~ Tea and Cookies ~

Avery got a new little tea set for her birthday this year and wanted to invite her little neighbor friends over for some tea and cookies. She made invitation all by herself and at first I thought we were just "pretending". But, much to my surprise, she handed her little invitations out the next time she saw her friends outside. Which I'm glad she did, the girls + Quinn :) had a great time!!!

When I called to remind the Mom's {thanks for reminding me first Trisha! :)} about the tea party Avery wanted me to tell them that they should either wear a skirt or a dress AND wear a fancy hat too! Phew, tough hostess! Funny girl! She does love a good coordinated party!

{She really is a mini me, isn't she? I LOVE IT!}

Serving themselves tea {pink lemonade} and cookies.

As you can imagine, there was a lot of chatting and giggling at this tea party!

Drinking their tea like pros! Pinkies up girls!

A toast to great friendship!

Guests at the tea party were: Haylee, Avery, Brylee, Quinn, Bryton and Sasha ...such cute friends!

After the whole pitcher of "tea" was gone, they were off to jump on the tramp. That only lasted a few minutes, it was TOO HOT! So they settled for a popsicle and sidewalk chalk instead.

My shy little Quinney didn't want to be in one more picture with the girls! :) You better get used to it Son, I do believe you're going to have lots of girls flocking to you in the upcoming years, you handsome devil you!

The girls and Quinney had a great time at Avery's fun little tea party! I'm afraid I sent the guests home with a bit of a sugar high though. Lots of pink lemonade + sugar wafer cookies + a popsicle = ONE BIG SUGAR HIGH! :)

Happy Pioneer Day!

The Mendon 24th Pioneer Day celebration is always a treat! Although we drove into town just after the parade ended {oops!} we still had a fun filled day. Luckily Bubba, Tony and Lily saved Avery and Quinn some candy or they'd a been real disappointed. Of course it wouldn't be a true Mendon 24th celebration without getting soaked in the fireman hose down, playing the kid games, getting our face painted, jumping in the bouncy house or sliding down the big blow up slides, so that's just what we did!
{Sadly, I just didn't take any pictures! :( Boo!}

My three fellas played catch while we waited for the softball tournament to start...

Thank goodness Justin brought his mitt, he caught 3 home run balls that came too close for comfort and almost hit us. Way to go honey, you're my hero! :)

Cute cousins waiting for the fireworks to start.

My sweet Hayes all bundled and snuggling with Aunt Carrie.

Although Hayzen and Quinn look like they were having a miserable time in this picture, it's false! We all had a great time and love our little Mendon 24th Pioneer Day celebration!!

Awww, what a great day! :)

Camping @ Beaver Mountain

This year for our annual family camping trip, we went to Beaver Mountain. We got there on Thursday afternoon and set up our tent. Avery and Quinn were SO excited to sleep in the tent this year! After our delicious tin-foil dinners we roasted marshmallows and had smores around the camp fire.

Well, some of us roasted marshmallows, and some of us just shoved them in our mouths! You're so cute honey, even with a mouth full of marshmallows!

Things got a little hairy the first night when Hayzen decided he wanted to cry instead of sleep but after leaving camp at 1:45 in the morning and driving him home to Mom and Dad's house, he slept great. Phew! Camping with babies is not my favorite thing! :)

The next day after our yummy mountain man breakfast in the dutch ovens...

...we headed over to beautiful Bear Lake. We had our own little sandy beach, perfect!

Another round of having fun singin' around the campfire!

We didn't even attempt to see if Hayzen would do better in the tent this night, Justin just took him straight over to his parents condo in Bear Lake to sleep. He did great and slept soundly the whole night. Little stinker! :) Avery, Quinn and I decided to forgo the tent too and we slept in the motor home.

Saturday morning after breakfast Dad wanted all the grand kids to try and use their Great Great Grandpa's hand saw to saw wood. Here's Dad, telling the grand kids all about his Grandpa and the old saw.

Avery and Taysia were great log holders while Dad and Justin sawed logs for the fire!

What a blessing it is to have such a close family and make so many fun memories together! I love my family more than anything and I'm so thankful to have them. As always, another great year of camping!

{All photos taken by Scott because I, like a dunce, forgot my camera!}

BBF - Best Buddies Forever

Quinney was so happy to have his cousin Josh here. These two are best buddies and Quinn was in heaven whenever him and Josh were together! Their 14 year difference in age didn't seem to matter one bit. They played soccer, basketball and frisbee together and Josh gave Quinney lots and lots of shoulder rides.

I asked Quinn what he thought about when he saw this picture, he smiled and said, "I love Josh".

Look at these three handsome faux-hawk fella's!

"I hate good-bye's!" ~ Lloyd Christmas

The day before Mike, LeEtta and their family left, we spent most of the day in Park City. We went on the Alpine Slide and the Coaster, so much fun!

Avery with her cute Indiana cousins, Alex, Hailey and Hannah.

Quinney and Hayzen with their awesome cousin Josh.

After our fun time in Park City we ate a yummy dinner at The Spaghetti Factory @ Trolley Square and then called it a night.

The Smith's and the Smith's. :)

As they say, all good things must come to an end. As much as we didn't want to say good-bye to part of our family, it was time. Avery and Quinn already miss their fun cousins so much and ask about them often. We had a great time while they were here and made some fun memories, ones we will always remember and cherish forever!

Non-stop FAMILY FUN!

So I'm quickly realizing that I forgot to take pictures of more than 1/2 of the fun things we did while Mike and LeEtta and their family were here from Indiana! Dang it! I just want to jot down what we did so we can remember their visit even if we don't have pictures to show it. After all, we were with them 8 out of the 9 days they were here, talk about some great family FUN!!!

Monday, June 28th

~ Mike, LeEtta and the kids arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house about 9:00 pm. Hooray! We were there to greet them, 4 years without seeing part of your family is a long time!

Tuesday, June 29th

~ Everyone congregated at Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house for a yummy pizza, bread stick and salad dinner.

Wednesday, June 30th

~ It was Girls Night Out! All of the ladies {including the teenage girls too, they might not want to be called 'ladies'. :)} went out to dinner at Robintino's + Grandpa and Mike. Then all of us ladies went to see Eclipse at the Gateway - Grandpa and Mike. Loved the movie by the way! :)

Thursday, July 1st

~ This is the one and only day we didn't do anything with the fam :(

Friday, July 2nd

~ Went to the splash park for Avery's birthday during the day. Then went to dinner and met everyone at the Tinseltown theater to see Toy Story 3 also to celebrate Avery's birthday.
{Two movies in one week for me! I was living the
high life for sure! ha ha!}

Saturday, July 3rd

~ 1/2 of the clan came to watch Avery in the parade that morning. Then that night, everyone came over to our house for a 4th of July BBQ and to watch the fireworks.

Sunday, July 4th

~ We all went to Muller Park in the evening to roast hot dogs and smores for dinner and for family pictures, which by the way, turned out great for such a big bunch with lots of little kids! :)

Monday, July 5th

~ Tayler's 16th birthday celebration! Breakfast at Lisa's, Cafe Rio with everyone for dinner and back to Lisa's for some hot tubin'.

Tuesday, July 6th

~ Went to the U of U Bookstore with Mike's family. Then met up with the rest of the fam in Park City to go on the Alpine Slide and the Coaster. Then we went to The Spaghetti Factory for dinner and then back to Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house to say our good-byes. Mike and his family left early Wednesday morning for home.

What a great week! We had so much fun being with Mike, LeEtta, Josh, Lee {Josh's friend}, Alex, Hailey and Hannah. We were all very sad to see them go but are just thankful they were able to come visit. Especially so our kids could get to know their cousins, who they miss already so much. We love our Indiana Smith family and hope to see them again very soon!

These pictures of from July 5th at Lisa's house. Avery learned how to blow a bubble with her gum...

Having fun in the hot tub!!!

On Independence Day

Avery's dance studio had a float in the 4th of July parade. { July 3rd} She was so excited to ride on it and wave to the crowd. She was also thrilled that she got to throw candy! Wahoo!

We were at the very end of the parade so I could go pick her up after her float went by and she saved some candy to throw to us. How sweet! There she is, tossing it overboard.

Hayzen was a little nervous around Uncle Mike at first, but he warmed up pretty quick. Especially since he was feeding him taffy! :)

Look at all that candy!

My cute little 4th of July babe after the parade!

Avery was so happy that her cousins, Uncle Mike and Grandpa Smith came to watch her in the parade!

Avery and Quinn had so much fun with Hailey and Alex while they were here. It was hard to say good-bye.

We had a yummy 4th of July BBQ with all the family at our house that night. We sang happy birthday to Avery and had delicious birthday cake too!

After the BBQ we all went down to our small town fireworks show. It was excellent, they always put on a great show!

I can't think of a better way to celebrate the 4th of July than a parade, a BBQ and a great firework show!