June 2016 and a Vacation

 June is always a CRAZY month for our family.   We have birthdays and anniversaries and Father's Day and it is chaos and we have NO MONEY left at the end of the month.

 We celebrated Mom's birthday at Viva Chicken.  I was so excited to try it.  Very good food, but very expensive for the amount of food you actually are able to pull off of your 1/2 chicken.  I didn't gain any weight this day that is for sure.  I burned as many calories as I consumed scraping those bones clean.  I could hardly engage in the conversation, I was working so hard. 

 On Father's Day, our dad was selected to be on a Father's Panel in Primary.   Our kids had NO CLUE that he was under that disguise.  They were asked various questions and when they answered, they did so in funny voices.  We learned that our dad likes.....  the color red, Outback Steakhouse, playing golf and getting kisses from his kids.  KK recognized her dad's answers and said "I think that might be my dad under there".  She was right.  The other two were clueless.  Peyton leaned over to the girl sitting next to her half way through and said  "that dad #2 is looking at me and it is creeping me out."

So Funny 

 They were SO hot under those sheets.  Their faces were sweaty when they were finally able to take the bags off.

We kicked our Summer Vacation off with pool parties.

Parker invited the Little kids over to his house.

They had only been asking him if they could go to his house for a straight month

 KK got a pretty bad burn

 The girl's hair is finally long enough from the hair cutting fiasco of 2015 to put curlers in again.

We are having fun with new hair styles for church

 Peyton went to Kai's 7th Birthday Party.

He loved his Ninja Turtle mask

And Pey wants one for her 7th birthday too

 Parker's family flew Morgan to California to join their family vacation.

They stayed on Coronado Island in a cute little house.

Raleigh took the priests on a High Adventure to Orem the week before his birthday.

They went on a zip line, hiked the backside of Timp, went to the MTC and BYU campus and had several spiritual moments

 While he was up North, he got a call that his brother, Spencer had unexpectedly passed away.   He was able to run up to Murray to be with his family.  What are the chances that he would be up there at that exact time?  But, it was so great that he was.  The Lord works in mysterious ways.

This picture was taken in 2010.  That is Peyton on Spencer's lap.  And his daughter, Caydence is on Raleigh's.  

Raleigh got home the day before his birthday.   It was such a bummer birthday.  He was sad.  He was exhausted.  We were trying to get ready to go on our vacation and we had to also think about going to a funeral.  His birthday was also on a Sunday.  Raleigh's birthdays on Sundays are never good.  I felt horrible for him.  

The day after Raleigh's birthday, we rented out the City Pool for a combined birthday celebration for Allie and Gracie.  There were about 250 friends there and even though we were not at our best emotionally, we pulled the fiesta off really well.  I think it was a really fun party.

 We left on our trip on Thursday morning

It was going to be such a bitter sweet vacation.  We were sad and excited at the same time.  Very strange emotions

 We arrived in Jordan early in the evening.  We ate dinner and checked into our hotel and then got ready to go over to the Viewing for Spencer.  It was a VERY hard night.  I didn't even take any pictures because we were in very sullen moods and it wouldn't have been a good time to take pictures.  We were tired from traveling and we were very sad.  And we were nervous.   The viewing was nice, but a very hard thing to attend.  Kaleigh got very upset.  We were happy that Parker was with us because he took her outside to calm her down.  We took the kids out for ice cream afterwards to help them settle down.  I felt so badly for them.

Friday was the funeral/Celebration of Life

This was a much better day.

The service was very good and it was light and not as hard as the night before.

 Cousins 3 weeks apart in age

Ryker and Haylee

 Haylee and Kaleigh

Our little family

I really love them.

 VACATION

 We started off our vacay at Seven Peaks

The weather was most pleasant.  I bought a spectator pass because I was mentally exhausted and I just wanted to sit and relax.  Raleigh and I just sat in our chairs all day and decompressed from the events of the last couple of days/weeks.  It was so nice just to sit and feel cool

 I love this little elf

We opted not to go to Stadium of Fire and we went back to Park City and walked up Main St to the Red Banjo for pizza.  It was such a fun night.  I am so glad that we decided to do that.  

 The first photo here was taken in 2016....  the next photo was taken in 2010....  I was 6 month pregnant with Kaleigh.  We stayed up at the Mountainside Resort that year too.  Look how our little family has grown.

On Sunday, we attended the Park City Visitor's Ward.
There were (no joke) 1000 people there.  The Sacrament took 46 minutes.  There were 5 priests blessing and breaking,  there were 18 passers.  It was the most amazing thing to see so many people who took time out of their vacation to attend church from so many parts of the country.  We even saw a couple of people that we knew.  Imagine that.

 And.....  yes......  we did go to brunch afterwards

and it was delicious.  We are not perfectly obedient members on vacation.

But there was a little effort made... so that counts

Monday the Fourth

The boys literally woke up at the crack of dawn and drove to Hobble Creek to play golf

They had a great day.  

It was beautiful weather and they all played really well

Pre-hair brushing..... Fourth attire

The girls stayed home and went to the pool

I was a wreck with my kids at the pool

Gracie and Grant were so good to swim with them, but I could hardly sit still

 I laid out with Kori (she was OUT)

 And then, I worked for a few hours 

because I had 200+ emails

The Ellsworths and the Hydes left for home and the the rest of us

ventured up the mountain, just below the ski lift to watch fireworks.  

I was wearing a sweatshirt and then I added a thick coat and then I added a blanket.

It was wonderful

 And Walt covered his ears the entire time

Tuesday was pay day, so we went down to SLC and went school clothes shopping

 We played with legos

 And played a turbo round of glow in the dark mini golf

 Annnnnnd......  The Fun Center in Lehi smells like sweaty socks

and a really bad case of kid BO.

And,  I am sure has somewhere around 73 illnesses and odds are we picked up at least 6 of them

 We were supposed to meet Brian and Tierra and Raleigh's friend, Carrie for ice cream, but we all got really tired and super CRANKY from the heat and the long day and so we cancelled on them and went back up the canyon and went to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory with mom and dad instead.

Go home day...

I have never been so sad.

This was a very good trip and I didn't want to go home AT ALL

 We stopped for breakfast at a pancake house

 And had a very blissful trip home.  

June was a good month.

June was a bad month,

June was a stressful month.

I am not sure what will happen in July.

There is so much that could happen.

Or maybe nothing at all will be different.

I don't know what lies in our future.

Nevertheless....... I love my little family with all my heart. 

I LOVE what we have done with our lives.

It is a spectacular life.

And I love the way we live it.

I don't mean this in a braggadocios way....  at all.

It's just so wonderful to get to be part of this.

I am the luckiest girl alive.