4th of July!

We decided to brave the crowds and hit the lake for the 4th of July.  It was a beautiful day.  So we called up some friends and made plans.

Cute boating girls!

Porter

Sidney and Allen.  Go Sid!

Cute friends :)

Jax had so much fun.  He played in the sand/dirt and poured buckets of water on himself!

Because of the extremely high fire danger our town and all of our surrounding towns cancelled their fireworks show.  We couldn't have the 4th of July with no fireworks!  So we found out that they were doing them after the Rapids soccer game.  So we got tickets and drove WAY up north to watch the game….and the fireworks!  And we talked our friends into it too!

Man, we all have a lot of kids!

The fireworks were really good.  We were glad we were able to see them :)

Happy 4th of July!

California!

Happy Birthday to me :)

We flew out to California right after the Trek on my Birthday.

Allen's family made me feel very special :)

We took the kids to the beach for a day.  We prepped them that it would be windy and cool, and that the water would be cold. 

But, it was gorgeous!  Sunny, warm, and NO wind.

We soaked it up!

Jax even put his feet in and loved it.

It was such a fun day :)

We met up with Aunts, Uncles, and cousins at Six flags.

It was really fun.  Porter and Sidney gave in to peer pressure and decided they loved the BIG kid rides.

Drop zone, roller coasters, and everything! 

Our fun group! Love our family!

Everyone was a little worn out on the ride back to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Allen had a work conference in San Francisco so Grandma and Grandpa were so nice and keep Porter, Sidney, and Rylee and Allen, Jax, and I spent the night in the city. Allen left early in the morning and Jax and I left in the afternoon.  It was my first time driving over the bridge and into San Francisco, I was pretty proud of myself!

Jax and I went on a walk around the city the next morning.  It was fun.  We went down to the piers. Then we met Allen when he was done and we went to some fun tourist sites.

Always a fun trip and so nice to see family!

Allen's hiking pics

Pioneer Trek

Allen and I were asked to be a Ma and Pa for our Stake Pioneer Trek.

Neither of us has ever done the Trek, so it was a fun adventure!

My Mom and Sister took care of our kids and we went to Wyoming to Martin's Cove.  

We had an awesome family of 8 kids and we walked and walked and walked!

It was a really neat experience.  I am so glad that we had the opportunity to go and especially to do it together.

Girls Camp

Oh Girls Camp.

The months of planning, meetings, schedules, visits, paper work, phone calls, emails, prayers, crunching numbers, and so much more!

We had a garage sale for our fundraiser this year.  We asked for donations from ward members.

WOW, they totally came through!  I am always humbled at the amount of love and service in our ward.

We went through everything and organized it all.  The girls did a great job.  They made posters and signs and all helped out in shifts at the garage sale.  They set up a Snack Shack and sold popcorn, shaved ice, and other snacks.

We had SO much stuff!  We were able to raise enough money to allow us to go on our High adventure camp!

 

We camped at a beautiful lake.  We swam, played games, sang songs, ate yummy food, read, and so much more. On our High adventure day we went to a High ropes course, a free fall jump, and a zip line.  We have amazing girls, Priesthood leaders, and young women leaders.

It was awesome!

We strengthened bonds, testimonies, and confidences.

It was a great experience and worth every minute.

Playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

The kids and Allen had Monday off for Memorial day.  So they called Grandma and Grandpa and asked if we could come and play for the day!

We all had fun!

Riding the 4 wheeler.

We even made a jump.

Rylee loving the little car.

The weather was awesome and we loved playing outside.

Thanks for the fun day!

KiDs

Rylee and her friends after their play at school.

Porter's "French lemon" cake he made for his World Culture project.

He was pretty proud, and it was yummy!

Football champs!

Allen's flag football team won the championship game!

These guys play hard…and they are good :)

Congratulations guys!

Sidney's soccer team

Sidney had so much fun playing soccer this season. 

She played hard and had a really fun team.

I think her favorite part was playing with her sweet friend, Lily!

Great job Sidney!

Good friends, Good parties!

Our good friends, the Birnels, plan the best parties!

They hosted a survivor challenge night.  Allen and I were team captains.  We didn't know anything about the activity, just that we needed to be ready to leave at 5:30.  Allen and I being the competitive competitors that we are were poised and ready!

We got the call that we had 5 minutes to gather together and load in our car everything we thought we would need to survive. So we got to work running around the house!

We loaded up in our car and went around to pick up our teammates.  We gave them the same instructions at each of their houses and then we all raced to the park to meet the other teams.

There were more challenges, including the fire making challenge.  Our guys did great at that one!

We had an awesome team!

Thank you Birnels, you are the BEST!

May day!

Happy May Day!

These are the pictures that we sent to all of Allen's family in California on May 1st.

You never know in Colorado!