Let the Summer Begin!

It is officially summer and we are ready! We kicked off the hot season with memorial day. It had been a while since we had done anything in Salt Lake so we cruised on up there for the day. 

First, we hiked Ensign peak. It was short enough for the kids and beautiful.

Derek, my little brother, and his friend Kim came with us. He is living in SLC for the summer while working at the LDS Conference Center. We are excited to spend a little extra time with him!

   Being Memorial Day and all, we headed to the Salt Lake City cemetery. Weird thing is, I love graveyards and I'm always dragging Cameron along with me so this wasn't our first time there. It's one of my favorite places in Utah. It was packed with people but we got a few pictures with a few of our favorite dead people! Up top is Derek with Porter Rockwell. Below is Cameron and Connor with Erastus Snow. Erastus is Cameron's triple great grandpa and Cameron's Dad, Cameron, and Connor all have 'Snow' as their middle names.  

 A picture I wished we could have taken but didn't was of President Monson. Cameron spotted him first putting flowers on a grave. Of course he was surrounded by three men in black so we thought it better to watch from a distance. It was a highlight of our day to see the prophet of God in person.

 Afterwards, we headed to the Church History Museum and we played around at the new Book of Mormon exhibit for kids.

 We, of course, visited Jesus. It is interesting to watch how reverent my kids get when they enter this room.

 To finish off the day, we headed to Nana's house to swim and have a BBQ. It was a great day!

 

 It's been hot, which satisfies my Vegas blood. We have gotten out the pool, the bikes, and planted our garden. I love this time of year. 

 

 To make summer feel more real, we signed Allie up for T-ball. Every Tuesday and Thursday we watch Allie learn how to play ball. Very entertaining!

 

Graduations!

We had two graduations this month. First we went to Colorado to Cameron's brother's graduation. Besides the freezing weather, we had a great time with family and wished we could have stayed longer. I'm sad we did a poor job at taking pictures. This was all we got of the weekend.

This picture was taken of us at Brandon's graduation where we froze to the core. It snowed on us but we survived. Way to go, Brando! 

Allie was our second graduate. Her kindergarten class had the cutest program and I can't believe I officially have a first grader. Congrats, Allie! You did awesome!



Allie and her amazing teacher, Mrs. Barnett!

This Kid!

A few random pics . . .

Busy Brinley is working us over these days but we couldn't live without her!

She is a huge cuddler...especially with strangers. I have to watch her 24/7 when we are in public. You never know who she will walk up to and out stretch her arms. She does it ALL the time!

This is a nice way for her to pass the time . . . if she would stay like that for more then two seconds!

We are working on table manners - among other things.

Connor Turns 3!

My little boy is not so little anymore!

Our April Snow Storm

Wouldn't be Utah without one!

 

 

 

 

Brinley's One Year Old Pictures

My sister-in-law Tori takes pictures of my kids for free and she always does an awesome job! I love it!! Brinley was grumpy but we were still able to get her to smile. These are some of my favorites.

 

 

 

Easter Eggs and Baby Chicks

We had a great Easter this year. Cameron's dad and step-mom were in town so we got everyone together, ate a lot of good food, and went home with a ton of Easter candy! 

Trying to take a few quick family photos Easter Sunday. Four out five happy... I'll take it!

"Smile kids. Brinley, hold still."

After taking Brinley out... "Okay, smile kids...um...okay." 

"All right. We're done!"

Brinley's cooperating now.

Here are the kids on an awesome Easter egg hunt and their Nana's house.

We will have Easter candy until Halloween!

Our biggest Easter surprise for the kids were four baby chicks. We are going to raise them and eat their eggs. One of the four chickens we think was a rooster. It constantly pecked at the other chicken's eye balls. It was pretty aggressive and we didn't want to keep it. The store does not let you return the chicks so we had to "return it to a special farm" (a.k.a. heaven for baby chicks)! We didn't have the heart to tell the kids we had to kill it. So, that night we were thinking of a good way to put down the cute little thing. I couldn't let Cam just break it's tiny little neck so he found a way to gas it using soda and vinegar. The gas puts it to sleep first and then it kills it (if you do it right). Well, it didn't go as planned. To spare you all the horrid details, I think it would have been more humane to break its tiny little neck. You live and learn. Anyway, we bought another chicken and all four are happy and well, as you can see.