OUR TRIP TO THE BEACH!

So five days in California was not enough. We love the beach, and we are people watching lovers.  We just happened to book our trip the same time as the Huntington Beach surf competition.  There were lots of people!  Jeff and I were shocked at how nice everyone was to us.  No one could believe that we were so young with such a big family.   Obviously they have never been to Utah.   Our family was a novelty.  Paisley was so dang cute!   She loved her first time at the beach.  She was literally frolicking in the sand.  This could be why everyone was coming up to chat.   She ate so much sand, that for days it showed up in her diaper. (if you know what I mean) Ellie, and Addison had just as much fun.  I was a little nervous about the girls swimming in the big waves, and getting hammer slammed.  But they held their own, and learned to respect the wave.
  I feel bad for Jeff when we got home, because I truly went through depression, and I was such a brat for a day.  OK maybe two.  If he would have told me we were moving to Cali I would have started packing.  Maybe the depression was coming back to the real world of laundry, cooking, Jeff going back to work, and all the other crap I have to do!  We both decided that next year, we will stay two weeks at the beach if not more.   I love my little girls, and I'm so blessed that I have such a beautiful family.  As long as I'm with them, it's all good!

DISNEY HERE WE COME!

So we decided to go to Disneyland while we were in California for our traditional family trip! Hopefully if I call it a tradition we will go every year.   Of course the girls loved it, and yes, Jeff and I did as well.  Last time we went was Christmas of 2006, and all I can say was crazy!  Let's just say it was not so busy this time.  We loved that we were able to ride everything we wanted, by noon the first day.  Big difference from last time!  To get ready for the BIG TRIP,( because it is not vacation with the kid's) I decided to get a little domestic.  This happens every once in a while at my house.  I definitely go through spurts.  I decided to make the girls matching pillow case dresses.  Well Ellie was felling a little to mature for a dress this week, so she got a trendy shirt.   It was a hit!  Not exaggerating we had about 25 people stop, and ask where we bought the dresses, or if I made the dresses.  This helped Ellie feel a little better about wearing the matching outfits.  I realized that ship has almost sailed.  Good Times!  

GIRLS TIME!

Cute little Lauren with a mouth full of gum!

Court Snort!

Always the life of the party!

Addie my drama Queen!

I don't know where they get it from!

Paisley was right in the mix of it all.

Ellie & Addison went, and stayed up in Morgan for a couple of days at their cousins.  The days went by so quickly for all of us.   When it came time to come home, I met Sara and the girls  at Gateway.  Their Aunt Sara was brave enough to take them on the bullet train, and catch tracks over to Gateway.  She definitely scored big brownie points with my girls.  This was done with her 5 kids, one being a brand new baby!   There is no way I could tackle this, I have a hard time controlling my own 3 kids.  She is definitely one of those super Moms.  Anyway we went to lunch, and let the kids run through the water fountains.  The kids loved it for sure!  Thanks for the Break from the kids Sara!!!  

ALWAYS A PARTY!

Setting up the Gazebo! Yea!!!

Look at all of these babies under 1

Our record!

On the 5th of July we had a party for the Porter family.  Which is Jeff's mothers sisters, and their kids who live close.  We had close to 60 people come for a BBQ, and swimming.  I was so glad to have enough guys to lift my gazebo up on the columns, so that it was finished.  That made the whole party worth it!  

I think this was the most people we have had in our pool at one time.  Hope the kids, and uncle Ryan used the toilet in the pool house.  At least we had no code browns (poop in the pool).  The water did look scary by the end of the night!  We also hit a record in the hot tub 17 people!  Good times!  Thanks Sue for suggesting the party.

BEING PATRIOTIC!

Nothing like a fun filled 4th of July!  We got up bright and early and road our bikes to the church for a ward breakfast.  They had a dunking booth and I was able to dunk the whole family.  I dunked Ellie on my second try, Addison on my first, and Jeff on my third try.  (And Jeff said it was luck!)  Nice try!  He just can't stand it when I work him.  Jeff and I put together foot races, because we are so dang competitive.  We had all the kids run in age groups.  They keep wanting to race, but we had to kick them off the field so that we could have the fastest man on the field race.  I took a $10.00 dollar bill, and stood at the end of the field holding it up so everyone could see.  We told everyone the first person to the money gets to keep it!  Jeff killed all the guys in the ward by about 10 feet on the first try.  So we had a rematch. (He took off so fast they thought it was a false start) He ended up bringing the $10.00 home.  One day he is going to get his cocky but kicked!

After the breakfast we came home and put together our gazebo, for our back yard!  Thank goodness, it was a overcast day. 

That night we went to the Stadium of Fire for the Miley Cyrus concert.  We had great seats, so we could see everything.  The girls were in heaven!  It was awesome to be so close to the fire works.  We were showered in ash, and loving every minute.

MY LITTLE CHEERLEADERS!

Ellie and Addie went to a Cheer camp, taught by the 9th grade Lehi cheerleaders. They learned a bunch of cheers, and a couple of dances so that they could be in the Lehi Days Parade.  They had so much fun!  They looked so cute, and did such a great job performing.   The 100 deg. weather and 2 mile walk didn't faze them.   Paisley and I were able to sit by Grandma, and Grandpa Grate while we were waiting for Jeff, and the parade to start. 

It was crazy to watch my girls, be in the parade that I had been in for years as I was growing up.  I had a lot more fun watching!