July

July was a memory filled month. Our first stop was Oregon for Emily and Jason's wedding. Leah did surprisingly well on the flight, and she even slept a little.

Layover! 

Kim and Tim picked us up from the airport and were welcomed with this sight. Leah is still young, and Emmy is still rather unpredictable, but the kids are slowly getting easier to travel with. 

When you really boil life down to the most important and meaningful things, this is what you get:

I thank my lucky stars all the time that these two boys were born so close to each other.

Emmy and Braeden sure had fun buzzing around in this thing.

These two practically look 16 in this picture! Emmy had some allergy problems this day, but it was a quick fix with some medicine.

This is the beautiful park where Jason and Emily got married. As we prepared for the wedding we visited it a few times and also had time to fit in some fun there.

Swimming at the hotel - it was so fun to stay at the same place as these guys.

Setting up for the wedding

It was a beautiful wedding, and it was especially neat to see Nate marry Jason and Emily.

Next stop was Grandma Kim's and Poppa Tim's house. The kids rode in the RV, and Nate and I drove Tim's truck with Leah.

Playing in the river behind Grandma's house will always be a favorite memory for my kids. 

I loved having a chance to wear jeans in July!

Emmy and Ryder really formed a strong bond and friendship this trip.

We took a tour of CenturyLink Field, and I'm so glad we did.

Every time we visit Seattle we have admired these gates and this beautiful driveway. It just so happens there is a little apartment in there available on Airbnb, so we stayed there during our visit!

Next stop, Utah! My cute nephew Gregory makes me smile every time I see him. 

Nate and Jansen took an afternoon to do a little hiking and exploring together.

We had plans to go to the zoo one morning, but when we arrived it was REALLY busy. We went to the Church History Museum instead and had wonderful visit.

These little ones stormed Temple Square.

Since we were in Salt Lake already, we decided to hike Ensign Peak.

There was that time at the BYU Creamery that my mom decided to see if she could do a cartwheel.

My kids don't waste a minute making themselves feel at home at Grandma's house.

Uncle Don took us fishing one morning. It was beautiful...and cold to these Texans.

Emmy found a spot of sunshine to try and keep warm.

Nate and I went to a session at the Provo City Center Temple.

And what made it even better was having Christian and Julie there.

Nate and Brennon hiked Lone Peak together.

We had a special and too short visit with Grandma Nye and Dick. She gave each of the kids one of her special bears.

Some of my best Ohio buddies. Utah is the final resting place for all of us eventually haha.

• These cute mermaid dress ups were given to Natalie and Emmy and they were WELL used.

Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point

Brennon's surprise birthday party

We went on an awesome hike with Lexi and Brennon.

One morning Jansen, Leah, and I found these goats and some wild grapes.

For some reason it was so fun to just hang out in the shade and feed those guys.

Natalie got to sleep over at Brookie's a few times while we were in Utah. Julie found them like this one evening and sent me the picture.

Grandma has a "magic garden" at her house. Every morning a new flower appeared.

My best friends from high school - we celebrated Janelle and her little girl that was on the way at Brick Oven.

These girls could create anything out of...anything.

I love this shot of Leah with Grandpa.

The kids built this awesome fort at Grandpa and Grandma's. They could have worked on it for 5 more hours if we didn't have to leave.

Angie and Evie did us a huge favor and drove us all to the airport. We accidentally parked pretty far from where we needed to be, and I do not like to be late, so we were trucking it through the airport with a ton of stuff. Easy to laugh at now...

So hard to say goodbye :(

It was so wonderful to be back with Nate.

He had beautiful flowers waiting for us when we got home.

June

They have a 5th grade promotion here in San Antonio for your goodbye and graduation from elementary school. Jansen's principal, Ms. Keairnes, retired after finishing up the year at Scarborough. She was a good principal for Jansen and will be missed. She took notice of him the first time she met us, and I know she worked hard to meet his needs. He often completes standardized testing early, and on at least one occasion she took him out to get some exercise after he had finished.

I adored Jansen's teacher Mrs. Martinez, and he really liked her too. I think they carefully chose who they thought would be a good fit for him. It can't be overstated how much a great teacher can change the whole school experience. She was positive, accommodating, and caring.

Jansen and his buddy Nolan

One of Jansen's friends had a birthday party after school on the last day. His mom also took some fun pictures. Jansen went to part of the party, but he ended up needing to come home before bowling because a storm blew in that scared him. I felt bad for him, but everyone was understanding and I was thankful for that. 

Natalie finished up another great season with I9 in June.

Now this made me laugh. Emmy dressed up two pool noodles as a boy and a girl and they are engaged - notice the gold ring.

Rubik's cube mania continues 

The missionaries (understandably) love Nate. He IS a great example of someone who goes out of his way to support and reach out to people. Sometimes I even have to reign it in a little. 

Fire ants are still our big enemy at the park. They are the sneakiest and nastiest little things. Gone are the days of the harmless little ant crawling on your shoe.

We love Bahama Bucks. It's so nice to be at a stage of life where for the most part, no one is running around the store. We can sit and eat and enjoy. 

Sometimes to keep busy in the summer we attend the Peter Piper Pizza activity days. There are some crafts, and then I let the kids play some of the arcade games.

Natalie loves to go shopping, and she really loves to go shopping with me. She has her own purse full of all sorts of things. I think she even has some emergency snacks and entertainment for Leah. She is going to make a prepared and great momma.

Our friend let us have half of her jackfruit. This thing was STICKY and not very tasty, but it was a fun way to add some excitement to our morning.

Happy Father's Day! I could certainly go on and on about the incredible father that he is. The girls had some heartfelt gifts for him this year. 

We were so lucky to have another visit from the Nelsons. Our kids have always gotten along great, but it seems like the older they get the more fun they have together. We had crepes to celebrate Brinley's birthday.

I hope these girls realize the dreaminess of having crepes in a hammock.

We have 1 pm church right now. Although it means Leah misses her nap, I like being able to put her down at 7 at night. She is doing great at nursery. She seems to have a moment of hesitation every time I drop her off, but then she bravely just goes for it. I'm so thankful it's not a fight. Emmy has been having a hard time going to Primary lately. I think it mostly just stems from wanting to be with me rather than not liking Primary. She definitely takes up the most of my energy right now.

Natalie has started to love Garfield. I was a HUGE Garfield fan around her age. For one of my birthday parties my friends contacted everyone coming to my party and had them wrap and bring a can of Garfield Spaghettios for my gift. They brought real gifts as well. It was so funny. I remember feeling amused at first, and then as I kept opening cans I was so worried that all I would get was Spaghettios for my birthday.

Leah loves to paint. Thankfully her high chair makes for a safe place to put her while she does it.

Emmy is still not swimming independently, but all of my kids have been slow to learn to swim well. She still loves the pool. 

The kids had been begging to have a lemonade stand. We decided to do it one Saturday when Nate was working or something, and although it got a little rainy, it was a big hit. I posted about it on our neighborhood page and people were so supportive. It ended up being a fun morning, but still something I only want to do about once a year!

One of those, well, we will never do that again moments. It's wet sidewalk chalk.

Natalie took some sewing lessons over the summer. She happened to have a friend in the class, so that made it even more fun.