019

July was a busy month with lots of things going on but was fun!

My best friend growing up, Michelle Page, got married.  She married the nicest guy.  I was so happy I got to be there for it.  She was married when I was on my mission and I missed it and she ended up getting divorced a couple years later.  I'm so happy she found such a great guy!


Christy and family came to town so we did lots of fun cousin things.  We went bowling with cousins and our annual dinner up the canyon.


Jaron used some of his points he earned this summer to go to a Summer League Jazz game with Shane.


4th of July was fun, we had our neighborhood parade (no breakfast this year) then spent the afternoon swimming at Whitney's parents house which was fun to watch all the cousins swim while we sat under the pergola talking.  That evening we met up with Brigitte and family and played at the park for a while and then went to her sister's mother in law's house to watch Stadium of Fire fireworks.


The Saturday after the 4th of July we headed out of town.  My parents rented a 4-plex for our entire family to go spend the week at the beach in Oceanside.  We went a little early and spent the weekend in St. George and Las Vegas.



We can't forget our traditional pictures of Aria and Shane at the Aria hotel.


We had soooo much fun at the beach.  We shared a condo with my parents and they all overlooked the ocean.  We literally just hung out on the beach all day.  The kids all played with each other and cousins and the adults sat under the shade talking, reading and eating.  It was the perfect set up.  At nights we took turns making dinner and then played games, walked to the pier for ice cream, etc.  It was one of those super relaxing fun trips that we will always remember.



We can't forget all the swimming time we got in at our neighborhood pool.  The kids have turned into such good swimmers and they love any time we can make an hour or so to get to the pool.


And last but certainly not least because besides going to the beach, I'm pretty sure this was the highlight of the kids summer.  We got a pet Guinea Pig.  They had been begging for a pet for so long.  Aria had checked out so many books on all sorts of different animals and how to care for them.  So I found this guinea pig in Riverton and for the guinea pig, cage, food and all the stuff he needed it was $20.  He has ended up being the best little pet.  The kids take turn cleaning his cage and play with him every day.  If they ever start to ignore him or complain about cleaning up after him I just threaten to sell him again for $20 and they know I can and will.  But seriously these kids LOVE this guinea pig.  When we got him the previous owners had named him Rocket but the kids wanted to change it so they all agreed and came up with the name Gilbert.  It's kind of cute I have to admit, Gilbert the guinea pig. We call him Gilbs for short.  He's a hit with all the neighborhood kids and many parents text me after their kid has been over saying thanks a lot now my kid wants a guinea pig.

Jaron turns 6!

That's right, Jaron is 6!


Having a summer birthday is fun because there are so many things to do.  This year we decided to go to Cowabunga Bay on his actual birthday.  It was fun and the kids were a little braver going on a few bigger water slides.  They like the lazy river the most.  Afterwards he got to pick where we went for dinner and he chose Chuck a Rama...for some reason my kids think this is the best place ever.  They don't even eat that well there but I think they like the idea of eating lots and a big variety of stuff.


The day after his birthday he had his friend party.  We had everyone over for pizza, opened presents and then went to Funtopia for an hour.  Super fun and easy and everyone had fun.  The hardest part was figuring out who to invite.  We only had so much space in our cars to transport everyone and so Jaron had to narrow down the list.  Jaron has become good friends with a bunch of boys in this area and it's been fun to see them all play together and get together on different occasions.


Jaron is so into sports these days.  He loves anything with a ball.  He is constantly throwing a ball around the house, and it doesn't matter what kind...bouncy ball, soft blow up ball, small squishy balls, football, basketball, soccer, it doesn't matter.  He still loves to cuddle with me and I love that he still does that.  He is a mama's boy and I love it.  He's smart and such a good reader.  I thought about holding him back with a July birthday but he definitely did need to be and I think he would've been bored if I had held him back.  He has lots of friends and enjoys school.  He is still doing speech but hoping this is our last year as everyone tells me how much better he is speaking.  He has a couple letters (K, G) that he is still working on but then he is done.