The Last Hurrah!

The last hurrah of our summer was spending the last week before school started in a cabin at Deer Lake Resort! Ahhhh! It was heavenly! Our dear friends own the resort and since we went during the week we were able to spend some time with them - their weekends are nutso busy!



We did a lot of this!



Joseph having a random cute moment!



We had Dean, Sharon and Ed over for dinner every night! So.much.fun!



At night we had a firepit down by the water. Joseph LOVED this!!



We played a lot of mini golf!



Hay ride!



Tubing behind the jet ski!



Hours and hours were spent on this wonderful contraption!!

Silverwood 2012

This year Silverwood was awesome! The weather was perfect! We swam our guts out! We had lunch with friends! We split up - mom and the littles / dad with those brave enough to step foot on rides that go higher than 4ft off the ground and faster than 2mph.



This really was my most enjoyable year! Yes, I know - we've been going for 10 years! But because I enjoyed myself so much - there aren't many pictures!



So this is all there is - my friend Reagan has a lot of us at the water park on her camera...if her life slows down enough to get copies to me, I'll share them later!



Fun!

Jason Turned 17

My birthday boys! Grandpa's birthday is just 4 days after Jason's.



When did 17 years happen?



I'm not short - just in case you were wondering!

Girls Camp 2011

This year I got to go to Girls Camp with Madilyn and Megan as one of the leaders! I truly had a blast. The girls in our ward are just wonderful and the other leaders who went were amazing!



An added bonus was having Mardi there as a leader, too. When we were young we went to every year of Girls Camp together - that ended 20+ years ago! We had so darn much fun!!

July 4th

We got home from our vacation on July 3rd. July 4th we loaded up the car and went to Uncle Dick's and Aunt Marlene's for ice cream and fireworks! Because that's what we do!

Exhausted but very happy to see my favorite people!!



My cute daddy with my cute Meredi and my cute Jason!



My cute mommy with my cute Jaynie!

California Ocean

It's the end of August and I'm officially now the whole summer behind in blogging!! This is the last post about our Disney/California/Oregon Vacation!! I'm leaving out Sea World - it was fun, once you've seen one killer whale, you've seen them all!

I don't know which beach Carson & Kandi took us to, but we had a blast!!



Carson introduced boogie-boarding to Brandon & the kids...



The boys did spend time in the water - but opted to spend more time on the beach.



My sand-haters!! Notice that neither Malorie nor Melanie is actually touching the sand with much more than finger tips and toes!! That's quite a balancing act!



Gracie had a blast playing in the sand and would only go into the water with mom!



Getting better at the self portrait! It's not hard getting a good picture when the scenery is so amazing and everyone is smiling from ear to ear!!



We couldn't drag Carson, Brandon & Maddie out of the ocean! They stayed and boogied until the sun went down!



The ocean was awesome! The very next best thing came after the ocean when we stopped at Little Caesars for pizza, bread sticks and soda, then ate it in the hot tub at Carson & Kandi's! Shhhh - don't tell their manager!

Disneyland 2011

Here's your warning (Mindy)...there are close to 20 pictures in this entry. Just so you don't walk in to it blindly!

Day one at Disneyland - are you kidding me? Yes, mom was up and dressed, ready to go at 6:30 (park opened at 8). It almost killed me waiting for everyone to wake up!



Chip & Dale were awesome. We waited in line to see them and right when we were next, they were whisked away and replaced with Pluto! Apparently they had noticed our disappointment and they came around to where we were and played for a few minutes.



We had to keep our eye on Dale - he tried more than once to sneak off with our girls!


Doesn't matter how tall you get, Disney characters are still cool!



Lucky enough to be the first to visit Tinkerbell & Silvermist!



On our last night mom, dad, Madilyn & Megan stayed in California Adventure to watch the World of Color. So glad we did - it was an awesome show and a special night with the girls!



Monsters Inc.



Stitch and the kids.



Matterhorn



Splash Mountain!!



Tea Cups with Cousin Madison! Carson and Kandi and their girlies came to Disneyland our first day with us! It was so much fun to share the excitement with them!!



Garsh! Joseph wore his Goofy shirt all.three.days at Disney. Thankfully our hotel had laundry facilities! He was so happy to get to see him and take this picture!



Meredi & Joe and some random cuteness!



This was a fun surprise! We just happened to see them walking into their picture place and realized there was nobody in line yet. By the time we took our picture the line was about 30 people long - CRAZY!



Star Tours. I really liked this ride right until the final few seconds when I began to feel a bit motion sick - sheese, what a whimp! And before anyone asks, that's Marilyn! She has been a dear adopted member of our family for...well, a long time. Since Jared was a baby I think - maybe longer! You know it's true friendship when someone will take a week off of work to help haul your family through The Happiest Place on Earth!! Every family needs a Marilyn!