Oops, some of these pictures are out of order and my computer won't let me move them. So, here is a peek of what's to come... Rivers got baptized on June 26th and here are her Nana and Lito posing with her.
Here's a pic from a while ago... it's Tanner and Alissa on their creative, romantic snow date they back country skiied to... he proposed and the wedding is July 23rd. Woo hoo!
I love, love nice summer nights when the sun goes down enough for the whole yard to be shaded and we just hang out on the front porch/yard eating popsicles and watching/mingling with neighbors until about 10pm or until the mosquitoes get too bad. We have a fun neighborhood.
Baby blue eyes sporting a pretty little red dress that was mine as a baby. For 8 months the only word I could think of to describe Reagan was "sweet" and then all of a sudden this week she has started doing this frustrated grunt/growl (like my Marge Simpson) and grabbing our faces until we want to cry. I think she's getting frustrated because she just wants to get up and go, go, go but she's not strong enough yet. She rolls and scoots around, but she acts like it's not fast enough for her - she wants to run!
We found some face paints and Dwight is very into tigers (he's Tiger Roar and Rivers is Tiger Mania), so I turned him into one for the day. He couldn't stop looking at himself in the mirror.
Heeeey! Hoooo! Cute little matching 4th of July outfits. I guess you can't really tell, but his shorts are the same material as her dress. They finally have enough core strength to sit up in these great little seats for a while.
We had a neighborhood 4th of July flag raising, free breakfast and kid parade followed by a big water fight with the fire engine hoses.
The kids decorated their bikes and did the parade. As soon as the fire engine took off, which was the signal that the parade was starting, CD bolted on his bike, weaving in between everyone like it was a race. Carlos had to run to catch him and make sure he didn't try to pass the fire engine. If this picture was bigger you would see by the look on his face how ready to go he was. He is a wild man on his pink balance bike - going off curbs, trying to do "tricks" etc. My favorite quote of his this month was after another bad bike crash... I hurried over to help him and he was getting up laughing and saying "you can't break me!"
Dreyton's favorite spot to scoot to is under our chairs. He always has that lizard tongue out lately.
I finally convinced Carlos to let me cut his hair (after he saw the baptism photos and agreed that he kind of looked like a terrorist). I tried to stop after I cut it into this sweet do.
Rivers' baptism day. She looked so beautiful.
Christina (Carlos' sister) made her a pretty chrysanthemum lay and I made her dress.
Another big day for our family. Carlos baptized Rivers and the water was freezing. No one warned them that it wasn't the usual balmy bath water, so the looks on their faces was pretty funny.
Here's the whole crew that came and supported Rivers.
And here's Rivers with all her boy cousins at the after party. Yes, Rivers is actually massaging Sione's feet.
Tanner and Alissa babysitting the kids. Never give Dwight a hose unless you're ready to be drenched....you think I'd learn.
Rivers turned 8 on June 23rd and wanted to have her party at Sugarhouse park so we could do what she calls "the riverwalk". It's a hike along the river that goes through the park. I know Rivers likes to do that stuff, but I didn't know if all the kids would like it, but everyone had a great time and it was the most relaxing party I've ever had to plan. We just walked along a pretty trail, stopped to throw rocks in the water, collected rocks to paint, played some games, and ate watermelon (Rivers favorite) and cake. I can't believe I have an 8 year old. What a great kid!
Birdhouse birthday cake.
Their new ride..
We had dinner at my cousin's house and Rivers has so much fun making up movies and routines with her girls.
It's been really fun to live kind of close to them because growing up I always told everyone DeEtte was my best friend even though we lived like 1000 miles away and I only got to spend two weeks a year with her. Now we're all grown up and it's been fun to reconnect because our likes/dislikes, and opinions are so similar it's almost creepy :) ......and our kids have a great time together.
This is probably a record long post, but a lot has happened the last couple months. I figured out the round sink downstairs is a perfect baby bathtub.
We had our "track nights" again this summer. I love the look on C-Dizzle's face here.
.....and here. How can you ever get mad at that face!
So, on July 23rd, Tanner and Alissa tied the knot, giving us a great excuse to all gather in Utah. We had fun hanging out in the front yard....
walking to Sugarhouse park to play in the stream ... here is Whitney showing off her best rock skipping skills. It was blazing hot this day, so to cool off Whit and I decided to walk with the kids to the stream. That 3/4 mile walk seemed so long and we practically layed in the stream to get extra cooled for the walk back, but it all evaporated into steam within minutes.
Dwight definitely has some Bushnell in him. He went right up to the stream and jumped off the little cliff to get in.
Reagan and Dreyton finallygot to meet their new cousin Cassidy. It's so funny how they all look the same age and how they all have really big eyes but they are all shaped differently.
We took Whitney and Cassidy to the beautiful Red Butte Gardens.
Outside the Salt Lake City temple after the wedding ceremony.
Whitney and Rivers having a contemplative talk.
Tanner and Alissa gettin' down at the reception and Amber walking TC in the background. Loved Alissa's dress. Pretty soon Rivers and Dwight got in on the action and had everyone laughing at their sweet moves. Actually, Dwight was the source of entertainment many times over the last month for crowds as he demonstrated very seriously his dance moves to Carlos' beat boxing. You have to see it - not something I could capture with a picture.
The reception was at a beautiful little place up Parley's Canyon called Rose Sachs. The natual setting was pretty incredible with all the waterfalls and paths and stuff. They even had real rock climbing amongst the waterfalls.
After the reception, my Mom and I and Reagan walked up to check out the lighted paths and waterfalls.
We took a day trip to the Uintah's and checked out Trial Lake.
Carlos taught CD how to fish while Jason, Whitney and I went on a trail run through some crazy, beautiful scenery. We all felt so sluggish on the run - a different tired than normal, and then we passed a sign that said the elevation was over 11,000 ft.
Cute cousins! Three peas in a pod. Diana is having a baby girl in a couple months too, so Dreyton is going to be picked on for sure by all the girls. He's so tough though, he can play with the older boys.
No more cradle-they've both mastered standing up and crawling.
Driving to Oregon - We decided to drive through the night so the kids could sleep and Carlos and I would switch on and off. This was at a rest area and captured how beat we were. No crying or whining the whole way though so we felt pretty lucky.
When we finally made it to Philomath, it was evening with kind of a cool breeze, and Rivers was so excited she jumped out of the car, ran straight across the lawn and didn't even hesitate before jumping into the pool with all her clothes on!
Enjoying the fresh air :)
These were the favors at the open house in Oregon. Cute little evergreen trees.
They kind of had an antique theme with pictures of parents and grandparents on their wedding days.
This was the scene less than an hour before the open house was supposed to start.
Cody and Whitney got this guy that has a food cart in Portland to come cater the party. This was his huge grill. Added bonus - he looked like a young George Clooney. The food was dynamite.
My Mom got a beehive this last year and here is Jason in the complete bee keepers outfit harvesting some honey. It was crazy delicious (and fun to watch).
Here comes trouble.
Rivers was the first guest to spend the night in Tyler and Amber's cool backyard yurt!
We planted a tree for each of our kids on Oma's farm.
The highlight of the Oregon trip for Carlos was crabbing in Newport off the pier. You just drop the barrel nets with bait off the side...
wait 5 to 15 minutes, then pull them up and see what ya got. It was like Christmas for our kids. They wouldn't leave to do anything else because it was so exciting to see what would be in the nets.
On the pier
Then we took our catch of about 20 crab to a little place across the bridge that would boil your catch for you, and we made yummy little crab cakes the next day.
I know the northwest is known for its berries, but this blueberry farm is amazing. I have never seen blueberry bushes this tall! Look how high they go over even Carlos' head.
We went and picked bucket loads of blueberries. Mmmm...blueberry shakes all winter long.
Trip to Avery park and the train. Look at the size of that tree. We also spent a day at Enchanted Forest but my camera battery ran out. As weird as that place is, my kids love that place (and so do I).
Check out the penguin on the left. He looked so funny (and was so into this mammoth waterslide). You can always count on Tyler to make sure the kids are having fun.
Dwight reminds me so much of Tyler as a kid.
Back in Utah I took the babes for their first bike cart ride. Unfortuntely I also blew my tire and had to run quite a ways back pushing the bike and cart.
New pajamas. I love how Dreyton has his hand on her back. It's funny because for a long time Reagan has been picking on Dreyton, taking things from him, crawling all over him, pulling his hair etc. and he actually likes it. He also likes it when CD is a little rough with him. So, Reagan can dish it, but she totally can't take it. Now that Dreyton can crawl too and is getting better with his hands, if he does anything to her, she totally starts crying. No tears for the camera though. She always, always smiles and looks right at the camera.
We went to Seven Peaks with the newlyweds. Dreyton passed Reagan up in weight, but she's still 1 1/2 inches taller and this pic shows it well. They feel so different when you pick them up and Reagan's legs go on forever.
Another interesting place we found CD asleep...on the comfortable wood rocking chair on the front porch with a sucker in his mouth.
My little helpers...life has gotten crazy the last couple weeks as they have gotten so mobile and stand up on everything and put things in their mouths. I often have one holding onto each of my legs, standing up, so I can't move an inch or they'll fall. Don't get much done these days :)
For dinner a few nights ago we went up Millcreek canyon and cooked up some delicious tinfoil dinners. Carlos said the fire I made looked like a piece of art and we needed a picture of it.
Yeeha, they're big enough to sit up and take rides in the wagon. I love this!
This weekend we all got decked out in our BYU gear (which I actually like doing since we live in Sugarhouse amongst so many crazy Utah Ute fans) and went to the season opener against Washington. That true freshman quarterback is pretty good and we won 23 to 17. Good thing we had Carlos' parents with us to help with our crew.
Carlos with his girls....
...and his boys. (CD was so into this game it was hilarious - of course Carlos loved that!)
