Saturday Night at the Park

Lindsay came into town to help watch the boys during girls camp. The weather was so nice we decided to take a picnic to the park and enjoy the summer evening together. We had fun taking some cute pics of the kids.

Origami Master

One of Dallin's recent obsessions has been origami. My kids have been doing this for years ( I blame Nathan and Chelsea for the paper swans they had on the tables of their wedding luncheon...it's been going on since then.)

Dallin likes to look up instructions on YouTube and then follow along, the harder the better. This project was a doozy:

First he had to cut and fold over 400 paper triangles. Just this took two days.

Then he carefully put them together to form a swan (or dragon if you want to be more manly)

Quite the accomplishment

I think he's a little burned out on origami now and has since moved on to magic tricks. I know, the girls are just going to be banging down the doors for this guy.

Girls Camp 2011

 

The girls and I spent a wonderful four days at Girls Camp. We were at a campsite about 2 hours away, next to the Boise River. It was gorgeous. 

Our theme was "Your Happily Ever After"

and we even had a frog!

The girls enjoyed playing in the hot springs nearby,

 

 and singing around the campfire.

 One night we had a princess ball complete with homemade gowns made from plastic table covering.

 So, so cute. Boy I love these girls. We had 25 this time and each one added so much personality. Really a sweet and wonderful group. I also loved spending time with all of the leaders who have become my dear friends. Our camp director Amy did an amazing job making this year's camp just like a fairy tale!

 p.s. Amy hand made each of these tiaras....yeah, she's just that awesome.

It's Great to be Eight!

I cannot believe how quickly the years have gone by and my baby is eight. Good thing I can still get him to snuggle with me (a little bit.) Brady shared his day with Father's Day this year and we celebrated with cake, presents and dinner at Chuck-a-Rama the night before. He can't wait to start scouts and to be baptized in August.

Piano Recital

Last week was the last piano recital of the school year. All the kids did great on their challenge pieces, even though some were very challenging! I have to admit that I am the most proud of McKenzie and the progress she has made in piano this year. She has gone from hating taking lessons to loving them, even practicing without being asked! She was actually disappointed to find out we were taking a few months off in the summer. As Michelle, her fabulous teacher said, "She finally just gets it." She played Pachelbel's Canon in D major for the recital and even though she gets so nervous (I noticed her hands totally shaking!) she did a great job on this hard piece. I have to give a lot of credit to my friend Michelle, though. She has the perfect mix of fun and discipline and the kids all enjoy taking lessons from her.

Bridal Shower

Last week we threw a bridal shower for Jenna, my first Laurel to get married. Just last year she was graduating high school and now she's going to the temple to marry her sweetheart, Carsten. Theirs is a darling "boy next door" story.

It was so fun to decorate all girly with hot pink and lime green. Jenna seems so happy and the two of them are completely in love. Yay! One YW to the temple...only thirty plus to go!

Here I am with Jenna and Chris, the YW president I worked with in our last ward. She deserves the Lifetime Achievement Award for being in YW and taught me everything I know. Absolutely adore her. It was fun planning this night with her as we celebrated one of "our girls" starting her happily ever after.

Snapshots of a Summer Night

School's been out for over a week now and I've finally found some time to catch up on blogging. Things have been crazy around here, especially getting ready for Girls Camp on Monday.

 Here's some pics from the first night of summer, a typical time spent in the backyard. Above is some game the kids thought up in which you stuff an entire cupcake in your mouth and then run across the yard. Whatever.

 I'll call this pic "The Tree Doctor" because this is pretty much what Mark does most nights. Comes home from work and putts around the yard, fertilizing, spraying, pruning, doing who-knows-what-all in the yard. He loves it.

 One of our favorite games is track ball where you hurl a ball super fast at your opponent and see if they can catch it. Pretty fun stuff.

 Apparently I take the game very seriously.

 Last pic of the night as the sun was finally going down (after 10:00!) I love these cool evenings spent outside. They're one of my favorite things about summer!

Mallory's works of art

Thanks to a middle school drawing class Mallory has become quite the budding artist! She did receive the best student in art award last year, but I didn't really realize the depth of her talent until recently. Believe me, she doesn't get this skill from me! (Some from her dad, some from my Grandma Moyes for sure) Here's her self portrait that looks so much like her, right down to the little hairs that are always sticking up in the front! This is hanging on our fridge although it freaks us out because those eyes follow us everywhere we go in the kitchen!

This copy of a masterpiece was made by coloring in the whole page and then using an eraser to create the picture.

Here's the  sidewalk portrait of Cosmo she did a few Sundays ago. Too bad it only lasted a few days before it rained! I'm thinking future career?

Weekend Trip

At the last minute we decided to take a trip to Utah for the long weekend. We started by staying with Brandon and Lindsay in Jerome where the boys got in a little Zumba workout:

,

Next stop: Our favorite bed & breakfast, the Robertsons' house, where we stay most times we're in Utah. Unfortunately no pictures, but we had fun going to Ikea, the Nickel Arcade and Sub-Zero for ice cream. 

On Sunday we drove to Saratoga Springs to see our friends the Fishers in their beautiful new home right on Utah Lake. The Roches also came down for a fun little reunion. Here's most of the kids:

And the moms:

 
Our main reason for going down was to see my brother Trevor who has been laid up for weeks with this traumatic injury: 

Gross, I know. He turned his ankle playing basketball and it pretty much just stayed at a 90 degree angle. After having it put back in place he's been in constant pain and can't walk on it or drive. Poor guy! My parents were in Southern Utah so they came up to Provo as well and we had a fun Memorial Day together. Nothing like getting spoiled by the grandparents!

All in all, it was a great trip with family and friends who are like family to us.