June -San Diego

San Diego 2008! We were excited to go to San Diego because we also got to see Geoff after him being gone for 3 weeks! A few days after arriving we went with my family to LaJolla to see seal beach, shell beach and the tide pools. The kids loved it and we were all worn out after!










Here are the seals we got to see. It was really neat to see them all in their natural enviornment.










This is at shell beach were there are tons of shells to look at and take home. The adults relaxed while the kids were in a frenzy looking for neat shells.















Here Amber holding her loot of shells.

































The girls also loved playing in the waves. The girls and boys are wearing matching shirts that aunt chrissy bought them, so cute.






Geoff had as much if not more fun in the tide pools than the kids. We saw lots of crabs and annenimes.








Here is Cooper with my cousin's son Peyton. From the back they looked exactly alike. It was a good thing Cooper fell asleep with blue gum in his mouth the second night there becasue when he woke up it was stuck in the back of his hair. We could tell these two apart from the back, Cooper was the one with blue gum. I tried once to take it out but I couldn't and Cooper screamed so I just left it in. At a resturant someone next to him asked me "is that blue gum in is hair" and I said why yes it is!

Of course we need some shots with the kids playing in the ocean, all the kids loved it this year!

Calvin could not get enought of building sandcastles and bridges. He was very pround of this little bridge with rocks on it he built.



The big cousins helped make Amber and Emma into beautiful sand mermaids.

Lexi even made Calvin into a sand octopus.






Another day we went to a huge pier in Oceanside. Aunt Chrissy was so nice and bought all the girls two matching shirts.

The highlight of the pier walk was watching a young fisherman bring up a sand shark. It was so cool and a little sad to see it die. The boys however thought it was just awesome!

Amber was our bug and crab girl. Every day at the beach she tried to find the biggest sand crab, this one was the biggest of the day.

Cooper loved playing in the shallow waves.

This was Lexi's second year of great boogie boarding.











A cute pic of dad and Cooper playing in the waves.

Calvin even rode a few waves, you can tell his excitement by the huge smile on his face.

June -Mesa Youth Museum.

On a day where I was only watching 2 other kids (Ashlee-4, sister Carli-2)I took them all to the Mesa Youth Museum. They have a cute children's themed museum in half and then an artville play area in the other half of the building. The theme this time was table manners and they had so many cute displays and activities all associated with eating. I liked learning how to fold fancy napkins myself.

Here we are at the cool entrance of the museum

The kids got to design their own plate, Cooper also put designs all over his hands and face.

The kids even learned about other culture's table manners and practiced eating food like Japanese.

There was even this full size kitchen with lots of play food. I had to keep pretending to eat lots and lots of food.

Lexi loves organizing and I had to keep the other kids busy while she totally cleaned and organized the kitchen. I had to take a quick picture of her before more kids came in and played in it.

Here is a cute picture of Amber reading in the little family room.

There was even a pretend resturant which was so cool. There was also a stage, piano, and seating area.

Of course Cooper found the car and spent lots of time kicking other kids out so he could drive.

June summer activities

Geoff was in Qatar for Father's Day (so neither of us got pampered this year) and they kids helped me make this sign and we e-mailed the picture to him.










I took the kids to a cute Fairy Cakes bakery and they picked out fancy cupcakes and cookies.












Calvin brings his dog Jet everywhere with him. At they bakery they had webkinz which was great because calvin's account was expiring and they had little black puppies so he got to get a lil kins black lab to go with his puppy. He named him appropriatley Little Jet.















I also had they kids invite a friend over to make wholemade pizza's and little pies. They had fun piling up the pies with pudding, fruit and of course whip cream.

One night I gave them all shaving cream and they all had fun making a big mess with it!

My Aunt lives in Val Vista Lakes and invited us and the Vernons as her guest and we went swimming at their lagoon pool. It was hot but we had fun!

Cooper looks so cute in this picture. The kids were just eating ice cream and swinging in our backyard. Cooper is finally growing out of his milk allergy and can have yummy ice cream now.

We also went swimming twice at Aunt Chrissy's pool. We get the whole pool and jacuzzi to ourselves when we have used it.

Lexi's Spa Party

Lexi was excited for a SPA party and invited only girls this time. Chrissy was so nice and helped me pamper all the girls, I couldn't have done it all with out her.


The girls first came and soaked and washed their feet. After that they washed their face and got a cucumber masks. As the mask was drying and they were laying down (listening to calming music) chrissy and I came by and painted their toe nails. The look so cute all lined up an relaxing!








Then I got busy doing hair and that is all I did for the rest of the night. After their hair was done, Chrissy glittered them up! Here is the whole group before present opening.
I did hair in 2 styles, in a pony tale or half done. Most girls were cute and wanted it done like the birthday girl!
Chrissy caught me finishing up the last girl who wanted it done. They also ate cute chicken salad sandwiches on rolls and were told that you had little sandwiches at spas.

We finished up with each girl getting a bowl of melted chocolate which they used to dip in fruit, cream puffs, or brownies. They all loved being treated like an older girl and getting pampered.

May & Memorial Weekend 2008

Geoff was in Qatar for Mother's Day but the kids pampered me and made me such cute cards. We had a yummy brunch of bran muffins, strawberries and eggs. For dinner Lexi wanted to have a fancy sit down dinner so she helped me make roast, salad and corn fritters. Aunt Chrissy came and brought dessert. Lexi set the dining room table and even set out finger dishes to wash your hands in. Before we could say anything Calvin drank up his warm finger water! When we told him what he did he said that was a dumb idea and he already washed his hands!

Of course for our annual tradition we went to pinetop during Memorial weekend with the Vernons. It was crazy this year because there was a snow storm on our way up and first day there we even had to go to a hotel the first night because the electricity was down at the cabin! But 4 days later the snow all melted and it was in the 70's again.

We found this waterfall at woodland lake which is normally not going because there is not enough water. We took some cute pictures by it.
The Vernon Clan

All the kids LOVED exploring by the lake and waterfall. Calvin found this stick that looked like a gun so he had to carry it around the whole time.

Cooper loved throwing things into the muddy water of course.

The girls loved climing all the rocks and posing for me.
Lexi is in her element, Nature! Her and Dallin could have spent all day at the lake and waterfall exploring everything.

On the way home we also stopped by the Salt River and let the kids wade in the water.

Amber also graduated from Kindergarden a few days later. Geoff was able to go to the graduation ceremony a day before he left to Qatar again.