Goodbye To Summer

We have one week left of summer vacation before school starts again. The summer flew by. Last week Mike took the boys to the beach with his parents for a few days. I stayed home with J because she had a fever and rash. The boys are finishing up basketball and soccer has already started. We have a busy fall ahead of us.

SHAVER LAKE

Julia and Daddy with the boat in the background. She has no fear of the water.

Ethan and Hyrum played their own version of "Wipe-out" on this slide.

Chad, Mike, and Aaron going out for a crazy ride. Everyone survived!

Ethan doing a little knee board practice in the shallow water.

Don't you love her pretty new teeth!? We had fun watching her explore the beach.

Julia's first ride on the jet ski. She only cried for the first few minutes!

The 2007 babies! Julia will get to grow up with a lot of friends around.

America the Beautiful

Here are our beautiful children ready for America's Birthday party to start(will there be cake?)! We started the day at the stake pancake breakfast. Mike met us there that morning when he got off work. Then we headed to the Taylor's for swimming, BBQ, and visiting with family. The kids swam until they were exausted! Then we came home and went to Apple Valley's Freedom Festival. They had game booths, bouncy houses,lots of food, a band and finally an amazing firework show. It was a wonderful, fun, family day. Oh Hyrum!!! He fell asleep after the fireworks and has a balloon in his mouth. I wouldn't recomend letting your child sleep with a balloon in their mouth,but this was such a cute picture and sooo Hyrum!

Our sweet JuJu bug. She always has a pretty smile for me.

The boys are trying to keep from being bored this summer. Yesterday we did some painting on the driveway. It was so much fun for everyone.

Our Mexican Cruise

It is amazing how fast a 7 day vacation can fly by. Mike and I went on our 2nd cruise last week to the Mexican Riviera. A group of about 20 from my Mom's side of the family was there and it was a great way to see some family that I haven't seen in years. It was the first time we have left Julia for a long period of time, and while I was nervous to go, it was a much needed break from the kids and from work. Mike's parents were good enough to take on all 3 of the kids for the week and they kept them busy with trips to the park, the lake, Sea World, a baseball game and even a kids cooking class. Mike and I know that without them a trip away would never have been possible and we are so thankful to have family that is there for us. Beautiful Mazatlan had some great cliff divers and is a good place to eat shrimp.

I have to admit that one of my favorite things are the towel animals they put in the room!

This is on our way to snorkel at Lovers Beach in Cabo San Lucas. The arch in the background is the Land's End Arch and is beautiful with the waves crashing around it. We also saw a sea lion colony and did shopping on the pier.

So, the food was absolutely wonderful. I really loved the dessert choices. Some of our favorites dinners were scallop risotto, lamb shank, crab cakes, and fillet of beef.

This is outside of the ship on our way to swim with the dolphins. We loved this excursion and bought the DVD showing our encounter with "Triton". The cruise was great. I slept in almost everyday, sang Karaoke ( I tried to get Mike to sing Dancing Queen but he wasn't up for that!), went to a great magic show, read my book, swam, played cards, shopped and spent 7 wonderful days with my amazing husband. I am ready to go back again!