Swimming

We have been swimming a lot this summer.  We have a pass to our local pool - which is great because we just go for an hour or so at a time and it has worked out wonderful.  The boys are old enough to kind of do their own thing in the same area I am in and I play with the girls.

 

Noah loves to lay on the hot cement.  He does this about as much as he is actually swimming.

 

Once they all see what Noah is doing they jump out and join him.

Fourth of July

A BBQ at my mom's house with cousins.  Nice and simple.

 

Another failed attempt at a cute family picture.

 

Swimming in the hot tub

My dad working the grill

 

Sprinkler under the tramp

Then we did fire works at our friends, the Thomas'.

 

Funny story:

Noah really really wanted to buy and set off his own ariel fire work.  In fact for his journal that morning he insisted on writing that for the fourth of July he "wanted to have a launching firework that everyone can see".  That is a BIG sentence for him to write and Jason and I both tried to talk him into just writing "I want to see fireworks"  But he HAD to write the long one and he spent a good 45 minutes writing the whole sentence by himself.  So I took him to buy one (because it melted my heart) and discovered that those things are not cheap!  So I bought the cheapest one at $9.00.  Then it was time to set it off.  He wanted me to light it.  So there we are... with about 50 other people... mostly kids and babies... and I light the firework.  Three shots shoot up into the air like it is supposed to, then... nothing.  I knew there were supposed to be 6 shots... I start getting a little nervous... then it haywires and starts blowing the fire works into the crowd and exploding!  Everyone is screaming, yelling, and running.  Everyone but.. Noah that is.  He is standing there - in the front row - the whole time just smiling.  When it is all over everyone is terrified and checking their children for burns... and Noah turns around and yells, "That is exactly what I wanted!" 

 

Oh my goodness, I could have died.

ceremonies

I am the cub scout master in my ward.  In June I had 3 boys who were getting their Arrow of Lights and moving onto "real scouts", I wanted to do something super cool for their ceremonies - I was thinking Native American and some sort of Rain Dance - but they are super expensive.  Then I found this AMAZING organization where people dress up as Super Hero's - the theme for the month was courage - so it fit perfect.  I was expecting super hero costumes that you would see at a Halloween party.  Not the case!  This was full on Hollywood.  100% this was Batman and Darth Vador - voices and all.  It was actually really scary.

 

I of course brought my boys.

And I had to get a picture too - I am WAY to cheesy.

 

The next day Brock got an award at school - I wasn't expecting a real medal.  Pretty cool!

 

 

By the way he is done with Kindergarten.  Who knew kids grew up?  Since we are on year round he starts first grade in just two weeks.  I am actually in denial about the whole thing.  Eating lunch at school, missing him all day, having to entertain Noah all day.  He still naps once or twice a week - guess I should start stopping that.

Ten Year High School Reunion

Honestly it is insane to me that high school was 10 years ago.  It is weird because it truly does seem like another life ago, but to say something was ten years ago seems really long ago - but most the time I still feel like I am in my early twenties.  Case in point: When I ask my mom about the girls my little brothers are dating/dated and she tells me they are 21 my first thought is honestly "oh, so they are my age".

 

Anyways back to the reunion.  Jason did not want to go - I insisted.  There were not a lot of people I was dying to see and most people I am in relative contact with that I really care about.  Since I am not on facebook I was not as "up-to-date" as most people - but I felt like as high school sweet hearts we were bound to go.  High school is part of our story, it is how we became "us" and I felt like we had to go and honor that.  Being the good husband that he is he complied.

 

Anyways it was a lot of fun.  It was nice and simple and cheap.  Just in our high school cafeteria. 

 

At the end they gave awards and had the people who won the "most likely to _____" awards in the high school year book come up and see if they had lived up to our expectations... none of them had.

 

I took a picture of Megan and Rob because I love them.  Seeing these two up there brought back a lot of ninth grade memories.  They both won most likely to have a rock and roll band. 

Jason and I won the award for "high school sweet hearts that have been married the longest" - LAME.  I really really wanted to win the award for most children - I didn't know of anyone who had five and the other person (Karli) that I knew of the had 4 was not coming.  I feel a lot of pride in our family and since we WERE high school sweet hearts I really wanted to have the most kids.  But Lindsey Pitman also had 4 kids and since me and Jason already won an award they gave it to her.  I was really sad :)

This is a picture of me and Megan and Nicole Hair.  I was going to be all ambitious and scan in a picture of us on graduation day but... turns out I am not that ambitious.  I can say these two are some of my best friends - we have a very special connection (they are two of three triplets - although I love the other triplet and have a unique friendship with her as well).  It is strange because we have not stayed close AT ALL after our first year of college.  I haven't seen either of them in about 6 years and we didn't go each other's weddings or anything - but I know we love each other and totally get each other.

This is me and Ali and Megan.  We need Katrina in this picture - but sadly she was not there.  Megan and Trina and Ali are my true life long friends.  The four of us have always been a constant from about 4th grade on.  Again, sadly we don't get together much.  We have all kind of gone our own separate ways but manage to get together maybe once every two years (Trina and Ali get together a lot I think).  It is nice to know that there are people out there who KNOW you and LOVE you.  I have some of the best memories of my life with these three girls!

 

As mentioned earlier Karli wasn't there.  But if she had been this is where our picture would have gone.  I won't go into our friendship now, except for to say it is wonderful :) - I wrote a whole post dedicated to her when she moved.  If you care here it is: Karli.  We are still in constant contact and best friends.

 

Jason and I were not together for most of the reunion, so I was a terrible wife at documenting his friends.  I should have taken a picture of him and Rob and Troy and other madrigals/accapella people.  At the very very end I realized I had failed him and grabbed one picture of him and his (mostly) jr. high friends Kevin and Jamie.  Strangely we actually see them a ton - at least once a year.  We love them.

  

It was a lot of fun and I am really glad we went.  It was cool to see the adults everyone has become  - it was really cool it know that a lot of people are doing really great things with their life - hopefully they can change the world.  There were a ton of people who were not there, that I really wanted to see.  Mostly boys - none that I dated or anything (I didn't date anyone else really), but none of the boys I grew up with came and I really have wanted to see them and meet most of their wives (Joey, Jake, Thomas, Tom, Bryan, Shawn, Eric, Connor, BJ, Kai, Zach, Ryan etc).  One day I hope I see them again... maybe.