ALASKA - fishing trip

This summer, Scott went on a "Boys Trip" to Alaska to go fishing.  The opportunity for this trip came up because our friend's mom owns a fishing lodge up in Alaska.  Her parents keep inviting her to go up but it's a big trip with 5 kids and an even bigger trip if you don't like to fly.  So, Scott threw it out there to do it as a guys trip.  The idea quickly grew into a reality.

Next thing I knew, a group was put together and flights were booked.  We started shopping for fishing clothes and a waterproof backpack.  And I loaded him up with treats.  A week and a half after the Fourth of July, they were on their way.

They had a great time and he took some amazing photographs.  Heather's mom did a great job of hosting them and fed them more food than they could eat in a month.

Unfortunately, the didn't have much luck catching the halibut they had hoped.  They caught a lot of crab and feasted on it nearly every night.

I'm so glad they got to do this trip but I really missed having Scott around and I don't know how thrilled I'd be if every year included a "Boys Trip".  But I'm definitely glad he got to do this trip.

Days of 47 Parade Display

Last year, Miss Kim let us know about a really cool display that happens every July.  See, in Utah we celebrate the birth of our state on July 24th with a huge parade and fireworks.  We've never gone to the parade and I don't record it on TV, but it is pretty fantastic and the floats are worth seeing.  For 1 week prior to the parade all of the floats are on display.

So, last year the kids all went while I was at work.  This year, I decided that I wanted to go so we waited and went after work.  The biggest challenge was keeping the kids from begging for balloons or face paint.  The kids won the battle though and Grandma splurged and got them all balloon animals.  Then, to everyone's surprise, they learned that I know how to make balloon animals and that it really isn't very hard.

I love this picture.  It reminds me a bit of the Beatles album cover.  I probably should have cropped it short and long. :)

Looking foward to seeing the floats again next year.

Swim Lessons

Summer is a wonderful time for the girls.  They enjoy the warmth.  They enjoy the freedom.  They enjoy the time with cousins.  They enjoy the time on the boat.  But both of them look forward to one thing for months.  The both look forward to swimming lessons.  (I could tell them that they could swim year round but I think they both have a busy enough schedule as it is with dance and gymnastics).

One day, I went to work late so that i could watch them at swimming lessons.  And because I always have my camera with me, here's what I got to watch...

This year has been a huge year for Ivy's swimming.  She actually enjoys it and isn't scared to go underwater.  The task is going to be keeping her brave during the winter months.  We might have to make a few trips to the bubble.

Happy Birthday Grandma and Jenny

Summer is filled with many birthdays and lots of reasons for the family to gather. My parents both have a birthday in July, my cousin's wife's birthday is in July and there are 3 of my cousins' kids' with birthdays in July.  We'll get together and do group parties, for the sake of time.  The oldest gets to pick the dessert.

My mom loves Pavlova.  It is a bit of a tradition that we have individual pavlova's for her birthday.  Unfortunately I had a few problems while making them and ended up making a not-so-pretty-trifle and only a few pretty individual treats.  (But, all those that ate the not-so-pretty-trifle actually thought that it was a bit better).

Whenever I'm around Pete and Jenny's adorable little babies, I have to take at least one picture that shows their personality.  This is little Axel who has an adorable big brother named Anchor.

Night with the Galli Family

There are a lot of things about summer that our family loves.  But one of the ones we love the most is boating.

We got to go boating with another of our close family friends.  These friends have been Scott's friends for many many years before I came along.  And the friendship still fit after I did come along.

We headed out for a night on the boat and were put on hold due to a lovely flat tire.  Luckily I have a really handy husband who is always prepared for anything.  So we only had to stop long enough to eat our sandwiches in the care while he put on the spare.  I love having a husband that is so good at fixing things. 

Once we finally got out on the water, we were able to just have fun.  The Galli kids tried wake boarding and skiing.  Jaxson was a natural.  Dan and Angela both did some wake boarding and were very impressive.  Jaxson got to surf with Scott and he thought it was pretty darn cool.

Jade hasn't been willing to do much in the way of wake boarding or skiing lately.  She says she's been a little scared.  We were able to convince her to take a few runs while we were out with the Gallis but she wasn't very happy about it.  (I'll tell you more later about what Scott has done to change her way of thinking).

Out with the Monroes

Over the years, Scott and I have made life long friendships with only a few families.  One of those families has been our close friends since Scott started graduate school.  Chad was Scott's mentor and although we didn't spend much time together in Utah, we became forever friends while we both lived in Kentucky.  Brooke and Chad let us stay at their house while we were house hunting.  They helped us move into our home when we first arrived in Louisville.  We celebrated holidays with them.  We've walked the Louisville Zoo with them, one time when it was closed and we attended a concert there.  Then we followed them to Michigan.  There they took care of Scott while I was in Utah on bed rest.  They helped us celebrate more holidays.  Gosh, come to think about it, there aren't very many holidays we haven't celebrated with them at least once.

Unfortunately, when we headed to Utah, we weren't following them and they didn't follow us.

It has been 4 years since we've gotten to spend time with them.  4 years is a long time.  Luckily, over the years we've talked, we've played XBox 360 on XBox LIVE (Brooke and I were the only wives to embrace gaming).  And we've begged and begged them to move out here.

So far, they haven't made the move, but Brooke's mom and dad did.  So that means that now they will be out occasionally.  And that makes me very happy.

After 4 years of being apart, we gathered together and enjoyed a very fun full day on the boat.  The kids tried everything and all of them got along fabulously.  We can't wait until next summer to get back on the lake with them.

And I love that I'm not the only one with a camera.  In fact, Brooke took more pictures than I did.  Plus she took video.

We are so excited for next year.  And one of these years we will have to get out to see them in their neck of the woods.  But come on, Utah really is the best place to live.

A Cousin Photoshoot

My mom really wanted to get a quick photo shoot of all of the cousins gathered together before Dax heads off to college.  (Still freaks me out that he is old enough to go to college.  He was Jade's age when Scott and I got married).  Anyway, she would have liked to get a family picture of all of us dressed up on a Sunday (her plan was right before Dax's party) but we just couldn't make it work out.

Both of my girls decided to strike a pose for the camera.  They really do crack me up so much of the time.  Eventually they cooperated  and I did get a pretty cute one of them.  And with Asher, they were both willing to pose nicely.

In the end, I did get one of all of them looking at me (okay, Zachary isn't quite looking at me but at least he's looking straight ahead).  I think it is funny that they are all in such a random collection of clothing but at least it captured them for who they are.

Balloons -Freedom Festival

We have an annual tradition of going to the Freedom Festival Balloon Fest.  It takes place for the 3 mornings leading up to the 4th of July.  This year, because the 4th was on Sunday, they did it Friday, Saturday and Monday.  We made the mistake of going on Monday.  It was so crowded!  Parking was a nightmare and once we finally found a place to park, the balloons were all launched.

We (just the girls and I) went with Mom and met Melissa there.  We watched the balloon games for a while, and the girls and I took a few pictures.  There weren't many to see.

The first collage is mine, the second is Jade's (she had me take a picture of her with her camera) and the third is Ivy's.

Next year we will go on Friday, it is less crowded and they still have the Kiwanis breakfast.  (And that is one of my favorite parts).

Congratulations Dax- Our first High School Graduate

Dax is an absolutely amazing young man.  I am so excited for all of the wonderful things he has in store for his life.  He is brilliant.  He is sweet.  He is faithful.  He is talented.  He is loved.

As the first of the grandkids to graduate from high school, my mom put on quite a wonderful party for Dax.  Our family was all there to support him, plus many of our life long friends. It was very fun to have everyone together.It is very fun seeing how much our crew has grown.

Congratulations D.K.  You are going to do an awesome job at Oxford.  We are very proud of you.

The 4th of July

In the past, my family goes ALL OUT for the 4th of July, but this year we actually scaled it down a bit.  By scaled down, I mean we didn’t have a fierce competition with assigned teams and a trophy.  Instead we watched some of the World Cup, did a craft, had an adult volleyball tournament and my mom rented a great big blow up water slide.  We started the day later than we normally do, but I feel like we packed in just as much as every other year.  Only without the fierce competition.

The craft was a hit and the , blow up slide was a blast!  My sweet Jade felt really badly that we didn’t have the competition, because she is always on the team that wins.  Plus it brings everyone together and starts the party.

After the day activities, we gathered outside for the “Cul de sac of Fire”.  This year there were three bands.  The first was “Love-capades” and the second was “He and She”.  In between the bands was the children’s parade.  And a specialty dance number by “550 South Fire Girls”.  They were joined or rather replaced on stage by the hip hoppin cool guys of 550 South.

Finally the headliner show was ready to take the stage.  This year we welcomed “Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband” to our ever growing “cul de sac of fire- fire – fire”.  They did an absolutely awesome job.  The little girls danced and grooved to their music and even joined them on stage for a moment.  It was a lot of fun and I’m sure there is no chance of topping this year’s – EVER.

We ended the night with fireworks.  Ivy stepped on a sparkler so I missed most of the fireworks while I nursed her foot.

We really do LOVE the 4th of July.  I just wonder how on earth we can have another party next year after this one went over so well.

The Two Jumpers

Tom is a serious "pool thrower" and when he's in town, the girls like to fly.  He always pays for it the next day, but it is worth it.  At least for me to take the pictures.

Jade and Asher are the two that enjoy it the most.  Neither of the big boys wanted to be thrown and Harrison wanted to but he couldn't master the jump and throw all at once.  He'll get it.

My Brother - the real swimmer

Not all of the grown ups in our family can do the butterfly.  Actually, I think only one adult really can.  Everyone else suffers from shoulder issues or just can't do it and look quite as impressive as Tom does.  I love when he gets into his "I'm a swimmer" mentality.  He was an excellent swimmer back in high school and my birthdays were spent at his state tournaments three years in a row.

We had fun trying to capture the perfect picture of him doing the butterfly.

Making Progress - Swimming

Jade is a fantastic "swimmer" but not great at her strokes.  This summer, hopefully, she will improve on those. She has the desire to be better and I'm hoping that translates to paying attention well in her classes.  Mom got the kids signed up in a group class and the Utah grandkids also did a couple of semi-privates earlier.

Ivy, well, she didn't make a lot of progress on her semi-privates, so I decided to have my own little lesson with her.  She's very timid.  But, I convinced her to take off her floaties and see what we could do.  She actually did pretty well, she just was a bit scared to start.

We did some floating and kicking and paddling.  Eventually she started to feel more comfortable without her floaties.  Finally I was able to convince her to swim with just a noodle.  That quickly became her favorite way to swim.

Jade has been really working on her dives.  Hopefully one day Kat will be able to really teach her how to dive.