California Trip

The kids and I went to California the end of July to take the kids to the beach and to visit my sister. We had a great time! Thanks Aunt Terri!

Our daily bike rides/jog around the duck pond. It was really really hot even at 7am. Emily wanted to go forever but Jake got tired and thirsty quite quickly. We usually made it around once.
We went to the beach the first day. Uncle Toe tried to teach Jake to bogey board but mom was a half a step too slow and he slid off before I could catch him. He does not like salt water in his mouth!!! He was done after one attempt. At the end of the day he was getting brave with the waves and one caught him off guard and he did several sideways somersaults in the sand and he was done for the rest of the trip. He never wanted to go back!

Emily loved making sand castles. So creative with the feathers.

After 3 years of swim lessons I finally got my moneys worth. The kids both overcame their fear of not being able to touch and started putting those swim skills to use.( Maybe it was the magical goggles.) They have even jumped off the diving board with out a life jacket and swim to the side. Jake stays under the water a little too long for mom's comfort but Emily floats quite well.

We spent many hours with the kids jumping off the side and swimming out to me and then swimming back to the wall. They were in heaven and were ready for bed every night.

On one very hot day we went to a miniature golf /fun park. Emily is quite good and Jake would get tired and just pick up his ball and put it in the hole and was ready to move on to the next hole. I think they were more excited about all the other fun stuff to do.

Jake wanted to be just like dad. He had a great time, with mom's help, going through the Hawaii course going through waterfalls and lava(volcanoes).

Jakes favorite ride the train.

Emily's favorite ride The kangaroo drop.

Emily and Jake loved driving the mini Go Karts. Jake struggled at first running into things but he quickly figured it out after a couple times around.

Girls day out. Emily and Mom went to get manicures and pedicures Emily was in heaven and thought it was awesome.

She just loved the flowers.

Things we love to do

This summer Aunt Terri taught Emmy some fun tricks with string. This is one of her favorites the Witches broom.

Jake loves grasshoppers. We were infested with them and I told them that they were eating my flowers so Emmy decided to catch them and drown them in water. Jake has graduated to just pulling their heads off. When he starts chopping the heads off the neighborhood cats we might be a little worried we have a serial killer on our hands.

Swim Lessons

What did we do this summer? Swim lessons. Emily and Jake spent 4 weeks swimming. They have made a lot of progress. We settled on Ice cream on Mondays and Fridays not every day like last year, since getting their hair wet was no longer very hard anymore. They decided slurpees were a good choice too.

Take our picture, we are so cute!

Jake loved the diving board and the slide

Emmy's just like her mom having to plug her nose.

Learning the back stroke

Jake learning to float on his back. He'd much rather be under the water. He's such a fish.

July 4th fun

Every 4th of July the Stake puts on a carnival at the park to raise money for the youth activities. The kids look forward to it every year. Devo got called into work right after we bought our tickets so he missed all the fun. We missed Grandma and Grandpa Skinny this year. It didn't seem the same with out you.

And the winner is.... the obstacle course. We spent all our tickets here this year.

First stop always for Emily is the face painting. This year her dance teacher did her tattoo so it was even better. Sunscreen and tattoos don't mix though. It took a couple of tries for Emily, and Jake was happy with his half a soccer ball.

We love the ride on the train.

They tried their hand at jousting. It was so funny because Jake could hardly hold his pole up and he kept falling off his spot.

Mom always calls this cop car her friend everytime she sees it after she got a ticket. Jake doesn't understand that she's being sarcastic. Jake loved the car and jumped right in and climbed all over. Emily didn't want anything to do with it. Good for her, stick with mom!

We always end the day with a snow cone. It's always way too hot.

We started fireworks early this year. We had left over sparklers and stuff from last year from Pahrump. After about a half an hour the wind came up, the sparks burned us, and it started raining so we were done. We were glad the city fireworks were cancelled because Devon and I were tired.

The pyro of the family

Hogle Zoo

In June we went to the zoo with Aunt Jill and cousins Tommy and Sam.

Sammy loved the elephants

The reptile house was the favorite for the kids, not so much for mom. It's so stinky and Aunt jill always seems to get to wait outside.

Jake was sooooo excited to see the alligators

My little monkey

They're growing up so fast, too fast.

2nd lost tooth

The last week of May Emily lost her second tooth. Dad got so tired of watching her eat out of the side of her mouth so he chased her around the house until she let him pull it out. She was a little disappointed when the Tooth Fairy only left 1 dollar this time.

Hawaii

I told Devo I wanted to be somewhere tropical for my b-day this year and he was so kind to indulge me. My twin sister and her husband came with us. This is the first trip Terri and I have been on with out my kids, well I think it's the first ever, since I've been married. We were all set for Cancun but when the swine flu hit we decided to switch. Devon's mom came and watched the kids while we were gone and the kids loved it and are still talking about it.

This is heaven!

Devo was in heaven playing Kapalua plantation course. He wished he would have played it twice.
The Kapalua bay course

The boys took us along one day. This one was not as pricey as Kapalua.

I had the best day of golf ever. I had 7 bogies and 3 pars. It might of been the Tiger Woods clubs I rented, who knows. Lots of fun.

While the boys played 2 rounds at Kapalua, Terri and I headed to the other side of the island to go horse back riding. It was quite fun and very interesting, but hot.
After our horse back ride we hiked to a waterfall we saw. It was fun hiking under the bamboo canopy.

Maui was in a drought. They hadn't had rain for 2 months. The waterfall was a little small it usually covers the whole side of the mountain.

This was our favorite beach. Very little people and very peaceful.

Our little private beach

This was Devon's favorite dessert called "carmel knowedge"

Beautiful sunsets

The last day we finally found the place to snorkel. We got there at 6 a.m. hoping to see turtles

Troy brought some bread and squeezed it in his hands and suddenly we were surrounded by fish.
We saw a few turtles too!