Putting Family First

Sing along! "SCHOOOOOOOOLS OUT FOR SUMMERRRRRR!" Are you banging your head? It's only natural. Gotta love summer time! I always have. When I was at BYU I tried to do a spring semester one time but who wants to be sitting in class when you can be outside? In the sun? At pools? I started lifeguarding and teaching swimming lessons when I was 15 and I continued for the next 10 years until Austin was born. I absolutely loved summer and my job and hanging out at the pools. The fact that the responsibility of school and life got put on hold for a short time and I got to play was such a nice break! I just couldn't do that spring semester. I looked out the windows and saw the sun shining and the green trees and I wanted out! And I wanted the added stresses that school brings to be gone! So I dropped my classes and the next week I was back at the pool, in the sun, teaching kids how to swim.

In some ways things really aren't that different now. Other than I'm a mom and I no longer teach swimming lessons. But my boys do go to school and when they're in school there are lunches to pack and an 8:00-3:00 day to plan my errands around and extra curricular activities to get them to after school and driving. So much driving! And then it all ends and just like my summer days before the sun is out and the trees are green and the stresses of school life are put on hold while life slows down.

So the boys had their end of the year parties at school, I checked them out early and that was it ... SCHOOOOOLS out for SUMERRRRRRR!

Austin with his teacher on the last day of school.

We had a few activities planned like playing at Northpark Mall one day,

... because your supposed to climb everything if you're a boy!

Hitting up Ham's Orchard with the Fish family,

Going to the Kenny Chesney and Miranda Lambert concert, which was amazing,

and swimming at the Richardsons house in the rain,

before we took off to Utah for a Crookston family reunion!!!!

My mom and dad with all seven kids. Top from the left: Dan, Polly, Casey, Sadie. Bottom from the left: Rebecca, Elizabeth, my dad, my mom, and me.

Wowzers! That's a lot people! That's my family and I sure do love 'em all!

This picture seriously brought tears to my eyes the first time I saw it. These are my sister. The top row on the left is Polly and then Elizabeth (my twin) and the on the bottom from the left is Rebecca, Me and Sadie. These are my very best friends! It seems like the older I get the more I realize how special families are, the one I grew up in and the one I have now and I am so thankful for each of my sisters and what they individually mean to me!

The reunion was at a resort in beautiful Midway Utah.

My parents planned this family reunion for their 50th wedding anniversary and it was wonderful! We had such a fun time and my parents had some really fun things planned! The whole family got to the resort in Midway Utah on the Thursday after school got out and that day was just a check in day. We all got checked in and said our hellos and made some plans for the next few days.

swimming at the resort

Xander frequently came to our room for breakfast and these kids had some good quality cousin time each morning.

Getting to know and having a blast with their cousin Tanner!

We decided to head to Park City on Friday and let the kids enjoy the summer mountain activities.

Ropes Course

Coming down the Alpine Slide! Such a fun and unique slide!

Getting ready to head down the Alpine Slide!

The Mountain Coaster! It's like a roller coaster that's built into the mountain. I like the Alpine slide better because it doesn't make me motion sick but the kids really loved the mountain coaster!

A picture of the mountain coaster.

Saturday brought with it the Utah Valley Marathon and accompanying races, the Half Marathon, the 10K, the 5K and the kids 1K. My dad, Casey, Polly, and Tanner all ran the half marathon (crazy people!) and my kids and Elizabeths kids did the kids 1k. It was short but the perfect length for us sea level people who were struggling to breather at the higher altitude!!! The kids of course loved the after party and all the free and delicious food that there was to choose from.

Austin, Robbie, Caleb and Kate showing off their racing numbers.

All the kids at the starting line getting ready to run.

Later that afternoon my parents had reserved the Homestead Crater for our whole family. It was closed off to everyone except us and we got it for one hour. It was really cool! It was like this HUGE enclosed cave with an opening at the top and the water was naturally like 98 degrees. It was warm and clean and had some strange sort of current in it! I was scared to get it because I thought it would be cold but wasn't at all. It was fun and different!

The tunnel leading into the crater.

Some of the family swimming in the crater. It's like 100 feet deep. You can see the opening at the top in this picture.

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On Sunday we decided to take the boys to Temple Square in Salt Lake and Sadie, Carter and Dan met us there. It was such a beautiful day! Dan and Carter became fast little buddies!

The conference center

This is where Jaren and I got married, 12 and half years ago!

Sunday afternoon was a fun afternoon. My parents reserved a conference room at the resort and we had dinner catered. We played some games, watched a slide show my dad put together of our family over the years and enjoyed the beautiful resort. We finished the night by watching the movie that my parents went to on their first date while we are caramel popcorn. That was a family tradition of ours growing up, watching movies and eating caramel popcorn.

This carousel was located right on the resort and was right outside of our conference room. It was free and kids and adults of all ages rode it more then once.

We brought Pie Face (which Casey and Cari gave us for Christmas) and it was a huge hit!

Utah is such beautiful state! Polly said once that it's like this secret little gem that people don't know about and often gets over shadowed by Colorado and she's totally right. The temps are pleasant in the summer, the grass is real grass and it's soft. And the Mountains are not only beautiful but they provide so much entertainment that we can't get here in Texas. The grounds at the resort were beautiful and simply being outside Sunday evening provided free, fun entertainment.

Piper and Ryan

Tanner was such a fun cousin! He liked playing with the kids and the kids liked playing with him!

Piper and Carter.

Mom and Dad, thank you! We truly had a wonderful time! Once we got back from Utah we had a couple weeks to fill before we headed to Colorado for our second mountain trip of the summer! Here's what we did to help fill our time until then.

Lot's of swimming at the Richardsons! Thank you Tracy for hosting us so often. The kids love it, the adults love it!