St. George Trip and our 18th Wedding Anniversary

Took Brandon along with us for our hike to the poppies this year. Such a fun one and so pretty!

Enjoyed some perfect summer nights on the new turf fields at Lakeside.

Kallie and Sophie, still the best of friends, living their best life out on the deck in amazing weather.

Jackson went to a water birthday party at Liam Hack's and I completely forgot to put sunscreen on his back. He got fried and I felt terrible about it. I felt so bad I cried. He wasn't in too much pain though and just wore a swim shirt the whole time at St. George and everything is all better now.

We headed down to St. George for a vacation and also for Tyler's soccer tournament in Cedar City. It was super hot down there! Luckily Cedar was a few degrees cooler.

Matching old navy flip flops for the girls.

Love love love going down to St. George as a family and enjoying being together down there. Swimming is our absolute favorite thing and we really don't need much else other than that.

Kallie wanted to do face masks together down there so we did.

Traveled to Cedar City for three days in a row to watch Tyler play soccer. He did so great and it was so fun watching him! They battled and got second place I think. We of course hit up Doughnutsville while we were there.

Tyler had a really rough year of soccer last year and sat the bench a lot and wanted to quit. He didn't want to go to this tournament but we made him. And he got all the playing time he could ever want because we almost had no subs and it was soooo hot! The boys were dying. Fun to watch though!

We had some time to kill in between games in Cedar so we went to the store and bought popsicles and found a park with a little stream running through it to chill at. The cold water felt so good. Have I mentioned that it was super hot?!!

Can't get enough pool time.

We stayed in 407 this time because Poolside was being used by someone else. Can't say enough how glad I am that we bought these units. We have made so many great memories down there!!

Mckinley made a goal after running track in the spring that she wanted to run 50 miles in the summer. So she ran on the treadmill while we were there and one day she and I went on a run around the pond at Grandpa's Pond and it was so hot. We went in the middle of the day and I felt like my legs were getting burned from the heat radiating from the asphalt. It was crazy. But good memories!

Brandon has always noticed these really pretty mountains off to the side of the freeway near Cedar City so we finally went and explored. It's called Kolob Canyon and it's technically a part of Zions National Park. We redeemed Kallie's free National Parks pass from like a year prior ha ha and got in for free. We just drove to the lookout and took a picture. Way too hot to hike anywhere. But I'm so glad we went because it was absolutely gorgeous.

Brandon wasn't technically supposed to swim, from his surgery, so he didn't ever go under the water. And just made sure he wore his sunglasses all the time outside.

Tyler with his soccer team. Tournaments really are so fun!

More pool time of course.

Jackson is getting better and better at swimming each time we go.

Love love love night swimming.

Since it was mine and Brandon's 18th wedding anniversary we decided to splurge and go to Pica Rica BBQ. It actually wasn't near as good as the first time we went. And now I don't know that we'll go back. It's super pricy.

Did a drive by of the temple, which I believe was still under construction with the renovation.

We wanted to do something fun and different with the kids for our anniversary so we went to this fun center and rode bumper boats and did mini golf. It was sooooo hot! Like I thought my bum was going to get burned from sitting in the hot seat. Spraying each other felt so good!

You can see the red faces of the kids. The heat was intense!

Went for an evening walk around the pond at Grandpa's Pond. We really love that park.

We saw the most incredible cloud rainbow on our drive in to St. George one day. None of us had ever seen anything like it. It was spectacular!

Seriously so grateful for this amazing family and for the opportunity we have to go make memories together in Hurricane. This was such a fun trip!!

 

The rest of May

We took a couple trips up to the Provo Temple to see the demolition. Kind of sad that the temple we were married in will be no longer and the new one they are building will look completely different. But so fun to see and to have Brandon's drone to get a closer look.

Tyler got Student of the Year for 5th grade in Mrs. Warner's class. This was his second time getting Student of the Year. He's such an amazing student and person in general. He makes everyone feel like they are his friend. He's so kind and respectful. I just love him so much!

Tyler and Kallie absolutely loved Mrs. Warner this year. Brandon and I teased them constantly that she didn't teach them anything. They never brought stuff home, and we genuinely don't think they learned a whole lot this year, but they loved going and they loved her so that's worth something.

Mckinley got her braces off, again. That ended up being almost a 2 and a half year process but her teeth are gorgeous and now she has a permanent lower retainer so hopefully those teeth stay in place!

Ava with Mrs. Heaps on the last day of school. Ava learned so much in Mrs. Heaps' class and really excelled. She is a great teacher, although maybe getting a little cranky in her later years. Ha ha.

Brandon got cross linking surgery on his right eye the very day that school got out. The actual process wasn't painful but he spent the weekend in some pretty severe pain and discomfort. He had to do eye drops for 5 weeks and then he got the other eye done and had to spend another 5 weeks doing eye drops again so it kind of consumed our entire summer and he didn't swim much. But we got through and we're all done with that now!

Ava got blood work done to rule out bone cancer. She doesn't have cancer, she doesn't have perthes. We ruled out the big things and now we are left with no answers but she also doesn't complain very much anymore about her pain. So either she is learning to deal with it, or the pain really isn't very bad? Not sure, we still need to get to the bottom of this one.

Jackson's days of crashing are few and far between now. He is growing up! But we caught this one at the end of May.

Mckinley got right to reading as soon as summer started. She read the new Hunger Games book in like a week and then spent the rest of the summer reading The Work and the Glory #2.

Took another Sunday drive to the Lindon Temple to check out the construction. It was fun to just sit on the grass by Oak Canyon Junion High and see the temple so close.

Then headed to a park to play. Tyler is the best big brother ever always helping Jackson with whatever he needs. These kids of ours are just absolutely incredible and I feel so blessed to be their mom.

Fun family date to Buffalo Wild Wings (minus Tyler who didn't come). It was so yummy and so fun!

This was definitely the summer of visits to the sand park. We went so many times I couldn't even try to count. I just love being there. Especially in the afternoons and evenings when it's all shaded. It's so peaceful and I love the feeling of the sand on my feet and love watching the kids play.

Tyler and Kallie were often off with friends during the summer so I was left with Mckinley, Ava, and Jackson. Mckinley was such a good sport to come along to whatever we were doing and she would just bring her book along and read while the kids played.

We only went swimming with Krista Gray one time in her pool. We usually go more than that!

Had some fun swim days at Cammie's pool too.

Splash pad picnic lunch with my new family of three kids ha ha.

I love taking the kids to the zoo. Thank heavens for the PBS kids pass that gets them all in free and then I just have to pay for me.

We bought tickets for the train this time and it was fun to do something different.

We lucked out with incredible weather and had a great day at the zoo!

It's always our favorite thing to see the Polar Bear swimming.

Another swim day at Cammie's for all of Ava's friends.