Another Race for Zac!

I'm seriously behind on my blogging, so here is a recap that happened about a month ago...August 10 to be exact. Zac competed in the Bountiful triathlon...which was a run, bike, swim.. (normally it's swim, bike, run!) Anyways, we went early with him that morning to cheer him on. While he was getting ready for the race, I went to McDonald's with the kids for breakfast. I enjoyed the pancake breakfast, while the kids enjoyed playing around!

The race went pretty well for Zac. He was worried that he hadn't kept us as well with his training over the summer, but he found that he still felt pretty good during the race. Here are a few pictures from the day!

There were so many swimmers in the pool at once it was crazy. Zac said he kept getting kicked in the head and it was really hard not to run into people. At least it was somewhat easier in the pool than a lake because you can rest on the sides if you want!

Zac at the end of the race. I did ask permission to post this picture. He said "Sure...and I'm sure you will make fun of my nice farmer tan" Anyways, he said it, not me... and the picture speaks for itself!

The boys always have fun cheering him on and we all had a fun time watching!

Extreme Baby Makeover

I guess about a month ago, while I was getting ready for the day, Lucas started playing with Rachel's hair and brushing it like he was her hair stylist. I decided to take it one step further and try to straigten her hair. We had fun playing with her hair and trying to get it straight...which really didn't turn out so well. Lucas helped taking some of these random pictures! Zac's verdict when he got home that night was that it didn't look good and we needed to get her curly hair back! Oh well, I like her curly hair too!

P.S. She put the necklace on herself! (click on the picture to enlarge!)

Donnie and Kira's Wedding

Part of the reason we went to San Diego was for my brother Donnie's wedding. It turned out to be a great day and we were happy to see Donnie and Kira get married. Here are a few pictures from the wedding.

The family outside the temple

Kira and all her neices

Daddy and daughter

Kira had this room set up for the kids with their own treat bucket and babysitters if we wanted to leave them. My kids wanted to be out where the party was, but we did leave Rachel for a bit so we could get something to eat in peace!

Lucas enjoying his meal

This picture is classic..I love Lucas' face as my neice Cami just takes charge and starts the dance!

My Mom and Donnie dancing!

The monster princess

Nieces dancing it up

Rachel trying out the dance floor

Grandma and Rachel

I also posted a video of the kids dancing....against Ben's wishes! He thinks I am mean and that I shouldn't post this because it's too personal! I think it is too classic and will probably use it against him someday....like maybe when he get's married. I don't know where my kids came up with their dance moves....I'm blaming that one on Zac!

San Diego

This summer, we were lucky to spend 2 1/2 weeks in San Diego visiting family, playing at the beach, staying at a time-share, and attending my brother's wedding. We always have so much fun there, it is sad when it's time to come home. Zac drove us down and flew back so I was there on my own with the kids for 10 days (he flew back down for the wedding and to drive us home) I was worried I might go crazy, but my mom helped me a ton and I kept the kids busy at the beach or swimming at pools. It went by much faster than I thought and I survived the single parenting easier than I thought! Here's a run down of our trip:

First up was the baptism of my niece Paige. It's always fun to be a part of big family events to be able to get together of everyone. We were glad to be able to share her special day.

We spent almost every day at the beach. Unfortunately, Rachel had her ups and downs at the beach and I often was able to leave her napping with my mom while I took the boys. She did enjoy this little pool my sister bought for her to play in. This particular day she lasted about 15 mintues before she got sunscreen in her eye and was miserable the rest of the time!

Lucas was very helpful in playing with her and getting her water to fill up her pool.

We spent our beach days where my Aunt lives and has a private beach access. It was fun because the kids were able to make friends with other kids who were there every day and other cousins as well.
This was at a Pioneer Day activity that my mom's Stake put on. They had a great lunch, many booths, and great entertainment. It was really hot that day and we didn't stay too long so we could go cool off at the pool.
I think the spanish ward had made this replica of the Nauvoo temple. I thought it was pretty amazing.
The 2nd week we were they we stayed at Lawrence Welk Resort. My friend Nicole came down with two of her kids to stay with me and help babysit my kids while I did wedding activities. We did a lot of swimming in their nice pools.Arianna and Sariah with my kids....the boys loved having two cute girls stay with us!

More beach fun...this day Rachel actually did pretty good...but notice the sand covering her body that also covered mine as well because she loved to crawl all over me. Gotto love babies at the beach!

Kids looking for sea shellsLucas digging a hole to China with his 2nd cousin Alex!

This is my niece Lizzy that I traded her mom for Rachel that day. I don't know if it was a fair trade, but Lizzy was definately a lot easier to take to the beach than Rachel and we had fun playing with her!

Beach, pool, family....that about sums it up and it's what keeps us busy and happy! We always have so much fun and always come home wondering why we don't live there! I keep thinking..maybe someday!

4th of July

Since I've been gone practically the whole month of July, I've got to play catch up on my blogging of our adventures. Starting off the month, we had a fun filled weekend for the 4th of July. We headed out of town on Thursday afternoon to Star Valley, Wy. We stayed at a cabin that was a friend of Zac's parents and was very nice indeed! I didn't get too many pictures of the cabin, but it was plenty big and had air hockey and pool table for the kids to play.

Here's Rachel hanging out with Grandpa!

The boys outside the cabin


On Friday, we headed up to Jackson Hole. We spent the day there shopping and browsing around. The kids are posing for a picture here after our impromptu picnic where we had parked our cars.

The family in front of the antler arch.

Us, Zac's Mom and Dad, Sister and Niece

On Saturday, the 4th of July, we had great anticipation of some exciting fireworks. Unfortunately, I wasn't expecting this kind of explosion from the screaming monster. I just wanted to get her picture taken in her cute 4th of July outfit and bow! Is that too much to ask? Anyways, this is what I got!
And....more screaming!
That morning we headed out on a hike in Afton, WY to an intermittent spring. Here's a few more pictures.


After our hike, we told our kids we were headed back home since we had to make it back home that night to be at our Church on Sunday. They were a little disappointed and kept wondering if they would get to see any fireworks. Well, on our way, we decided to tell them that we had one more stop on our trip...kind of out of the way, but a worthwhile stop. From Afton, we drove all the way down to Provo, to go the the Stadium of Fire and see the Jonas Brothers. (We weren't planning on doing that when we originally decided to go to Star Valley, but happened upon tickets a couple of days before and decided it would be a fun surprise for the boys.)

Ben was excited to go to the concert, but thought he was too cool to scream and dance like all the crazy girls. He played it very cool, and quietly sang all the words to the songs since he knows them all. I think he was only slightly embarrassed by his mother's singing and dancing!

Lucas had fun messing around, eating his snow cone, and was so excited when they played his favorite song, "Love Bug"!

Luckily, I have a brother who lives in Provo who was staying home with his baby (while the rest of his family went) and I talked him into letting me put Rachel down to sleep at his house so we could go to the concert without her! Thanks Danny!

The fireworks were amazing and we all thought (even Zac) that the Jonas Brothers put on a good show. Unfortunately, the traffic was horrible getting out of there, and we didn't get home till 2 am! At least Zac was able to be in church on Sunday! It was a fast, crazy weekend, but we all had a great time.