While I am home with Zach's kids while they vacation... my family is vacationing in St. George. (Why am I not on vacation some where?) Brett has sent me some photos so thought I would share.
I sure miss them!
The kids are getting so big. I can't believe how fast time goes by. Grandpa... love the facial hair. Seriously, it looks good on you.
Zach and Kelly are in Alaska for a whole week and I am now Mommy (Adri is what they are calling me... but I am doing all the motherly things) to these cute kiddos.
Actually... this one I hardly see. Not that he leaves the house often... he just spends A LOT of time in his room playing games. I don't even feed this one he just does it himself. AMAZING!!!
This one is my little girl friend. She is always there for me to help me out with Simon and she is such a big helper. When Simon goes to bed at night we have some much needed girl time. I think she is being extra great because she can see a certain "Leather Jacket" in her future.
This little guy... at this age it's hard to have your routine turned upside down. He has been up late every night... mostly because at my house we are night owls. He doesn't seem to mind though. He has Emmy help him with a lot of things but he is warming up to me. Last night he asked me to lay down with him when it was time to go to bed and this time Emmy didn't bribe him with money.
My family is in St. George on vacation. I did have them for a couple of days and it wasn't too bad having all 6 kids at one time... just not a lot of breathing room in the car. I miss my kids a ton when they are gone.
I have really tried to keep the kids entertained so far this summer. Isn't that what summer is all about... creating all these memories of things we don't do every day. It isn't always easy to think of things plus being on a budget. While trying to think of something that wasn't going to cost a lot of money I remembered taking Evie and Lydia to Liberty Park when they were way little. I honestly think it has been 4 years since I was last there. So I loaded the kids and we headed up town. My girls didn't remember any of it. Evie even said on the way up, "I don't understand. This sounds boring". The girls wouldn't put on swim suits because they said it sounded babyish. Look how much fun they had.
Jake playing in the little ponds. 
I can't get Jake to sit still for a second... he is never looking at the camera.
Cheese ball.
Oh yeah... were not having any fun.
Climbing to the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon.
Wow... what a hike.
They were wishing they had their swim suits now. I love these girls!
It was actually really crowded there too.
Jake went through a couple times but sat on my lap for most of it. He isn't feeling good. We have been to the doctor twice in the last 2 days. He has a sinus infection, an ear infection and a stomach thing we are watching closely. Poor kid... I swear he has been sick all summer long. It's not fair this is the time for healthy, glowing, tan kids. All-Star lanes will let the kids bowl 2 free games a day all summer long. I registered all the little kids and decided to take them bowling today since we had some rain. I took my kids, Ayana and Mikayla. I love to bowl and my girls love to bowl but it's not free like they say. We had to pay shoe rental (which I was expecting but it went up a dollar this year). This year they charge you a dollar per bowler to bowl the cosmic side. Yeah... how do you tell kids they have to bowl on the bright side with the older folks or the fun side in the dark with all the glowing stuff. Then they have a stupid game room and the kids (okay me too) get all roped into the games and tickets. Silly! It wasn't free bowling today but we had a blast.
The girls waiting for their turn. I only took 2 pictures because I spent the whole time chasing Jake around.
Jake did good the first game but then got bored and wanted to move on.
I remember being in elementary school and we would load in the car and drive to the school (probably a week before school started) to see the classroom lists posted on the doors. My kids had to do that this year... at first I was upset we had to wait longer to find out what teacher we had but then it brought back all these memories. It ended up being a lot of fun. I took my camera so that we could capture the moment.
Evie still smiling after finding out she didn't get the teacher she was hoping for and one of her close friends isn't in her class.
Lydia is super excited she got Evie's teacher and we love her. Lydia pretty much has all her same friends in her class.
We did our annual family (minus Zach's family) camping trip to Currant Creek over the weekend. The forecast did not look promising for being outdoors 24/7. Brett and I had decided not to go because of the rain and at the last minute changed our minds and decided to take our chances. I am so glad we went the weather was amazing. It rained once while we were up there and it lasted maybe 10 minutes. *Warning: lots of pictures*
Fishing at Currant Creek... we are all spread out along the bank.
Lydia having fun climbing the trees.
I don't think he cares that he is looking through those the wrong way. What a funny boy!
My Uncle Gene came this trip. Love my uncle Geners.
Josh's boys came this year and it was fun to have all these boys around to play with Jake.
Heather and Chris.
Josh and Audie.
Nana wanted me to take a picture with each of her grandkids. Here is just a sample of how some of them went.
This one was really hard to catch but Nana finally got a hold of him.
Lu and Nick.
Lydia sat next to Papa incase he needed help with fishing.
Jake was so tired. We got up at 7:00 am to drive up to Currant Creek and he played hard all day. Around 10:00 pm we had the fire going and Jake wanted to sit on Papa's lap to watch the fire.
A couple of us caught fish... Evelyn and her fish. She wouldn't touch it.
Lydia caught the biggest fish out of us all. She was so proud and carried it around to show everyone.
Nana and Lydia showing off their catch. Sorry Nana, Lydia's is bigger.
Awwwhhhh.... love these guys.
Mommy and Aaron.
The kids playing in the dirt.
Fishing turned into playing in the water.
Sitting around waiting for dinner to cook. Aaron made wicked chicken and then peach and cherry cobbler. It was so yummy! Full campsite... and below is what it looks like when we leave.
We had such a great time fishing, hiking, sitting around the campfire, eating... the best part was making memories with the whole family. We sure missed Zach's family. Guess we will have to camp 1 more time before school starts.We headed outside to load up to go grab a bite to eat for dinner and this is what we found on the driveway.
It says "Evelyn will you go out with me? Jaxson"
This was my response. "Jaxson, Evelyn can't go out with anyone. Sorry. From her Mom."
Lydia and her friend Ashlynn.
Evelyn and her friend Madilyn and Jake.
The goods!!!Yesterday was our first official day of Summer. We did Cowabunga Bay from 2:30 to 7:00 for a birthday party. It was hard to do it by myself (without Brett) but the kids had so much fun and the best part... it didn't cost me a dime. Thanks Shay for inviting us to the party. Mikayla, Evelyn and Lydia pretty much took off on their own. I stuck with Jake the whole time and he played hard. He is not afraid of anything and sometimes that scares me. When we left I didn't even have Jakes buckle done and he was out in his car seat. Don't look to close at this picture because I just got it off the internet. I didn't take one picture there. So you get this one and I have no idea whose kids those are. 
After Cowabunga we got a bite to eat then went back to my moms house and we had a fire pit. It didn't last long with the wind blowing ash every where. We all got one smore and we were done. What a way to start a summer. I love summer!
