Summer 2013

This summer went by so fast! I guess I'd better put some pics up to remember a little bit of it. Except for our AWESOME trip to Utah in July, it was mostly uneventful and HOT. We rarely left the house unless it was to go swimming! Even though it stinks having to wake up so early again, I'm mostly glad to be back on a schedule now that the kids are back in school. And of course, with the start of school comes the hope of some cooler weather, which is the biggest thing I'm looking forward to right now!

Nature Girl with her favorite tree frog that stuck around our house for quite awhile. She could even carry it around on her shoulder!

 Makayla finally started losing some teeth!

 I love this picture. It's the last day of school, and Makayla was sooo sad and miserable all day because she didn't want school to be over. Broke my heart.

 How in the heck is my baby girl 3 years old??! I don't think I can stand her getting any older.

 Ella's Minnie Mouse party

 The girls hanging out with their cousins, Logan and Carson.

 Our trip to Utah! This is our adults-only date night.

 The grandkids with their favorite Aunt Stacy (Brian's youngest sister)

 Temple night at the Jordan River temple!

 Of course we went to the beach a few times. This is a jelly fish we found. It's in a plastic sand toy with water and a seashell. It was kinda small, but we buried it in the sand anyway.

 Just our family

 Going to our very tiny local zoo with the boy cousins.

 Playing at the zoo playground.

 Kylee, having a photo shoot with her favorite stuffed animals. 

 Taking the kids to the Orlando temple for a primary activity.

 Having a dress-up show. A favorite activity around here.

 First day of school!!

This year I'm doing a preschool co-op with some ladies from church. This is Ella's first day - she loves it!!

11th Anniversary!

For our anniversary this year, we went to the Hoop-dee-doo Musical Review, which is a fun, western-saloon-style dinner show at the Fort Wilderness resort campground at Disney World. The show and the food were so much fun! Later that night we went over to the Polynesian Resort and watched the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom from the beach there. It was the perfect ending to a great day.

A great blue heron I spotted near the campground. The picture doesn't show its size very well, but these big guys stand about 4 feet tall and are very impressive to see up close.

Fort Wilderness sign

In front of one of the props for the show by the theatre.

Getting ready to eat and watch the show!

When it was time for the main course, the waitresses came along with these buckets of ribs and fried chicken and slammed them down on our metal plates. I about jumped out of my skin! (but it was all part of the fun)

Enjoying our western-themed dinner of ribs, fried chicken, beans, corn, mashed potatoes, salad, and cornbread. Mmmmmm, boy!

The show was great, with lots of singing, dancing, silliness and family fun. I almost wished we had brought the kids with us!

Time to bring out the strawberry shortcake! Which of course had its own song and dance.

Holy Mother of all Strawberry Shortcakes! There are no words to explain how scrumptious this was. I'm still dreaming about it.

For one of the final songs, they gave each table a washboard to play along with our spoons. Because what's a song without a good washboard accompaniment? Nuthin, that's what.

The show ended with several audience members being brought up on stage and being part of the show. My favorite was the old guy in the angel costume at the far right.