The Summer Breakdown

The summer of 2011 cruised by way to fast. Possibly because of everything we jam packed into it. We have a million pictures and even more memories. Here's the timeline of what happened to my life for the past three months. Each one of these adventures/vacations is worthy of it's own lengthy, pictured filled post. However that boat left the harbor long ago, so it's cliff note time.
Sous Chef School Summer Series #1. These two are serious in the kitchen - don't mess with them. A few times each week we'd introduce a new recipe. They'd get the ingredients, make it happen, serve it for dinner, take photos every step of the way, then type and edit the recipes into their own little file. Someday it will be cutely printed and bound.
Branson - it's okay you can make fun of us. Why does Branson have such a bad rap? It seriously was such a fun vacation for our family. We loved it!! It's like the PG rated Vegas, lights, shows, buffets, etc. We stayed at Big Cedar Lake the first few nights, that alone was an awesome vacation. We went rowing, canoeing, and horseback riding. Then we headed up to Independence and Liberty Missouri and saw some Church History sights. The whole week was exhausting.





The 4th of July Flip Flop Craft Factory was in full operation

We welcomed the troops home on the 4th of July. It was a great way to celebrate the 4th. Hopefully it will be a family tradition when we're here for the holiday.



In honor of Mason's toddler hood, we saw his first love - The Wiggles. Not. Worth. The. Money.
Swim Team - We're almost famous.

Mason gets his trophy!
Mason and Chris's guy trip to ID for his nephew Scott's wedding. My favorite picture they took was this one at the temple, classic, only in Idaho. They also got stuck in SLC, had to wait in lines like this and come home a day later because of mechanical troubles:(
After the guys trip, it was the girls trip, minus Mallory, to Couer d'alene. We got to see lots of cousins, take lots of pictures, visit Silverwood Amusement Park and spend a day at the lake. A perfect weekend.


The following pictures are a series of unfortunate events.
1. My favorite kind of picture - a jumping picture

2. Sometime during the jump, my earing came out, sometime before the landing it was waiting to go into my foot

3. The clean up



Last but definitely not least was here. One of my favorite places on earth. I met up with my sister and mom who drove down from Idaho for Education Week. My spiritual tank is now full, just in time to start a new school year. I wonder if my kids will start to resent Ed. Week when they make the association of: Mom comes home from Ed. Week = all sorts of new parenting tools, rules and crazy ideas. I also bumped into these two fellas while I was there.


I couldn't resist leaving this tidbit about our summer out. As of today we're at 56 days and counting of +100 degree days. It was hotter then tamales around these parts.

....and just like that it's all over. RIP summer of 2011 we will miss you.

The Tale of Two Teeth

Approaching a day back in May, two girls had wiggly teeth. These girls happened to be the best of friends, the played together, shared a room together, told their most personal secrets to each other, etc. So you can imagine their joy when they discovered that they shared the same wiggly tooth!!! What luck. As the days went by and their teeth got looser a visit from the tooth fairy was sure to happen soon.
The day started out like most, showers, breakfast, school, that was until the first girl lost her tooth!!! They events that soon followed are what really make this tale a tale. In tradition the girl walked to the school nurses office where she picked out a coveted yellow treasure box, a safe place to keep the tooth until it could make it home. Just like her treasure box was filled with a tooth, she was filled with the excitement of soon seeing her best friend and sharing the news that her tooth came out!! The day seemed to drag on forever as you can imagine. It seemed forever until lunchtime, and then after lunchtime forever until it was time to go home. Just when it was approaching time to pack up and go home, the 2nd girls tooth came out, she rushed down to the nurses office, scavenged through all the colors until she picked out the perfect treasure box.....a yellow one. It was just in the knick of time. You only receive a treasure box if you lose your tooth at school. The weekend doesn't offer such a reward. The dismissal bell rang, each girl ran to meet the other, each girl carrying their yellow treasure box. Each treasure box holding the same lost tooth. (I'm no dentist but if you're looking at the teeth, it's not the two big ones on the top in the center but the one just to right of those). Unable to keep their news to themselves they shared their story. What are the chances that two girls, two years apart, could lose two teeth, the same tooth, on the same day without knowing the other girl lost their tooth, without knowing the other girl would pick out the same yellow treasure box. It's difficult to comprehend. These are the situations that bond two people for life, this will stay with them the rest of their lives.
authors side note: Anticipating the tooth fairy coming each girl wrote a thoughtful letter. In those letters were some pretty pressing questions, how old are you, how long have you been a tooth fairy, have you ever been ours before, what's your name, are you a boy or girl and my favorite question, are you Mormon?? I love this game we play.

Tiny Dancer

Here is Charlotte at her first ever recital. She is gorgeous. Another picture I wish I would have captured was when she walked down stairs in her costume dreading performance day(does anyone remember the Christmas Story and those pink footy bunny jammies??)) She did great and would willingly admit that she was glad she did it, even the performance. It was so fun to be at a recital watching my not so little girl up there as one of the performers. Occasionaly parents yelp out their kids name. When Charlotte was up, Rozlyn asked if she could yell out, I told her that some kids like it and others don't, so no. That didn't stop the proud dad, their was a loud and proud "GOOOOO Charlotte". Did I say loud?? It made me happy. We'd like to take this opportunity to thank her good friend Addy, who convinced her to give dance a try. After years of trying to push and persuade her into lessons, it was some positive pressure from a peer that finally got her to commit. Everything is funner with a friend.

Locks of Love

Someone is about to get to some awesome hair like this.Going Going Gone So long locks, we loved you while we had you (minus combing you out day and night). Now someone else can enjoy you. We will miss you, I kind of already do. This was all Rozlyn, she heard about Locks of Love awhile back and was on a mission to participate. Mission accomplished. I'm proud of her and her good heart. This meant alot to her as you can see by her big smile, she's so proud.

...and don't leave this little squirt out of the action
Mallory's first haircut
The new do complete with her recovering goose egg on her forehead.

How Sweet is the Day

Another milestone met for another kid. Rozlyn anticipated this day for awhile. She always knew the date and has been telling people for months that she was getting baptized on May 7th. We were lucky enough to have Cheryl, my mom and dad, Chris's sister Allison and brother Stu also make the special trip. It was a house full and a fun memory that we get to keep.
When Rozlyn was oriented by the Primary and also interviewed by the Bishop she was sooooo serious. It was all business, yes/no answers. It was almost true confessions with the bishop. She told him every little detail of the tiniest mistakes she's made in her life. At first the bishop was on the verge of chuckling until he realized how serious this was for Roz. I think she was very nervous about jeopardizing her chances of being baptized. I guess true confessions are better then no confessions if you've got them. It doesn't reduce the awkwardness and the fact that Chris and I wanted to disappear or fall through a hole. We couldn't believe the things she was telling him. I think Rozlyn must have slept very well that night.
Here is a photo of the family who made it. I wish it wasn't so blurry:( Sad camera.
We had our friends and fam come to the house after for a sweet celebration, literally. Charlotte had a luau with a real pig so the bar was set high for after baptism celebrations. The candy buffet was the perfect solution.
A table full of sugar! There was real food as well but that table got very little attention. This is what most of the plates looked like. Without a veggie or salad in sight. I'm lucky for this girl in my life. She understands the covenants she made and the importance of the step she took. I'm grateful for her example. To see her in her beautiful white baptism dress when we arrived at the church to her clean smiling face fresh out of the water are moments I'll always remember. She was angelic. These are the kind of days that always make you feel grateful. Here is a link to more of Rozlyn's pictures, we were so happy with how they turned out. B.E.photography