Catching Up

Honestly how is it the end of July? Especially when it's only felt like summer for maybe seven days! My days have been ridiculously full. Mainly full of preparing for house projects, doing house projects and cleaning up after house projects all while keeping up with regular life tasks. It's been exhausting but worth it.

So here is some stuff that we have done in between all the house projecting...

Father's Day

Aric is a fabulous dad and he certainly deserved to be celebrated.

He got lots of homemade cards and lots of love.

We had our friends, the Hall's, over for a yummy dinner. Garrett and Aric are toasting with their favorite beverage Mello Yello...Rachel found a special edition version "Mello Yello Dark"

Trip to Pendleton, Oregon...My Hometown

My mom and Joe took our kids for a few days so that Aric and I could tile the laundry room. One of our many, many projects.

This is the chapel that I grew up going to church every single Sunday with my family.

It was built by the LDS members there a long time ago. Isn't it the coolest chapel ever! It reminds me of the Harvard chapel.

 My girls are growing up so stinkin' fast I couldn't help myself and took a couple of close ups of them.

 We celebrated a belated Father's Day with my step-dad Joe.

We celebrated an early birthday for my baby brother Ben.

We love you Tio Benny!

We also got to spend some quality time with my Abuelita H.

Fourth Of July

I love celebrating the Fourth in my little town...

We rode our bikes down to the local 20 minute parade.

Here are the cutey boys...

Here are the cutey girls + C...

And here are the cutey momma's...

Camden and Faith still haven't quite figured out the whole candy gathering part of the parade. Camden cried whenever someone sprayed him with a water gun and Faith would run out and get piece of candy then run it back to Jessica and eat it. Yeah, those two kiddos need to be schooled in the ways of parade etiquette.

I love this picture of the kids waiting and watching.

This was the most elaborate float we had. I'm telling you this is small town America where we live.

They let anyone into the parade...even these yahoo's. 

I love seeing our friends in the parade.

Emma bit Aric while fighting over a piece of candy. Aric pretty much brings out the best and the worst of people.

Later that day we had our poor friend Garrett over since he was homeless and family-less.

The kids enjoyed their five minutes of pop its...it took them longer to clean them up than it took for them to throw them.

 That night we went to our most gracious friends, the Shenneman's, lake house for the fireworks show.

It was a long day, but it was a lovely day. The weather was perfect which was all I could ask for.

Swimming

So far we have only been able to go twice...stupid, stupid weather. But I did manage to take pictures one day...

I love watching my kids in the water. This particular day it was just us at the pool. Maya and Eden played so good together.

Camden preferred to watch for the first hour. The last 30 minutes he finally decided to get in.

 Okay this post is way longer than I wanted it to be so this will have to do for now. I will have to do another catch up post another day. Eden's birthday is in two days and her baptism in six days. I'm a little busy these days but how can I even complain? It's all good stuff.

GOOD STUFF!

This is what a full day looks like...

First of all...
You know it's going to be a good day when a box of fruit shows up on your doorstep!

The Fun Run

Our morning started out with the annual summer race our city puts on.

I ran first. It's a four mile run...mostly uphill. It's a killer! My friend Jess S. and I started in the front of the pack, we didn't mean to we just found a spot before the whistle blew and it happened to be at the front. 

I forgot my ipod so I just got in a zone and stayed there. I ran the fastest I've ever ran...four miles in 33 minutes! 

C.R.A.Z.Y.

The funnest part was that during the medal ceremony I heard my friend Cami's name called for third place in our age bracket and I knew I was a few seconds ahead of her, so I got second and my other friend Jessica got first! We had no idea that we placed, so fun! My friend Laura also placed in her age bracket.

After my run it was Camden's turn. He was with the six and under crew. 

Here he is doing his stretches...

He took off and ran hard for about 50 yards and then decided he was done. 

He needed a little help to finish it up...

Yay for Camden!

Then Eden was up. She had made a goal back in January to finish the race without stopping and get a ribbon.

I ran with her and she ran like a champ. I had told her to start slow and find a good pace. She kept seeing these boys sprint pass her and then walk but at the very end of her race she passed them. It was awesome!

Here she is finishing her race. I was so proud of her. It was not easy for her but she did it.

Yay Eden!

Last but not least was Maya's race. There was only one other girl and she was the youngest in her bracket. She had made a goal to get first place for the girls because last year she got second. 

Well she took off too fast in the beginning trying to keep up with all the sprinting boys. She got burned out and really struggled, so I ran with her. She did a great job pushing through her disappointment and finished strong. 

I was so proud of her. She still got her second place ribbon and in the end that made her happy.

I love sharing the love of running with my kids...

My brother Ben showed up at the medal ceremony to spend the weekend with us since he won't be able to be here for Eden's baptism that will be in a few weeks. 


(Notice the matching t-shirts...)

Sewing Project

I finished these cushions for our patio furniture.

The Shock Game

Then we went to the first ever outdoor Shock game. We took the kids and it was so much fun!

The Shock spanked the Blaze...WHOO HOO!

Camden was making friends right and left with his silliness.

It was not a lazy Saturday by any means, but we made some awesome memories! 

Yay Summer!