Water Parade!

This summer we did things we have never done before like go to the WATER PARADE!!  You heard me!  It is the cutest idea I have ever heard of!  

In Eagle Idaho they do a parade that is basically a huge water fight, all the fire trucks get involved, and other floats are just throwing out water balloons, or they have mega squirt guns, it is nuts!  In the best way!

 We had never been, so look at us, acting like this would be a normal parade.  Psh.

However, my girls do look super cute!

 Oh, they don't even know what is coming!

 Me and my sweet friend Elysianna.  We decided our children simply must be a part of this madness and we wanted to witness it together.  Isn't she cute?!

 See there?  Looks like a normal parade huh?  

But just wait.

 Wait for it...

 Me and my Tink...

wait for it....

 They even give tons of candy to make you feel all safe and stuff....

And then...

 They let you have it!!!  Look at Kermit!!!  And this was just the first truck/float thing.

 Look at him...

 Talking trash!

 They let him have it!  

Check out Tink!  Take cover!!!

I was laughing so hard!

 Well, what did you think was going to happen Son?  

Smalls was having none of it.  You have to be in a bathing suit to get wet, you see, and she was not in her bathing suit.  She was way out of range of the hoses and squirt guns and water balloons, she still got hammered, but she wised up and moved back.

We will be more prepared for next year!  I told the kids we would bring towels, come in our swim suits, bring squirt guns, and (most importantly) a zip lock bag for all the candy so it won't all be ruined!

I made the mistake of having my phone in my back pocket...it had to spend a little time in the rice, and I'll be darned, it worked like a charm!

However....I will not be taking it to the next water parade.  Lesson learned!

BREY AU

Miss Smalls.  She had an awesome moment this summer with the sidewalk chalk.  She wrote her name for the first time, and I had to take a picture of her proud face and the adorable way she wrote her name!

I love my kids, and I love these moments!  I think the look on her face just says it all!

Nice job baby girl!

Rambo's birthday & fireworks!

 Fourth of July!  And Smalls is taking selfies.  I love these pictures, and I'm pretty sure she does too, so we get to see all of them for posterity.

Yep, posterity.

 The cheeks!  The cheeks!!!

 And that super model smile!

 I was the only one who would eat crab legs for dinner so I was banished to the backyard to eat them and that was okay by me!  But Smalls did come out to try some and she did like them, but not enough to eat a whole bunch so she and I remained friends.

This is a lovely picture Smalls took of me with my summer do, and my steel blue modeling face.

 Smalls let me make her hair into a star for Daddy's birthday, it was dang cute too!

 Smalls and Rambo waiting for the fireworks.  We watched fireworks with our good friends the Edwards, we are at his office building parking lot because there is a good view from there.

 She is moving in for the smooch!

 Boom!

 Cute Dan and Diane!  My adopted mom and dad, they are so so so good to us and I love them to pieces!

 And one with Smalls!

Kermit would not get out of the car on a count of he hates loud noises...Tink was trying to talk him out of the car at this point, but he would not budge, nope not one bit.

He's my oldest and he's a boy...weird huh.

 This was me and the girls at the fireworks show the day after the fourth....I know, but what are you gonna do?  We were so close, we just went in our jammies because we had been swimming all day (I love summer), we found a parking lot and called our neighbors and we all sat watching fireworks.  Lucky for Kermit, he was at a scout camp so he had to miss all the "fun".

 And dancing, there must be dancing!

 And bow...

 The awesome dirt hill all the kids went to to watch the fireworks

They did not all watch out for goat heads though, and there were some sad kiddos with poor poor feet.

 I know, not the greatest pictures, but I love the memories of it.

and why wouldn't they slide down the dirt hill in their clean pajamas on their bums?

Ahhhhh, summer time.

Nature Center!

 The MK Nature Center is another one of the places we go all summer long.  It is free and my kids could spend hours there.  Don't they look excited to be here???  I actually just love this picture of my girls!

One of my all time favorite memories about the nature center is that Smalls is sure there are sharks in the pond.  There are the hugest sturgeon fish in the pond and she always wants to come to the nature center to see her shark.  We actually found out that sharks and sturgeon are in the same "family" so she was not too far off.  

That is what I call a Smarty pants.

 There is a "river" you can play in in the visitor's center and, let me tell you, my girls were living the dream with this thing!  I need to try to make one at home!  We were in there for at LEAST an hour before we could move on!  They were awesome about sharing it though (thank goodness) because there are lots of kids who come through and want to play, and my girls were kind enough to share everything.

Smalls was too excited to even take her sunglasses off!  That sort of cracked me up.  I love this girl!

 "Here mom, will you hold these?"

Finally, she realized they needed to come off so she could get serious about this river she was building.

 I completely and absolutely super duper adore this picture of my Tink!  It is so HER!  She picked her outfit from head to toe (LOVE it) and she is just loving playing in the dirt!  I love love love this girl!  She is definitely my nature lover!  She could be here forever, and I love that about her.

 Literally, an hour of this.

 And, of course, we had to do the face in the owl picture.  I am still a sucker for this.

 On this particular day, we saw a river otter!  I couldn't believe it!  It was so cute too!  He is somewhere in the above picture, I have no idea where, but he's there.  We followed him all through the trails and up the river as far as we could, but we lost him, he was a tricky little devil!

 Another one?

Yes, another one.

This is Digger!  He is a burrowing owl and we are in love with him.  The nature center has him because he was hurt in the wild and he wouldn't survive on his own.  My girls love this little owl and would love to hug him to pieces, but they do not allow that at the nature center and Digger is grateful I bet.

 There's Smalls on a different day obviously.  We came right after school had started, it was just a little cooler and still awesome!  Look how thoughtful she looks...this is probably why I call her Smarty pants sometimes.  I really do wonder what goes on inside these little people's heads.

 My three musketeers!  I love these kiddos more than I can say!

We were trying to spot the river otter on the bridge, but did not find him.

I think Kermit loves having his picture taken.

 No, I know Kermit loves having his picture taken!  Just look at that face!  He is so excited!

Don't you just want to take them out and hug them?

And, last one.

I really do love doing stuff with my kids.  Kermit is kind of turning into a tween and thinks he is too cool to do stuff with our family and enjoy it...but secretly, I just KNOW he loves it, and I love him.

The end.

Splash Park

 So, I'm not gonna lie, I sort of like blogging summer stuff this time of year.  It makes me all hopeful and stuff that it's going to get warm again, and I like that.

THIS is the Splash Park.

I take the kids here at least once a week during the summer because it's cheap, and their dad needs to sleep without a bunch of hooligans running around the house.

 This particular summer (2013) Aubrey decided she was going to do the water slide.  My big kids don't even do the water slide.  And let me tell you folks, she did it and this is the after picture.  She is quite proud of herself.  

I'm happy to report, after she did the water slide, Tink and Kermit went down it multiple times every time we went for the rest of the summer!  They needed their little sister to show them that water slides are awesome and not scary.

 You cannot go to the Splash Park without an ample amount of snacks, and Tink does not eat her goldfish delicately, she gulps them down like a gallon of milk. 

Such a lady.

Smalls tried taking her Lalaloopsy seahorses with us once, but I wasn't fooled...those are not pockets. Still made for a cute picture.

 Because sometimes you have to do it face first.

 All the toys, and I really want 90-100 degree days again.

 hot feet hot feet!!!

This particular day, we went with the Tomlinsons and I will have you know, these lovely ladies hand fed me grapes and goldfish crackers.  I felt rather spoiled.

Please, summer, just come back!!!

Roaring Springs (just to help me remember...)

I have had it with the cold weather (yes already) so, since I am so far behind anyway, I will blog about one of my favorite places at my favorite time of year:  Roaring Springs in the summer.

We got to go with Nana, Grandpa, Aunt Dani, and Uncle Havel and we had a BLAST!

Smalls could not get enough!  She just went up and down the slide in the kid's section and she did it the whole time we were there.

 If I had taken a picture of her every time she came down the slide, I would have had 800 pictures of her probably.  But I just love the way she looks in this inter tube, it could be one of the cutest things I have seen in all my life!

This is Nana with my niece, whom I can't remember if I have given her a blog name, she shall be known as Ladybug because of her swimsuit at this particular time, and because she is the only kid on earth who has ever been able to tell me just what a ladybug says.

Nana was kind enough to hang out with the little girls in the kid's pool for the day so us moms and dads could take Tink and Kermit on some of the bigger slides for some childhood torture.  Just kidding, at least where Tink is concerned, she loved the big slides.  I think Kermit would have been happy to float the river or do the wave pool all day, but we wouldn't let him, we are mean.

One of my favorite moments of the day was when Tink and Grandpa went on the Avalanche together, yeah, that's right, Grandpa went with her and she loved it!  And, let's face it, so did he.